Qinwen was the flag bearer for Hubei. 10/10 aura. Unfortunately she had to withdraw due to her elbow.

China National Games are underway and it’s in Shenzhen this year. Hometown gal Wang Xinyu got to be a torchbearer in the opening ceremony.

Egyptian Jana Salah of USC opens against Florida’s Gabia Paskauskas

New: On 1xBet, the strange and shady company which has become rapidly more visible across tennis in 2025 despite *many* reasons for tours, tournaments, and federations to steer clear of its mess. Lots of odd details here, free for all to read at Bounces: www.benrothenberg.com/p/1xbet-tenn...

Simona Halep: “Tennis did nothing to me, nothing wrong. It did only good things. What happened, it was just, for me, without doing any mistakes. So everything was proved. Tennis has nothing to do with that and I still keep the passion for it.” www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

A close look at pressure in professional sport and how athletes work on their mental strength. For GQ Middle East 👇🏼 www.gqmiddleeast.com/article/trac...

A close look at the 8 singles players who competed at the WTA Finals and where they're at heading into the offseason. www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

Heck of a year 2 in Riyadh 🔥 www.arabnews.com/node/2621953...

That was a serving clinic from Elena Rybakina who: Fired 13 aces Had a 64% first-serve percentage Won 72% of her first-serve points Won 73% of her second-serve points Saved 5/5 break points Beats Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6(0) to win her biggest title since Wimbledon 2022. #WTAFinalsRiyadh

Aryna Sabalenka: “I told Amanda that she should be proud of her season, she played incredible tennis the whole season, but it’s just the beginning for her. There are many good things coming her way for sure.” Unreal match!! Today's semis certainly delivered! #WTAFinalsRiyadh

Anisimova plays an excellent second set to force a decider. Going 3 again here in Riyadh. Sabalenka saved 0/3 break points and won just 3/12 of her 2nd serve points in the 2nd set. #WTAFinalsRiyadh

Rybakina: I played a lot the last weeks, so of course it's not easy on the body. I've been serving very hard here too, a lot of tough matches, long matches. It's only the last match left so we'll try to do everything possible for my shoulder to feel better tomorrow, push myself as much as I can.

Jessica Pegula: "I feel like I can end this year knowing that I became a better player and hopefully have confidence and get excited to work on some things I know that I want to work on in the offseason and see if I can do the same thing next year." #WTAFinalsRiyadh

Jessica Pegula takes the opening set 6-4 with a fist pump and a 'come on' in 41 minutes over Elena Rybakina. Unforced error count is worryingly high for Rybakina. 25 UFEs in 10 games. Number is a little suss tbh.

News: The Next Gen Finals will move away from Jeddah next year, with the Saudi Tennis Federation opting out of their five-year deal with the ATP Tour. This year’s third edition will be the last one held in Jeddah. ATP is accepting bids for 2026 and 2027. www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

Jessica Pegula: I felt like this year was so competitive (…) I do feel like the level has been crazy, crazy deep this year. It feels a little bit harder than maybe past years. For AFP: www.rfi.fr/en/sports/20...

Iga Swiatek: “It would be great if the Grand Slams wanted to talk to us because that's how it's supposed to be and I don't really get why there's no more open conversation. I think for sure it's a setback and for sure the players are not happy with it.” www.barrons.com/news/sabalen...

Sabalenka: “I totally understand the responsibility of this match that I put on my shoulders. That's why I'll go out there and there's no jokes. I'll play full. Hopefully I can just keep up with Billie Jean and help women’s tennis to get better conditions.” www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

Iga Swiatek: “I felt good mentally, physically, and tennis-wise also it was nice, looking at the conditions and everything. So I don’t really get why I couldn’t go out of the group. Maybe I won too much in the last years and this is karma. It’s really hard for me to say (...)” #WTAFinals

Anisimova improves to 15-3 in 3-set matches in 2025. Beats Swiatek 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-2 to reach the SFs of the WTA Finals on her debut. “It’s so funny, my mom keeps telling me, ‘You know you’ve won like so many three-set matches this year? You’re so strong’. I was actually thinking about that today."

Via Opta Ace: Iga Swiatek has never lost 2 matches in a row from a set up in her entire career, across all levels. Might change tonight if she loses this third set to Amanda Anisimova!

Iga Swiatek takes a tight opening set 7-6(3) in 65 minutes over Amanda Anisimova. Iga complains to umpire Julie Kjendlie about a fan in the stands: "He's disturbing the game. He's shouting between the 1st and 2nd serve"

The level in these last 2 games from Swiatek and Anisimova has been 😮🔥

Ons Jabeur: “players seeing themselves in what I was feeling. I felt I was helping them as well. For me, someone that smiles all the time, to take a decision like that and feel broken and sad was like, Oh wow. We didn't think Ons would feel that way.” www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

Update to today’s #WTAFinals schedule: Madison Keys has withdrawn from her match with a viral illness and has been replaced by 2nd alternate Ekaterina Alexandrova, who will play Rybakina. 1st alternate Mirra Andreeva elected not to sign in due to not being fit to play today.

