The Merry Best of Bounces
As 2025 winds down, a look back at some of my favorite stories from a very busy year here at Bounces.
The year is nearly over, and I am admittedly feeling very merry about how everything went in the first full year here at Bounces.
I’m very proud of the work I did here, especially since so much of this venture relies on my being a self-starter, something that’s not always easy as a freelancer. This will be the 166th Bounces dispatch of 2025, a pretty massive output of quantity that—I hope you’ll agree—was matched by quality along the way.
As Bounces, which started in October 2024, rounds into its second full lap of the circuit soon, I wanted to share and highlight some of my favorite stories from each month of 2025 here, both just as a time capsule and to dust them off and put a spotlight on them for subscribers who may have joined midway through the season.
NB: A slightly higher percentage of Bounces posts will be paywalled in 2026, so if you have any inclination to upgrade your subscription—or get a tennis fan on your list a gift subscription to Bounces as a last-minute present that requires no shipping—now might be a super duper time to do so!
January
January turned out the biggest month I had all year in terms of attracting new subscribers, not surprising since it was the first major I covered at Bounces, and sort of a proof-of-concept of what I could do here.
Two of my favorite stories of the tournament actually came during qualifying: a look at Destanee Aiava’s vintage fashions—which unexpectedly got a lot of pick-up, including at Vogue—and a look at all of the former junior major champions who were toiling away in the qualifying draw.
Aiava in the Archives
MELBOURNE, Australia — It’s a common experience for me at a Grand Slam tournament to see a face I haven’t seen in years but can still recognize from having watched tennis clos…
The Former Child Stars Auditioning for the Biggest Stage in Tennis
MELBOURNE, Australia — As anyone who has watched one will know, a junior Grand Slam final looks and feels like a dress rehearsal for the big show. The set design is the same, the costuming is similar, and at the end there’s a trophy awarded that declares the recipient as champion of the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, or U.S. Open.
In the main draw, I was very happy to do a story that proved salient: ahead of the quarterfinals, I wrote a deep dive on how and why Madison Keys switched her racquet brand right before the tournament—a change that surely contributed to her breakthrough win in Melbourne.
Keys Unlocks Her Toolshed
MELBOURNE, Australia — Veteran agent Max Eisenbud was skeptical when he heard one of his longtime clients, Madison Keys, was thinking about a late-career shakeup.
The Australian Open ended, you may recall, on an unprecedented note, with a protestor interrupting the men’s trophy ceremony; I was very glad to be able to interview “Nina” about what she had done and why. Pivoting away from the (lackluster) match itself and toward what I thought was the salient story of the day hopefully set a template for the unique value Bounces could provide in the tennis landscape.
Echoes of a Voice
MELBOURNE, Australia — The five-word phrase a woman shouted three times from the crowd at Rod Laver Arena on Sunday evening during the trophy ceremony for the Australian Open men’s singles final soon echoed around the world, making headlines from the
Away from the Australian Open action, Lindsay Gibbs and I did a collaboration about the developing, discomfiting story around Elena Rybakina’s coaching situation, comparing it with the movie Julie Keeps Quiet (which should now be available to stream wherever you are).
Rally: How We Talk About Silence in Tennis
This is a collaborative cross-post conversation between Bounces, a new tennis-focused outlet by Ben Rothenberg, and Power Plays, a no-bullshit newsletter about sexism in sports by Lindsay Gibbs.
I also spoke to Donna Vekic and Pam Shriver about the topic.
Cause For Concern
MELBOURNE, Australia — There’s always been a bit of gambling that comes into planning out a schedule of articles during a tennis tournament, as I have been reminded during these opening days of the Australian Open.
February
Believe it or not, until the U.S. Open the most-read Bounces story of 2025 was this quick explainer about Serena Williams’ relationship with Drake, on the heels of Serena’s surprise appearance in Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show. It’s not the sort of topic I would normally write about, but after getting several texts about the moment from non-tennis friends, I realized there was clearly a lot of curiosity about it out there.
