It’s hard to overstate the competitive relevance of Alcaraz for both the short-term and long-term future in men’s tennis. This injury has the potential to radically shift what’s coming at the top of the sport, so let’s dive into what we know so far—and what we don’t yet know—and to see where Alcaraz and the tour go from here.

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For more on Archer, Alcaraz, and the tennis players who traded racquets for races, please subscribe to Bounces! -Ben

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The media coordinators who make these calls are usually veterans of these spaces, and usually gauge interest well enough to put the most in-demand players into bigger rooms with adequate space. But last year, during pre-tournament interviews at Wimbledon, organizers badly underestimated just how many reporters would want to talk to the WTA player ranked 62nd.

As highly-hyped Brazilian phenom João Fonseca drew a much smaller crowd in a larger room, an overflow of reporters waited outside of one of the smallest spaces for this 23-year-old woman—who had never yet been ranked inside the Top 50, and had not yet scored a win over a Top 20 player.

As the gaggle of reporters grew into double-digits and beyond, it was clear that this player’s audience demanded a bigger stage. Once officials saw what was happening, the necessary adjustments were made: Eva Lys got upgraded just in time.

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I first spoke with Eva Lys1 after the crowd of English and German-speaking reporters had filed out of Wimbledon’s Interview Room No. 2 in a one-on-one interview. I could quickly tell some of why Lys had become so popular: she’s comfortable, composed, confident and compelling in person, ready to be articulate and thoughtful on any and all topics.

“It’s a good sign,” Lys said of needing a room change, laughing. “When it comes to tennis, I’ve had a lot of firsts—but also when it comes to everything outside of tennis. So this was a first. I’ve had a tournament where no one really showed up—I do remember these times—so it definitely feels very new to me. I do like it, because I always said that being a tennis player for me is not only [about] playing tennis. There’s so much behind it, and this is what I enjoy. I enjoy playing tennis, but I also enjoy everything around it.

“But yeah, I do get overwhelmed,” Lys continued. “Especially when it’s like a lot of attention out of nowhere and you’re not really used to it. I’ve definitely been dealing with that. Sometimes I have good days because I get a lot of good attention. But I also get more bad attention now: bad press, people who don’t write nice stuff. So I am definitely trying to find my way to just adjust to where I’m mentally fine with everything.”

Lys’ perspective and groundedness may be rooted in the unusual ordinariness of her background. One area where Lys varies from most tour-level players is in education: unlike many of her peers, she finished traditional high school. Mardy Fish, the former player and mental health advocate, told me years ago that he believes tennis players’ lack of formal education is part of what makes them more susceptible to pressure and burnout. I wondered: does Lys think her more “normal” adolescence helps her to handle the mental sides of the tour? She could see both sides of the equation.

“I feel like on certain points it really prepared me well,” Lys began. “But also it didn’t prepare me enough [for tennis], because I didn’t spend as much time on courts or at tournaments. I just didn’t have the possibility to gain as much experience as other players that were fully playing juniors. So this is definitely a thing that I’m still feeling: that I am just really lacking experience on match courts, on practice, on tournaments.

“But, on the other side, it was really important for my parents to ensure that I have a Plan B in case something goes wrong, because if you really think about it, it’s so easy to [happen]. Our body is our temple, as they say, and if something happens—and I hope nothing bad ever happens to anyone—you won’t be able to do your job. And if you don’t have anything else, then what are you doing?

“And I feel like [it helps] knowing that I finished school, I’ve made a lot of friends, I have a really stable surrounding. That gives me, especially in tough times, a lot of energy. It’s definitely a thing now where I do not really have to worry about what’s gonna maybe happen after. I still do [worry], in my own ways, but it’s definitely reassuring to have that.”

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Lys then caveated that she didn’t want to make assumptions or generalizations about her peers.

“I don’t know if other players have a Plan B or not,” she said. “But that’s one thing that would make me go crazy. Tennis is such an unstable sport—it’s so inconsistent—and just having some sort of stability definitely just lets you play a little bit more loose. I still do want my Plan A to work out. But again, thanks to my parents: they were making sure I was doing my homework.”

Lys also has had health challenges to her tennis “Plan A,” as she was diagnosed with spondylarthritis six years ago. The condition requires constant management and attention to her routines as well as her diet.

“It’s something I live with every day,” Lys said earlier this year. “I never want to use it as an excuse, but it’s something I have to figure out how to combine with the sport I do. My warmup has to be longer. My treatments—physio, ice bath—everything that comes with recovery is always my priority.”

Plan A was going well for Lys when we spoke at Wimbledon, surging into the Top 100 after a run to the fourth round of the 2025 Australian Open as a lucky loser. Lys had one of her first viral moments when she reacted with delighted shock at how much prize money she’d earned for that fourth round appearance.

It only made sense, I thought, to ask what she’d done with that windfall. She answered with typical candor.

“I mean…taxes?” Lys began.

I quickly agreed—I had actually done a piece at Bounces after that video went viral, looking at taxes and exchange rates, trying to demystify how much Lys might take home from that amount: “For Eva Lys, that ‘$420,000’ in Australian dollars will arrive in her German bank account as €153,877,” I wrote at the time.

Lys agreed that the prize money totals did little to reflect reality.

“It’s the same with if you look online at how much prize money the tennis players have made,” Lys said. “I’m not talking about the top 20, but I was checking my prize money and it’s at, like, $1.3 million. I’m like, ‘Where is it?’”

But though the numbers might not have looked as big in her bank account, the breakthrough had been hugely meaningful for Lys.

“The prize money I made in Australia, it’s definitely just given me financial safety for the year,” Lys said. “That definitely has always been a [stressful] topic for the past years: if you don’t play good, you don’t have the financial situation to keep on playing, and that was definitely something on my mind. This year is really the first time where this is something I don’t have to worry about, so it’s definitely a really, really nice feeling for me and also for my team.”

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Since the 2025 season, Lys’ team has included the management agency Evolve. The agency’s belief in Lys’ prospects has already paid considerable dividends, as the media interest has also been matched by sponsor interest in Lys.

“I think it boils down to the fact that she's just really likable,” Carly Duguid, creative director for Evolve, told Bounces. “She's hard not to like.”

Duguid also expressed her comfort with having an outspoken client, which is not always the preference of every agent.

“She’s very smart, and she wears her heart on her sleeve,” Duguid said. “And if she thinks a certain way about something, or she has something to say, she says it—and she says it thoughtfully. But she's not afraid to say it, and I think she really values her place as an athlete who’s having a voice and having a following on social media and having the opportunity to be able to say what she feels and have people listen to it.”

