The 21-year-old American holds victories on the surface over Taylor Fritz, Alex de Minaur and Lorenzo Musetti—all players who have spent time inside the ATP’s top 10—and arrived in Washington this week fresh off a Challenger title after returning from an oblique injury that disrupted his grass-court season.

Ahead of the Mubadala DC Open, I caught up with Michelsen to talk about his recovery, his friendship with Learner Tien and what he’s learned from playing some of the best players in the world. I found one answer particularly interesting.

When I mentioned his win over Taylor Fritz at Indian Wells, Michelsen challenged what feels like a pretty intuitive assumption: that practicing together benefits the higher-ranked player.

“Fritz, it’s trickier, I think, for him because he’s better than me, and we practice together,” Michelsen said. “Usually, when you practice with someone and you play them in a match, it favors the one that is a little worse because you kind of know what’s coming a bit.”

Rather than seeing familiarity as an advantage for the top player, Michelsen believes it can actually help close the gap. You know their favorite patterns, you recognize their tendencies and, perhaps most importantly, they lose some of the unpredictability that makes elite players so difficult to face.

Upgrade to paid

But Michelsen was careful not to overstate the point.

“I got a little lucky there,” Michelsen added. “I saved a crazy set point. I remember I got lucky to win that set.”

His explanation for his other marquee wins was similarly matter-of-fact.

Keep reading for Michelsen's candid thoughts on beating top players, playing his way back into form on the Challenger Tour and sharing life on tour with his buddy Learner Tien.

Read more

For much of the past two years, Naomi Osaka’s story has been viewed through the lens of a single word: comeback.

It’s an easy narrative. She stepped away from tennis, became a mother, returned to the tour and is once again climbing toward the top of the game. But it’s one she increasingly rejects.

Ahead of the Mubadala DC Open, Osaka explained that she has never quite connected with the language surrounding her return. Saying she dislikes it would be too harsh, she said, because she’s “grateful for people even thinking about” her, but the suggestion that she’s trying to become the player she once was doesn’t square with reality.

“When I think of coming back, it kind of washes away the whole process,” she said. “Also, what am I coming back to, you know?”

The Naomi Osaka who arrived in Washington this week doesn’t feel like she’s chasing a previous version of herself.

Upgrade to paid

Keep reading for Osaka's candid reflections on her Wimbledon run, why she doesn’t feel like she’s making a "comeback," and how fashion has helped her break out of her shell.

Read more

It’s “Media Weekend,” but I don’t find press conferences to be the best vessel for longform journalism, especially in an age where quotes and clips are immediately posted online after. If tournaments were a five-course meal, the opening press conferences would be the amuse bouche. Nevertheless, those bite-sized teasers can still be a treat—just make sure you don’t eat a mini towel like Andy Roddick (if you get that reference, you’re in way too deep).

With that in mind, I wanted to share some quick hits I got from Frances Tiafoe (on his recent evolution), Taylor Fritz (on being called a sociopath by Andre Agassi), and Venus Williams (on her US Open outfit plans), as well as some exclusive tennis fashion news on Williams, Naomi Osaka, and a new luxury partnership in the works that you should know.

Upgrade to paid to keep reading

Read more

Frustrated by years of middling efforts to market them beyond the court, a handful of tennis players entered 2026 with a new strategy: if the tours weren’t going to tell their stories, they’d tell them themselves.

Ben Shelton was among the first to embrace the idea, launching a YouTube channel at the start of the season. He wasn’t alone. Casper Ruud hired a videographer to travel with him, Alex de Minaur started documenting life on tour, and it felt as though tennis players had arrived at the same conclusion as athletes in Formula 1, golf and basketball: fans increasingly wanted access to the people behind the performances, not just the performances themselves.

Seven months later, that first wave has slowed considerably.

Upgrade to paid

Keep reading for new reporting on the status of the latest player vlogs, the economics of player-led media, and how one top player is approaching things differently.

