Howdy, y’all and Happy Tennis Tuesday! It’s already time for Grand Slam action this year with the Australian Open! Qualifying at the 100th major of the 21st century has commenced and per usual, I want to highlight three players to keep an eye out to potentially qualify but also have a run in the main draw.
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Dasha Vidmanova
If you follow college tennis, you know exactly who Dasha Vidmanova is. The 22-year-old Czech just finished her collegiate career at Georgia by becoming only the third woman in NCAA history to win the Triple Crown: team, singles, and doubles championships. She officially turned professional in May and won the first three ITF World Tour events following the NCAA tournament. She made her Grand Slam debut at the U.S. Open, falling in the second round of qualifying and then backed that up by qualifying and reaching the second round of the WTA 500 in Guadalajara.
Vidmanova hit her career-high WTA ranking of No. 140 in October and currently sits at No. 142. . The Bulldog knows how to string wins together, and that matters when you need three straight qualifying victories just to make the main draw. While on paper, you’d think being tall and Russian would yield a power game, but Vidmanova rallies quite a bit more on baseline consistency. Still being a bit unknown to the Top 100, she could pull off a surprise or two as she continues getting seasoned at this level.
Sloane Stephens
A foot injury once derailed Sloane Stephens’ career and she came back just inside the Top 1000 and a month later, emerged a Grand Slam champion. Almost a decade later, could we be in for the same story? The American was sidelined for just over six months last year and sat outside 1,000 when she came back in the Fall. The results though weren’t great and she continued to add onto a losing streak that went back to Wimbledon……in 2024.
Luckily in the first round of qualifying, she was able to break that with a straight-sets win. She next faces Olivia Gadecki, who has beaten her two of their three meetings but the one win Stephens has is ironically at the Australian Open (with yours truly in the stands). Gadecki is playing some great tennis and had three great wins in Brisbane before losing to Mirra Andreeva in three sets. That being said, Stephens looks healthy, has former coach Kamau Murray back in her camp and has changed racquets to Tecnifibre so she’s taking this comeback seriously. She’s gotten one wheel back on track and when she gets rolling, it’s really hard to stop her.
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Carol Lee
Georgia Tech alum Carol Lee is making her Grand Slam debut and had a meteoric rise in 2025. A year ago, the American was unranked and now following her first round victory, she will move inside the Top 200. What’s even more cool is that Lee was actually born in the North Mariana Islands and represents Pacific Oceania in the Billie Jean King Cup. Last season, she made seven ITF World Tour singles finals, going 5-2 with the largest being a W50 crown in Lopata, Georgia.
Her next opponent is wildcard Elena Micic, but a potential final round against former Top 100 players Fiona Ferro and Linda Fruhvirtova possibly await. Honestly, it’s hard to imagine her getting through qualifying. However, I think the fact she hails from a small island nation in Oceania and this being her “home” Grand Slam, I’m hoping for that Cinderella run we love to see at the majors (with the Australian Open usually being the one that produces the most surprises).
Some other names to watch out for? More collegiate alums! The list grows with each Grand Slam and of course, many have been mentioned in the past here at The IX:
Now lets catch up on the past week! On to links!
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This Week in Women’s Tennis
Aryna Sabalenka defended her Brisbane International title with a win over Marta Kostyuk, while Hsieh Su-Wei and Jelena Ostapenko downed Cristina Bucsa and Ellen Perez in the doubles final.
At the ASB Classic, Elina Svitolina joined husband and reigning men’s champion Gael Monfils, taking the title in Auckland with a win over Wang Xinyu. In doubles, Guo Hanyu and Kristina Mladenovic won over Yang Zhaoxuan and Xu Yifan.
At the United Cup, Team Poland won their first title with a 2-1 win over Switzerland. Belinda Bencic was named MVP after going 9-1 throughout the tournament, only losing the decisive mixed doubles match in the final.
An ITF World Tour event went viral last week for their wildcard choice to a beginner from Egypt. Tennis Kenya says they didn’t vet Hajar Abdelkader properly when they had no more applicants. As someone who follows ITFs closely and has played them, I call BS. I think money was exchanged and this was the best cover story they could produce.
After over 35 years, Pam Shriver is among the names that will unfortunately not be returning to ESPN coverage of the Australian Open this year.
2024 finalist Zheng Qinwen and Veronika Kudermetova were the latest names who withdrew from the Australian Open.
Tennis in the Land will not be returning to the WTA calendar in 2026 after those running the Cleveland tournament will look to find a permanent home instead of creating the venue in parking lots and the high costs it comes with.
One of the cool things the Australian Open has is their 1 Point Slam with a $1 million purse.
