2026 ATP General News

[MargaretMcAleer]

El Dude,

Just finished listening to Gil Gross mail bag podcast, where he answers questions from posters and kind of wraps up the grass season before moving onto the hard court season
A interesting question was why did the youngsters like Fonseca, Jodar, Tien and Fils didnt do well at Wimbledon

Gil made an interesting reply and I have to agree with him they didnt have enough time to get enough reps in on their shots on grass, quantity and consistency and seeing the grass season is short as well.

Gil also said in his view Tien has the game for grass in the future? hmm, actually I think Tien has a good game for clay in the future, just my opinion.

For Felix fans
Gils said that Felix and his long standing coach Fontang, managed to get the best out of Felix in their 10 year partnership, Felix has a career high of No 4 in the world just before he ended their partnership, on good terms, and quite frankly I feel it is a positive for Felix and will be interested to see who will coach Felix next.

 

[the AntiPusher]

AP
He has to run around his bhand a lot, like me, my bh still stinks lol! gosh $37 million not bad for a 27 yo old
Maybe this new coaching team of Stef, might be working, lets see when he gets on the hard courts, I have always thought Stef and clay is his better surface

If you want to fix your bh use the force..trust your ball striking by concentrating on staying still throughout your swing. Keep your bellybutton parallel the baseline. We all have a tendency to peak but don’t give in.. Roger Novak and Rafa do it better than anyone as far as staying still throughout their swing. The force will make the ball go where you intend it to land. If you practice you should be able to complete your ABCs(26 times in a row without making an UFEs). It takes a lot of patience but it builds confidence via repetition. Just my two cents worth

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

If you want to fix your bh use the force..trust your ball striking by concentrating on staying still throughout your swing. Keep you bellybutton parallel the baseline. We all have a tendency to peak but don’t give in.. Roger Novak and Rafa do it better than anyone as far as staying still throughout their swing. The force will make the ball where you intend it to land. If you practice you should be above to complete your ABCs(26 times in a row without making an UFEs). It takes a lot of patience but it builds confidence via repetition. Just my two cents worth

Thanks for the tips, it has always been my worse shot and you would think by now there would be improvement,
Yep Rafa and Roger always staying still throughout their swing, I have to concentrate more staying still throughout my swing

 

[the AntiPusher]

Thanks for the tips, it has always been my worse shot and you would think by now there would be improvement,
Yep Rafa and Roger always staying still throughout their swing, I have to concentrate more staying still throughout my swingtry those tips.

.YW you can only improve in tennis drills first prior to applying these techniques in an actual match. Trust your instincts, use the force and Don’t PEAK..cheers AP

 

[britbox]

Andrey Rublev wins Bastad v Darderi 64 63
This is his first title since Doha 2025 and his 18th tour title, with this win Rublev jumps 2 spots to # No 14

Highlights

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Incoming Craig Tiley commences his role as USTA CEO, five months after being appointed. Tiley on a mission to advance the growth of American tennis and the US Open.
"The USTA has created a great platform to inspire, further growth in tennis participation" Tiley said on his first day on the job.
"We want to work with everyone within the tennis family to grow the sport beyond what anyone thought possible".

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Dr Angel-Ruiz Cotorro has cleared Carlos Alcaraz to begin increasing his training load this week,
The focus now is on gradually increasing the intensity and seeing how his wrist responds
With Cincinnati still the target on his return

 

[PhiEaglesfan712]

Highlights

These 250 clay tournaments should be moved to earlier in the year. Then maybe we'd be able to extend the grass season, and get better play at Wimbledon.

There's no reason for these 250s to be played in July, long after the French Open is over.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

These post Wimbledon clay tournament after Wimbledon on both the ATP and WTA because clay is the dominant surface at regional clubs across Europe and South America, these post Wimbledon event act as a local traditional fixtures that offer players opportunities to maintain ranking points, ease the physical transition back to clay, or specialize on the surface
Quite frankly I cannot see the ATP or WTA changing these post Wimbledon clay tournaments., as the ATP post Wimbledon clay court swing has been a staple of the professional tennis calendar for several decades, the ATP hosting events on this surface for over 50 years and the WTA featuring post Wimbledon clay events since the late 1990's

 

[El Dude]

El Dude,

Just finished listening to Gil Gross mail bag podcast, where he answers questions from posters and kind of wraps up the grass season before moving onto the hard court season
A interesting question was why did the youngsters like Fonseca, Jodar, Tien and Fils didnt do well at Wimbledon

Gil made an interesting reply and I have to agree with him they didnt have enough time to get enough reps in on their shots on grass, quantity and consistency and seeing the grass season is short as well.

Gil also said in his view Tien has the game for grass in the future? hmm, actually I think Tien has a good game for clay in the future, just my opinion.

For Felix fans
Gils said that Felix and his long standing coach Fontang, managed to get the best out of Felix in their 10 year partnership, Felix has a career high of No 4 in the world just before he ended their partnership, on good terms, and quite frankly I feel it is a positive for Felix and will be interested to see who will coach Felix next.

Interesting, thanks. Yeah, Jodar didn't even play a grass warm-up, and Fonseca, Mensik, and Tien only got one or two grass matches in before playing Wimbledon.

