Howdy, y’all and Happy Tennis Tuesday! The 2025 Grand Slam season is officially over with the finish of this year’s U.S. Open. As I do with every Major, I want to delve into everything women’s tennis that happen via this week’s must-read, Jon Wertheim’s Parting Shots!
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First, we have to give Aryna Sabalenka a round of applause. The World No. 1 has been at the top of the game for nearly an entire year straight but a Grand Slam eluded her. She suffered brutal losses at the Slams this year – 7-5 in the third in the Australian Open final to Madison Keys, 6-4 in the third in the Roland Garros championship to Coco Gauff and then 6-4 in the third to Amanda Anisimova in the Wimbledon semifinals. In fact, the last time the Belarussian lost in straight sets at a Grand Slam? The 2020 U.S. Open second round to Victoria Azarenka.
For someone so dominant the last 12 months, it would have created more questions than answers if she couldn’t defend her title. Fortunately for the World No. 1 was able to do so with a revenge win over Anisimova in the final. The 6-3, 7-6(3) scoreline was even more impressive because it moved Sabalenka to 21-1 in tiebreaks this year alone – only losing a third set tiebreaker to Ekaterina Alexandrova in February. Sabalenka had to dig deep and find a different gear to get over the hump and the celebration was surely worth it:
You have to feel for Amanda Anisimova, who had another incredible fortnight to make her second consecutive Grand Slam final but not finding her best tennis when it ultimately mattered. The American was double bageled in the Wimbledon championship to Iga Swiatek and rebounded quite well, especially in perhaps the match of the tournament in her semifinal win over Naomi Osaka. Anisimova now inches closer to a WTA Finals qualification berth alongside a Top 5 debut. Remember, just over a year ago she had fallen to nearly outside of the Top 200 following a mental health sabbatical. Are we in for a future of AA at the top of the game?
Kudos to both Jessica Pegula and Naomi Osaka for finding inspired tennis to guide themselves to semifinal showings. For Pegula, it was a resurgence after she had struggled a bit of the last few months while resurgence doesn’t even come close for Osaka. Armed with new coach Tomasz Wiktorowski, the former World No. 1 found a bit of form that guided her to four Grand Slams that included an impressive straight-sets win over Coco Gauff. Expect to see both build on these runs in the Asian Swing.
A year ago, Gaby Dabrowski was in the midst of dealing with a recent breast cancer diagnosis then a rib injury, leaving Erin Routliffe to pair up with a variety of partners. Now, two years after they stunned the world in their debut, the duo captured their second U.S. Open title. It’s a full circle moment for the pair, who defeated top seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend to split the $1 million champion’s purse.
A name you’re likely going to hear for awhile? Jeline Vandromme. The Belgian became the first player in 14 years to capture a Girl’s Singles Grand Slam title and not only finds herself on a 23-match winning streak across all levels but she’s taken 33 consecutive sets. Alena and Jana Kovackova took the doubles title with a win over Vandromme and Laima Vladson.
Some other stories throughout the week that are still stuck in my head?
Venus Williams rediscovering her love for the game and the infectious joy she had en route to her surprising run to the doubles quarterfinals with Leylah Fernandez.
Naomi Osaka having a new tennis-inspired Labubu for every match and having a final one planned for the championship match.
Taylor Townsend fully coming into her own as the Doubles No. 1 (and finding singles success…and viral fame) to reclaim her narrative at the same tournament she was perhaps at rock bottom at over a decade ago.
Now, on to links!
This Week in Women’s Tennis
The second week of the U.S. Open had players busy at the WTA 125 events. Alexandra Eala, Maja Chwalinska and Veronika Erjavec took home the titles in Guadalajara, Montreux and Changsha, respectively.
With Chris Evert helping lead, the USTA Foundation is also partnering with the Williams sisters to inspire and support more disenfranchised junior players.
The “check” U.S. Open winners receive? Simply symbolic.
Karolina Pliskova will be making her return from injury slightly a year after her last WTA match:
Oklahoma State’s 2024 ITA Team Indoor national title has been formally vacated in the record books following their sanctions for recruiting violations.
Following rampant cheating, men’s college tennis adopted no lets in their matches, but is that enough to test in the pros?
Congratulations to Stacey Allaster, who ended her time as U.S. Open Tournament Director following this year’s tournament.
After a long, storied career, Cliff Drysdale is retiring as a commentator and this was beautiful:
Players like Janice Tjen are writing their own narrative, forgoing the notion of a “cinderella run.”