Read more

This past weekend, I had the immense pleasure of interviewing Andre Agassi, a career highlight if ever there was one. A few months ago, Boss reached out to me about hosting a panel over Wimbledon finals weekend at Soho Farmhouse, an idyllic outpost of the members club in the Cotswolds. At the time, it wasn’t clear who I’d be interviewing and when they threw out Andre’s name my honest reaction was, fat chance! Surely he’d be too busy with commentating duties and building out Agassi Intelligence to chat with little old me.

Then, last Monday, the Boss team told me that it would indeed be Andre joining me on stage—or, really, a grassy field dubbed the Lazy Lawn. As you may have read in my last piece, I’d been having a rough go in London and was feeling trapped. Boss was paying me to host this event and I follow through on my commitments, so I couldn’t simply catch an early flight home and cut the “fortnight” short. But just as my enthusiasm for the tennis ecosystem was hitting an all-time low, this news hit me like a shot of espresso, waking me up from my jaded slumber and sending me into a mix of panic and excitement.

I’ve worked with Agassi’s team before and they’ve been early supporters of Hard Court, even giving me the exclusive on a deep dive into the racquet sports platform they’re building that involves AI models trained using the insights of both Agassi and Darren Cahill. But I’d never spoken to the man himself and, despite ample footage showing him to be a great interview, I was nervous about our chemistry and how he’d field some fashion-heavy questions (it was a Boss event, after all, and the stated goal was discussing tennis fashion and culture).

As with many things in life, all the fretting was for nothing. Andre immediately put me at ease, answering each question with a heavy dose of wisdom and humor, and happily trailing off into much more profound territory than some of the questions warranted. It was such a joyful ride that I wanted to share it in full with you, rather than editing it down to choice quotes. I’ve only edited it a bit for clarity, so it’s supersized but, I promise, worthwhile.

Get 17% off a group subscription

The first half focuses on Andre’s impact on tennis culture and style, as well as his rebellious streak, before we move into his role coaching Team World at Laver Cup, his long relationship with Taylor Fritz, how he feels about some of today’s athletes’ potentially distracting extracurriculars, and the tennis traditions he’d love to see change. Throughout the conversation, Andre looks back on his own experiences on tour in remarkable detail, reflecting on them with his trademark candor. If you’ve been considering signing up for a paid subscription, you won’t regret doing so today.

PS. For those who’d prefer to listen, I’ve included a rough recording of the talk—the audio fluctuates a bit, especially with audience questions at the end, but Andre is very clear and does a great job of reiterating any hard-to-hear questions. Please remember this was a live talk and not staged in any way, shape, or form as a podcast—when and if I cross into that medium, it will be significantly more polished. Enjoy!

Upgrade to paid

Read more

I just capped off three weeks at Wimbledon that involved nearly every stage of grief (at least twice), with a sprinkling of pinch-me moments that kept me holding on.

When I booked this trip, I apparently blacked out and forgot who I am: a creature of routine, a homebody, someone who needs at least 24 hours to recover from any social activity. I’d had so much fun during my one-week sprint at Roland-Garros that I conveniently forgot I was absolutely exhausted by the end of it, the amnesia convincing me that three weeks in London would pack an even greater punch.

It did. Just often to the gut.

Upgrade to paid

Every major tournament is preceded by a week of parties, often ripe for networking which, I’m afraid to say, really does pay off. I flew out early so I could make it to Miu Miu and New Balance’s event celebrating the launch of their second collection with Coco Gauff. I’ve…

Read more

It wasn’t long ago that Naomi Osaka’s elaborate walk-on looks felt like an outlier. This Wimbledon, they feel like the blueprint.

Across the grounds, more brands than ever are treating the walk from the locker room to the court as its own marketing moment—complete with bespoke tailoring, custom jackets, and carefully choreographed reveals. While no one is going quite as far as Osaka and her team—they’re bringing couture to the court, after all—the message has clearly landed. Brands, agencies, and players have watched the attention those entrances command and thought: we want in, too.

