Howdy yโall and welcome to Tennis Insider! Tomorrow and Thursday bring some of the best tennis of the spring across two continents with quarterfinal action at the WTA 1000 in Rome and the NCAA Division I Women’s Team Championships in Athens, Georgia. Both draws are down to eight, and neither has a clear-cut path to the title.
Lets first break down the Elite Eight in Rome:
(26) Sorana Cรฎrstea vs. Jelena Ostapenko
Nobody in Rome has had a wilder week than Cรฎrstea. The 35-year-old Romanian, seeded No. 26 and retiring at the end of this season, knocked out world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the previous round, earning her career-best win. She now draws Ostapenko, who won’t make anything easy regardless of opponent. The Latvian hits the ball with the kind of flat aggression that doesn’t care about surface or situation, and clay theoretically slows her down. However, Ostapenko’s game doesn’t negotiate with theory and this one could get messy fast. The edge belongs to Ostapenko on paper, but Cรฎrstea’s gotten this far by ignoring paper entirely. Of the four matchups, this one is by far the biggest toss-up.
(3) Coco Gauff vs. (8) Mirra Andreeva
Andreeva has been the most consistent clay-court performer on tour this spring and has logged more surface wins than anyone coming into Rome. She reached the Madrid final and although she let that final go mentally, she has looked composed and sharp at the Foro Italico. Gauff, meanwhile, has had to fight through this tournament and had to save match point in her fourth round against compatriot Iva Jovic. Gauff’s best tennis is harder to stop than almost anyone’s, but Andreeva isn’t the kind of opponent who gives you a path back into a match once she gets ahead. If Gauff is sharp from the baseline and dictating early, she wins. If Andreeva gets her into extended rallies and dictates the patterns with her arsenal, this could be Mirra’s match to take.
(5) Jessica Pegula vs. (4) Iga ลwiฤ tek
This is the marquee quarterfinal. ลwiฤ tek and Pegula are meeting for the 12th time, with ลwiฤ tek holding a 6-5 head-to-head advantage. However, Pegula has won their last two matchups in straight sets. Their lone clay-court meeting went to ลwiฤ tek at Roland Garros in 2022, so the surface still leans her way historically. ลwiฤ tek routed Naomi Osaka 6-2, 6-1 in the round of 16 and looked like herself in a way she hasn’t all season. The Pole was aggressive on returns, controlling baseline exchanges and the flow of the game the entire time. A fourth trip to the Rome semifinals would continue a remarkable pattern: each of the first three times she reached the final four here, ลwiฤ tek won the title. Pegula, for her part, is still looking for her first Rome semifinal. She’s won every match this week with efficient, composed tennis. On clay, against ลwiฤ tek, in Rome, the math still favors Iga, but this rivalry has narrowed considerably.
(7) Elina Svitolina vs. (2) Elena Rybakina
Rybakina closed out her fourth rounder against Karolina Plรญลกkovรก 6-0, 6-2 and has been playing each match in Rome better than the last. While she’s been serving at a level that makes it difficult for anyone to get any rhythm (even if it’s on clay), her ability to neutralize baseline rallies with her pace and depth is perhaps the most impressive this past week. Svitolina brings something different. Not only is she one of the best defensive players in the world, but her speaking openly and emotionally about representing Ukraine while the war there continues adds such an interesting layer. That weight still hasn’t slowed her down in the draw. Still, Rybakina in this form is a difficult puzzle for anyone. The Kazakh is the favorite, but Svitolina knows how to keep matches close.
If I had to pick winners, I would take Ostapenko (in three sets), Gauff (in three), ลwiฤ tek (in a tight two-setter) and Rybakina (in two) to march on.
From Rome to Athens……Georgia
While college tennis is making the news for the loss of multiple programs, enough to cause the ITA to release a statement, we have another Elite Eight battling it out. The defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs open quarterfinal play at home against No. 8 NC State. Playing on your home courts at this stage is a meaningful advantage and the Bulldogs, who dispatched Texas A&M 4-0 to win it all last year, will be a tough out in Athens. The Wolfpack, in their first quarterfinal since 2023, won’t concede anything, but the crowd and the familiarity favor Georgia quite heavily.
The No. 4 vs. No. 5 match between Texas A&M and North Carolina is, on paper, the one to watch. The Aggies posted a 21-5 record coming into the championships and have looked organized and deep throughout the bracket. UNC has been quietly one of the more consistent programs in the country and are pretty much a lock to always be in the final weekend of a national tournament. They won’t be rattled by the moment.