Duguid and I spoke during the first week of Wimbledon, when Lys had just broken the 200,000 mark in Instagram followers. Fame and fortune in women’s tennis have never been as strictly tied to rankings and results as they are on the men’s side, and Lys was one of the clearest current examples of that.

The breakthrough moments that make a tennis player into a star, Duguid believes, don’t only occur in major finals.

“It's not necessarily a Grand Slam win; it's not necessarily breaking into the Top 50,” Duguid said. “Like her run making it to the Last 16 as a [lucky loser] at the Australian Open: that was one of those big moments that really propelled her to the next level. I think there will be several more of those [moments]—and perhaps it's not a Slam win. It can be something else that really puts all eyes on her. In those moments, I think that's where she really shines, and I think it only takes a few of those for people to really pick up on that and for it to build a lot of momentum. On the marketing side, it doesn't have to be solely on-court results that are reflective of her potential. I think there's a lot more that goes into it than just that in tennis, and she's a great example of that.”

Sure enough, Lys has landed several big endorsement deals in the past 12 months, becoming a prominent spokeswoman for Porsche and one of the most prominent female players outfitted by Lacoste. More big deals with major brands are in the works, as well.

These deals have come despite results that might not have turned many heads on their own. Bluntly, a lot of players have won a lot more than Lys without earning the off-court money that she’s now raking in. Lys hasn’t done badly by any measure: scored her first top-20 win at last September’s WTA 1000 Beijing by beating the formidable Elena Rybakina, and briefly broke into the Top 40 in January before her fourth round points from the prior year’s Australian Open expired.

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Lys, as of writing this, is now ranked 78th, but she’s still one of the star attractions at this week’s WTA 500 Stuttgart, which is sponsored by Porsche, one of her own major sponsors.

Despite her results stalling a bit, Lys has cracked 300,000 followers on Instagram.

There’s a loaded word in our culture for a person—particularly a photogenic woman—whose earnings through her social media presence far outpace their objective offline achievements. When I asked Lys at Wimbledon if she’d consider herself an “influencer,” she shook her head.

“No—I don’t like this word,” Lys said. “I mean, I don’t mind it, but I feel like people associate not really good stuff with the word ‘influencer.’ I just got there because I’m an athlete. So I don’t mind people using it, but I wouldn’t call myself an influencer, because this is not my main job. I’m not doing it because it’s a job or because I’m trying to make money off of it. I’m just doing it because I am having fun.

“And I definitely want to show people who are interested in tennis what [they’re] still missing, especially in the WTA, which is just the insight, and what the players are doing. There’s so much personality on tour. Not everyone wants to show it, but I do feel like there’s a good way to just show people, ‘Listen, this is not just the tennis player you see on TV—there’s a person behind it, and here are their interests.’ And I feel like you get interested in people because you start getting to know them. They have traits; you feel simpatico towards them. So I’m just trying to show people what I’m experiencing. And I’m always a person that really likes to share, whether it’s with my family or my friends. I feel people like it, so I’ll keep on doing it.”

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Lys was correct about WTA players being given less of a chance to shine and tell their stories on social media—a trend that the WTA worsened when it cut WTA Insider Courtney Nguyen in early 2025. Players in men’s tennis get to shine both through more robust ATP social media projects and also via the creative content teams of Tennis TV, which has focused solely on the men’s side since 2017.

“I feel like the ATP actually has been doing a good job,” Lys said. “I’ve been enjoying their content, and it’s definitely something I would look toward with the WTA.”

But Lys has built something on her own that can match the men. When I caught up with Lys again this year in Melbourne, she’d just triumphed in a popularity contest that involved both tours: that video of her reacting to her prize money was voted the fans’ favorite moment of the previous year’s Australian Open, improbably beating out every on-court moment by the game’s biggest champions.

“I feel like it compensates for the fact that I didn’t win the Grand Slam,” Lys said, laughing as she wore the koala-eared hat she was given as a prize. “So I’ll take that.”

Had Lys adjusted to the attention and acclaim by this point, I wondered?

“I mean, I’m going to be honest: I was having some interviews today and I was so shocked by the questions,” Lys said. “They’re like, ‘Hey, you’re an amazing tennis player, but what’s happening outside of it? So many people know you or know of you, especially with the new Lacoste deal and doing well last year.’

“I actually was pretty shocked, because I don’t feel it as much as probably [it appears from] the outside, because I’m just trying to be myself. Knowing that the people like who I am, it’s definitely a really nice feeling. I was always telling my parents that the reason I want to play tennis is not only because of the tennis itself, it’s also with like everything that comes with it. So it’s definitely a very nice feeling.”

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Lys had a lot of fans cheering for her during her first round match in Melbourne, which she ultimately lost to Sorana Cirstea as she struggled with a knee injury.

The standouts, surely, were the two men who wore Elvis wigs and sang “Evaaaaa Lys Vegas!”

“I love the fans,” Lys said. “My whole community, whether in real life or online, they’re the nicest people ever. So I definitely always feel very happy with sharing whatever. Just getting nice and good feedback is also just encouraging me to keep going and to keep sharing.”

As the WTA has learned to lean into Lys this year, there has inevitably been some resentment on social media from fans of other players.

Though the women who draw more attention than their peers despite lower rankings are often the subjects of jealousy on the WTA Tour, Lys is improbably even more popular among her peers than with fans. Lys’ social media is full of support and compliments from her fellow players—in large part because that’s consistently what she gives them.

I spoke to many of the players whom I’d seen interacting with her on social media about Lys, and they were uniformly effusive about her.

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“We get along very well,” Suzan Lamens said of Lys, who she has known since their days in ITF tournaments. “She’s a very positive girl with a positive mindset, and it’s nice to have someone on tour who has that energy, who you can talk to. Other girls are, sometimes, a lot [keeping to] themselves, but she’s someone that I like to talk to and practice with.”

The American Caroline Dolehide, who hasn’t known Lys as long, echoed those sentiments.

“To see a newcomer really take it on and not be afraid to communicate with the other girls and have a normal relationship [with them] off the court—I absolutely love that about her,” said Dolehide. “I mean, this sport is bigger than just us competing on the court, you know? And if we can build each other up off the court, that’s great. And she does that. She definitely does that. And you can’t fake that. You see it in kind of that [snaps] 5, 10 second initial [meeting], and I definitely saw that in her.”

