US Open Week 1
The Draw is presented by Fitnexa SomniPods 3
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Why Alex Eala Means So Much To The Philippines
Why It’s Interesting: Fans travel across cities and countries to see Alex Eala, tournaments are moving her onto bigger courts to accommodate demand, and her success is helping drive new tennis participation and investment in the Philippines. Albert Samaha from The New Yorker writes artfully about her rise.
The Numbers Behind Tennis’ Height Advantage
Why It’s Interesting: The Draw reader Mika takes a data-driven look at height as an asset in professional tennis. The results are strikingly conclusive.
Why Andy Roddick Is Everywhere In Tennis (Again)
More: Matt Craig details the blueprint behind Andy Roddick’s three-year ascent back into the center of the tennis world.
The Strangely Addictive Math Of Tennis Scores
More: Scorigami tracks when a game produces a final score that’s never happened before, a concept that became a cult favorite among NFL fans. Now there’s a tennis version: a new bot will compare every US Open result against nearly six decades of Grand Slam history and flag new scorelines as they happen. Surprisingly, only about 7% of possible men’s best-of-five scores have ever been recorded.
How Late Is Too Late For Tennis?
More: A 4.5 hour match pushed Venus Williams’ opener past midnight and produced the latest-finishing first-round match in US Open history. The larger issue is one tennis has struggled with for years: how do you schedule an unpredictable, clockless sport around fixed TV windows and ticketed sessions without asking players and fans to stay until 2 or 3am?
How Autism Shaped Jenson Brooksby’s Life & Professional Tennis Career
Arthur Cazaux Is Completing Side Quests Outside Tennis
The US Open Bets On Kalshi
Leaving You With Mirka Federer’s Must Watch Hall Of Fame Introduction Speech
Also Leaving You With: Roger’s full Hall of Fame induction speech.
On Monday Match Analysis, Gill Gross previews the 2026 US Open Men's Singles draw quarter-by-quarter. Alexander Zverev is a top-seed for the first time in his career, Carlos Alcaraz returns for his first tournament since March. Rafael Jodar hopes this is the moment for his slam arrival. And as always the Americans bring a volume of contenders from Ben Shelton to Taylor Fritz, to Frances Tiafoe to Tommy Paul and Brandon Nakashima.
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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.
