Week 44, 2025

ATP Events This Week: Athens 250, Metz 250

WTA Events This Week: WTA Finals

• Two Decorated Doubles Champions Retired This Week

  Rohan Bopanna: We’ve featured two great features on Bopanna since starting The Draw. From The Athletic, how yoga got him his elusive major title and No. 1 ranking. And from ESPN, an impassioned profile on his career of trials, tribulations and late triumph. Here’s the ATP’s write-up on his retirement announcement.

  Bopanna’s Accolades: 22 years on tour, Australian Open Men’s Doubles Champion, Former world No. 1, 26 total ATP titles.

• Sinner Is King Of Breaking And Holding… Nobody Has Ever Done That Before

  Note: This statistical analysis was published before the Paris Masters - his lead in both categories only increased since. Data goes back to 1991, when the ATP first started tracking data of this detail.

• BBC Profiles Newly Appointed WTA Chair - Valerie Camillo

• A 22-Year Old ITF-Level Pro Plays A 14-Year Old Protégé

  The Matchup: Felix Mischker (A.K.A tennis brothers) vs. Nikita Berdin

• Gaudenzi And PIF Executives Comment On Saudi Masters

  Why It’s Interesting: Nobody has covered tennis in the Middle East more than Reem Abulleil. This is her latest breakdown on the new Masters event slotted for 2028.

• ITA In Focus — Jay Friend

  Why It’s Interesting: This documentary follows University of Arizona tennis player Jay Friend on his road to the title at the 2025 All-American Championship.

  Gill’s Take: As a part-time resident of Tucson, AZ, I’ve been watching Friend play for the last three years. I would describe his game as an electric factory and I think he’ll be a good pro. He recently won his first ATP Challenger.

  Also: Alex Gruskin did a great interview with Friend on the Cracked Interviews podcast.

• Leaving You With Your 2025 Paris Indoor Finalists Playing FIFA Back In 2019

On Monday Match Analysis Gill dissects Jannik Sinner’s victory over Felix Auger-Aliassime in the 2025 Rolex Paris Masters to lift that trophy for the first time in his career and extend the win streak on indoor hardcourt to 26. He discusses Sinner’s improved percentage serving and dropshot, does a match summary, talks return quality, compares the backhands and puts plus-one forehands under a microscope. Finally, he addresses the importance of the number one ranking - how much does it matter than Sinner passed Carlos Alcaraz this week?

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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.