After her own first round win on Wimbledon’s Centre Court last year, Katie Boulter seemed most excited to get to discuss Lys.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: Eva Lys won her first round match. I was on her Instagram and saw you left her a crown emoji in the comments at some point.

Katie Boulter: She's a queen (smiling).

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: If you can expand on that—what makes her worthy of that crown, in your opinion? Because she’s growing pretty popular and well-known. Can you explain the appeal, her queen-ness?

Katie Boulter: What a great question. Favorite of the day, for sure (smiling).

Firstly, I'm a huge advocate for empowering women in general. I love the way that she gets behind women, in general. I think it's nice to see she's great friends with a lot of people on tour already, and she's barely been around. It's just the start of her career for her.

I think the impact that she's had already is really sweet to see. I think she's just very open and honest. I think she kind of says how she feels. I got to know her a little bit; I'd love to know her even more. Yeah, she's a very sweet girl. I'm sure she'll be around for a fair amount of time.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: How is she showing support, how is she helping the other women around?

Katie Boulter: I think in general. I mean, I think it's just nice to see, she's always leaving positive comments, always giving you compliments. I think she's just very warmhearted. I think you can see that from her personality. That was my first impression of her. There's a lot of girls that feel the same way [about her]; you can kind of see it.

Yeah, I know she spends a lot of time with a lot of the girls, which is great to see. You don't see that much on the WTA Tour. I feel like she's always really positive, really nice, getting behind you.

Iga Swiatek, who routed Lys several times before having a very tight match with her at this year’s United Cup, was effusive about her on and off the court.

“For sure she’s also a nice person off the court,” Swiatek said in January. “She’s pretty funny with everything that she does on Instagram. It’s really refreshing. And it’s nice to see that. Also she seems not to give a damn what people talk about. She’s just doing her thing, which is nice to see.”

Lys also has admirers on the men’s tour who can be spotted in her Instagram comments, like the Portuguese player Jaime Faria.

“She has amazing potential [as a player], I think, and she’s a nice person,” Faria, who said he has known Lys since juniors, told Bounces. “Always so friendly and so kind. Very humble. And yeah, I see that she has her Instagram and social media going pretty well. It doesn’t surprise me: she’s very creative, and a nice person.”

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Priscilla Hon, herself also one of the more social players on the WTA Tour, had particular praise for Lys’ social media.

“I really like her and I really like her social media as well,” Hon said. “I love taking photos and I always like reply back when she takes a cool photo. I’m like, that is cool—I rate that. I give her all my food recommendations and stuff, and I’m like, ‘Do not tell anyone, because I don’t want to send this to many people.’ I feel like a lot of players on tour, they keep to themselves. A lot of them don’t really like to interact with other players, but Eva is very different, so I like that about her.”

Hon also appreciated how Lys showed dimensions of herself beyond just being an athlete.

“I like that she shows other things [besides] tennis,” Hon said. “Because that’s what I don’t understand: when tennis players just post about tennis. Like, it’s just a tennis photo, and then they win a round and so they post another tennis photo. And then the whole profile is tennis! Like, we know you play tennis. I want to see what else you do, you know? I just feel like that’s what makes a player interesting and different.”

Thanks for reading Bounces! -Ben

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“Hard court, grass, clay court,” Alcaraz said as he pulled Sinner in close and listed the surfaces on which his rival has now won prestigious titles. “…Great, great, great. Great job, man. Great stuff, man. Congrats.”

Maybe Alcaraz was put into the mood to take inventory of Sinner the Winner because of the unique inscriptions around Court Rainier III, which list the locales of all nine ATP Masters 1000 events. Maybe Alcaraz had realized just how absurd what he and Sinner are doing has become: winning everything, everywhere, both exclusively and extremely efficiently.

For a detailed chart of how Sinner and Alcaraz’s collections are already stacking up against the likes of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray, please subscribe to Bounces! -Ben

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The star-studded tournament has been a huge success on court, with hometown hero Valentin Vacherot also making a run to the semifinals that will put Monaco comfortably on top in VVV.

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Tomorrow will provide ample time to enjoy the 17th chapter of the top rivalry in current tennis, but I wanted to write first about an item from Monte Carlo that has occupied my attention for the last 24 hours or so. Specifically, an item from the tournament’s merchandise store.

An Eye-Catching Shirt

Yana Boyko, a Ukrainian illustrator who left her war-torn hometown of Dnipro last year for Portugal, posted about one of her designs being used without permission on merchandise being sold at the Monte Carlo Country Club’s boutique. Boyko’s post went viral, earning more than 1.2 million views and 4.4k retweets at the time of publication (massive amounts in this degraded, anemic era of Twitter).

I am not in Monte Carlo myself, but a friend who was at the tournament on Saturday checked the store for me, and found the shirt—which is only available in children’s sizes—was still available for purchase on Saturday evening, retailing for 25 euros.

The design is unmistakably identical to Boyko’s, but with her name removed from the top-left corner and the initials “MCCC”—Monte Carlo Country Club—added beneath.

As visible on the tag, the shirt is part of an MCCC-branded collection in the shop, rather than the tournament-branded collection around the event officially known as the Rolex Monte Carlo Masters.

A tag inside the shirt indicates the shirt was made by an Italian merchandising company called Spray.

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Meet Yana Boyko

In an interview with Bounces on Saturday afternoon, Boyko discussed her background as an artist. Boyko, 29, had previously worked as a calligrapher, she said, but switched during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I began drawing sports events because I love sports and decided to try combining my interests with illustration,” Boyko told Bounces. “I like to capture the story of the moment and convey the dynamics, movement, and my emotions. I prefer working with traditional materials rather than digital illustration.”

Boyko primarily works with wax pastels, including for the drawing of the racquets she said she made in 2024 before fleeing Ukraine because of the Russian invasion of the country. Tennis, she said, has been a lifelong interest of hers, even when the sport itself was not easily accessible to her during her youth in Ukraine.

“As a child, I couldn’t play tennis due to financial constraints, but I was always drawn to the aesthetics of the game,” she said. “I watched tournaments and what happened off the court—it was always fascinating.”

Boyko started playing herself years later, self-deprecatingly describing her own level as “hardly what you’d call tennis,” but still gaining a greater appreciation of the sport.

“I discovered just how complex the game is from every angle, and I became even more fascinated by it,” she said. “The court, the players’ movements, the tension of the game—all accompanied only by the players’ breathing. It’s very beautiful and captivating. I don’t want to get too deep into the emotional side of things; I hope you know what I mean.”