There is precedent, of course. Roger Federer famously wore a white suit onto Centre Court in 2007, among other outfits. Suzanne Lenglen challenged the restrictive dress codes of her era in custom Jean Patou designs that tran…

Read more

Matteo Berrettini had just beaten Arthur Fils to reach the third round of Wimbledon when he offered two observations that summed up the past four years of his career.

“It’s been a while since I’ve played here,” he said of Centre Court.

Then, referring to both his run to the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros and moving on at Wimbledon, he added:

“It’s been a while since I played so many matches in a Slam.”

Since reaching the Wimbledon final in 2021, Berrettini’s career has been repeatedly interrupted by injuries, retirements, withdrawals and the exhausting process of rebuilding. This season alone has encapsulated that cycle. A recurring abdominal injury forced him to withdraw from the Australian Open after what he described as one of his strongest preseasons in years. A few months later, he produced his deepest Grand Slam run in nearly four years at Roland-Garros before another injury forced him to retire in the quarterfinals.

When we spoke earlier this week, I wanted to understand what years of that cycle had done to him psychologically. I was struck by the way he spoke about his body—not with resignation or frustration, but rather acceptance.

“The first thing that really helped me was realizing that I am just like this,” he told me. “I started getting injured when I was 12, so it’s always been part of my career.”

Become a paid subscriber to read Berrettini's candid thoughts on chronic injuries, working with a psychologist, and building a team that meets him where he is.

Upgrade to paid

Read more

Since Naomi Osaka walked onto court at the Australian Open wearing couture (read about her latest look here), there’s been an ongoing debate about whether fashion-forward entrances are good for tennis. Fans and insiders have largely fallen into two camps: they either love it or hate it, with remarkably little middle ground.

This week at Wimbledon, a few men have found themselves part of that conversation, albeit in a more understated way. Both Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz leaned into a bit of Roger Federer cosplay, walking onto court in tailored looks. Fritz, in particular, arrived wearing trousers with zip-away legs, a suit jacket, and a scarf before changing into his match kit.

Having heard plenty of men say they either “don’t get” Osaka’s grand entrances or, for some inexplicable reason, find them irritating, I was curious where Fritz landed on the debate.

“I don’t know where I stand on it,” he told me, explaining that the idea came from Boss—his apparel sponsor since 2024—and he was willing to give it a try. “I wasn’t 100% sure how I felt, but after seeing the pictures after the match, I feel like it looked alright.”

As far as attention-grabbing figures on tour go, Fritz—a prototypical California boy if there ever was one—generally prefers to keep things low-key. Beyond the occasional shirt-biting or self-directed eye-roll when a match is slipping away, he’s rarely one to court attention.

Upgrade to paid

At the same time, he’s proven more willing than many of his peers to experiment with fashion. He walked in Boss’s runway show in Milan two years ago and has regularly taken part in the ATP’s tunnel walks initiative, at one point arriving in a ‘70s-inspired lavender suit that stood out from the sea of beige looks.

Still, he admitted the extra attention can add pressure.

“Oh, absolutely,” he said when asked by Ben Rothenberg whether the outfit made him more nervous. “You show up in a full outfit and get snipped in the first round, you look really stupid.”

He joked that he’d been having exactly that conversation with Frances Tiafoe, who has also been wading into the fashion waters this week in a custom white Lululemon tracksuit.

“We were making the joke, like, you can’t walk out with an outfit and go out in the first round. It just looks so bad.”

Fritz avoided that fate, at least for now, and said we’ll probably be seeing the suit again over the next two weeks.

The fashion conversation eventually gave way to something more personal.

Asked about the challenges of being a father on tour in light of Serena Williams’ return to professional tennis, Fritz offered a candid response about balancing life on the road with raising his son.

Become a paid subscriber to read Fritz's thoughts on fatherhood, bringing his son on tour, and the role his tennis-expert parents play during tournaments.

Upgrade to paid

Read more

Living with chronic pain has changed the questions I find myself asking athletes struggling with injuries. Before my own health became so uncertain, I probably would’ve been satisfied with a straightforward update. What’s the diagnosis? When will you be back? Do you feel healthy again?