Former World No. 2 Paula Badosa is hungry to overcome her chronic back injury and rejoin the top of the game.
Naomi Osaka, who left the agency she created, Evolve, to move back to IMG:
Some college tidbits:
– The first team rankings of the dual season.
– Wisconsin senior Maria Sholokhova reflecting on her journey that has included an ITA All-American singles title.
– A fantastic X thread on 15 newcomers to college tennis
Ahead of the Australian Open, Emerson Jones was featured on the digital cover of Vogue Australia.
Belinda Bencic will be returning to Abu Dhabi to defend her WTA 500 title, and Elena Rybakina will be among the names joining her.
Donna Vekic has announced her own jewelery brand, DASH.
Louise Allen was a Top 100 player and played all of the Grand Slams. She spoke about how her career led her to her current role as CPO at Planview.
Tweet of the Week
I’m loving the Players Box podcast:
Five at The IX: United Cup and Brisbane
Q. Yeah, that you’ve laid down, that you are the favorite heading into Melbourne Park? Not just because you’re the World No. 1, but you’ve played some excellent tennis this week.
ARYNA SABALENKA: I get it, I get it.
Well, I don’t know. It’s tennis, it’s sport, and that’s why it’s so beautiful because you cannot predict anything. It’s like every day you go out there and you prove your level, you prove your point.
I think this week I did it really well, but nobody knows what’s gonna happen in the future, but the only one thing I’m sure is that I will be there, I’ll be fighting, I’ll do my best to go as far as possible and do a little bit better than I did last year.
That’s where is my focus. My focus is on my game and developing myself and making sure that I’m strong and healthy heading to the AO.
Q. Congratulations on a great week. Impressive performance tonight, as well. There were some phenomenal rallies in that match, brutal groundstrokes, a lot of great dropshots, your court coverage. Do you take a lot out of today that you pushed the No. 1 in the world really, really far?
MARTA KOSTYUK: I think we had very close matches in Madrid and in Rome, specifically in Madrid. I feel like today’s conditions were very different from there, like, the court is really fast. You know, Aryna did a good job today retrieving all my deep balls and just keeping the pace.
There was not a lot of things I could have done today. I tried different ways, but obviously I also didn’t play my best tennis today. I wasn’t 100% fit. So I felt like I could cover the court better (smiling), because, I mean, it’s also the final. You know, I had really difficult matches against, you know, great players. So I mean, I’m not injured or whatever. It’s just the body’s also getting tired.
And against, when you play World No. 1, you have to be — it’s better if you’re 100% fit, you know, because, you know, this gives you the best chance.
I’m very happy with the week in general. I did a lot of progress on and off the court, and I think tennis is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. We have four slams a year. You know, it’s a lot of opportunities. You know, it’s opportunity every single week. So I’m happy how I converted my opportunities this week, and I think that’s what I will take, for sure, with me.
Q. After the last two matches, how do you put that aside or what you learn from that going into the first Grand Slam of the year?
IGA SWIATEK: For sure these are good matches to analyze against really top players. Especially Belinda likes to play on fast surfaces. Yeah, it was a good test.
We’re going to work now to improve some elements that didn’t work this week. Still not a lot of time for that if I also want to have some recovery days. This is how tennis is. You got to go with the flow. We’ll see.
Q. How proud were you of winning nine of 10 matches and how proud of the team were you overall?
BELINDA BENCIC: Thank you. Now I think in the end there’s always bittersweet emotions if you lose in the final. We did the best we could. I think we went beyond our expectations.
Thanks so much for the nice words. It really means so much, especially from you, because I think you’re the real champion and we’re learning so much from you.
Also Kubie, he just led every mixed doubles. We won almost all of them. I think he deserves a big, big, big thank you. Yeah, you can be extremely proud of yourself, how you handled everything, especially under pressure. Thanks so much. It was a pleasure playing with you.
Q. You had a lot of firsts in 2025 with your first major title and then going to other majors as a Grand Slam champion. Now you’re here back in Australia to defend a major for the first time. How much has life changed for you in that context, and how are you feeling about it?
MADISON KEYS: Life hasn’t changed all that much. I think it’s been a bit different for me winning my first Grand Slam. It’s obviously happened much later in my career, and I have had a lot of success already, so I was I think a pretty well-known name already, so I feel like it was much different than some of our most recent Grand Slam champions who have obviously had levels of success but haven’t been around for nearly as long.
So I don’t think my life has changed all that much, but it’s definitely still a huge accomplishment that I’m very proud of. I think at this point in my career, had you told me last year that that was going to happen now, I don’t know if I’d believe you, but hopefully there is, you know, many more firsts to come.
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