Serena, Drake, and the Super Bowl
I was greatly enjoying watching the Philadelphia Eagles—of whom I am a devoted fairweather fan—dominate Super Bowl LIX when my phone lit up.
February also had the Bounces story which perhaps generated the most disagreement from readers: my column expressing enthusiasm for the U.S. Open announcing a newfangled mixed doubles event, which was not something many traditionalists were ready to support.
Remixed to Relevance
A version of this story also appears at The Second Serve, a weekly newsletter covering pro tennis and the fashion and culture adjacent to it. Sign up here!
The one tournament I attended in February was the Mexican Open in Acapulco; sadly I got a little too close to feeling the action there when the story of the tournament became the illness sweeping across the locker room—and the press room, too.
Sick Leave
ACAPULCO, Mexico — The first sign of trouble on Wednesday in Acapulco came more than an hour before the first match, when a name quietly-but-suddenly changed color on the many television screens showing the order of play.
March
Another way I measure the impact of stories here is by how much reaction I get from various tennis insiders after publishing; my interview with PTPA CEO Ahmad Nassar about his organization’s lawsuit against tennis governing bodies was near the top of the list in that metric.
Inside the PTPA Lawsuit to Upend Tennis
The biggest news in tennis this week has been a group of players backed by the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) filing a class action lawsuit against four tennis governance organizations: the ATP Tour, the WTA Tour, the International Tennis Federation, and the International Tennis Integrity Agency.
I also enjoyed getting to do a couple stories in March that sat at the busy intersection of tennis and geopolitics. One about the ways various nationalities—Belarusian, Brazilian, Filipina and Haitian—set the scene at the Miami Open…
Fates of Flags in Florida
As I was watching the women’s final of the Miami Open on Saturday afternoon, something that normally would have been innocuous caused me to do a double-take.
…and another about the biggest nationality switch in recent tennis memory: Daria Kasatkina defecting from Russia to Australia, which was the subject of my first piece from Charleston.
"Please Welcome, From Australia, Daria Kasatkina"
DANIEL ISLAND S.C. — Daria Kasatkina walked into her pre-tournament media rounds here at WTA 500 Charleston on Monday afternoon ready with an appropriate greeting.
April
Bounces readers will know my thoughts on generative AI, and the story I did in April about the strange AI slop that made it to the front of the WTA website was another one of the most-read Bounces stories of the year.
Error Counts
I’ve been working on a stats-driven piece that I’m hoping to have out soon here at Bounces, but I’ve been distracted and stuck on an unexpected topic I wanted to briefly address first: the image that’s been atop the WTA website for the last 12 hours and counting
Thankfully for tennis, anti-doping stories weren’t nearly as big a story in 2025 as they were in late 2024—though the Sinner suspension loomed large—but I did still enjoy getting to do a deep-dive explainer on Max Purcell’s unusual “prohibited method” case.
Another Tennis Anti-Doping Saga Drips Out
One week before ATP No. 1 Jannik Sinner’s highly-anticipated return to competition at the Italian Open in Rome after serving a three-month ban, another notable anti-doping saga in men’s tennis has reached a resolution.
May
Speaking of Sinner’s suspension, one of the things I enjoyed doing on Bounces this year was making various tables to show data and trends in tennis. Some of my favorite tables were in this early May post about how the rest of the men’s field largely failed to capitalize on the opportunity opened up by Sinner’s three-month absence.
Vacancies Around the Vatican
The papal conclave to elect the next pope begins tomorrow, Wednesday, May 7. Catholic cardinals from around the world have gathered in Vatican City to decide which mortal to elevate to the church’s top spot. Once a suitable successor to Pope Francis emerges by acclamation of the group, white smoke will billow from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.
Another story I was happy to do around Rome was calling out the broken promise made by the Italian federation about the tournament offering equal prize money by 2025. I believe in keeping the powers-that-be accountable as one of the core missions of journalism, and I thought this deserved to be called out (and I really didn’t see anyone else doing it).