Tennis has become a frequent subject of Boyko’s work, as you can see in the gallery below.

Boyko won a Roland Garros ticket lottery last year, which allowed her the chance to draw in person at Court Philippe Chatrier during a match between Novak Djokovic and Filip Misolic.

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Finding a Problem for Sale

The drawing of the broken racquets which appeared this week on Monte Carlo’s merchandise, Boyko said, was inspired by her appreciation for the volatility of tennis.

“I was thinking that at some point during a match, the game becomes something more and draws you in so completely that you can’t control your emotions, leading to such an outburst of energy and emotion,” she said. “But I’m actually against breaking rackets, and have never supported it. It shows a lack of respect for the sport and for those who can’t afford to play it.”

Fatefully, that instantly recognizable design was included in an Instagram video posted by the tournament and French tennis player and model Jeanne Marchi Manissier.

Boyko found out about it when one of her followers excitedly messaged her about the apparent partnership.

“I found out about it from a follower on Instagram; she sent me an influencer’s story and congratulated me on a successful collaboration with the legendary tournament,” Boyko said.

Boyko has had work commissioned and used by major clients before, but she told me she knew that there had been no such deal made between herself and the Monte Carlo Country Club or tournament, and that “the rights and license for this specific illustration have never been transferred to anyone.”

“I was shocked and disappointed,” Boyko told Bounces. “I could have imagined that some Chinese stores might [illegally] use my print, but not one of the most respected and oldest tournaments on the tour.”

Boyko told Bounces that, before she made her posts on social media on Friday, she had contacted the tournament herself, but received no satisfactory explanation or engagement. The only reply she got, she said, came after her post had begun to get major traction on Twitter.

“They wrote to me saying that they handle ticket distribution, that they were sorry this situation had occurred, and that they would forward the matter to the appropriate department,” Boyko recounted. “After that, I asked them to specify which department they would forward it to, when, and who would get back to me, so that I could keep track of the situation. I never received a response to these questions.”

The incident and the ensuing emotions led to a restless night, Boyko said—not what she needs when already sleep-deprived with a newborn of her own.

“I have to say that I couldn’t sleep, even though I’m currently caring for a 5-month-old baby,” Boyko said. “I just couldn’t quite wrap my head around how this was possible.”

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Resolving the Matter

Bounces reached out to contacts at the tournament and the Monte Carlo Country Club on Friday evening. On Saturday morning, tournament director David Massey replied.

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention,” Massey said. “We are contacting our supplier to clarify this.”

Spray, the Italian merchandising company which appeared to make the shirt, had not responded to a message seeking explanation by the time of publication.

Massey updated Bounces later on Saturday to say that he’d been reaching out to Boyko via her social media channels “so we can resolve the matter promptly.” Since I had been in touch with both, I connected them via email, and they began emailing one another downthread later Saturday evening.

Boyko told Bounces that she was hoping for an amicable, productive resolution to the situation that had clearly been mishandled.

“You know, normally this would have been limited to just buying a license and that’s it,” she said. “But now [the improper usage] is a done deal, and usually [that means] it’s two or three times the price of a standard license, plus royalties from merchandise sales.

“I’d be happy to work with them on a collection next year and attend the tournament,” she added. “I’m always open to collaboration, and this whole situation is simply a fight for respect for intellectual property and hard work. Nothing more, nothing less.”

I will keep folks updated here with any updates of a resolution of this matter, which hopefully can come swiftly and satisfactorily for Boyko.

For a bit more on the wider wilderness of tennis merchandising, Jessica Schiffer wrote about the topic earlier today on Hard Court:

“As one ATP executive put it to me earlier this year, the system is ‘fragmented’—a patchwork of operators where some events treat retail as a priority and others, in his words, see it as ‘one of the last areas to look at.’ The result is inconsistency at best, and at worst, a lack of clear accountability when something goes wrong.”

Hard Court

Tennis has a merch problem—and it’s bigger than one stolen design

When an illustrator sees her work show up on official tennis tournament merchandise without permission, it’s easy to treat it as a one-off—a bad actor, a sourcing mistake, an unfortunate oversight…

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17 days ago · 13 likes · Hard Court

Thanks for reading Bounces! This piece is free for all to read to help spread and share Yana’s artwork, but please become a subscriber—free or paid—to read more here and support my work. -Ben

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The high-end club, which offers hard courts, grass, and both American-style green clay courts and European-style red clay, first opened in late 2023. It’s quickly become a popular spot for the sport’s biggest stars when in Florida; Novak Djokovic prepared there with his then-coach Andy Murray before his run to the final of last year’s Miami Open.

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Bounces readers of the last five months—or anyone who’s read the headline of this article—probably know where this is going.

Shell Bay Club—and its director of racquet sports, Jesse Levine—became a particular interest of mine in recent months because of another tennis superstar who has taken up membership and frequent residence there, regularly hitting with Levine at the club as her daughters get lessons on nearby courts.

Serena Williams has been making these trips to Shell Bay Club to hit with Levine—a former favorite practice partner of Roger Federer’s—despite living more than 70 miles north of the club.

As questions linger about what Serena is (or isn’t) planning now that she’s an officially reinstated professional tennis player, I wanted to get answers about what she’s up to, and so I talked directly to the coach who has seen a whole lot of her tennis lately in an interview I’m delighted to bring to Bounces today.

To read the full interview with Levine about Serena, and learn all the latest on the state of Serena Williams’ practice habits and outlook, please become a paid subscriber to Bounces! -Ben

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Double bagels are exceptionally rare in tour-level men’s tennis; it’s no exaggeration to say that Medvedev today is the most shocking male recipient of a double bagel in my lifetime.

What the heck happened? And what did Medvedev have to say about it (translated from Russian into English) in the lone interview he did after the match? Read onward to find out, for Bounces subscribers only.

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Vacherot’s run in Shanghai came truly out of nowhere, but in my interviewing him and in my writing here, I wanted to focus on the very real, very small place he actually came from: Monaco.

For an interview with Vacherot and a deep dive into quantifying country’s tennis successes per capita, please subscribe to Bounces! -Ben

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The Miami Open is a fun tournament—in an undoubtedly unique and strange venue, for both better and worse—and it was great to be back there for the first time in four years, and for the first time for Bounces.

(Speaking of Bounces, if you have not yet done the Bounces reader feedback survey and would like to, please do so!)