On the other side is what I’m watching for most closely because you should know by now I’m biased and, as of this weekend, an Ohio State grad again! The No. 3 Buckeyes face off against No. 11 Pepperdine in what can be the big upset of the quarterfinals. The Waves, who defeated OSU earlier this season, has proven they can knock off higher seeds. In fact, they upset No. 6 Oklahoma in the Super Regional round. Pepperdine beat Ohio State 4-0 in Malibu and led the other three matches, so they will need to come out quite focused if they want to reach their second-ever Final Four.
Lastly, we have an all-SEC showdown between No. 10 LSU and No. 2 Auburn. Auburn entered the tournament at 32-3 and is reaching new program heights with each win. Though the Tigers entered the tournament with a 19-9 record, they strong-armed No. 7 Virginia and they’re armed with the best 1-2 duo in WTA No. 201 Cadence Brace and No. 199 Kayla Cross. That experience could matter in a knockout-round environment.
The quarterfinals tip Thursday afternoon in Athens, with the national championship set for Sunday. I think the Top 3 seeds should advance, but the Tar Heels will outlast Texas A&M in the one “upset.”
Now, on to links!
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This Week in Women’s Tennis
Accenture and the WTA have unveiled a partnership making the firm the Official Business and Technology Consulting Partner of the tour.
With the WTA continuing to advance maternal care for players, they’re also having an impact with a recent WTA Foundation initiative benefiting the Global Women’s Health Fund. I was able to get exclusive quotes from Ons Jabeur, as well as Ann Austin who spearheads the WTA Foundation:
“Women face the same battle for equal opportunity, investment, and recognition on and off the court,โย saidย Jabeur, who’s currently on maternity leave.ย โI’m honored to be part of the Women Change The Game campaign and use my voice for women and children whose basic right to health is threatened by conflict and hardship. Every woman deserves the chance to be healthy and to thrive.โ
Austin notated the impact that their venture has on the world:
“Mothers everywhere show extraordinary strength and resilience every day, yet far too many women still lack access to essential maternal healthcare and support. The WTA Foundation is proud that our Global Womenโs Health Fund has now helped reach 1.5 million women with critical resources of prenatal vitamins, and we remain committed to expanding that impact through the collective voices and advocacy of the WTA community and our partners.”
Elina Svitolina and Belinda Bencic have both re-entered the Top 10 following maternity leave but they’re using each other’s experience to navigate their new normal.
The main draw and qualifying wildcards for Roland Garros were announced with Venus Williams (who chaired the recent Met Gala and whose outfit had multiple meanings) not among the names awarded.
While there was a slight 10% increase in prize money at Roland Garros, the player share of the revenue decreased which has upset players across the board. Though she comes from a billionaire family, Jessica Pegula hopes to change that narrative.
As one of the tour’s leading female coaches, get a look at Sandra Zaniewska and her partnership with Marta Kostyuk.
Ben Rothenberg had an in-depth chat with Oleksandra Oliynykova, who opened up about feeling pressure to stay silent by the WTA for her stance regarding the Ukraine war.
Linda Noskovรก shared the impact of an off-season volunteer trip to Tanzania has had on her as she continues to find career-best form.
After 18 years with the USTA that included a stint as Billie Jean King Cup captain and Head of Women’s Tennis, Kathy Rinaldi is stepping down:
Arkansas State captured the 2026 UTR Sports NIT Tournament with a 4-0 win over UT-Chattanooga.
TNT will have an all-star roster of commentators for the second consecutive year:
Belinda Bencic has partnered Purina Switzerland with 1,000 meals getting donated to animals for each ace she hits.
Get to know Tyra Caterina Grant and Nikola Bartunkova, who found career breakthroughs in Rome during the first week.
Aryna Sabalenka recently celebrated her 28th birthday and also showed off her outfit for Roland Garros, which I’m stanning.
Though she’s captured the biggest title of her career and finding big wins, Karolina Muchovรก is taking the cautious approach to find even bigger heights.
While the International Olympic Committee is looking into releasing restrictions on Belarussian athletes, the ITF isn’t wavering:
Naomi Osaka, anti-AI queen:
Serena and Venus Williams made a guest appearance at the roast of Kevin Hart:
Tweet of the Week
lol
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Five at The IX: Rome Media Day
Q. Did you find, when sort of moving up through your career, moving from playing on smaller courts to the bigger courts, not so much the crowd, but the dimensions of the court, having more space, did that make a difference for the player?