When In Rome: The Promise (Not Kept)
A little over two years ago, Angelo Binaghi made a big promise.
The next big event on the tennis calendar was the French Open, and I must say I enjoyed this year’s edition more than any I’d ever covered before. That was due in part, I think, to having read Christopher Clarey’s book The Warrior beforehand, since it really deepened my appreciation of the history and lore of Roland Garros. Doing a walking tour of the place with Chris was one of the more unique and satisfying stories of my season.
A "Kingdom of Clay," Beneath the Surface
PARIS, France — In his new book The Warrior: Rafael Nadal and His Kingdom of Clay, my longtime New York Times tennis beat teammate Christopher Clarey tells the story of the prolific 14-time French Open champion, as one would expect.
And then I was really happy with a bunch of the stories I did as the tournament itself got underway. From qualifying, I profiled Elmer Møller and his remarkable backhand—a story which, surreally, generated a big report in Danish media that it was in the works before it even came out.
The Best Shot in Tennis That You (Probably) Haven't Seen Yet
PARIS, France — ATP No. 7 Casper Ruud, again the top-ranked player from Scandinavia after his win at the Madrid Open earlier this month, admitted Saturday at Roland Garros that he hadn’t yet gotten to watch much of the young player who is currently the Scandinavian No. 3.
And then in the first week of the main draw I went on a three-day run of three of my favorite stories of the year: a profile of Carlos Alcaraz’s polarizing barber, a look at Sam Querrey’s rapid and meticulously plotted ascent through tennis media, and then a look at Franklin Tiafoe, twin brother of Frances, becoming a coach on tour with Hailey Baptiste.
Cutting Words
PARIS, France — Readers of mine, old and new, will know that I don’t shy away from controversial issues or divisive characters in tennis. But even with years of experience running toward the thorniest topics, I cannot recall previously meeting any figure who inspires the consistently impassioned, hyperbolic reactions in the tennis fan community as does the man I interviewed today.
Reeling in the Big One
PARIS, France — After TNT Sports shelled out massive money for the rights to Roland Garros—$650 million for 10 years—they kept on spending for the glitteriest on-air talent, too.
Stepping out of "That Shadow"
PARIS, France — After a season in which she cracked the WTA Top 100 for the first time, Hailey Baptiste found herself without a coach at the end of last year.
June
As the French Open reached its conclusion, one of my most-read stories was about the tournament’s years-long stubbornness about scheduling women’s matches, which has become a very sturdy lightning rod for self-inflicted controversy, year after year in Paris.
The Final Score
PARIS, France — After writing about it early in the tournament, I thought it was the right time to close the loop on the talk of scheduling at Roland Garros.
I was also happy to do two big interviews with coaches around the business end of the tournament: long chats with Iga Swiatek’s coach Wim Fissette, as well as Aryna Sabalenka’s coach Anton Dubrov.
The View from Iga Swiatek's Corner
PARIS, France — With Iga Swiatek into the quarterfinals and still in hot pursuit of a historic fourth consecutive French Open title—which would be the first ever four-peat here on the women’s side in the Open Era, and the first overall since Suzanne Lenglen way back in 1923
Building the Best
PARIS, France — The first French Open women’s singles semifinal on Thursday afternoon was a thriller through two sets. But when push came to shove in the third set, top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka didn’t just push or shove, she slammed, rammed, and jammed
July
I admit that Wimbledon was a tricky tournament for me to find my footing early on: there were so many upsets in the opening days of the tournament that scrambled plans and seemed to limit options, and so it took me a bit of time to find my groove on the grass.
But once I did, I was happy to find a few angles I really liked, such as writing about Wimbledon’s haphazard approach to truncating names on its broadcast scoreboards.
What D-Fokina Is On Screen at Wimbledon?
