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 warmer future.

An evolution of Adidas’s Climacool line—which debuted in 2002 amid a wave of innovation in moisture-management fabrics led by Nike’s Dri-FIT—Climacool+ incorporates what the company describes as “advanced cooling features that change the structure of the garment, creating airflow exactly where athletes need it most,” according to Margherita Raccuglia, Adidas’s Global Director of Innovation, Athlete Performance. Among them are embossed 3D structures which are strategically mapped to areas of the body that generate and retain the most heat. “This creates a gap between the skin and the garment, allowing for more circulation and maximizing sweat evaporation,” Raccuglia explained.

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The technology is making its commercial debut in Adidas’s new all-white London Collection, which launches today ahead of Wimbledon. While the cooling technology is new, the overall aesthetic draws on the brand’s tennis heritage. According to Annette Steingass, Adidas’s Senior Director of Specialist Sports, images of Steffi Graf and Anna Kournikova repeatedly surfaced on the design team’s mood boards, inspiring both the body-contouring shape lines and the relaxed, cropped silhouettes that draw from the brand’s 1990s archive.

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Five players—including Karolina Muchova, Elina Svitolina, Félix Auger-Aliassime, Maria Sakkari, and Alexander Zverev—will wear custom looks incorporating the new fabrication. According to Steingass, Adidas already knew which silhouettes each athlete felt most comfortable competing in, allowing the team to focus on refining the garments through body scans and multiple rounds of fittings. The resulting designs are as varied as the players themselves. Svitolina's look, for example, is a polo-collared dress featuring raw edges, bonded tapes, and laser perforations. Muchova, meanwhile, will wear a cropped polo and shorts, reflecting her preference for slightly looser silhouettes. The top combines sweat-concealing fabric with power mesh inserts, bonded seams, and an engineered collar designed to increase airflow around the neck.

“When we create product, especially apparel, you want the athlete to look great but you also want to make sure that you’re genuinely problem-solving for them—that the garments you give them perform, and don’t cause distractions or get in the way,” said Steingass.

The focus on thermoregulation for this new collection emerged directly from athlete feedback. “They were always telling us that, whenever the sport intensified or the temperatures rose, their movement would feel restricted because of the sweat accumulation, which also limits airflow and leads to overheating,” said Raccuglia.

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The prototypes were tested both in Adidas’s climate chamber—which can simulate high heat and humidity—and in real-world competition. In fact, Sebastian Sawe, the Kenyan runner who recently became the first athlete to run a record-eligible marathon in under two hours, sneakily wore the technology during his historic performance. “There was no visible sweat when he reached the finish, which was a big proof point for us,” said Raccuglia.

I reviewed photos from Sawe’s finish and it’s true there were minimal sweat marks. Still, a slinky racing singlet is not a direct comp for what tennis players wear on court.

But Adidas is confident the results will translate. According to Raccuglia, players who tested the fabric reported increased airflow, less sticking, and greater freedom of movement. One athlete, she said, returned from a run shocked by how dry the garment felt despite the intensity of the workout. But lab testing and training runs can only tell you so much. The real proof point will come at Wimbledon, where players will spend hours competing under the pressure, movement, and heat that inspired Climacool+ in the first place.

Thanks for reading! If you have tennis news or tips to share, email jessica@hard-court.com. For regular updates, follow Hard Court on Instagram.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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When Aryna Sabalenka debuted her Nike kit a few weeks ago on Instagram, fans were excited by the prospect of her wearing another custom kit—something that kicked off at the Australian Open this year after she publicly asked the Swoosh to step it up for her. The crimson onesie with black mesh laid over it was inspired by the idea of a “Clay Ballet,” per Nike, and was designed especially for Sabalenka.

But yesterday, w…

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Who’s the most marketable player on the ATP Tour that hasn’t won a Slam and isn’t named Jack Draper? There’s only one answer: Ben Shelton.

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Sign up for a paid subscription to read about the brands pursuing Shelton, what his current On partnership still lacks, and why his next move may offer one of the clearest opportunities yet to get tennis marketing right.

