2025 was my first full year freelancing, and to my happy surprise I got enough published to do a summary thread! I mostly wrote from bed, but I was at the very fun and hot Australian Open, and covered it for Defector. (Sans credential, but check back in a month.) defector.com/the-australi...

Glitching feeds. Inaudible trash talk. A bag of tennis balls and a flat atmosphere. Nick Kyrgios beat Aryna Sabalenka in the scenario women's tennis feared, but what lingers is the farce of an event that collapsed under the weight of its label www.nytimes.com/athletic/692...

The build-up to the 'Battle of the Sexes' between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios has proven that its architects and detractors agree on one thing: This is pure spectacle that cannot support the weight of its lofty name @sarahshephard.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/athletic/691...

Jack Draper will miss the Australian Open with bone bruising that has sidelined him since late August. His first big event back is likely to be Indian Wells. A test for his body and his mentality, as he will defend 1,000 points there. @cdeccleshare.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/athletic/692...

Carlos Alcaraz splits with Juan Carlos Ferrero after six Grand Slams and seven years. Shocking in terms of timing after such a strong season, but if the next stage in Alcaraz's development after serve security is tactical adjustment, perhaps it makes sense. www.nytimes.com/athletic/689...

Dino Prižmić, he who ran Novak Djokovic close at the 2024 Australian Open, has found his forehand after a buffet of mistimed shots in the first set against Nishesh Basavareddy and his picture-perfect backhand at the Next Gen. Good match developing

ATP Tour confirms unified extreme heat policy, moving in line with WTA and Grand Slams. Previously, supervisors made conditions decisions from tournament to tournament www.nytimes.com/athletic/689...

Story: @theathletic.com Grand Slam Track files bankruptcy: $0-$50,000 in assets, $10m-50m in liabilities. Vendors & athletes owed millions. Michael Johnson’s GST bafflingly still say it wants to continue. www.nytimes.com/athletic/688...

ATP/WTA commercial merger a step closer towards completion as ATP votes in favour of non-binding short-form agreement. WTA meanwhile agrees landmark title sponsorship deal with Mercedes, and expected to vote on short-form agreement by end of the year www.nytimes.com/athletic/687...

This entire grift relies on convincing people that they don't know how to do the things they have always known how to do, and ironically, if it works, we will, in a very short amount of time, forget how to do all the things we have always known how to do.

Serena Williams is preparing for a possible return to tennis by reentering the sport's anti-doping pool and whereabouts requirements. Players need to spend six months in the pool before playing an event. @mattfutterman.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/athletic/685...

Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track instructs insolvency lawyers & restructuring firm to lead process to strike deal with vendors owed millions - letters warn companies must accept HALF of money owed or GST risks being put into bankruptcy. Athletes still only paid half of money owed. t.co/4lojBMoFL2

Who among my Bluesky cohort wishes to discuss Isaac Chotiner 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 Ben Smith

1) Learner Tien obviously should have been on the Breakthrough ATP Tour list instead of Jack Draper 2) I think Learner Tien will finish 2026 ranked lower than he is now

One of the interesting subplots of men's tennis in 2026 is going to be how the chasing pack can do what the Big Three and Sinner / Alcaraz do so effectively, which is to use the experience of playing each other to generate marginal gains there and huge ones against the rest of the field.

A fitting end to men's tennis in 2025, with two guys in their own little self-building world, feeding off playing each other to grow stronger and stronger together and move further and further into another galaxy

Alex de Minaur hitting even flatter than normal on both sides according to Tennis Insights / Tennis Viz, and using slice. All contributing to keeping the ball out of Sinner's strike zone and making him bend and hit up

The men's tennis season has been so dominated by Sinner and Alcaraz that feel-good stories have been hard to find. Even/especially in Turin where pretty much everyone else has looked mentally and/or physically fried. So TF for FAA ⬇️ www.nytimes.com/athletic/680...

Alexander Zverev being exasperated by other players executing high-risk plays on big points would be fair (it's irritating, sure!) if, you know, he ever threatened to do that

The combination of two absolute-runaway best players in the world and rising parity on the ATP Tour has made it one of the tougher years I can remember for the world rankings to feel like they truly mean something outside of who finishes on top

Why two-week Masters 1000 events were meant to save tennis — and ended up ruining it instead www.nytimes.com/athletic/680... @mattfutterman.bsky.social

Joining the crew on The Call! If you love my Tennis breakdowns on @groundpass.bsky.social I am going to be talking more about the culture, media and news around tennis with @courttheory.bsky.social and Friends on The Call. First episode is Live now. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Incredible match by Taylor Fritz, the great maximizer of his era in men's tennis. Sometimes maximizing is not enough — but maybe that should be OK, given how many others in the top 20 don't even manage that

And never more so than the two forehand misses on two set points in this tiebreak

Ben Shelton trying to force the issue far too much against a player who is never going to make him do too much from neutral

So clear that Iga Swiatek, a player who uses the word "intuition" about tennis more than anyone, is getting caught between the instincts she is trying to unlearn and the ones she is trying to reintegrate in tight moments. And yet still will likely finish world No. 2 with a GS title and a ton of wins

The Battle of the Sexes has a significant place in tennis history. In Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios' version, it's unclear what is at stake, beyond the commoditisation of the name — and an invitation to criticize women's tennis after either result www.nytimes.com/athletic/677...