WIMBLEDON, England — As I settled into to my desk at Wimbledon earlier this week, I was baffled by what I saw on my screen.
Until scrolling back through my archives today, I’d forgotten about that time a tabloid reporter asked Cameron Norrie about who Emma Raducanu was dating, but golly, that was sure a thing that happened!
Broken News: Why Cameron Norrie Got Asked About Emma Raducanu's Love Life
WIMBLEDON, England — With one week of Wimbledon now in the books, there’s a consensus that the defining match of the tournament so far was Emma Raducanu’s third round showdown with top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka on Friday night.
More fun moments in the press conferences at Wimbledon included Taylor Fritz’s increasingly detailed discussions of tactical and technical elements in tennis, so I wanted to do justice to his willingness to dig deep into the minutiae.
Adding to a "High Tennis IQ"
WIMBLEDON, England — Before we get into today’s main Bounces topic, which is Taylor Fritz, a quick word on the biggest question mark from yesterday at Wimbledon:
And then maybe my favorite story from Wimbledon this year: I tracked down Melanie, who had gained fame a decade ago when she held up one fateful finger before Roger Federer held match point…this was a very cool piece of Wimbledon lore to get to unearth (and as a bit of a Christmas gift to y’all, I have taken the paywall off this story):
The Woman Behind Wimbledon's Iconic Finger of Fate
WIMBLEDON, England — During my brief time back at home between France and England this year, I started thinking about what stories I most wanted to write here on Bounces during my 10th trip to cover Wimbledon.
And then I was very happy with both stories I did on the eventual Wimbledon champions: interviews with three core members of Iga Swiatek’s team—her physiotherapist, her psychologist/performance coach, and her coach, and then a look back at my first time watching Jannik Sinner play on grass.
Winning Words at Wimbledon
WIMBLEDON, England — It’s never a good omen during a major final when you hear someone say “Zvereva.”
Jannik Sinner's Grass Roots
WIMBLEDON, England — I remember the first two times I saw Jannik Sinner vividly.
My home tournament in Washington came quickly on the heels of Wimbledon this year, starting just one week later. The highlight, of course, was Venus Williams’ unexpected comeback to tennis.
Venus Williams, Holding Court Again
WASHINGTON — I think I should start this report on Venus Williams’ pre-tournament press conference on Sunday in Washington with the ending.
I was also really happy to get to do a story about one of the most-discussed trends in tennis media circles: the tour’s increasing reliance on influencers to make video content with players, rather than foregrounding traditional media. This trend is pretty iffy!
Tennis, Under the Influencers
WASHINGTON — In his week between playing in Wimbledon and Washington, Taylor Fritz went home to California and attended the ESPYs for the first time.
I also wanted to include a mention of my series of post-tournament notebook columns, mostly after majors, but also after Washington.
Emptying the Washington Notebook
WASHINGTON — As has become Bounces tradition after a tournament I cover on-site, here is the latest emptying of my notebook, this time from my hometown event in Washington, DC.
August
One of the stories that took the longest time to complete this year at Bounces was this popular story about Sofia Kenin getting aced constantly. I’d first started tracking the trend in January, and didn’t get it done until August (after she’d been aced a record amount in Washington). I don’t do many tennis analytics stories here, but when a trend like this emerges it’s irresistible.
She Can't Touch This
One of the biggest challenges in telling the on-court stories of tennis is the lack of robust, reliable, uniform and openly accessible analytics.
One story that I wish had made a bigger splash this year: my deep dive into the deep blue that has washed over hard courts around the world, inspired by the change in Cincinnati. The collages of every hard court on tour were a lot of fun to put together.
Blue Is the Tennis Color
MASON, Ohio — You have likely already heard about the $260 million—a nearly even split of taxpayer and private money—spent to transform the grounds of the Cincinnati Open before this year’s edition of the tournament. As I wrote about for The Second Serve
The biggest fireworks at the U.S. Open were caused by the first-round flameout of Daniil Medvedev, which was as riotous a scene as we’ve seen at a major this decade. Medvedev is absolutely one of my favorite players to talk to in press conferences, but on this night he was stubbornly sticking to a pretty nonsensical story.