Auger-Aliassime has a rare quality on Tour:Keeping perspective even in a storm. He proved it in Paris again,& by not firing his long-time coach. “I learned a lot about myself,managing my career, my entourage, & how to really become a master of my career.” tennissweetspot.substack.com/p/auger-alia...

Ons Jabeur: I was scared & thinking, What if I never find joy on the tennis court ever again? But I don't think that'll be the case. I'm not retiring like most ppl think, I'll be coming back someday. When my mind & body tell me you're ready, I will come back. www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

Amanda Anisimova: It’s really important to let girls and boys know to make the right decisions for yourself and listen to yourself and not try and say yes to everything and feel like you have to do certain things. I think that’s a big killer in certain ways..." www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/n...

Swiatek: I knew he's a super experienced coach & I felt like his knowledge + my experience & the way I play should give us something big. So the 1st part of the season, the expectations were a bit too high. I should have just focused on playing and that's it. www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

Iga Swiatek: “I just love the feeling of knowing where the ball is going to go and having control on the court.” Caught up with Swiatek here in Riyadh👇🏼 www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

Spoke to Mirra Andreeva who said that missing Tokyo was NOT because of visa issues. It was a team decision not to play. “In the end, it turned out to be a wrong decision. We’re gonna get more experience from this, next time we’re not gonna make that mistake again.” www.arabnews.com/node/2621201...

I dunno how she does it! Gauff double-faulted 12 times. Has been broken 6 times so far. Tried to serve for the 2nd set twice but was broken. Is winning just 26% of her 2nd-serve points. Still takes the tiebreak to force a third set against Pegula.

Simona Halep is in the house and we had a long overdue catch-up

Sabalenka: How to stay settled, how to look at everything as you're looking from the outside on the situation on the court, off the court. Like it's not you looking, it's someone else looking at your situation.That's the best lesson you could take from Novak. www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

Iga Swiatek: “I think it was the first year when I didn’t feel like I’m still young. That was also a different feeling 😀” www.arabnews.com/node/2621033...

ATP chairman Andrea Gaudenzi: “Having a South American swing and Middle East swing is a goal but it's a challenge to execute. We would welcome support from Tennis Australia in that effort for the sake of doing the best for the sport and we're working on that.” www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

A close look at the WTA Finals field in Riyadh www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

Full chat with Coco Gauff: www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

Coco Gauff: I was looking at Novak, he's someone who didn't have as great of a serve in the beginning of his career, obviously different issue than me, but he just wasn't serving as strong. And he made that change and has gone on to obviously be Novak Djokovic www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

Coco Gauff: I was looking at Novak, he's someone who didn't have as great of a serve in the beginning of his career, obviously different issue than me, but he just wasn't serving as strong. And he made that change and has gone on to obviously be Novak Djokovic www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

Coco Gauff: It was a great Asian swing. I’m going to call JC out. He originally didn’t want me to come because I had a tough US Open but I had to prove him wrong. I’m a very stubborn person so maybe he said that on purpose, for me to have a good result here.” www.thenationalnews.com/sport/tennis...

Forget Da Fu, how do you say Ironwoman in Mandarin?

I spoke to Coco Gauff after she qualified for the WTA Finals for a fourth consecutive season: “It means a lot to me. I think it just shows that I’m definitely not falling behind and I want to continue to improve and get higher in the ranking points and do well.” www.arabnews.com/node/2618617...

I think we probably take Jess Pegula's late-blooming career surge for granted: Only Serena Williams (18) has reached more WTA-1000 finals than Jessica Pegula (7, surpassing Venus Williams) among Americans since the format’s introduction in 2009.

Pegula says the key tonight was homework. She was keyed in on Sabalenka's tendencies and preferred patterns. Basically said she had the stats. Also credited her string of wild three-setters. Had gone through everthing so didn't panic at all after that 6-5 game. Knew she was hitting well.

Sabalenka losing a match with a +19 winners to unforced errors ratio is wild. Winners-Unforced errors in this match Sabalenka 52-33 Pegula 27-15 A combined 15 breaks of serve. The 4 DFs Pegula hit in the entire match came when she was serving for the win at 6-5 in the final set. This was FUN!

Jessica Pegula: “That was crazy, I can’t believe I came back and won that. I was clearly very nervous trying to serve it out, lost my timing, lost my rhythm, trying to go for too much but I bounced right back in the tiebreak. I’m just really proud of myself."

An eighth consecutive three-setter for JPeg, sorry, I meant Da Fu.

Aryna Sabalenka is through to an 11th semifinal of the year, from 15 tournaments contested! Beats Rybakina 6-3, 6-3 to book a semifinal against Pegula. Sabalenka improves to 20-0 in Wuhan, and 8-5 H2H against Rybakina.

Loved this from "36-year-old youngster" Zhang Shuai yesterday (through translation). Ranked 142 in the world and into the Wuhan tournament as a wildcard, she beat Navarro in 3, Cirstea in 3 and is now on court against Coco Gauff.