Welcome again to the Monday Tennis Briefing, the place The Athletic will clarify the tales behind the tales from the previous week on court docket.
This week, probably the most mercurial participant on the boys’s tour did what he does finest, there was an American shuffle on the prime of the ladies’s rankings and a Wimbledon champion’s quandary revealed the fragile steadiness of tennis scheduling.
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An essential milestone for Jessica Pegula?
The American trio slightly below the summit of the ladies’s tennis rankings reshuffled this week, as Jessica Pegula moved forward of Coco Gauff by successful the WTA 500 title in Charleston. Pegula, who beat Sofia Kenin 6-3, 7-5 after coming from 1-5 down within the second set, is now world No. 3, matching her career-high rating.
With a giant hole between the American and world No. 2 Iga Świątek, and one other huge hole between Gauff and world No. 5 Madison Keys, it could look as if Pegula’s first clay-court title is extra vital than the tight tussle between world No. 3 and world No. 4, with simply 38 factors separating them.
However Pegula, who missed final yr’s clay-court swing with harm, is now getting into the 2 WTA 1,000s in Rome and Madrid after which the French Open in Paris with no factors to defend, successfully giving her a free hit for the subsequent few months. She’ll be going into the floor transition with probably the most wins on the WTA Tour this season (25) forward of world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who has 23.
With Gauff defending over 1,200 factors, and Świątek on the hook for 4,195, Pegula may but climb greater with out having to win huge on the crimson grime.
James Hansen
Who can clarify the enigma of Botic van de Zandschulp?
Is there a extra intriguing participant on the ATP Tour than this Dutchman?
The mercurial van de Zandschulp has develop into the tennis grasp of the surprising, successful when he’s in line to lose and falling aside when there’s seemingly no purpose to take action.
Van de Zandschulp has crushed Carlos Alcaraz on the U.S. Open in straight units, ended Rafael Nadal’s profession with a Davis Cup humbling in Spain and defeated Novak Djokovic at Indian Wells (together with a 6-1 hammering of a remaining set) within the final eight months. All these wins have been achieved with barely a flicker of nerves — outstanding for a participant with a historical past of buckling below stress. He served for the match 3 times in opposition to Holger Rune within the 2023 Munich Open remaining and held 4 championship factors in all, however he ended up shedding.
Simply over a yr later, in Could 2024, van de Zandschulp stated that he had develop into so disillusioned with tennis that he was contemplating retiring. As an alternative, he beat three of the very best gamers in latest historical past on a few of the sport’s greatest phases, staying calm below stress as if he have been having a knock at an area membership.
So, how would van de Zandschulp fare within the first spherical of the Bucharest Open ATP 250 — the bottom rung on the tour — in opposition to Richard Gasquet, the 38-year-old Frenchman who will retire after this yr’s French Open?
He led by a set and two breaks, and had a match level on his serve for a 6-4, 6-4 win. However he missed it, and ended up shedding 6-1 within the decider, trying as impartial as he had carried out in beating a few of the finest to ever do it.
Charlie Eccleshare
How did American males’s gamers attain a milestone in Houston?
With a simple put-away, Alex Michelsen secured a three-set victory over the French veteran Adrian Mannarino to succeed in the Houston Open quarterfinals. A reasonably unremarkable second in and of itself, however along with his win on April 3, Michelsen ensured that each one eight of the quarterfinalists can be American. It was the primary time that had occurred at an ATP Tour occasion for the reason that Prudential-Bache Securities Basic in Orlando, Fla., in 1991.
Andre Agassi ended up successful the event, whereas Pete Sampras misplaced within the semifinals. These two, plus Jim Courier, began dominating the game quickly afterward. Will the Houston 2025 alumni do one thing related?
That seems like a giant stretch, however in Michelsen, a 20-year-old Californian, they’ve one of many breakout stars of this yr. Having reached the fourth spherical of the Australian Open, Michelsen is a few hundred rating factors outdoors the world’s prime 30 and has a shiny future.
Of the opposite quarterfinalists, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul are established top-20 regulars, whereas Colton Smith, 22, Brandon Nakashima, 23 and Aleksandar Kovacevic, 26, are a bit additional down the tennis meals chain. Christopher Eubanks, 28, has did not kick on after his breakthrough in 2023.
