Five Point Friday ✦ For TennisCompanion Club Members ✦ Hi there, Here's your roundup of the five most interesting things I'm enjoying or thinking about this week in tennis. 1.) Djokovic Goes Around the Net In the fourth set of his second-round match against Valentin Royer, Djokovic was pulled far wide when he threaded the needle between the net post and the umpire's chair for a winner, momentarily turning a crowd that had been firmly behind the Frenchman. The match took 3 hours and 28 minutes...
11 days ago • 3 min read
Five Point Friday ✦ For TennisCompanion Club Members ✦ Hi there, Here's your roundup of the five most interesting things I'm enjoying or thinking about this week in tennis. 1.) Moutet Drops His Shorts 🤔 Moutet has built a reputation as one of tennis's most combustible players, so the antics at Hamburg this week weren't a surprise in principle. The specifics were. After losing a point to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the first round, he dropped his shorts on court in front of the crowd and...
18 days ago • 3 min read
Five Point Friday ✦ For TennisCompanion Club Members ✦ Hi there, Here's your roundup of the five most interesting things I'm enjoying or thinking about this week in tennis. 1.) He Whiffed, But Still Won the Point At 5-all in the first set against hometown favorite Lorenzo Musetti, on a break point in front of a Roman crowd firmly behind his opponent, Cerundolo went up for a routine mid-court overhead and swung through nothing but air. A clean whiff. He'd already netted an overhead earlier in...
25 days ago • 3 min read
Five Point Friday ✦ For TennisCompanion Club Members ✦ Hi there, Here's your roundup of the five most interesting things I'm enjoying or thinking about this week in tennis. 1.) Kostyuk Goes Full Gymnast Marta Kostyuk defeated Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in Madrid on Saturday to claim her first WTA 1000 title, then celebrated with an equally impressive back handspring. For context, she spent seven years as a competitive gymnast in Ukraine. The victory pushed her to 11 straight wins on clay, having...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Five Point Friday ✦ For TennisCompanion Club Members ✦ Hi there, Here's your roundup of the five most interesting things I'm enjoying or thinking about this week in tennis. 1.) Baptiste Stuns Sabalenka World No. 32 Hailey Baptiste delivered the win of her career in Madrid, saving six match points to beat Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(6). It was the first time Sabalenka lost from match points up since Iga Swiatek pulled it off in the 2024 Madrid final, and Baptiste did it with real variety: 12...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Five Point Friday ✦ For TennisCompanion Club Members ✦ Hi there, Here's your roundup of the five most interesting things I'm enjoying or thinking about this week in tennis. 1.) Two Rallies Worth Rewatching Clay tennis is at its best when a rally stretches long enough for the point to become its own story. This week gave us two of those: Lorenzo Musetti winning a 30-shot exchange against Corentin Moutet to set up a chance at serving for the match, and Mirra Andreeva and Iga Swiatek building a...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Five Point Friday ✦ For TennisCompanion Club Members ✦ Hi there, Here's your roundup of the five most interesting things I'm enjoying or thinking about this week in tennis. 1.) Match Point, Underarm Ace Nuno Borges closed his Barcelona quarterfinal over Etcheverry with an underarm serve ace on match point in the tiebreak, and the crowd's reaction made clear not everyone was on board with the tactic. Using the underarm serve to end a match outright is rare territory in itself, but Borges is a...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Five Point Friday ✦ For TennisCompanion Club Members ✦ Hi there, Here's your roundup of the five most interesting things I'm enjoying or thinking about this week in tennis. 1.) 2 Stunning 100+ MPH Forehands Carlos Alcaraz opened his Monte Carlo title defense Tuesday with a 6-1, 6-3 demolition of Sebastian Baez, and a forehand clocked at 114 mph (183 km/h) summed things up pretty well. Two days later, 19-year-old Joao Fonseca followed it up with a 105 mph (169 km/h) forehand of his own en...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Five Point Friday ✦ For TennisCompanion Club Members ✦ Hi there, Here's your roundup of the five most interesting things I'm enjoying or thinking about this week in tennis. 1.) The Surface Shift Is On Clay season is here, and Houston's River Oaks Country Club is the only place on US soil to experience it. Tommy Paul came in off a strong hard-court swing but hadn't played a main-draw clay match all year. His first-round opponent, 21-year-old qualifier Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, came in 21-5 on the...
2 months ago • 3 min read