Update on new dubs partnerships I’m hearing for 2026… WTA • Ellen Perez & Demi Schuurs • Erin Routliffe & Asia Muhammad • Jess Pegula & McCartney Kessler ATP • Neal Skupski & Christian Harrison • Evan King & John Peers Up for Grabs? • Dabrowski • Stefani • Salisbury

2026-2027 prediction… Novak Djokovic de-prioritizes peaking at the slams and focuses on winning ATP 500 & 250 titles, surpassing Federer (103) and eventually Jimmy Connors (109) in all-time career title records. At 101 titles, he’s only two away from tying Federer now.

Get to know the ATP Finals doubles field in our preview, featuring 5 of 8 teams who return from 2024 ⭐️ No. 2 Heliovaara/Patten No. 3 Granollers/Zeballos No. 4 Arevalo/Pavic No. 6 Krawietz/Puetz No. 7 Bolelli/Vavassori 10 storylines & team breakdown ⬇️ tinyurl.com/4dnszpar

Massive opening win for Italian home favorites, Simone Bolelli & Andrea Vavassori. The No. 7 seeds dismiss top seeds Cash/Glasspool 7-5, 6-3 to go 1-0 in group play. Let’s just hope their Davis Cup captain is taking notes 👀🇮🇹

2025 was such a high quality WTA season with a core top 9 who distanced themselves from the pack and continued building compelling rivalries. This top 9 group won all 4 slams, competed in all 4 slam finals, and won 9 of the 10 Masters 1000s. Best WTA season since ______?

Hearing of a few new WTA doubles pairings in the works for 2026: Erin Routliffe & Asia Muhammad Ellen Perez & Demi Schuurs Jess Pegula & McCartney Kessler Who else?

No. 4 Elise Mertens & Veronika Kudermetova oust the top-seeded Italians Errani/Paolini 6-3, 6-3 to go 2-1 in group play. They won the WTA Finals in 2022 & have the most H2H wins (9-3) over the top 8 field this year…don’t sleep on them. (My pick to win the title)

The Hsieh & Ostapenko train keeps on rollin’ in Riyadh 🚂 The fan favorites take out No. 1 seeds Errani/Paolini 6-3, 6-4 in a clinical performance to go 2-0 (and in great position to make the SFs). Hsieh last won this event in 2013 & Ostapenko eyes her 1st WTA Finals title.

38 year-old Sara Errani & 39 year-old Hsieh Su-Wei both competed in the same WTA Finals events in 2013 & 2014. Eleven years later, they’re back for another WTA Finals, competing against each other for a semifinals spot today 👊🏻

No. 2 Katerina Siniakova & Taylor Townsend edge past No. 7 Timea Babos & Luisa Stefani 6-2, 3-6, 10-6 in their opening match in Riyadh. The 2024 finalists are 29-5 on the year with the highest win percentage (85%) among the top 8 field 💯

Defending champs Gaby Dabrowski & Erin Routliffe are the longest standing doubles team at the top of the game, and the only pair to make 3 consecutive WTA Finals. They would be the 1st team to successfully defend this title since Babos/Mladenovic in 2018-2019. thetennistribe.com/2025-wta-fin...

No. 3 Gaby Dabrowski & Erin Routliffe open up their title defense with a 6-3, 7-6 win over No. 5 Mirra Andreeva & Diana Shnaider 💥 Gaby & Erin are the longest standing team in the field and the only pair to make 3 straight WTA Finals appearances together.

No. 6 Hsieh/Ostapenko outlast No. 4 Mertens/Kudermetova 1-6, 7-5, 10-5 to round out day 1 in Riyadh 🔥 Hsieh was nearly flawless in the 3rd set tiebreaker, all over the net from corner to corner. The 39-year-old is in her 6th WTA Finals appearance in the last 13 years.

No. 1 seeds Sara Errani & Jasmine Paolini come out of the gates strong with a comprehensive 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 8 Demi Schuurs & Asia Muhammad. Their impressive 2025 haul includes a Roland Garros trophy, 3 masters 1000 titles, and BJK Cup win for Team Italy 🇮🇹

Check out our WTA Finals doubles preview breaking down a stacked final 8 field that includes: 🏆 All 4 slam champs of 2025 💯 52 combined dubs majors 👸 7 former No. 1 players 🥇 7 Olympic medalists Will Gaby & Erin defend their title? thetennistribe.com/2025-wta-fin...