Jenson Brooksby, 24, began the week because the furthest down of all of them at No. 507, has he rebuilds his rating after a doping ban. He saved 5 match factors throughout qualifying and his principal draw matches on the way in which to the ultimate, the place he eased previous Tiafoe for his first-ever tour title, rising 335 locations within the rankings within the course of.
American tennis followers will probably be hoping the occasion supplies a springboard for the clay-court season for no less than a kind of eight quarterfinalists.
Brooksby adopted an in depth run of matches with a comparatively routine victory within the remaining. (Leslie Plaza Johnson / Icon Sportswire through Related Press)
Charlie Eccleshare
What’s the worth of nationwide satisfaction?
The Billie Jean King Cup takes heart stage in girls’s tennis from April 10 to April 13, with the ultimate spherical of qualifiers for the worldwide staff occasion. Two of the headliners scheduled to play — Świątek of Poland and Britain’s Emma Raducanu — declared they’d not be representing their international locations final week, each citing the necessity to capitalize on an off-week of their schedule.
Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion who switched from representing Russia to representing Kazakhstan, will probably be touring to Melbourne to symbolize the nation in opposition to Australia and Colombia. She grew to become a citizen of Kazakhstan in 2017 in change for monetary help from the nation’s tennis federation, which has since 2007 been bankrolled by billionaire businessman and philanthropist Bulat Utemuratov in a decades-long surge designed to rework a rustic with little preexisting tennis infrastructure into a real sporting energy.
For Rybakina, meaning a visit to Australia — and lacking the WTA 500 in Stuttgart, Germany, which begins April 14. Rybakina is the defending champion there and can lose 500 factors by not taking part in, which is able to see her drop out of the highest 10 at finest. She could drop additional if different gamers carry out effectively. If Kazakhstan undergo, which will matter much less — nevertheless it’s a effective demonstration of the push and pull of tennis competitors.
James Hansen
Shot of the week
Or maybe month, or possibly even yr, from Ryan Seggerman in Houston.
UNBELIEVABLE 🤯
RYAN SEGGERMAN WITH THE SHOT OF THE YEAR!#USClay | @TennisTV pic.twitter.com/VaxFKnaYYe
— Fayez Sarofim & Co. US Clay (@mensclaycourt) April 5, 2025
Advisable studying:
🏆 The winners of the week
🎾 ATP:
🏆 Flavio Cobolli (3) def. Sebastian Baez (1) 6-4, 6-4 to win the Tiriac Open (250) in Bucharest, Romania. It’s the Italian’s first ATP Tour title.
🏆 Luciano Darderi (7) def. Tallon Griekspoor (1) 7-6(3), 7-6(4) to win the Hassan Grand Prix II (250) in Marrakech, Morroco. It’s the Italian’s second ATP Tour title.
🏆 Jenson Brooksby (Q) def. Frances Tiafoe (2) 6-4, 6-2 to win the U.S. Males’s Clay Court docket Championship (250) in Houston. It’s the American’s first ATP Tour title.
🎾 WTA:
🏆 Jessica Pegula (1) def. Sofia Kenin 6-3, 7-5 to win the Charleston Open (500) in Charleston, S.C. It’s the American’s first clay-court WTA Tour title.
📈📉 On the rise / Down the road
📈 Jessica Pegula strikes up one place from No. 4 to No. 3 after her win in South Carolina.
📈 Jenson Brooksby ascends 335 spots from No. 507 to No. 172 after his win in Texas.
📈 Sofia Kenin reenters the highest 40 after rising 10 spots from No. 44 to No. 34.
📉 Matteo Berrettini falls seven locations from No. 27 to No. 34, relinquishing the top-32 spot that may see him seeded at huge occasions.
📉 Maria Sakkari drops 18 locations from No. 64 to No. 82.
📉 Fabio Fognini tumbles 14 spots from No. 99 to No. 113.
📅 Developing
🎾 ATP
📍Monte Carlo, Monaco: Monte Carlo Masters (1,000) that includes Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Jack Draper.
📺 UK: Sky Sports activities; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻
🎾 ITF
📍Varied areas: Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers that includes Elena Rybakina, Victoria Mboko, Elina Svitolina, Danielle Collins.
📺 UK: Sky Sports activities; U.S.:
Inform us what you seen this week within the feedback under as the boys’s and ladies’s excursions proceed.
(Prime photograph: Matthew Stockman / Getty Pictures; design: Eamonn Dalton for The Athletic)