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Ayan Broomfield is the type of person who greets you like you’re an old friend, even if you’ve only just met. When we arrived at her New York apartment recently to film this interview, she welcomed us with big hugs and easy laughter as we got set up. Dressed in the kind of effortless uniform everyone wishes they could pull off—barefoot in a simple white tank, deep-blue wide-leg denim, and long, perfectly tousled curls grazing her face—she curled up on the couch as we traded tennis gossip before easing into a more serious conversation.

A former Division I tennis player for Clemson University and UCLA, and the girlfriend of Frances Tiafoe, Broomfield has carved out a unique role within tennis culture—a bona fide WAG, yes, but one who’s using her growing influence to make a real impact on the sport. In 2025, Broomfield launched Ayan’s Aces, a program focused on bringing more Black women to tennis tournaments, after attending the Australian Open that year left her stu…

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Sex, to be clear, doesn’t mean turning tennis players into would-be OnlyFans stars (no disrespect to Alexandre Müller, keep doing your thing!) or giving fans license to be creepy. It simply means—in media and advertising—having a little FUN with the reality that many people find these formidable athletes magnetic. Because being really good at what you do is hot, even if the Royal Box is watching on. The sport could use a little loosening up, and covers like this understand something tennis often forgets: athletic dominance and allure have always gone hand in hand.

The brilliance of this cover and accompanying story sparked my interest so much that I reached out to Vanity Fair’s style correspondent, José Criales-Unzueta, who interviewed Alcaraz for the piece and was on set during the Miami Open. We spoke about trying to unearth who Alcaraz is beyond the showman we see on court, the goals behind the shoot, what José learned about him through the reporting process, and what it was like being on the clay-filled set. It’s a fun one.

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When the WTA announced in the Daily Express that it was launching a new fashion series called, “Style Unpacked,” I was curious to learn more.

Last year, while reporting a story about the increasingly fashion-forward year-end portraits for the WTA for The Financial Times, I asked the organization’s chief brand officer Sarah Swanson whether they’d be launching a similar fashion marketing initiative to the ATP’s, which I covered last August for Vogue Business. “It’s so inherent in everything that we’re doing that we don’t need to announce that we’re fashionable or doing a fashion initiative, it’s part of our brand,” she told me.

At the time, I found the response a bit shortsighted—assuming the audience just knows that fashion is part of the brand is a big leap. But the WTA had been trying to make fashion happen longer than its male counterpart with programs like “Off Court Fits” in 2024—in which players like Aryna Sabalenka and Qinwen Zheng were given a brief to arrive to the Canadian and Cincinnati Opens in outfits that would be photographed—and a collaboration with Duke + Dexter on a capsule collection in 2025. The problem is that it didn’t receive the same level of attention, whether due to a faulty rollout, the increased attention the ATP tour often (and unfairly) gets, or, from my POV, a mix of both.

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“If you look at our athletes, fashion is so clearly important to them, so we’re really focused on how we can highlight that,” Swanson said back then.

The new series, debuting its first episode on May 15th, is the WTA’s biggest effort yet to do that. Produced in partnership with the creative agency Run Deep, the aim is to film players getting styled by local fashion experts for different events, whether it’s an awards show or a simple lunch with friends. Each player gets to choose the theme and is asked to bring an accessory that’s meaningful to them to help weave some of their backstory into the look. Victoria Mboko, Camila Osorio, Oskana Selekhmeteva and Xinyu Wang all filmed episodes for the first rollout.

It had a fairly quick turnaround time—they filmed four episodes on April 20th, the same day as the Laureus Awards and media day in Madrid. The first episode will feature world No. 83 Osorio getting styled for the awards show by Antonia Peyaras in an outfit by Silvia Tcherassi, who shares her Colombian roots.

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Hosted by Andrea Neiras—somewhat confusingly the chief platform and strategy officer at Billionhands, a ranking platform for movies, sports, and tech—the first episode has a nostalgic, ‘90s-era makeover feel to it (minus all the toxicity of that time) that I actually appreciate. They do a great job of introducing Osorio to viewers who might not be as familiar with her tennis; the chemistry between host, star, and stylist is, at least in this first episode, natural and riddled with humor; multiple languages are used, with handy subtitles; and the set is a makeshift fashion closet filled with colorful garments (a great start, but I think they could up the ante on the glamour factor with more time—think of the podcast sets currently in vogue that feel as if you’re stepping into someone’s home).