Daniil Medvedev Crashes Out
NEW YORK — Daniil Medvedev was one point from an elimination that would’ve only looked bad on the scoreboard when he decided to make things much worse.
A much sunnier story from the first round: the rise of Indonesia’s Janice Tjen, who is following the Ash Barty blueprint as closely as she can. (Tjen had a great autumn after this story, winning her first WTA title).
Rising from the Ash
NEW YORK — One of the laziest tropes in tennis, both unilluminating and overused, is declaring that a young player is “the next [name of star player].”
I was very happy, thanks to the dexterity of Bounces as a medium, to be able to share some writing I had done about the history of Black women’s activism in tennis, pinned to the 75th anniversary of Althea Gibson breaking the tennis color barrier in New York.
After Althea
NEW YORK — Particularly in the United States, the tennis champions who make the greatest and most lasting impacts are not necessarily the ones who won the most.
And then also in the first week, I was happy to find a new way to address the massive, growing impact gambling is having on sports lately, thanks to Ricky Dimon spotting this surreal moment in a second round match where a player asked a fan to be ejected for cheering for him.
Against the Odds
NEW YORK — Leandro Riedi, a 23-year-old Swiss qualifier ranked 435th, missed a forehand long down break point in the fourth set of his second round match on Thursday afternoon at the U.S. Open, and unleashed a torrent of annoyed Swiss German, his native language.
September
The biggest stories at Bounces this year, in terms of traffic, proved to be two stories about the world’s most talked-about man paying a disruptive visit to the tournament. As first reported on Bounces, Swiss watchmaker Rolex invited Donald Trump to its suite at the U.S. Open, and then the U.S.T.A. instructed broadcasters not to show any crowd reactions to Trump’s presence.1
Why Donald Trump is Returning to the U.S. Open
NEW YORK — With both men winning on Friday, the third consecutive major final between Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz is now booked for the U.S. Open.
U.S. Open Orders Broadcasters to Censor Reactions to Trump
NEW YORK — Following up on the earlier news first reported by Bounces about Rolex’s invitation, I have further new information to report about the planning around presenting President Donald Trump’s appearance at the U.S. Open.
There were a few stories I was happy to do as September wore on as well. First, a deep dive into what defines an “exhibition” in tennis, pinned to the oft-debated Laver Cup.
Laver Cup and the Exhibition Controversies in Tennis
As the Laver Cup wraps up its eighth edition today in San Francisco, I want to discuss something that’s become a controversial and downright dirty word in tennis. The appropriateness of this word vis-a-vis the Laver Cup is deeply debated, as it also was around last month’s U.S. Open mixed doubles fiesta, as both those events try to steer clear of what they see as its stigma:
Then, ahead of the China swing, I published an interview with Anna Blinkova about her determination to learn to speak Chinese—a skill which she ultimately got to display after winning WTA 250 Jiujiang.
Now She's Speaking Their Language
As the tours begin their yearly Chinese swings in earnest with this week’s start of the China Open in Beijing, culture clashes are also an annual event.
And then near the end of the month, I was happy to chat with Michael Mewshaw, a legendary investigative tennis reporter in the 80s and 90s, about Bjorn Borg’s new memoir, and a lot of the important context and content which he chose to leave out of his retelling of his life story.
What Björn Borg Left Out of His Story
One of the biggest stories in tennis over this past month has been the release of Björn Borg’s new memoir, Heartbeats, the 69-year-old Swedish tennis icon’s first time opening up about his precipitous fall from grace after a dominant career which abruptly ended in the early 1980s.
October
The biggest story in October might have been Holger Rune suffering a major injury in Stockholm, rupturing his Achilles tendon. To learn more about why that particular injury has become more commonplace in sports lately, I interviewed Dr. Andrew S. Bi of NYU Langone about his expertise on the topic.