Now I’m much more curious about the baggage these setbacks can bring—the mental toll of living in a body that keeps interrupting your plans, what it does to your confidence, your identity, and your relationship with the things you love most.

That’s what I found myself thinking about as Jack Draper sat down to speak with reporters ahead of Wimbledon on Sunday.

“Obviously you’ve been dealing with injuries on and off for the last few years,” I asked him. “Could you speak to the psychic toll that can take on a person? How have you managed your body essentially letting you down?”

Draper didn’t answer by listing out his injuries or explaining rehab timelines. Instead, he looked back to Wimbledon last year.

He described arriving at the All England Club feeling as though everything was finally coming together. After spending so much of his early career fighting through physical hurdles, he’d climbed to No. 4 in the world and felt like he was gradually building toward something bigger. His confidence was growing, his body felt reliable and, perhaps for the first time in a long time, he wasn’t thinking about whether he’d be healthy enough to compete.

Upgrade to paid

Then, in his words, “you have something that stops you in your tracks when you’re not expecting it.” That thing was a bruised humerus bone in his upper left serving arm that contributed to an early loss at his home Slam and took him out for the rest of the season, barring one match at the US Open that ultimately confirmed he needed more time off.

He spoke candidly about how difficult that particular injury was to accept. After feeling as though he’d reached the silver lining phase of the past few years, he found himself watching his ranking slide and facing yet another stretch on the sidelines. But he was quick to reframe the disappointment, a mindset that feels almost essential for anyone hoping to survive at the highest level of professional sport.

“I suppose you’ve got to see that as where you’re at,” he said. “You always have to look at the positive side of things. I have to rebuild myself and I have to start again almost.”

Upgrade to paid

Become a paid subscriber to read Draper's thoughts on the identity crisis that can come with repeated injuries, the growing injury problem on the ATP Tour, and why he believes his tennis "hasn't gone anywhere.”

Read more

Just before the strawberries are served on Centre Court and the first white-clad players walk through the gates of the All England Club to kick off the Main Draw, another Wimbledon tradition quietly gets underway a few streets away.

Every year on the Saturday before the tournament begins, dozens of IMG’s tennis players, their coaches, families, and increasingly, a handful of tennis creators, make their way to a private house tucked into Wimbledon Village. Inside, nearly every room has been transformed into a miniature storefront. Beauty products line bathroom counters. Luggage fills hallways. Jewelry sparkles across dining tables. Recovery tools, protein snacks, skincare, hair products, electronics and wellness brands spill into virtually every corner of the house.

It’s called the IMG Player Gifting Suite. But, unless you’re one of the people invited inside, you’ve probably never heard of it.

Despite becoming something of a Wimbledon institution, the event has remained remarkably under the radar. IMG rarely talks publicly about it, yet year after year it draws many of the agency’s biggest stars just days before one of the sport’s most important tournaments.

Hard Court obtained a presentation deck from last year’s gifting suite from a brand that was involved and spoke with multiple people familiar with the event to better understand how one of tennis’s most coveted annual gatherings actually works.

Sign up for a paid subscription to learn more about the gifting suite and the surprising reason it was started in the first place (it’s about more than just spoiling players).

Upgrade to paid

Read more

When Serena Williams posted her official comeback announcement video on June 1st, it was more of a teaser than anything. The Nike-made clip of her buzzing phone interrupting a practice session was only 17 seconds long, with the last five seconds featuring white text and logos on a black screen. That sparsity of detail, though, led us to some light Zaprudering of what few things were on screen.

Read more

A year ago tomorrow, I sent out my first Hard Court post, eager to create a place for tennis conversations I wasn’t seeing elsewhere. I took it seriously from the jump, but envisioned it as more of a fun outlet than a total career pivot. It turns out that the old adage is true: a lot can change in a year.

Upgrade to paid

On June 24th, 2025, I didn’t know a single soul in tennis. There were no strings readily available for me to pull, no calls a former boss or brother or second cousin once removed could make to help me out or acquaint me with “the right people.” One of the most common refrains throughout this wild year has been, “How the hell did you get all your sources?” and, the first time someone asked, it struck me that I hadn’t even stopped to think about the fact that that was a feat, that I’d essentially made a quantum leap. I’ll happily celebrate the concrete things, like reaching X number of subscribers, but I’m not good at stepping back to notice the more formless, and often m…

Read more

The world is getting hotter and it’s playing out on center court.