Here’s a peek of what’s beyond the paywall, for 3,000+ words of subscriber-only content:

• The Good Sides of the Biggest Stadium on Tour

• The Down Side of the Biggest Stadium on Tour

• ¿Adiós, Acapulco?

• Zizou Bergs, Introvert?

• Gerry Armstrong Takes One Giant Leap into Retirement

• Who’s Running With Charlotte?

• Will Riyadh Even Finish What It Started?

Thanks for your support of Bounces! And a reminder: the April Zoom chat for subscribers at the Double Bounce / Founding level starts in just a few minutes, at 2 pm ET. Hope to see lots of you there! -Ben

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Bounces launched on October 1, 2024, making today, April 1, 2026, its 18-month anniversary!

It already feels like I’ve had Bounces a lot longer than that, honestly, since it’s been such a pleasantly preoccupying part of my life for this year-and-a-half, and I feel like I’ve already done a ton of things here.

I want to keep Bounces going and growing for many years (and half-years) to come, and so today I’m putting the ball in your court with a Google Forms survey about your thoughts and opinions on Bounces and your consumption of tennis media. Any and all feedback, positive and negative, is appreciated!

You can fill out the survey here.

Additionally and alternately, if you’d rather just leave feedback in the comment section here, please feel free to do so (and to bounce off each other in there). While comments at Bounces are usually only open to paying subscribers, the comments section on this post will be open to all.

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You can also, if you prefer, just send me a message directly through the Substack messaging system, or via email.

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Thank you for your time and for your support of Bounces over these 18 months! And thank you for helping spread the word about this corner of the tennis space to all your family, friends, and social networks! Word of mouth is a huge, huge part of what can help Bounces growing and going along.

Also, I am looking forward to seeing many of you soon: After falling a bit out of rhythm with it to start this year (apologies), the next Bounces Zoom chat for Double Bounce/Founding-level subscribers will be Saturday April 4th, at 2 pm ET (that’s 11 am in Fresno, noon in Colorado Springs, 1 pm in Winnipeg, 7 pm in Glasgow, 8 pm in Biarritz, etc.)

I will send out a chat thread with the Zoom info to those subscribers, where those subscribers can also name some topics they might be interested in discussing.

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Bounces can report that the WTA is looking for a new host for its signature year-end championships event, the WTA Finals, departing the Saudi Arabian market which they entered to considerable debate two years ago.

The WTA’s plan to depart the desert comes despite WTA chief executive Portia Archer indicating interest last year in extending the WTA’s controversial stay in Riyadh beyond the original three-year deal that ends this year.

“We signed on for a three-year term; we’d actually enjoy being here for even longer than we have been, or than we are agreed to be here,” Archer told The Athletic last year, adding that talks were ongoing to extend the Saudi stint beyond its initial run of 2024 to 2026.

Those talks between the WTA and the Saudi Tennis Federation did not ultimately lead to a renewal for Riyadh, Bounces can report. This year will be the final edition of the WTA Finals in Riyadh, and the WTA has been looking elsewhere for the next home for its elite eight-player event.

Bounces can also report which leading candidate city in North America appears to be ahead in the hunt to host the WTA Finals in 2027 and beyond.

To find out what city that is—and to learn more about the direction women’s tennis is headed in for its future—please become a paid subscriber to Bounces!

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The first, which I will use as a plug for my professional Instagram account, which I have hopes of ramping up a bit this year—please follow @benrothenbergwrites if you haven’t yet!—involved coming to the defense of Gauff’s hat, of all things.

The actual question I had, though, sparked what has become a bit of a viral moment on tennis social media already, so I thought I’d share it now at Bounces, too, even though I’d been thinking of doing something on the topic as a fuller story someday down the road.

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A bit of background: on the ATP Tour—particularly among the American men—a parlance has developed to discuss match-ups in which one player becomes dominant.

When Taylor Fritz reached the fourth round of a major for the first time at the 2022 Australian Open on his 22nd main draw appearance—a drought that he’s long since put in the rearview mirror—Fritz said the moment meant even more because he won his third round match over Roberto Bautista Agut, against whom he had lost three in a row and five out of six overall.

“It means a ton, also, to do it against someone who has basically been my Dad my whole professional career,” Fritz said.

The concept came up again earlier this year when Ethan Quinn—after losing credit card roulette at the American players’ pretournament dinner in Melbourne—discussed his motivation to beat Tallon Griekspoor after having lost to him at the French Open and ATP 250 Mallorca last year.

Ethan Quinn: It’s funny, in the locker room a lot of times guys will talk about ‘Daddy’ status. When you lose three times to the same player, it’s Daddy status. So for me: I’ve lost him on clay, I’ve lost to him on grass. So playing him on hard, I really did not want to let him get the Daddy status on me. Especially the Daddy status with all three surfaces—that’s even worse.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: Surface Daddy.

Ethan Quinn: Yeah, exactly! Surface Daddy. I didn’t want all of that, so I kind of came out and had a little bit of pep to my step. I definitely wanted to beat him.

Quinn proudly said that he’s a Daddy to Alex Michelsen—a paternity which dates back to their junior days—but a son of Zachary Svajda.

Anyhow, all of this was in my head as I watched Gauff absolutely dismantle Karolina Muchova 6-1, 6-1 in their semifinal on Thursday afternoon, bringing her head-to-head advantage against Muchova to 6-0.

It’s a match-up that just doesn’t seem to work for Muchova whatsoever—Gauff’s world’s-best footspeed gets her to every one of Muchova’s offspeed shots in plenty of time—so I was curious if she had any commensurate verbiage for how the men would describe such a dynamic.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: Hopefully a funnier question: I know on the ATP side, a lot of the guys—especially American guys—have this term they use for when you beat someone three times in a row, or he beats you three times a row.

Coco Gauff: Oh my God. [Eyeroll]

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: You know what I’m talking about?

Coco Gauff: Yes.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: You become their Dad.

Coco Gauff: Yes—no, say what they actually said.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: Daddy?

Coco Gauff: Yes. (laughs)

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: Sometimes I’ve heard both, I’ve heard both versions. I don’t know how many of them enjoy saying ‘Daddy’ or not; depends on their comfort level.

But I’m curious: do the women have any equivalent concept?

Coco Gauff: No, no.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: Would you like for them to?

Coco Gauff: Um, I don’t think so? We don’t have anything like that. I don’t know. I mean, guys, I feel like they’re able to just—well, I don’t know.

I feel a lot of American guys are a little bit on the uppier side, so they’re able to say this. But for me, I don’t think of it like that.