In 2025, all top 4 doubles seeds at the WTA Finals split the 4 slams, won five Masters 1000s, and made the US Open semifinals in a top 4 battle: No. 1 Errani & Paolini (RG) No. 2 Siniakova & Townsend (AO) No. 3 Dabrowski & Routliffe (USO) No. 4 Kudermetova & Mertens (Wimby)

Elise Mertens, 5x slam champ and former No. 1, has now qualified for the WTA Finals 7 years in a row with 5 different partners: 2018: Demi Schuurs 2019: Aryna Sabalenka 2021: Hsieh Su-Wei 2022: Veronika Kudermetova 2023: Storm Hunter 2024: Hsieh x 2 2025: Kudermetova x 2 Wow.

I could easily see Alexander Bublik (15th in the ATP Finals race yet still a chance to qualify) coming out of nowhere to win the Paris Masters event and grab the last spot for Turin. It would be verryyyy on brand for him.

A trio of WTA doubles veterans will make their 7th WTA Finals appearance with multiple partners: 🇨🇿 Katerina Siniakova 🇨🇦 Gaby Dabrowski 🇧🇪 Elise Mertens Siniakova & Mertens have made 7 straight appearances while Dabrowski has qualified for 7 of the last 8, dating back to 2017.

Three big doubles wins for Americans this past week 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 1. Nicole Melichar won her 17th WTA title in Ningbo w/ Samsonova. 2. Evan King & Christian Harrison won in Brussels, holding onto the No. 8 spot in ATP Finals race. 3. Rob Galloway won his 3rd ATP title in Stockholm.

Feels like Katerina Siniakova may be conducting doubles partner auditions this fall for the 2026 season… ✅ Qualifies for WTA Finals w/ Townsend ✅ Wins Korea 500 title w/ Krejcikova ✅ Wins Wuhan 1000 title w/ Hunter 🤞🏻 Enters Ningbo as top seed w/ Hsieh

Katerina Siniakova and Hsieh Su-Wei, the two most accomplished doubles players of this generation and longtime rivals, are teaming up together this week as the top seeds in Ningbo. This should be fun 🍿

Coco said she has to bring an extra suitcase home for all of the nice gifts she has received from Chinese fans. Asia seems like a nice post-USO therapy for her to relax and regroup away from the stressors of NYC. Loves the energy here.

So do Coco and Jess go home now to rest and train for WTA Finals? No need for more tournament play with the 1000s behind us.

Safe to say the American women are having a moment in 2025. It’s got to be the best year for U.S. women’s tennis as a whole since the early-mid 2000s? 2 slam winners, 2x slam finalists, multiple 1000s titles, and 4 of the top 8 qualifying for WTA Finals. Wowww 🇺🇸

Learning about Jess Pegula’s “Big Rich” and Emma Navarro’s “Little Rich” nicknames from Chinese fans plus seeing Pegula’s reaction has been a highlight of the Asian swing so far for me 💯

My Conversation with ATP Doubles Newcomers Robert Cash and JJ Tracy; NCAA Qualifiers Determined at ITA All-American Championships, Semifinals Set for Saturday; Lutkemeyer Reaches Semis at W35 Berkeley: tenniskalamazoo.blogspot.com/2025/09/my-c...

With such a saturated landscape, what tennis podcast is top of your list right now? Any favorites among the ex-player pods that have all surfaced in the last year or two?

I wonder how many coaching DMs Andre Agassi will get from agents of Team World players after Laver Cup. The energy he brought to the team as a whole and each player mid-match was palpable and looked like the story of the tournament.

After their title in Seoul this week and a seemingly in-form/healthy Barbora Krejcikova, I have a hunch that we may see the Czech dream team of Siniakova/Krejcikova reunite in 2026. Siniakova & Townsend are great together but don’t strike me as a long-term partnership.

Team Italy ties Czechia to win 6 BJK Cup titles in the 2000s: '06, '09, '10, '13, '24, and '25. They haven't been as deep as the Czechs, USA, or Russia, but... 1) Their top players reliably show up 2) They've always had a good dubs team The winning BJK Cup formula 💯

Italy sweeping the USA in singles?! The least likely outcome we all expected. No. 91 Cocciaretto beat No. 18 Navarro 6-4, 6-4 Paolini was previously 0-5 vs. Pegula and won 6-4, 6-2 Impressive title defense from the clutch Italians…and a massive missed opportunity by Team USA.

Alex Michelsen looks poised to become the next Jack Sock of Laver Cup doubles for Team World in the future. Such a solid dubs showing by both Alex’s tonight to wrap up the clean sweep 4-0 on Saturday.

