Howdy yโall and welcome to Tennis Insider!
First, if you’re American, exercise your right to vote. Our future hinges on it!
Over two weekends, two former US Open champions won three titles, and none of them came at a venue most casual fans could name. Bianca Andreescu won the WTA 125 in Rovereto, Italy, while Sloane Stephens took the ITF W100 in Edmond, Okla., as the two moved closer to a return to the WTA Top 100. Andreescu then crossed the Atlantic and did it again. She won the WTA 125 in Querรฉtaro, Mexico, a second straight title that stretched her winning streak to 10 matches.
The two players come from different places. Andreescu is 26 and spent years in a cycle of breakdown and restart. Stephens is 33 and fell off a cliff after a single injury. Their paths back have a lot in common, though and the most obvious thing they share is a willingness to go where the points are, even when that means playing events well below what their resumes suggest.
Help shape what’s next for The IX Sports! Take our short reader survey:
Andreescu: the long road from 2019
Andreescuโs 2019 season was among the most dominant breakthroughs the sport has seen in recent memory. She beat Serena Williams in the U.S. Open final and reached No. 4 in the world. Then the injuries started and basically never stopped.
A knee injury at the 2019 WTA Finals ended her season early. It kept her out of the 2020 Australian Open and the pandemic then wiped out her chances to defend her titles at Indian Wells and the Canadian Open. She skipped the 2020 U.S. Open as well. By the time she came back in February 2021, Andreescu hadnโt competed in 16 months. The interruptions kept coming, including a nine-month layoff from a stress fracture in her back and a mental health break at the start of 2022. That would cost her the 2023 U.S. Open and 2024 Australian Open.
The physical toll gets most of the attention, but the way it all started matters too. Andreescu has said she wished sheโd had more guidance after her U.S. Open win, admitting that at 19 she thought she knew everything and wasnโt someone who asked for help. She was a teenager who became a national sports figure overnight and the infrastructure around her didnโt keep pace with the fame. That isnโt an excuse so much as an explanation for how a career can unravel when the body gives out and the support system is thin.
2025 brought more of the same. Andreescu had an emergency appendectomy at the start of the year, then sustained an ankle injury during match point in her opening round win at the Canadian Open that hampered the rest of her season. She began 2026 ranked No. 228.
What happened next is the part worth paying attention to. Andreescu, working with coach Duลกan Vemiฤ, stopped trying to force her way into big events and went to the ITF circuit. Vemiฤ proposed an unorthodox plan, partly because Andreescu hadnโt been able to string together a match rhythm in what felt like forever.
The logic is simple, but a bit humbling. A player returning from repeated injuries needs match volume and the best place to get it is where she can win rounds. Andreescu played 14 matches in 16 days to rebuild her endurance, including winning a W35 event in Bradenton, Fla., her first singles title in more than 2,300 days. She said she had finally โbroken the curse,” and added another W75 title right after in Vero Beach, Fla.
But her progress wasnโt a straight line. She reached a high of No. 127 in April, but slid back, and by late August she sat at No. 183. Andreescu qualified but lost in the first round at Wimbledon and was knocked out of French Open qualifying. Rebuilds rarely look tidy from the outside, and this one didnโt either.
What has reportedly changed is her relationship with her own body. Andreescu has described a turning point in April, during a marathon Billie Jean King Cup loss to Yulia Putintseva, and says she and her team have found a rhythm that is serious but relaxed. Vemiฤ says her game has become more aggressive and more net-focused than it was in her teens, and she credits meditation and neuroscience-based work with keeping her steady. The tennis is also being adapted around what her body can handle now, which is harder than it sounds for a player whose identity was built on a specific style.
The title in Italy was a proper test. Andreescu beat three seeded players, including top seed Antonia Ruลพiฤ, and then rallied from 5-2 down in the first set to beat sixth seed Dominika ล alkovรก 7-6(2), 6-2 in the final. She also had to deal with cramps during the week. Winning through physical discomfort is its own kind of data point for someone whose body has been the main obstacle.