I’ve also been on the other end of it, too. I mean, like Iga [Swiatek], she beat me so many times in a row, so I don’t want her to be considered my Dad. But I was able to reverse it—so now we’re both each other’s Daddies? I don’t know.

But yeah, I don’t think there’s a term, as far as I know, among the women; maybe there is.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: Would you want one?

Coco Gauff: Yeah…I don’t think Daddy’s the term. I don’t think Mommy’s the term, either. I don’t know—dominatrix?! (laughs).

I don’t know. But I don’t want a term, because I’m going to be—I know I have some matches where I’m on the losing end of that, too.

So I’m just going to say it was a good day [against Muchova]. I’m lucky that, as I always say against her, I don’t know why the match-up is like this. But I’mma take it, but I don’t think it’s gonna last forever.

“Call Me Coco” was a New Balance ad slogan the brand used for Gauff years back; however many wins she piles up against rivals, “Call Me Daddy” seems unlikely to be a future tagline. (And I imagine that will be the first and last time I hear the word “dominatrix” in a tennis press conference.)

In the Miami Open final at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon, Gauff will face top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka. The two share a very sibling-like head-to-head record of 6-6.

Thanks for reading Bounces! If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe—for free or at a paid level—and again please follow my nascent Instagram efforts! -Ben

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Sixth-seeded Taylor Fritz, who was the highest-ranked man left in the top half of the Miami Open men’s singles draw after the exit of Carlos Alcaraz, lost on Tuesday afternoon to his frequent nemesis Jiri Lehecka, 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-2.

This ends the spring hard court swing for Fritz, who has been playing through various injuries throughout the year, particularly persistent knee tendinitis. “It could be worse; it could be better,” Fritz said of his knee as he spoke in the mixed zone on Tuesday.

Fritz has been openly and transparently weighing these issues all year: after his loss in Melbourne—during which he was also struggling with an oblique injury, he said his physio had advised him that “there's a pretty solid chance that we can do all the rehab protocol and do everything we need to do while I'm still playing…he thinks that it's plausible to get it better while playing. So we said let's try that and see how it goes.”

But when he was asked about playing the quadragenarian Stan Wawrinka in Melbourne, Fritz sounded a less optimistic note.

Q. What do you think you’ll be doing at 40?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I’m not going to be playing tennis. Like, there’s no way. With how my body has been feeling the last couple of years, there’s no way I’m going to be able to hold on for another 12 years.

Fritz has been open about his reluctance to step off the tour while he feels that he can still play, pulled in by the powerful centripetal forces that keep so many players going on the tour: competitiveness, hope, and money.

He’s played a full slate in recent months, including ATP 500 Dallas, ATP 250 Delray Beach, and ATP-WTA 1000 Indian Wells and Miami.

Fritz has had his best results on hard courts and grass courts in his career, so the upcoming overseas clay court swing might seem like the most logical part of the season for him to abjure in the name of much-needed rest and recuperation.

But Fritz is currently entered in both ATP 1000 Monte Carlo as well as in the April ATP 500 Munich event, an addition to his schedule that would’ve almost certainly been facilitated by a hefty appearance fee.

On Tuesday in Miami, Fritz initially said he was unsure what his plans for the clay would be, and that he would talk to his team (whom you will also hear from below).

When I asked about how he’d weigh his decision, Fritz expounded in typical fashion:

To read the rest, including full remarks from Fritz and his coach Michael Russell, please subscribe to Bounces! -Ben

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Tiafoe was playing his first match since the Australian Open, where he’d reached the third round and showed promising signs for his season.

Tiafoe had also started in style with his wardrobe, wearing a custom Lululemon outfit in Melbourne which was inspired by the green, white, and blue of the flag of his parents’ homeland of Sierra Leone.

As described on Pause:

“The custom look will be worn by Tiafoe on court, placing personal identity and cultural storytelling at the forefront of one of the sport’s most global stages.

The kit features a dynamic spray-paint graphic intended to reflect the energy and movement of a tennis ball in play. Its blue, green and white colour palette is inspired by the Sierra Leone flag, offering a subtle yet powerful nod to Tiafoe’s family roots.”

Tiafoe had switched into a new purple Lululemon ensemble for Dallas. But there was Atmane, the Frenchman, wearing the Sierra Leone-inspired outfit across from him.

Technically, Atmane wasn’t wearing the exact same shirt as Tiafoe had worn in Melbourne, but instead the retail version of the ensemble, which Lululemon calls a “Men’s Ventilated Short-Sleeve Tennis Shirt” in “Spray Slam Blue Green Multi.”

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Because Atmane had worn a jacket onto the court as the two players were walking out, Tiafoe had no idea what his opponent was wearing, he told Bounces, until he walked to the net for the coin toss and saw his own bespoke outfit staring back at him, an unexpected sight he repeatedly called “crazy”—as was evident from his slacked-jaw, smiling face in footage of the moment.

“It was crazy, it was crazy—I liked it,” Tiafoe told Bounces. “A lot of guys wear jackets when they come out, and I always go out in headphones and stuff, so I’m kind of in my own world. And when I walked to the net, I was like, ‘Come on, dawg.’ But it was funny, man, and I think it was good. I mean, it kind of shows his personality.”

Atmane is a rare tour-level player who gets to pick what he wears: he was dropped by Asics in late 2024 and still does not have an apparel sponsor—unusual among top-100 ATP players.

But while he gets to pick his own looks, Atmane told Bounces that he’d never before pulled any such stunt like he did against Tiafoe in Texas.

“First time, first time,” Atmane said. “I remember I was watching Frances playing with that kit in Australia and it just came straight to my mind [for how] to play Frances. I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to try to go in his head a little bit before the match and I’m going to try to get his kit.”

So before the match, Atmane found a Lululemon store near the Dallas tournament and went there himself to do some shopping.

“It’s pretty easy for me to get the fits there,” Atmane said. “So I’m just going there, grabbing the fit, paying [for it] myself, and then coming back straight onto the court with it.”

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While Tiafoe wasn’t mad, he was certainly motivated, and won 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.

“I couldn’t lose—I’ll tell you that much,” Tiafoe told Bounces. “I mean, shit: you can beat me any time, but I can’t lose when this guy’s wearing my tee. So when I lost the first set, I was stressing out a little bit. But nah, man, he’s a great player and he had a good win today [over Arthur Rinderknech in the second round of Miami]. So I’m happy for him—he’s a cool dude.”