Tennis has spent the last several years adapting to increasingly extreme conditions, from the Australian Open’s Heat Stress Scale to record temperatures at Wimbledon and sweltering afternoons in New York—not to mention the sauna we all just lived through in Paris. Tournament organizers have responded with cooling breaks and expanded heat protocols.

But apparel brands are betting they can be part of the solution, too, as they race to develop fabrics that better regulate body temperature, improve breathability, and help athletes perform in increasingly challenging conditions. Adidas is the latest to join the effort, unveiling a new cooling technology called Climacool+ that it believes can give players an edge as the sport confronts a warm…

Read more

After a season defined more by injury management than results, Taylor Fritz finally has something he hasn’t had in months: a little momentum.

The American reached the Stuttgart final last weekend in his strongest showing since returning from a chronic knee injury that repeatedly interrupted his season. Although he let a third-set that seemed to be on his racket slip away against Ben Shelton in a familiar heartbreak—their Dallas final followed a similar script—Fritz sounded far more encouraged by the state of his game than discouraged by the loss when we hopped on a call while he was prepping for Halle today.

We talked about how he’s feeling with a few matches under his belt, whether the race to be America’s top-ranked man factors into his matchup with Shelton, his expectations for Wimbledon with Carlos Alcaraz out of the field, and his deepening interest in fashion.

Upgrade to paid

Read more

Serena Williams finally made her long-rumored return to competition at Queen’s, prompting Nike to roll out a marketing push that reignited debate about whether the brand is doing enough for the rest of its tennis roster. Elsewhere at the tournament, the WTA ran the second edition of its Creator Club program after its Charleston Open debut drew criticism from some corners of the tennis community, myself included. In today’s issue, I explain why Nike’s splash for Serena was a success—but not necessarily evidence that the company is neglecting the rest of its roster—and share new details from conversations with WTA staff about the lessons learned from Charleston, encouraging metrics from the program, and how the organization plans to expand the initiative in 2027.

As always, each topic gets a Court Index rating—Low, Medium, or High—based on how effectively it moves the needle for tennis culture and business.

Become a paid subscriber to read my analysis of Nike's Serena rollout and the surrounding discourse, plus new reporting on the WTA's Creator Club strategy, performance metrics, and expansion plans.

Upgrade to paid for full access

Read more

Last fall, Robbie Ohashi thought he had graduated from life on the tennis tour when his partnership with Kei Nishikori, who he worked with as a fitness trainer for 13 years, came to a close. He enjoyed it, he told Hard Court, but—as any tennis fan who has lost sleep simply trying to follow the calendar from afar can imagine—it was also grueling.

But as he settled into life at home with his family in Chicago, running his physical therapy business Performance In Motion, he got a call that he—and his two teenage daughters—knew he couldn’t pass up. Naomi Osaka was looking for a physical therapist. “I thought I was done,” he laughed. “But I really believe in who Naomi is and what she represents. So I was like, I’ll give it a shot.” Six months into the job, he’s very glad he did.

I spoke to Ohashi the week before Roland Garros about how he went from working with hammer throwers to tennis players, what’s surprised him most about getting to know Osaka, how they managed that infamous trip to the Met Gala while prepping for Rome, and why he believes it’s time to reframe the idea of a post-childbirth “comeback.”

Take me back to the start of your career. How did you get into physical therapy, and how did that eventually lead you to tennis?

Like a lot of physical therapists, I enjoyed playing sports and loved competition. During my time at UCLA, I knew I wanted to combine science and medicine with relationship building and the art of caring for people. I shadowed some physical therapists and realized they got to build real relationships with people and help them reach their goals, rather than just flying into a room and leaving without even learning their name. That struck a chord with me. After a few years teaching English in Japan, I chose a graduate program at Washington University in St. Louis that focused on movement quality in physical therapy.