Wouldn't be fair to Iga Swiatek or Elena Rybakina to class that as a Swiatek fall-off. Rybakina would have beaten anyone in the world 6-1 6-0 playing the way she did. Swiatek concern should be that serve speed / potency has come at the cost of stability (which she knows based on news confs here)

Banner week for the World Tennis Tour destroyers. Victoria Mboko and Janice Tjen win titles; Lilli Tagger reaches her first WTA Tour final. All three (and Tereza Valentová, another very serious player) got their way up the rankings by blitzing all-comers on the third tier of the sport

What was taken from us

Possibility of Daniil Medvedev playing Learner Tien at a 250 in Metz for his ATP Tour Finals life ... Absolute cinema

Auger-Aliassime has been very good tactically against Vacherot. The blueprint to beating him has looked clear, if not obvious since he started his run in Shanghai so it is something of a surprise that no one did it sooner

Delighted for what Vacherot's run means for his career. The context collapse around it is indicative of a men's tour starved of narrative

I think Learner Tien is going to have a lot of 1-0 records against top-10 players. I also think they may not be as illustrative of his future as some people believe

Relatedly, the camera angle must be a factor here, but everyone I have watched, even the winners, has looked glitchy and janky. Like the ball isn't really doing what they expect as often as they expect it to

Cameron Norrie is an awful person to play if out of rhythm. Court speed or not, the massive variance in trajectory and pace between his forehand and backhand is nightmare fuel for an Alcaraz who isn't feeling the ball

All the info on the new Saudi Masters 1000, its size, why there is no date and what it means for the future of tennis as a calendar and as a global sport theathletic.com/6512718/?sou...

Saudi Arabia will host an ATP Masters 1000 tournament as early as 2028. It's the latest move in nearly three years of power battles, negotiation and inertia that have come to dominate the top of tennis. Story from @mattfutterman.bsky.social and @cdeccleshare.bsky.social ⤵️

Important win for João Fonseca given patchy recent form and the concentration on one's own serve and return that beating Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard requires

A few years ago, Sebastian Korda was tipped to lead American men's tennis. His talent has never been in question. But injuries have left him facing an uphill battle to fulfil his potential. “You just kind of have to restart. You’ve got to climb that mountain again." ✍️ @mattfutterman.bsky.social

Corentin Moutet vs. Bernard Tomic in Almaty? Well of course it is a scene

Tactically inspired performance from Coco Gauff to essentially junk-ball (complimentary) Jessica Pegula into oblivion. The mini-battles leading up to ball changes were fascinating, Pegula got frustrated by her shots not penetrating down the stretch.

Arthur Rinderknech cramping up from spending too long on his haunches during his cousin's speech about sums up this Shanghai Masters

Not even the cousins final is immune to the prevailing Shanghai Masters dynamic of "one player is just out of gas"

Such a huge mental win for Jessica Pegula. Not just recovering from four double faults — her only four of the match! — when serving for it, but snapping Sabalenka's indomitable tiebreak streak after losing to her four times in a row, in one GS final, one GS semifinal and two 1000 finals

Daniil Medvedev saying Learner Tien is "everywhere" while he is barely breaking the sidelines. This has nothing to do with physicality. He has convinced himself Tien is better than he actually is

Why Federer's court speed commentary about Alcaraz and Sinner is sort-of-right and sort-of-wrong, and the problem with a metric which is both objectively measured by tournaments, and experienced subjectively by players With @cdeccleshare.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/athletic/668...

After a diagnosis of spondyloarthritis 5 years ago, Eva Lys has to manage her body carefully. Which is one of the hardest things to do as an athlete. She explains her ‘less is more’ approach, and why she won’t stay quiet on issues like inequality ⬇️ www.nytimes.com/athletic/667...

Carlos Alcaraz's break-point shot selections in this match against Taylor Fritz and the previous one against Casper Ruud have been ... Interesting

A lot of Carlos Alcaraz's trademark, bullet-time backhand slices to turn points from defense to attack against Zizou Bergs today. @mattfutterman.bsky.social wrote about the shot — and the negative space in which Alcaraz flips the script — during Wimbledon www.nytimes.com/athletic/645...