Week 31, 2025

ATP Events This Week: Toronto 1000 Week 2

WTA Events This Week: Montreal 1000 Week 2

• Victoria Mboko Interview With Match Point Canada Podcast

  Why It’s Interesting: The 18-year old is currently having a Bianca Andreescu 2019-like run at the National Bank Open. She will surge into the top-50 after starting the year outside 400.

  More On Mboko: Ravi Ubha writes a primer piece on Mboko for the National Bank Open.

• Being Carlos Alcaraz - Coming August 19th

  Content Machine: This release coincides with Giri Nathan’s CHANGEOVER book and the My Way Netflix documentary all this summer alone.

  Amazon Description: “Mark Hodgkinson talks to those who know Alcaraz best - including his coaches, old teachers and competitors - to provide a fascinating insight into a showman with ambitions of becoming the GOAT, the greatest of all time.”

• Sascha Zverev Features On The Nothing Major Pod

  Why It’s Interesting: Zverev talks about his difficulties in 2025, training with Rafa and Toni Nadal and how playstyles on tour have evolved. The hosts won this match via retirement (full body cramps).

• Liza West Sounds Off On National Bank Open’s Ozempic Sponsorship

  Golden Quote: “Tennis is a sport that celebrates long-term health. We literally have studies that show that tennis can help you live longer. Sponsoring a sport with a prescription weight loss drug that’s more associated with aesthetic change than holistic health feels well… contradictory” 

  Some Counterbalance: Although Liza specifically acknowledged the benefits of Ozempic, we also recommend this piece from Derek Thompson on the positives of GLP-1 drugs:

• Defensive Point Of The Year Candidate From Alex De Minaur

• How Wimbledon Adds 1 Million Followers In One Fortnight

• Leaving You With Novak’s Dancing

@djokernole

Brunovak Djokovic 😆 #summermode #dance #tennis

On this Canada Masters Mailbag, Gill answers your comments, including: thoughts on Alexander Zverev's interview on the Nothing Major podcast, the decline of slice backhands, how two-week Masters are hurting the fan and player experience, Jannik Sinner's return of serve, Carlos Alcaraz on fast hardcourts, is Arthur Fils underrated, Daniil Medvedev's decline, the next 1st slam winner, the verbal altercation between Ben Shelton and Flavio Cobolli, Sinner's net rushing, Apostolos's return to the Tsitsipas box and why tennis interviews are better on podcasts… and more.

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Hey everyone, Gill Gross here. While I’m grateful for any amount of success I’ve had talking tennis on the internet for the past half decade, I believe we should all be doing better in this sport as creators and as fans. The tennis content economy is far behind other sports by metrics of engagement and popularity. This newsletter is our effort to DRAW the great things we find in tennis every week- we search for content that teaches us, makes us think, makes us laugh and ultimately makes loving this sport the best possible experience. Our vision is to speed up the growth of a robust content economy in tennis, for the benefit of fans, players and creators alike.