Eventually I moved to Chicago, where I worked with a lot of NBA and hockey players. Around that time, I started traveling with a Japanese hammer thrower named Koji Murofushi who was a huge star in Japan. Together, we won a world championship and an Olympic bronze medal. It just so happened that his agent represented a lot of well-known athletes in Japan, and he introduced me to this young 21-year-old named Kei Nishikori.

Upgrade to paid

I didn’t know anything about tennis. I didn’t play tennis. But I said I’d give him an evaluation. We hit it off, and when the hammer thrower retired in 2012, I started helping Kei out pretty heavily. We ended up working together for 13 years, and I really got to fall in love with the sport.

Movement was always my focus with Kei—I wanted him to be the best mover he could be. I believe that when athletes move well, everything improves: durability, performance, confidence, and ultimately their ceiling. They even carry themselves differently outside of their sport.

I finished with Kei in 2025 and am incredibly proud of what we accomplished together. I’m grateful to call him a friend. We still text often, and since he’s retiring this year, I’m hoping to be there at the end so we can hug it out.

Wow, so you had a long run on tour under your belt. How did the partnership with Naomi come about?

In November of last year, I got a call from Tomasz Wiktorowski, Naomi’s coach. He got my name from Thomas Johansson, who I had met through Kei—it’s amazing how God works. He said they were looking for someone and, at that point, I was thinking, I had a good run with Kei, and it was a lot, you know? [laughs]

So I prayed about it and had a lot of conversations with my very supportive wife and kids. The kids were like, “You’ve got to do this. It’s a great opportunity.”

I’ve always believed in who Naomi is and what she represents, so I thought, I’ll give it a shot. And it’s been fun. It’s only been six months, but I hit it off with her and her team right away, and I feel really good about what we’re building together.

Definitely not an opportunity that’s easy to pass up. Before we dive deeper into that, could you just explain how physical therapy that’s focused on movement is different from traditional physical therapy?

Good question, because I think it’s a term you hear all the time. At my company, we really hang our hat on the idea that there are foundational movements every athlete needs to be able to accomplish, whether they’re a basketball player, a tennis player, or a track-and-field athlete. We want those movements to be smooth and efficient first. Then, almost like building a house, you start layering on movements that are specific to their sport.

If a high school athlete comes in with their parent, the parent might say, “My kid needs to perfect their soccer movements.” But we believe there are core movement patterns everyone needs to master before that. Even something as simple as sitting down in a chair and standing back up is essentially a squat. When a tennis player split-steps and moves to return a serve, they’re relying on many of those same foundational movement patterns. Once those are established, you can build sport-specific movement, and then take it a step further by focusing on how to move on a particular surface, whether that’s hard court, grass, or clay.

That’s why going from Miami to Madrid with Naomi was so exciting for me. When I joined her team, I told her, “I can’t wait to get you moving on clay.” She’s already such a great athlete, but I felt there was another level she could reach on that surface—there’s always an opportunity to keep refining. But if you try to focus on the advanced movements before establishing the fundamentals, it becomes much more challenging.

Share

So tell me about meeting Naomi for the first time, and what that was like? Because obviously, these relationships are so intimate—I almost envision it like two actors doing a chemistry read.

You’re very right. It almost feels like a blind date, where in the first five minutes you’ll know if it’s a fit or not. [laughs]

Especially for me, I’m a feel person. There’s so much technology in my profession right now—force plates, measuring tools, heart-rate monitors and all these things—but if we don’t pay attention to how people respond to us, you can miss something important. So I wanted to keep an open mind and get rid of any preconceived notions about what Naomi was like. I had met her before through Kei and the team in Japan, but only in passing.

We were actually laughing about our first meeting the other day. I met Tomasz in Coral Gables and Naomi met us at this random Marriott where I was staying. We did our first trial session in this seedy basement gym with no windows. It was really just about getting to know each other and doing some basic workout movements.