Representation matters across the board, something I’ll say until I’m blue in the face:
Big fan of Ben Rothenberg’s Bounces. Not a big fan of the USTA trying to censor commentators.
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Tweet of the Week
This was gold:
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Five at The IX: U.S. Open Champions
Q. You mentioned on court and again just now the idea of these lessons from your earlier Grand Slam tournaments. First of all, could you tell us a little more about that? What were the lessons? Do you tend to be somebody who wants to forget about a disappointment or think about what led to that and figure out how to win the next time?
ARYNA SABALENKA: You know, like, after Australia Open, I thought that the right way would be just to forget it and move on, but then the same thing happened at the French Open. So after French Open I figured that, okay, maybe it’s time for me to sit back and to look at those finals and to maybe learn something, because I didn’t want it to happen again and again and again.
So, yeah, I was in Mykonos, reading my book, enjoying the view (laughing), and I was just thinking that why would I let my emotions to take control over me in those two finals? It felt like I thought that, okay, if I made it to the final, it means that I’m going to win it, you know, and I sort of didn’t expect players to come out there and to fight. You know, I thought that everything going to go easily my way, which was completely wrong mindset, you know?
Going into this final I decided for myself that I’m going to control my emotions. I’m not going to let them take control over me, and doesn’t matter what happens in the match. If she break me back or if she plays incredible tennis — of course, it’s a finals, and she’s going to be fighting, especially after recent final, I knew that she would love to have, like, a better result.
My mindset was just going out there, fight for every point. Doesn’t matter of the situation. Just focus on myself and focus on things that I have to do to win the match. I think from what I understand today, that the lesson learned and I really hope it will never happen again if I’m going to be playing another finals, that I will be more in control.
Q. Given what both of you have been through I guess over the last 18 months, what does it feel like to hoist this, given — I mean, you’ve stuck together through all the things you’ve been through on and off the court, but just take us through what the last 18 months has been and what this feels like today.
GABRIELA DABROWSKI: Yeah, wild ride. Cancer, broken ribs for both of us. It was crazy, honestly.
I’m really proud of us. It was not easy, but I think we’ve shown that even if we don’t have a consistent schedule like the other teams have, we can still bring a really high level, which is awesome. I think that’s a testament to our work ethic and everything that we put in on court, off the court, with each other as friends too to, you know, keep the chemistry going.
I think it’s all culminated kind of into this moment. Yeah, I mean, I felt already really proud of us, I would say, at the end of last year in Riyadh, winning the WTA Finals. That kind of felt similar today, similar vibe.
We have so many of our loved ones here today, and our coaching team has been phenomenal. To share it with everyone is just so special.
Q. Looking forward to next season, there was a recent announcement that more wheelchair tournaments are going to be happening alongside WTA tournaments. What was your reaction to that?
YUI KAMIJI: We already have some ITF and — sorry, ATP and WTA tournaments together in Japan, as well. Yeah, we already have that experience.
Yeah, of course I’m looking forward to play more, and hopefully people come to watch our match. I think wheelchair tennis, even women’s wheelchair tennis, the quality of the performance getting higher, so hopefully people enjoy to watch and come back again and again near the future.
Q. You lost in the first round at Wimbledon and Roland Garros. When you went on that huge winning streak just at the end of July and now, did you ever consider saying, Well, I don’t need to play this last one, or were you always wanting to play this last junior event?
JELINE VANDROMME: I mean, yeah, I was thinking about it, too, whether I should play it or not. Yeah, the junior Grand Slams are always something different. If it would be my last one, I just wanted to try to make it a memorable one. I mean, that kind of worked.
But, no, also here at the US Open especially, it’s like very nice and energetic to play here. I actually really wanted to come here.
Q. I just wanted to ask about something I think you said in the speech. I think you said, “I didn’t fight hard enough for my dreams today.” Could you explain what you meant by that? Because it looked like you were fighting.
AMANDA ANISIMOVA: Yeah, I don’t know. I just felt like throughout the match I wasn’t playing my best tennis. I don’t know. I feel like with finals I have a lot of nerves, and it’s something I’m trying to work on, but I just wish I played more aggressive. Of course, she was playing amazing. She was playing very aggressive and doing all the right things, so she made it very difficult for me today.
Yeah, I mean, I didn’t win today, so of course I didn’t do enough. That’s just the reality, and I have to accept that. Yeah, I feel like if I fought harder, then maybe I would have given myself more of a chance, but I feel like I was really kind of in the back seat today.
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| By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer |
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