Whereas the ATP has relied largely on static imagery and personality-free video, I think this series could be a really great way to bring current fans further into the world of players they love or introduce them to new ones if executed correctly. But what they’ll need to really pull fans in initially (whether we like it or not) is bigger star involvement—Vicky Mboko’s episode is likely to be the most viewed, and I’m also told by a source that Amanda Anisimova was interested but had a conflict.

The four episodes are set to roll out over the next few weeks, but right now the series is a test, a spokesperson for the WTA tells me. If their audience responds well to it, they’ll keep it coming. In the meantime, they’re also working on other video content formats like one that focuses on food in an effort to bring fans into the wide world that the tennis tour and its players represent.

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Sign up for a paid subscription to hear how the ATP Players feel about the tour’s “Athlete Arrivals” initiative so far and what they’d like to see changed. Plus, some hints about content on the docket…

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I was flooded this week with emails and phone calls about some really cool opportunities for Roland Garros and Wimbledon and I’m excited to take you along for the ride. Until then, let’s get into what’s been left on the table…

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When I started this series, there was one brand at the center of my proverbial vision board: New Balance. If you’ve been paying attention to tennis over the last few years, then you know they’re leading the pack when it comes to style-forward kits that still hold up at the highest level of the sport. Every outfit and campaign is grounded in their athletes’ personalities—their interests, backgrounds, and stories—particularly their top players Coco Gauff and Tommy Paul, who lead a roster that includes Sorana Cirstea, McCartney Kessler, and Jordan Thompson.

Last year, they took it a step further and made every competitor brand jealous when they disrupted our notion of what a luxury fashion partnership in tennis could look like, partnering with Miu Miu on a series of kits for Gauff. Don’t be surprised if we see copycat collabs like Nike x Gucci in the near future.

New Balance hasn’t been in the sport for ages—they signed their first player, Milos Raonic, in 2013—but they had the foresight to sign Coco Gauff when she was just 14 in 2018, and their rise in tennis has blossomed in step with hers. Today, they’re one of the few brands making tennis apparel and campaigns that feel truly culturally relevant.

I spoke to Evan Zeder, the company’s senior global director of sports marketing, and Harry Champion, tennis apparel product merchant, to find out what’s in New Balance’s secret sauce. They talked about working closely with Gauff and Paul on campaigns and design, treating the tennis court like a runway without sacrificing performance, their “fewer, bigger, better” mantra, and shirking trends to stay true to themselves. I especially enjoyed hearing how closely they worked with Gauff and her family to build her brand without overwhelming her early on.

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Building with athletes, not just around them

New Balance isn’t the type of brand to build a campaign and simply slot its athletes in when their schedule frees up. They’re bringing tennis players into conversations around kit design and campaign ideation early, often years in advance.

When the brand first signs an athlete, the team spends a lot of time with the player, their families, and their agent to get a clear sense of what they want out of the partnership, says Zeder. “What are they looking for, and does it align with who we are?” he says. “We’re trying to build this partnership with them, not for them—it’s not about telling them how we’re going to do things, but to find out where we sync and how they can contribute.”

When New Balance first signed Gauff, the shared goal across her team and theirs was to take things slow. She was a teenager still very much coming into her own, and the team was cognizant of not adding any sense of urgency onto her tennis achievements by, say, launching a signature product too early. That can feel like a lot to live up to.

“We’ve worked so closely with her, her team, and her family to make sure the product we’re building doesn’t put an immense amount of pressure on her,” said Zeder. “We should be a fun outlet for her—she shouldn’t ever feel like she has to perform for us.”

There’s also the difficulty of predicting someone’s success at a young age when product creation starts 18 to 24 months out, he notes. But after being in the works for years, they finally felt ready to launch her signature shoe, the CG2, in July of 2022. In some kind of divine timing, she’d go on to win her first Slam, the US Open, a year later.