Geez, I was nervous and she was so relaxed. We laugh about it now because I actually twisted my ankle during the session. I had these brand-new shoes on and was thinking, everything needs to be perfect. [laughs]

But at the end of the day, it really comes down to a feeling. Tomasz and I saw eye to eye right away, and my first week with Naomi was very positive. There was openness on all sides—Naomi, Tomasz, Mati [Zukas], her hitting partner. They made it easy on me as the newbie and really welcomed me in.

Upgrade to paid

Become a paid subscriber to read what surprised Robbie Ohashi most about Naomi Osaka, how they managed that whirlwind Met Gala trip, and why he believes it’s time to retire the word “comeback.”

Read more

Earlier this week, Jacob & Co., one of Alexander Zverev’s sponsors, reached out to see whether I’d be interested in doing a paid Instagram post1 around him and his watch partnership. I declined.

I mention that not to collect morality points, but because the request neatly illustrates the dilemma at the center of Zverev’s career: few players have achieved as much while creating so much tension for the people tasked with marketing them.

As you guys know, I’ve been fairly outspoken about not wanting to go out of my way to support Zverev given the domestic violence allegations that have followed him for years. But the interaction did get me thinking about something I suspect a number of companies orbiting tennis have quietly wrestled with over the past several seasons: what exactly do you do when one of the best players in the world is also one of its most polarizing?

From a purely commercial perspective, Zverev should be an easy sell. He is a perennial top player, an Olympic gold medalist, a Grand Slam finalist, and one of the most recognizable faces in men’s tennis. Some people, inexplicably, find him attractive. He has a compelling personal story through his Type 1 diabetes diagnosis and advocacy work, represents Germany—one of tennis’s most important markets—and is polished enough to move comfortably between sports, fashion, and lifestyle campaigns.

Upgrade to paid

Those are precisely the qualities brands typically look for when deciding which athletes deserve bigger contracts, larger campaigns, and more prominent roles within their marketing strategies.

And yet Zverev has never felt like a player brands fully embrace in the way they do tennis’s other top athletes. Despite his resume, there has often been a noticeable gap between his sporting achievements and the enthusiasm with which companies market him.

The reason, of course, is obvious.

In 2020, Zverev’s former girlfriend Olya Sharypova publicly accused him of domestic abuse. Zverev denied the allegations and Sharypova did not pursue criminal charges. A subsequent ATP investigation concluded there was insufficient evidence to substantiate the claims.

Then came a second case.

In 2024, Zverev reached a settlement in a German court case involving allegations brought by his former partner Brenda Patea, the mother of his child. The case was discontinued after a settlement was reached. The Tiergarten District Court in Berlin told The Athletic that the decision did not constitute a verdict regarding guilt or innocence. Zverev agreed to pay €200,000, with the majority of the money going to the state treasury and the remainder to nonprofit organizations. His attorneys emphasized that the settlement was not an admission of guilt and that the presumption of innocence remained intact.

Legally, the matter may be closed. But, commercially, it remains very much alive. So, too, does it within tennis fandom, where many of the sport’s most engaged followers continue to view Zverev through the lens of the allegations and believe tennis authorities should have done more to hold him accountable.

Upgrade to paid

Sign up for a paid subscription to read about Zverev’s uneven sponsorship journey, how some longtime partners have marketed him cautiously, and why a French Open title could become a defining test for brands.

Read more

Iga Swiatek will be announced as a new brand ambassador for Coach around Wimbledon, part of the accessible luxury brand’s broader push into tennis. The company has also signed Eva Lys and Elsa Jacquemot, though sources indicate that the three players will occupy very different roles within its emerging tennis strategy.

Upgrade to paid

Become a paid subscriber to read about the distinct roles each athlete will play in Coach's tennis strategy, along with their deal terms and the brand's Wimbledon plans.

Read more

On the positive side, the tournament is incredibly chic. Everything from the outdoor seating areas to the hospitality suites felt more elevated than most events, and the grounds were impressively clean. On the other hand, the site isn’t nearly spacious enough for the crowds it attracts, and I often found myself slowly shimmying through packs of overheated bodies just to get from point A to point B. Air conditioning was, of course, scarce because, for reasons I’ll never understand, the French remain deeply suspicious of it. And while the food in the hospitality suites I was lucky enough to visit was excellent, many of the public vendors had run out of food and drinks long before the night session began.