ARYNA SABALENKA: Obviously yes. Every time I play, like, points on the practice on the smaller courts, it feels so tight and so fast and so, like, I don’t know, too much of a pressure on you.
The moment when I go on the bigger court, it kind of feels like you can breathe, everything is more wide open, you see court differently, it feels differently, and you have more space to move around.
Yeah, I feel absolutely completely different on smaller courts than the bigger courts.
Q. Of the titles you’ve won, four of them are on clay, a big percentage of your titles. You’re great on this surface now. At what point did you feel this could be a great surface for you?
ELENA RYBAKINA: I always thought that actually hard is best surface for me than of course on the grass. When I started to play, my coach convinced me actually this is the best surface for you.
In the beginning, as a junior coming to professional, you never play on grass. After I started to feel comfortable on the grass, then I think the statistics and matches I played on grass is big difference compare all the other surfaces.
On clay I would say also I didn’t have much confidence because I didn’t play as much on clay, even as a junior. I think my first actually WTA tournament was clay. After that, I said, Okay, I can play on all the surfaces.
Of course, clay and grass is a very short season for us. With the right preparation, you still can play really well on all of them, even if clay for me is a little bit too slow and I prefer a faster rally, shorter.
As the results show, I can play well on all the surfaces.
Q. Could you really see yourself boycotting a Grand Slam one day? Do you think there is the coherence and collaboration between the players for everybody to move as one?
COCO GAUFF: Yeah, if everyone were to move as one and collaborate, yeah, I can 100% see that. It’s not about me. It’s about the future of our sport and also, like, the current players who aren’t getting I guess as much benefits maybe as even some of the top players are getting when it comes to like sponsorship and things like that. We’re making money off court.
When you look at the 50 to 100, 50 to 200, how much money each slam makes, it’s kind of unfortunate where the 200 best tennis players are living paycheck to paycheck, whereas other sports it’s not even a discussion. An we are profiting, so…
Yeah, I definitely think, like I said, if we all collectively agree, then yes. I mean, I wouldn’t want to just be the only one because people talk about it. I’m just like, Yeah. Then I’m like the only one not playing (smiling). That is where there needs to be a real discussion.
I think that is something us as players have to talk amongst another and do it, and talk within each other and decide what’s best. But we definitely can move more as a collective.
I feel like we’re doing well, though. The progress we made since last year to now, just having the top 10 all agree on something, is I think the first that’s happened in our sport in a long time. I do think there’s progress, but we can do more, for sure.
Q. You played a lot of tennis over the last month, having won in Linz, semifinal in Stuttgart, if I’m not mistaken, then the final in Madrid. Are you finding it easier now you’ve turned 19, you’re still very young, to cope with the succession of matches, the demands of the tour?
MIRRA ANDREEVA: Well, I guess. But I don’t know if it’s even, like, the right mindset on looking at all of that.
I understand that these were very good couple of weeks on clay, three weeks consecutive I was playing a final, I won one tournament, I lost in the final. Overall I would say it’s an amazing start to a clay season.
Obviously now I think that I’m not very happy with that ’cause obviously every tournament I play, I really want to go for it and I really want to win it. There are two sides of how I think about that.
I try to put myself on the more positive side and really think that those were great weeks on clay. Try to keep on going.
Q. On your current coach, how is the partnership developing with Francisco Roig? Do you feel you’re on the same wavelength as each other now?
IGA SWIATEK: I feel we understand each other very well. I think we have the same vision of how I should play. He’s helping me to achieve that.
I have been trying some different options on practices, which is great, because I wasn’t exactly comfortable with how I played couple months back. This feels more natural and more solid and I would say kind of disciplined.
Sometimes still I tend to come back to old habits, so I think I will need some time to exactly always fully automatically do what Francis wants me to do. I think it’s going pretty well.
Like, honestly the most important thing for me is that I’m enjoying playing. But I joy practicing. Every practice for me makes sense. It feels like a process and it feels like every practice I learn something new. So it’s great.
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Mondays: Soccer
By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Womenโs Soccer
Tuesdays: Tennis
By: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer
Wednesdays: Basketball
By: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The IX Sports
Thursdays: Golf
By: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX Sports
Fridays: Hockey
By: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden
Saturdays: Gymnastics
By: Jessica Taylor Price, @jesstaylorprice, Freelance Writer