The collaborative relationship between teams often results in a better product. When New Balance was first developing its “Call Me Coco” campaign, which came out in 2019, the first edit of it was super serious and Gauff’s family felt she should be shown in a more youthful light given her age, said Zeder. “She embodies that fun spirit, so we reworked it and added her smiling more, which made it that much more impactful.”

Sign up for a paid subscription to read about New Balance’s work with Tommy Paul, how they collaborate closely with both athletes on product design, the Miu Miu partnership, and the “fewer, bigger, better” approach they apply across all tennis activations. Plus, some intriguing intel on Gauff’s upcoming Slam kits.

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“That Vuori deal has fucked the entire industry,” a top tennis agent texted me last week when it was announced that Jack Draper would be out for the rest of the clay swing due to a knee tendon injury, the latest setback in his young career.

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Dramatic, yes, but it reflects a real reckoning playing out behind the scenes. Draper’s high-wattage sponsorship didn’t just turn heads—it’s pushed players and brands even further away from each other, inflating what players think they’re worth while forcing brands to reconsider how they structure contracts behind the scenes. And now, months later, the fallout is starting to show.

Sign up for a paid subscription to get the full breakdown of how the Draper deal is reshaping contracts, which brands are pulling back, and how it’s already complicating negotiations for top players.

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Oura is now the official wearable of the US Open and the USTA, in a five-year deal that stretches well beyond the tournament itself, into coaching certification and league play.

At Flushing Meadows, the brand will be hard to miss. Every main draw player will receive an Oura Ring, with recovery education built into player areas, alongside on-court signage, broadcast integrations, and fan-facing activations centered on sleep and recovery. It will also have a role in the US Open’s forthcoming Player Performance Center, including naming rights to a wellness and recovery space when the facility opens in 2027.

The timing is notable. Through partnerships with players like Aryna Sabalenka and Maria Sakkari, and a ve…

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In a normal, capitalist society, what Hailey Baptiste pulled off yesterday in Madrid would be a sponsor’s dream come true. Playing the best match of her career, she beat the world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka after saving six (!) match points—including an especially gutsy save with a serve-and-volley.

The story writes itself. Sabalenka is seen as inevitable in most of the matches she plays—it was only her second loss this year. Very few people (call them uncreative!) expected the world No. 32 to take her down.

But when she did, it acted as a reminder of the beauty of sports and tennis in particular (one I frankly needed after feeling a little bored lately). As photos of Baptiste celebrating took over my various feeds—some of them spliced against the artful shot of her breaking a racket in a match against Belinda Bencic just a few days prior—al…

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Each topic gets a Court Index rating (Low, Medium, or High) based on how effectively it moves the needle. This is the core of what I do with Hard Court, so the full breakdown and ratings are for paid subscribers. If you already are one, thank you—it really makes this possible.

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I know many of you, like me, live in the center of the Venn diagram between Bravo and tennis fans, so this first installment with Shep Rose—an OG star of the reality show Southern Charm—should be a treat. I called up the reformed (or, shall we say, reforming?) Charleston bad boy to talk about his halcyon childhood in Hilton Head watching legends compete at the Family Circle Cup (now the Charleston Open), growing up with Stan Smith’s kids, how his castmates would fare as doubles partners, and what tennis rules he would change if he could.

Rose recently joined Intennse Tennis—a nascent, team-based pro tennis league—as an advisor and ambassador. With a fas…

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Bryson Malone is the rare stylish person who doesn’t want to overstate his fashion cred.

“I’m more like an anthropologist,” he told me as we dissected the differences between capital-F fashion and innate style. “When I’m at a tennis match, I’m looking at people in the stands to see what they’re wearing and how they’re interacting.”

What catches his eye? Not the influencers who spent hours getting ready, but the older tennis fans who dress “like they’re on a safari” or wear a clash of multicolored prints. “I love that so much,” he said.

That same impulse has driven his lifelong obsession with collecting vintage clothing—a hobby that’s now the foundation for his new business, Graphite, launching in May. The multifaceted company will sell curated collections of vintage tennis (or tennis-inspired) clothing that run the gamut from Ted Tinling dresses and Armani suits to small…

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