I started a new chart that includes cells for every match played, and here's the young 'uns so far this year:

It should be obvious that the width corresponds with the level of tournament. Green is a match won, grey lost - except for QF, SF, and F, which have a color.

Anyhow, you can see Fonzie's slow start, then a QF performance at MC, then more poor performance, with a bit of a breakout performance at RG. As you pointed out, none of theses guys did well at Wimbledon.

Poor Fils...he really seems ready to breakout to a perennial top 10 guy, but he just can't stay healthy. He's missed two of three Slams so far.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Interesting, thanks. Yeah, Jodar didn't even play a grass warm-up, and Fonseca, Mensik, and Tien only got one or two grass matches in before playing Wimbledon.

I started a new chart that includes cells for every match played, and here's the young 'uns so far this year:
View attachment 11001
It should be obvious that the width corresponds with the level of tournament. Green is a match won, grey lost - except for QF, SF, and F, which have a color.

Anyhow, you can see Fonzie's slow start, then a QF performance at MC, then more poor performance, with a bit of a breakout performance at RG. As you pointed out, none of theses guys did well at Wimbledon.

Poor Fils...he really seems ready to breakout to a perennial top 10 guy, but he just can't stay healthy. He's missed two of three Slams so far.

Thanks and you really do great charts BTW
Hopefully Fils can stay healthy, Gil made an interesting comment about some of younger players at Wimbledon which I agree with, with more experience on grass, they have to be able to flatten out their shots, he pointed out Fils for eg, he said some of his shots were " too 'loopy'

 

[Federberg]

in case people haven't seen this...

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

in case people haven't seen this...

Loved the fact that Roger and his family takes hikes in Swiss and he has found a place you can rent our Goats to take with you on the hike

 

[El Dude]

Thanks and you really do great charts BTW
Hopefully Fils can stay healthy, Gil made an interesting comment about some of younger players at Wimbledon which I agree with, with more experience on grass, they have to be able to flatten out their shots, he pointed out Fils for eg, he said some of his shots were " too 'loopy'

Thanks!

Here's the next group up, or Jannik to Carlos (players born 2001-03) for comparison sake. Bask in the glory of Jannik's season:

You can see Carlos' "walkabout" performance after Doha. Ben's been so erratic - QF at AO, two ATP 500s, and everything else pretty poor. Jannik's just been so nasty this year...

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Thanks!

Here's the next group up, or Jannik to Carlos (players born 2001-03) for comparison sake. Bask in the glory of Jannik's season:

View attachment 11002
You can see Carlos' "walkabout" performance after Doha. Ben's been so erratic - QF at AO, two ATP 500s, and everything else pretty poor. Jannik's just been so nasty this year...

Gil Gross did make note of Sheltons poor form especially at Wimbledon this year, his shot selection, rally ball tolerance needs to improve, and his return game, he must have been listening to Keli and I

 

[the AntiPusher]

Gil Gross did make note of Sheltons poor form especially at Wimbledon this year, his shot selection, rally ball tolerance needs to improve, and his return game, he must have been listening to Keli and I

Sounds like there's a lot to fix in Ben's game..

 

[El Dude]

Gil Gross did make note of Sheltons poor form especially at Wimbledon this year, his shot selection, rally ball tolerance needs to improve, and his return game, he must have been listening to Keli and I

So he's either going to be a late bloomer and peak in the 26-28 range, or he's always going to be what he is now. I'd probably go 50-50, with his upside being something like Medvedev/Zverev. I sort of see him a similar boat with Draper and Rune. All three are volatile, in terms of what to expect going forward - for different reasons. Draper and Rune are more about health.

 

[mrzz]

BTW Luis Miguel did beat Kyrgios in UTS yesterday, but it didn't have much of a competitive vibe, at least the bit that I saw.

BTW part 2, Luis Miguel ended up being the runner up in this UTS thing, a lot of top 50 players there. There was some competitive vibe in it (after all, there was a decent prize money for the winner), but obviously not an actual tournament. Still, he was haning there with the big boys, not too bad.

 

[mrzz]

Oh, and Bernard Tomic won a challenger tournament! Watching the higlights, seeing him hit the balls withtout even caring to bend the knees, it is kind of surreal. It is like seeing an amateur playing against a pro. Tomic has all the traits I hate in a player (in a nutshell, acts like a spoiled brat who sees himself as a genius), and from all possible perspectives I should desperately root against him. But for some extremely odd reason, I don't. Maybe is the forehand slice.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Oh, and Bernard Tomic won a challenger tournament! Watching the higlights, seeing him hit the balls withtout even caring to bend the knees, it is kind of surreal. It is like seeing an amateur playing against a pro. Tomic has all the traits I hate in a player (in a nutshell, acts like a spoiled brat who sees himself as a genius), and from all possible perspectives I should desperately root against him. But for some extremely odd reason, I don't. Maybe is the forehand slice.

Mrzz Hi

I read that Tomic won a challenger, he said he was going to retire at the end of this year and now he said he might rethink? gee his last challenger win was at Mallorca, Spain, way back in 2018, his ranking soared up to 36 places after the title win, now world no 170