Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.
This week, the most mercurial player on the men’s tour did what he does best, there was an American shuffle at the top of the women’s rankings and a Wimbledon champion’s quandary revealed the delicate balance of tennis scheduling.
An important milestone for Jessica Pegula?
The American trio just below the summit of the women’s tennis rankings reshuffled this week, as Jessica Pegula moved ahead of Coco Gauff by winning the WTA 500 title in Charleston. Pegula, who beat Sofia Kenin 6-3, 7-5 after coming from 1-5 down in the second set, is now world No. 3, matching her career-high ranking.
With a big gap between the American and world No. 2 Iga Swiatek, and another big gap between Gauff and world No. 5 Madison Keys, it may look as if Pegula’s first clay-court title is more significant than the tight tussle between world No. 3 and world No. 4, with just 38 points separating them.
But Pegula, who missed last year’s clay-court swing with injury, is now entering the two WTA 1,000s in Rome and Madrid and then the French Open in Paris with no points to defend, effectively giving her a free hit for the next few months. She’ll be going into the surface transition with the most wins on the WTA Tour this season (25) ahead of world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who has 23.
With Gauff defending over 1,200 points, and Swiatek on the hook for 4,195, Pegula could yet climb higher without having to win big on the red dirt.
Who can explain the enigma of Botic van de Zandschulp?
Is there a more intriguing player on the ATP Tour than this Dutchman?
The mercurial van de Zandschulp has become the tennis master of the unexpected, winning when he is in line to lose and falling apart when there’s seemingly no reason to do so.
Van de Zandschulp has beaten Carlos Alcaraz at the U.S. Open in straight sets, ended Rafael Nadal’s career with a Davis Cup humbling in Spain and defeated Novak Djokovic at Indian Wells (including a 6-1 hammering of a final set) in the last eight months. All those wins were achieved with barely a flicker of nerves — remarkable for a player with a history of buckling under pressure. He served for the match three times against Holger Rune in the 2023 Munich Open final and held four championship points in all, but he ended up losing.
Just over a year later, in May 2024, Van de Zandschulp said that he had become so disillusioned with tennis that he was considering retiring. Instead, he beat three of the best players in recent history on some of the sport’s biggest stages, staying calm under pressure as if he were having a knock at a local club.
So, how would Van de Zandschulp fare in the first round of the Bucharest Open ATP 250 — the lowest rung on the tour — against Richard Gasquet, the 38-year-old Frenchman who will retire after this year’s French Open?
He led by a set and two breaks, and had a match point on his serve for a 6-4, 6-4 win. But he missed it, and ended up losing 6-1 in the decider, looking as neutral as he had done in beating some of the best to ever do it.
How did American men’s players reach a milestone in Houston?
With an easy put-away, Alex Michelsen secured a three-set victory over the French veteran Adrian Mannarino to reach the Houston Open quarterfinals. A fairly unremarkable moment in and of itself, but with his win on April 3, Michelsen ensured that all eight of the quarterfinalists would be American. It was the first time that had happened at an ATP Tour event since the Prudential-Bache Securities Classic in Orlando, Fla., in 1991.
Andre Agassi ended up winning the tournament, while Pete Sampras lost in the semifinals. ...