“Team Alex” has way more chemistry and confidence so far than “Team Scandinavia” in this Laver Cup dubs battle. They’re a better X’s and O’s doubles team and it’s showing early on. Michelsen’s hands have also been incredible 🙌🏻

Would Alexander Bublik play for Team World or Europe in Laver Cup? Also wondering the same about Rybakina if there’s ever a WTA version of the event in the future.

Alex deMinaur is giving future Laver Cup captain vibes for Team World. He’s the type of teammate (and eventual captain?) you want on your bench.

If there was a WTA version of Laver Cup, imagine these teams… Team World 🇺🇸 Gauff 🇺🇸 Keys 🇺🇸 Pegula 🇺🇸 Anisimova 🇨🇳 Zheng 🇯🇵 Osaka 🇰🇿 Rybakina Team Europe 🇧🇾 Sabalenka 🇵🇱 Iga 🇷🇺 Andreeva 🇮🇹 Paolini 🇷🇺 Alexandrova 🇩🇰 Tauson 🇺🇦 Svitolina

Reallllyyyy want to see a deciding BJK Cup dubs final with USA vs. Italy, but it’ll be in the Americans’ best interest to sweep in singles. Townsend & Pegula are a solid team, though I’d still favor Errani & Paolini. Pegula is also 5-0 vs. Paolini in singles (haven’t played in 2 years).

Great to see Team USA live up to its potential in a team event 🇺🇸 Jess Pegula & Emma Navarro win 3-setters to lead the U.S. to its first BJK Cup final since 2018 (which is nuts). Now let’s see a deciding dubs match b/w Townsend/Pegula vs. Errani/Paolini to win the title 🏆

Jasmine Paolini once again so clutch on BJK Cup to keep Italy alive. Gotta like their chances in the dubs with Errani/Paolini regardless of who Ukraine puts in the lineup. If USA advances in the other semis, they would match up better against Italy vs Ukraine IMO.

Thanks @jonwertheim.bsky.social for including my Davis Cup doubles POV about Rajeev finally getting his moment on home soil last weekend 🇺🇸 www.si.com/tennis/tenni...

Team USA gets a long-awaited BJK Cup win to make its first SF appearance since 2021. I like our chances vs winner of Japan or GB…but ya never know in this format. Could we potentially see a Townsend/Pegula vs. Paolini/Errani doubles decider in the finals to win it all? 🤞🏻🇺🇸🇮🇹

Italy has been so incredibly clutch in BJK Cup these last few years. They benefit from having a core team with very clear roles. Whereas a team like the USA benefits from so much depth and talent but lacks consistent participation and a clear team leader (yet).

Team USA came up short, but American Rajeev Ram was arguably the biggest winner this weekend in Delray 🇺🇸 I wrote about why this was such a huge win for Rajeev (and doubles) given his surprisingly complicated Davis Cup journey these last few years. thetennistribe.com/rajeev-ram-d...

Nicole Melichar-Martinez continues her Mexico mojo by winning both the pre & post USO double-double 🇲🇽 🏆 Monterrey 500 w/ Bucsa 🏆 Guadalajara 500 w/ Khromacheva She and former partner Ellen Perez were also finalists at the 2023 WTA Finals in Cancun, Mexico.

Rajeev Ram has low key been so solid for Team USA in Davis Cup doubles the last 5 years since his 2021 debut. He’s now 12-3 (80%) overall, going 4-1 with Jack Sock and 8-2 with Austin Krajicek. It’s a shame that much of his success has been overshadowed by a few bad lineup decisions.

Funny exchange with Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek in press last night reminiscing about the “words of encouragement” from the Bryan Brothers ahead of the Olympic match vs. Nadal and Alcaraz last year. No pressure 😂

On paper right now, USA could/should be winning at least 1 Davis Cup or BJK Cup title per year IMO. We haven’t won BJK Cup since 2017 and Davis Cup since 2007…

Tommy Paul, man of the people, is cheering Tiafoe on from the stands with an IPA in hand at almost midnight in Delray. Gotta love it.

This US vs Czech Davis Cup qualifier could easily be a finals-worthy matchup given the resume of the 2 teams 🇺🇸🇨🇿 1️⃣ top 5 player 2️⃣ slam champs & doubles No. 1s 3️⃣ top 20 players 4️⃣ Olympic medalists 5️⃣ top 30 players 6️⃣ current/former top 20 players 7️⃣ major doubles titles