Holger Rune and Why Achilles Ruptures are Rising Across Sports
The dominant story in tennis this week has been the severe injury suffered by ATP No. 10 Holger Rune on Saturday. The 22-year-old Dane, long regarded as one of the most promising players of his generation, ruptured his Achilles tendon during a routine movement in his semifinal match at ATP 250 Stockholm last week.
Another big event for men’s tennis was the October announcement that a 10th Masters 1000 event will be added to the calendar in a few years, taking place in Saudi Arabia. I interviewed ATP 1000 Toronto tournament director Karl Hale about this decision and what sorts of ripple effects it could have on the rest of the tour.
ATP and Saudi Arabia: The Huge Difference Between 9 and 10
The big news this week in men’s tennis was the ATP’s announcement on Thursday that, after nearly four decades of its elite nonet of Masters 1000 tournaments, a new 10th 1000-level tournament will be added to the calendar in a few years.
November
One of the most recent interviews I did on Bounces was an in-depth and spirited Q&A with Stuart Duguid of Evolve about the controversial “Battle of the Sexes” he has set up between two of his clients, Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios. Stuart, who you would have read more about recently here, was game to parry, which I appreciated.
Battle Ready or Battle Weary?
After a torpid start over the weekend, the WTA Finals have kicked into gear nicely in the last couple of days, ramping up with a pair of stellar battles between Top 5 players.
And then my biggest investigative piece of the fall: a look at the problematic 1xBet, a deeply shady Russian-Cypriot-Curaçaoan bookmaker, and its growing footprint in professional tennis.
Bottom Dollar: The Problems With 1xBet in Tennis
In the months that I’ve been home since the U.S. Open, I’ve been catching up on my media consumption, both for fun—go see One Battle After Another while it’s still in theaters if you can—and also with a professional eye toward understanding what’s working best right now in the sports and journalism categories.
One other Bounces trend this fall was an increase in video interviews here (which hopefully folks are enjoying?). My favorite, unsurprisingly, was with Mary Carillo on the occasion of her 2026 Hall of Fame enshrinement.
Mary Carillo, Talking Her Way into the Hall of Fame
When news of the names of inductees for the Class of 2026 for the International Tennis Hall of Fame dropped last week, most people, of course, focused most on Roger Federer, an all-time great whose induction was both obvious and (surely) unanimous.
December
December, the one full month without any tennis, has already been surprisingly jam-packed with news.
First, there were the surprising signs of Serena Williams’ comeback, a story I had been tracking for a few weeks before it suddenly started trickling out everywhere once Serena’s name on the testing list started circulating. What Serena might do next is one of the sport’s biggest question marks for 2026.
The next bit of news—which I had no real hand in breaking—was the surprise announcement that No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz was parting with his longtime coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, a surprising shake-up at the top of the ladder. There’s been more reporting in Spain in recent days about the possible reasons for this split, but I’m still very curious how Alcaraz himself articulates it in Australia.
Carlos Alcaraz Goes His Own Way
The biggest headline of this offseason dropped Wednesday morning: Carlos Alcaraz, the newly reascendent ATP No. 1 and champion of this year’s French Open and U.S. Open, has parted ways with his longtime coach Juan Carlos Ferrero.
And then lastly, my most recent story at Bounces was to break the news about Naomi Osaka walking away from Evolve, the agency she cofounded three years ago. (Naomi confirmed that a day later on Instagram.)
Breaking: Naomi Osaka to Leave Evolve
One of the most high-profile tennis business partnerships of the past decade has ended, Bounces can exclusively report.
Thanks again for reading Bounces all year long, and into 2026! Once again, a Bounces subscription makes a great last-minute gift if there’s anybody left on your Christmas list!
That second story still has more than triple the traffic of any other story I’ve done at Bounces so far, which is pretty nuts.