I asked Tiafoe if he thought there was more room for stunts like Atmane’s, and he heartily assented.

Ben Rothenberg, Bounces: Do you feel like tennis has room for more sorts of—I don’t even know whether to call it ‘mind games,’ whatever that was. More playfulness, getting under guys’ skin or surprising them, whatever it may be?

Frances Tiafoe: Yeah, I think it’s good, man. I think it’s good. Just spice things up. It’s all competitive nature, man. Gamesmanship—whatever the case may be that you want to call it—I think its good. I think it’s good for the sport. And also it shows personality, man: guys have personality. It’s cool, so let them show it in whatever facet.

Atmane lost the match in Dallas, but had the fun he intended.

“We we’re dying laughing in the locker room after that,” Atmane told Bounces.

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Though some might’ve been nervous about an outfit choice that could be read as cultural appropriation by sensitive folks, Atmane felt like he was safe to be a bit playful with the jovial Tiafoe.

“I know Frances a bit: we’d chatted a lot before, so I was sure that he would be super happy,” Atmane said. “And he does represent his country, so for me, I was just grateful, you know, to be able to represent his country as well with him.”

Atmane said he didn’t hear from any Sierra Leoneans about his tribute though, at least beyond Tiafoe’s own father.

“Frances’ dad was really happy, also,” Atmane said of Frances Tiafoe Sr. “It was quite fun. Yeah, it was a very, very fun story.”

The moment has become a running joke for over a month now.

“And it seems like, also now, we’re still like laughing about it,” Atmane said. “I am saying to him, every single week: ‘I hope I’m not going to play you because there’s another kit that is going to come.’”

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Sure enough, 20th-ranked Tiafoe and 53rd-ranked Atmane will meet again in the fourth round of the Miami Open on Tuesday evening.

“I know in what kit he’s playing right now, for Indian Wells and Miami, so if I play against him, he knows what will happen,” Atmane said before that match was settled, laughing. “It’s going to be his same one.”

If Atmane commits to the bit, that will mean a sleeveless light green shirt, a hue that Lululemon calls “Ivy Grove.”

Atmane is an interesting character away from his tactical wardrobe choices as well. After his win over Felix Auger-Aliassime in the third round here, he held court for several minutes with Tennis Channel’s Steve Weissman about the booming resale market for rare Pokémon cards.

Before the biggest match of his career so far—a semifinal at ATP-WTA 1000 Cincinnati against top-ranked Jannik Sinner—Atmane gifted Sinner a Pokémon card as the two were about to walk out onto court.

“I have a little something for you,” Atmane said as he pulled the card out of his pocket for a surprised but grateful Sinner.

“I think it was pretty cool to give him a Pokémon card because it was his birthday,” Atmane said of the gift, which he gave Sinner on the day he turned 24. “And I’m just a nice guy, you know? At the end of the day, we just play tennis.”

And as profiled by ATP Insider Andrew Eichenholz recently, Atmane has developed a deep interest in studying metaphysics.

“I was starting to be really interested because I never really paid attention before about the world that we're living in,” Atmane said. “So that's pretty much how I started to be really interested in just some simple questions like, ‘What is life about at the end of the day and what is everything about? Are there any purposes? Is there anything that I should know before I die?’”

There will be plenty of time for those deeper questions for as long as this universe exists. For now, we just wait to see what Atmane is wearing next.

UPDATE at 6:30 pm: In the end, Atmane wore nothing particularly remarkable. Oh well! Still glad to bring you something on one of the tour’s more intriguing new characters.

Thanks for reading Bounces! If you enjoyed this story and would like to read more like it, please subscribe to unlock everything here! -Ben

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But as I watched Sebastian Korda defeat No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday, I was struck by a figure from that past chapter who was sitting in Korda’s box, using his hard-earned lessons to help a player in whom he sees his own bumpy journey reflected.

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Ryan Harrison was one of the most prominent—and polarizing—young American players in my early years on tour, and reconnecting with him on Sunday, thumbing through various chapters of his tennis biography together, made for a fascinating full-circle moment for me as a reporter.

Some background, for those of you who might not remember Harrison and his journey as vividly after all these years.

When he qualified and won a first-round match in Houston in 2008, Harrison, then 15, became the third-youngest player to win an ATP main draw match since 1990, behind only Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet. Ranked 1,277th, Harrison’s win over 95th-ranked Pablo Cuevas instantly made international headlines.

Harrison’s next splash came about two-and-a-half years later, when, again as a qualifier and still only 18 years old, he beat 15th-seeded Ivan Ljubicic in the first round of the 2010 U.S. Open.

With a major title drought already beginning, the crop of American men’s tennis talent was thinner than it ever had been before, and so considerable expectations were placed on Harrison, who was being groomed to be the next standard-bearer.

That made Harrison a protagonist of sorts when I first began covering tennis full-time in 2011, simultaneously a flagpole and a lightning rod for American tennis attention. When wins didn’t come as he and others said they would, his tantrums became the story instead.

In a low point at the 2012 Olympics, a 20-year-old Harrison wound up making a televised apology on the Bravo network for smashing his racquet during his first-round loss.

The focus on Harrison came with perks—sponsorships and a bevy of wildcards—but also considerable, mounting tension as he struggled to shine under a bright spotlight. Ultimately, Harrison couldn’t break through to fulfill the lofty hopes of himself and others. It wasn’t until his 20th appearance in a major main draw that he reached the third round for the first time. He finished with a 2-36 record against top-10 opponents and a career-high ranking of 40th. His lone ATP singles title came at the final edition of the ATP 250 Memphis indoor event in 2017.

Harrison’s best result, unexpectedly, came in doubles, winning the French Open with Michael Venus later that same year. (Harrison’s younger brother, Christian, followed in Ryan’s footsteps by winning his first men’s doubles major this January alongside Neal Skupski in Melbourne.)

Ryan Harrison’s final professional singles match was a qualifying loss at the Cary Challenger in August 2023 at the age of 31.

Since his retirement, Harrison’s baritone has become an increasingly frequent presence on tennis broadcasts; he also began coaching.

His partnership with Sebastian Korda, which first drew my notice during Korda’s march to the ATP 250 Delray Beach title last month, caught my eye immediately.

The more I thought about it, the more I was struck by the parallels between the two: both are the sons of former professional tennis players-turned-coaches; both know what it’s like to be freighted with expectations by a nation that’s gone 22 years and counting since its last major men’s singles title; both were highly-touted American teens for whom top-tier success was not as instant or sustained as hoped.