The week that followed may say even more. Andreescu had little time between tournaments and went from indoor hard courts in Italy to outdoor clay at altitude in Mexico. She acknowledged the conditions were tough to adjust to, but felt she handled it well. As the fourth seed, she reached the final without dropping a set, beating wild card Katherine Hui, Diletta Cherubini and Alicia Herrero Liรฑana before a 6-3, 7-5 semifinal win over Carole Monnet.
The final was not routine. Andreescu beat top-seeded Tatjana Maria 6-1, 2-6, 6-3. She dominated the opening set, lost control of the match against a savvy veteran, and then reset to win the decider. A year ago, a three-set match against an opponent that crafty on clay would have raised real questions about how her body and head would hold up.
The numbers around it are notable. The title was worth $15,500 and 125 ranking points. It was her second WTA 125 title in a row and her tenth consecutive match win, lifting her 20 places to No. 109.
Andreescu is just on the cusp of being in position for direct entry into Grand Slam main draws, where the cutoff idles around No. 104. She hasnโt been in the top 100 since May 2025. That distinction matters for someone trying to stay healthy. Qualifying means extra matches, and extra matches are exactly the thing a body with her history can least afford to spare.
Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the womenโs sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of womenโs sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!
Stephens: a different kind of fall
Stephensโ story starts from a different place. She is the 2017 U.S. Open champion, a 2018 French Open finalist and a former world No. 3, and her decline was less of a slow bleed and more of a sudden stop.
A chronic foot injury derailed her 2025 season. She opted against surgery, which she believed could have ended her career and didnโt return to competition until September. When she came back, she was outside the Top 1,000, and the comeback continued a losing streak that would get up to 13. She hadn’t won a match since 2024 Wimbledon and many were wondering if she would hang up her racquets.
Instead, Stephens took the unglamorous route, playing Grand Slam qualifying for the first time since 2011. She scalped three wins in the Australian Open to make the main draw, but lost in the first round to Karolรญna Plรญลกkovรก. Still, a measurable bit of progress had landed. Stephens later used a protected ranking to enter French Open qualifying and won her way into the main draw, though again she fell in the opening round.
The summer was bumpy. She missed Wimbledon because her ranking was too low and had won only nine matches on the year before getting a wild card into an ITF 100K in Evansville, Ind., where she won her first match in two months. She stayed on the road playing multiple weeks before finding some rolling form. A first round win in Memphis, Tenn. was followed by qualifying for Toronto and winning a round. Then, in Cincinnati, she won consecutive WTA main draw matches for the first time since 2024 that included an upset over 24th seed Anastasia Potapova. Stephens also would win her first U.S. Open match since 2022 with an impressive win over Clara Tauson, but fell to Marta Kostyuk there (as well as in Cincinnati).
Stephens’ fall plan was pragmatic. Instead of heading to Asia, she stayed in the United States to play W100 events since her ranking wasnโt strong enough to make the long trip worthwhile and she wanted to play deep into the draws. Itโs the same logic Andreescu followed: go where wins are available and let the points accumulate.
It worked. She beat 16-year-old Kristina Liutova 6-3, 6-2 in the Edmond final, her first title since the WTA 250 in Rouen in 2024 and her 11th professional singles title. The opponent adds a layer. Liutova is one of the most talked-about young players on tour and won the Memphis Classic on her WTA main-draw debut in July.
Stephens climbed 15 spots to No. 118, her highest ranking since February 2025, after starting the season outside the top 1,000. She fell in the quarterfinals of the W100 in New Braunfels, Texas this past week after leading the USTA’s Australian Open wildcard challenge. Reese Brantmeier’s W75 title in Saguenay catapulted the Tar Heel alum over Stephens. This week, the final week of the challenge, Stephens took a wildcard into the W35 in Orlando. While a title would have her be around that No. 104 ranking required for direct entry, it should be just enough to overtake Brantmeier for a guaranteed main draw berth.
What the two stories share
Itโs tempting to package this as a feel-good pair of comebacks and both players have earned that. But the more useful reading is practical.
First, neither player waited for the tour to hand them a way back. Wild cards and protected rankings have been useful tools, and Stephens has used them, but the real progress for both came from lower-level events where they had to win matches to earn points. Thatโs a humbling adjustment for players with major titles, and itโs the reason their rankings are moving.