The best thing I ate all week was a chicken pesto sandwich on focaccia that my pal Wolf Oswald pilfered from the Players’ Lounge for me—they really do have it good in there. If you’re alarmed by that choice, just remember I didn’t have much time to explore Paris this trip. The best thing I drank was either a margarita at Le Royal Monceau or an iced coffee from O Coffee, which absolutely lives up to the hype. Reilly Opelka and Ethan Quinn dubbed it “the best coffee in Paris.”

Anyway, let’s get into a few Hard Court-worthy stories from the week, plus some inside scoop I picked up in the City of Light.

Upgrade to paid

Dangerous advertising

After a few athletes, including Katie Boulter, tripped over the ill-placed Lacoste advertising blocks at the back of each court, Zeynep Sonmez injured herself on one of them while playing doubles yesterday. She ultimately retired from the match, posting on Twitter later in the day that she left the court with two stitches and a bruised knee. “Thankfully it wasn’t worse,” she wrote. “Do we really have to wait until a player is seriously injured before these courtside boards are removed?”

Roland-Garros released a slightly defensive statement in the aftermath, noting that, although its courts “currently exceed the international circuit minimum requirements regarding the distance between the baseline and the back of the court,” the tournament is most focused on player well-being and would make adjustments.

On Saturday, the ad blocks on the outer courts had been moved behind the line judges, but those on Chatrier and Lenglen remained in place. While some argue that, because those courts are bigger, they pose less danger, I still think it’s risky to keep them so far out.

Upgrade to paid

More than anything, I’m baffled by this choice of advertising placement, which sits only a few feet in front of the sponsor signage already lining the back of the court. Lacoste is a premium partner of Roland-Garros and its official outfitter, reportedly paying around €10 million a year, so I understand the desire to give the brand special treatment. But what exactly is the upside here? Lacoste already owns a huge amount of visual real estate at the tournament. The extra exposure these blocks provide feels negligible, making them a strange hill to die on when players are openly raising safety concerns.

Fonseca takes down Djokovic (and sort of silences his haters)

I don’t recommend watching a high-profile match like João Fonseca vs. Novak Djokovic on a plane with extremely spotty WiFi—you’ll get blurry glimpses before it crashes entirely and then eventually reboots only to crash again—but I was determined.

Fonseca has had a loud chorus of haters denigrating his every move since early last year, when many in the media proclaimed him the next big thing, even comparing the Brazilian mania surrounding him to that of The Beatles. Every loss has seemed to hold extra weight for these people, acting as proof that, no, actually, Fonseca is overrated. Those who are fans have questioned his schedule, arguing that he takes too much time off or doesn’t play the right tournaments.

Through all of this, I’ve felt bad for the kid. Imagine just starting out on tour with a bunch of strangers placing huge expectations on you that you didn’t ask for, and then feeling the need to live up to those expectations with every match. I don’t know about you, but that would fuck with my head. There’s simply a larger spotlight on him at a time when he’s still becoming the tennis player he will ultimately be, in a phase that is rightfully filled with ups and downs.

So when he took out Djokovic after being down two sets, finishing the match off with three confident aces, it felt like his tears were a pressure release after a year and a half of public scrutiny. It was an impressive win, and an emphatic statement to the naysayers that he is, in fact, one to watch.

Of course, some people will never be impressed by him. Fandom has a way of hardening opinions like that. They’ll point out that Djokovic is 39, or that Fonseca has only made it to the fourth round. But that feels like a strange response to a 19-year-old coming back from two sets down to beat one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. Plenty of players a decade older than Fonseca still haven’t managed that. For one afternoon, at least, it felt like the conversation shifted from what he isn’t yet to what he might become.

Upgrade to paid

Sign up for a paid subscription to learn what I heard about player sponsorships, contract renewals, and roster changes in Paris.

Read more