After Korda’s huge win on Sunday over top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, Harrison sat down in the Miami Open’s player restaurant for an in-depth, wide-ranging interview with Bounces.

Harrison has always been articulate, but I was struck anew by his self-awareness and perspective, both about his own career and how it went astray, as well as his hopes to get Korda’s career—which similarly has struggled to meet “next big thing” expectations until now—onto its own elusive right track.

To read our entire interview—about 4,000 words on expectation, failure, the Harrison-Korda partnership, and the keys to Korda’s huge win over Alcaraz—please subscribe to Bounces! -Ben

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“I wasn’t thinking; I was kind of in a flow state,” Korda said afterward on Tennis Channel. “That’s where you want to be when you’re a tennis player: just kind of flowing out there.”

Korda, up 6-3, 5-4, hadn’t been broken by Alcaraz in the entire match. But right when he was ready to seal the biggest win of his career, the “flow” clogged and dried up abruptly, and Korda swiftly lost seven points in a row.

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Fritz clearly relishes explaining and talking through the things he cares about, and tennis is one of them—as I wrote about during his semifinal run at Wimbledon last year.

Fritz’s gift of gab overfloweth such that he often spends his spare time speaking to audiences of a couple hundred viewers on his Twitch channel, holding court on whatever topics he wants and answering questions—about tennis and whatever else—as he indulges in another passion of his: playing video games.

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I’ve watched some of the streams, particularly during his pre-gaming Q&A portions with fans. Fritz’s answers and updates can be valuable on a reporting level, particularly when he provides information about his progress with injury recoveries. But I mostly want to keep what Fritz says on there somewhat off-the-record—as much as that’s ever possible for online content—to allow Fritz some space to keep the candor he feels in that more casual setting as much as possible.

His comments have been clipped and aggregated a few times—including a recent lengthy ramble on the balls used at Indian Wells, which Fritz lamented when several people on social media launched ill-conceived broadsides against him.

“Me getting on stream and thoughtfully answering questions for fans isn’t something I am doing me, but for the fans that support me enough to want to come in and ask me questions live,” Fritz wrote on Twitter. “If people want to misinterpret and turn the things I say against me and turn it into unwarranted hate towards me then maybe it’s not worth it.”

Courtney Nguyen, herself a Twitch streamer as well, wrote at Forty Deuce about Fritz and their shared concerns about the medium as she covered Indian Wells earlier this month.

As a fellow streamer – shout out my dedicated six-person audience! – I know how complicated it can be to, in real time, try to field questions while also being wary of getting clipped. Streams are supposed to be casual safe-spaces, and if they’re not, well, we’re just not going to say anything interesting. I asked Fritz what it was like to see his clip spread on social media:

“I normally just delete the VODs of the stuff as soon as the stream is over,” Fritz said, “because I kind of want it to just be more exclusive to the people that come by and watch, and I don’t really want all of the clips just circulating online.”

While I also want to support Fritz’s wishes for a degree of ephemerality in his streams, there’s one moment of his streaming, away from any tennis talk, that I’ve wanted to ask him about when I had my own chance to speak with him this week at the Miami Open.

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My friend Ebcak, who is a diehard Fritz fan and watches his streams fastidiously, shared with me a moment from Fritz’s World of Warcraft play that he especially enjoyed; I also thought it was an amusing and interesting insight into the unique figure Fritz cuts as a male sports star.

As he discussed his most successful game style in the combat-heavy game World of Warcraft, he repurposed the manosphere term “High T”—meaning elevated testosterone—into something healthier, at least in a video game context.

“Guys, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise: Healing in games, a lot of people say that it’s like a ‘girl’ thing to do. [To] heal, play a support in League, and be an enchanter/healer.

“Healing is High T. Healing for the boys is High T activity, alright? Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. My healer in retail1 is literally called ‘High T.’ Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise: it is High T.”

The “Healing is High T” concept has become a refrain for Fritz; he repurposed it again when he streamed after this year’s Australian Open.

“My blood test came back, and my T is off the charts,” Fritz said in January. “It’s ‘cause I’m healing for the bros.”

When I asked Fritz about “Healing is High T” after his first win in Miami on Friday—and if it might inform how he deals with his own injuries—he struggled to suppress his giggles before answering this unexpected question as best he could.

“It’s just, in the games I play, there’s a lack of people that play the healing role,” Fritz began. “I feel like that’s typically known—stereotyped—in the gaming community as being a ‘girl’ role to play. And, you know, I do really well on it. I’ve climbed [to] a lot of my highest ratings in that specific game [by] healing. So it’s just a joke I say—it is a very manly thing to do. High T is healing your homies.”

When I asked Fritz if he felt as if he was “pushing back on a certain kind of masculinity,” he was less certain.

“I just think it’s funny,” Fritz said, still laughing. “I’m not sure.”

From my vantage point, at least, Fritz has a security in his masculinity which comes through regularly, piercing and subverting the expectations one might have for one of the most dominant American male tennis players of this decade.

This week, he told Tennis Channel that the last time he’d cried during a movie was earlier this month, at the Pixar animated film “Hoppers.”

While other players were in the Maldives in serene but sterile surrounds, Fritz and his longtime girlfriend Morgan Riddle—whose career he has also supported throughout their relationship—went to Tokyo.

One memorable night, Fritz gamely went along when Riddle’s idea for a night out on the town was “the muscle girl bar,” allowing himself to get carried and slapped across the face by one of the women working there.

“That was hilarious, that was great,” Fritz said. “It was probably one of the most fun things. We had no idea what to expect; I think Morgan had seen one of our friends that had done it, and it just looked really funny. It was just kind of a thing that, when you get a group together there, it’s pretty hard not to just laugh at how absurd everything is. I hope to go back and bring all the guys when we’re there for the tournament.”

Taylor Fritz plays the second match on the main stadium on Sunday afternoon at the Miami Open, facing his close friend Reilly Opelka.

Thanks for reading Bounces! If you enjoyed this story, please consider either a paid subscription to Bounces! -Ben

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But other parts of it seemed eerily familiar, and fit into a simmering, saline stew of doping cases that has slowly come to a roiling boil Down Under.

To read an in-depth breakdown of the convictions on charges of blood doping and banned substance use by a former ATP Top 40 player which raise concerns of a possible epidemic of doping cases in Australian men’s tennis, please subscribe to Bounces!

Do you have information about doping in tennis to share? Please do; I am always happy to keep any sources anonymous. -Ben

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