Second, health management is the whole game. Both comebacks are built around staying on court week after week, and both playersโ camps have said as much. Stephens has been focusing less on rankings and more on staying healthy and competing regularly. Andreescuโs 10-match streak, played across two continents, two surfaces and back-to-back weeks, is notable largely because her body held up through it, something she couldnโt count on for years.
Third, the climb is still early. Rankings in the 100s are a long way from the top and both players will have to prove they can keep winning against opponents who treat a former champion as just another name in the bracket. Both have given themselves a base. The real question is if they can continue building their momentum at the higher-level WTA events and re-enter the top of the game close to a decade after their original breakthroughs.
Time will tell, but now, on to links!
‘Rare Gems’ is out now!
Howard Megdal, founder and editor of The IX Basketball and The IX Sports, wrote this deeply reported book. “Rare Gems” follows four connected generations of women’s basketball pioneers, from Elvera “Peps” Neuman to Cheryl Reeve and from Lindsay Whalen to Sylvia Fowles and Paige Bueckers.
If you enjoy Megdal’s coverage of women’s basketball every Wednesday at The IX Sports, you will love “Rare Gems: How Four Generations of Women Paved the Way for the WNBA.”
This week in women’s tennis
Diana Shnaider won her sixth WTA singles title and first of the year, outlasting Leylah Fernandez to win the final WTA 500 of the year at the Toray Pan Pacific Open. The doubles title was claimed by Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini who ended the undefeated Asia Swing of Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani. Their semifinal win also sealed the final doubles berth at the WTA Finals Indian Wells.
At the Guangzhou Open, qualifier Harriet Dart, who has Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli in her corner, defeated Lilli Tagger to capture her first WTA singles title. Polina Kudermetova and Maria Timofeeva took home the doubles crown defeating Cho I-hsuan and Cho Yi-Tsen.
It’s been five years since Peng Shuai disappeared following her Weibo post accusing a high-ranking Chinese official of sexual harassment which led to the WTA pulling out of China and ending the WTA Finals Shenzhen. Today, Peng continues to shield from the public but seems to be healthy, sources told Telegraph Sport.
Elena Rybakina clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking this week and Martina Navratilova believes she will have a huge target on her back in Indian Wells and beyond.
The WTA and TikTok have revealed a partnership to get more eyeballs on the tour:
Barbora Strรฝcovรก continues to impress in retirement, clocking a 3:12 time at this weekend’s New York City Marathon.
The wtatennis.com team has been profiling the WTA Finals Indian Wells qualifiers and released profiles on Coco Gauff, Elina Svitolina and Linda Noskovรก.
Madison Keys will be making her commentary debut for Sky Sports at the WTA Finals Indian Wells:
Kaitlin Quevedo wanted to pay tribute to the victim’s in last week’s train crash in Spain, but the WTA didn’t allow it due to the tour’s Symbols and Slogans Policy.
A year ago, Vaishnavi Adkar was ranked outside of the Top 700 receiving a wildcard into the WTA 250 Chennai Open. Fast forward to this week, she’s in the main draw as India’s No. 1 player.
Though it focuses mostly on men’s players entering the college arena, this article details why so many seasoned “pros” are joining college tennis. ITA CEO David Mullins penned a letter stressing that we need to keep the sanctity of college athletics at the forefront.
Though her season ended early due to injury, McCartney Kessler held a one-point slam to raise money for the local tennis community in her hometown of Calhoun, Ga.
The USTA and Special Olympics announced a multiyear commitment to give athletes with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) more playing opportunities.
Your business can reach women’s sports fans who share your passion!
Here at The IX Sports, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women’s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, you should reach out to our team at BAlarie@theixsports.com to discuss ways to work together in 2026.
Tweet of the week
The GOAT says to get your health in check!
Soccer: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Womenโs Soccer
Tennis: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer
Basketball: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The IX Sports
Softball: Maren Angus-Coombs, @Maren-Angus, The IX Sports
Golf: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX Sports
Hockey: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden
Gymnastics: Jessica Taylor Price, @jesstaylorprice, Freelance Writer
