Comebacks & New Beginnings

It may be the offseason, but a lot is still happening in the tennis world!

As always, there is plenty to discuss, so let’s get into this week’s topics, presented by SuckerPunch! 🥒

New Videos!!

We have two brand new videos out on our channel this week. One is a deep dive on Stefanos Tsitsipas, and the other is another Jannik Sinner video!

Check them out and let us know your thoughts!

What Happened Last Week?

A high-profile exhibition event took place at Madison Square Garden last Wednesday. 

The world’s most famous arena hosted The Garden Cup, featuring top players Carlos Alcaraz, Ben Shelton, Jessica Pegula, & Emma Navarro.

In the men’s singles event, Alcaraz got the better of Shelton 4-6 6-2 [7-4]. 

Navarro was victorious in the women’s singles match with a 7-6 7-5 win over Pegula. 

Alcaraz played another exhibition event on Friday, this time in Charlotte, North Carolina for the Charlotte invitational. He couldn't get the win though as he was beaten by American Frances Tiafoe 5-7 6-1 [11-9].

In the other match at the Charlotte Invitational, Madison Keys beat her longtime best friend Sloane Stephens in straight sets 7-5 6-3.

Live Ranking Update: The Biggest Movers Of The Week

Alycia Parks has moved back into the top 100 thanks to a run to the title at the WTA 125 event in Florianopolis, Brazil. She is up 19 spots to #84.

Belinda Bencic is on the comeback trail after having a child this past April. She is already finding some great form, making it to a 125 final in Angers, France. The former world no. 4 is up to #481, moving up 432 spots this week alone. 

Major Tournament Updates

With the professional tennis season officially in the books, there are no main tour-level events remaining in 2024. 

The next big events to look forward to are the United Cup and the start of the Australian Open lead-up tournaments:

• ATP/WTA United Cup - Perth & Sydney (December 27 - January 5, 2025)

• ATP/WTA Brisbane International (December 30 - January 5, 2025)

• ATP Hong Kong Open (December 30 - January 5, 2025)

• WTA ASB Classic - Auckland (December 30 - January 5, 2025)

Watch Out For These Players

Jenson Brooksby:

The Australian Open entry list came out this past week, and this young American is on it. Brooksby has been off the tour for a large part of the last two and half years, but is set to make a comeback in 2025. The 24 year-old has one of the more unique playing styles of anyone on tour, and it has worked in his favor. He reached a career-high ranking of #33 in 2022.

Belinda Bencic:

Another player on the AO entry list is this former top 10 staple. Bencic is one of the best defensive players on tour, and always fights for every point. This 8-time title winner will be a tough out for whoever she draws next year.

Off The Court

Novak To Play Brisbane:

Novak Djokovic will begin his Australian Open preparation at the Brisbane International. Novak wants to make a serious push towards winning another major, and playing warmup tournaments like this one is a step in the right direction. 

The Aussie Open has been the most successful for Novak with 11 titles. It will be very interesting to see how much prep he needs at this stage of his career. 

Joining Djokovic in the Brisbane field will be defending champ Grigor Dimitrov, Holger Rune, and Frances Tiafoe. 

Alcaraz Adds To Coaching Team:

Carlos Alcaraz has added Samuel Lopez to work alongside Juan Carlos Ferrero on his coaching team ahead of the 2025 season. Lopez actually coached Ferrero in the past, and has been working with Pablo Carreño Busta for the last 9 years. 

Alcaraz believes this new pairing can help push him back to the top of the rankings, saying “I think Samuel, for me, is one of the best coaches we have on tour… [Ferrero & Lopez] trust each other 100 percent and being able to travel with both… it's going to be great.”

Carlitos will be looking to repeat the success he had in 2024 when he won 2 major titles and the Olympic silver medal. 

What’s The Dill???

Welcome to the What’s The Dill portion of this week’s newsletter, brought to you by SuckerPunch! Every week we will feature the best question(s) asked on our “What’s The Dill” post which can be found under the Community tab on the Courtside Tennis YouTube channel.

This week’s questions come from @gebmanini6465 & @haydencoxall6396.

The first fan wants to know who will have the more successful 2025 between Tommy Paul & Grigor Dimitrov. 

Both of these players are definitely very athletic and dynamic, which makes for a compelling watch for fans. 

They also both had great seasons in 2024. 

Paul reached a career high ranking of #12, won 3 titles, and had a 45-19 overall record. 

Dimitrov spent most of the season in the top 10, won his 9th career title, and had a similar overall record to Paul at 46-18. 

Predicting who will have a better 2025 season is nearly impossible, but there are several factors that could help us make a good educated guess.

First, they are both at different points of their careers in terms of age. Grigor is 33, and has been on tour for 16 years already. Tommy is 27, and has only been on tour for 9 years so far. Differences in motivation may come into play, especially with how long Grigor has been around. 

Also, Dimitrov has struggled with injuries recently, most notably the groin injury he picked up at Wimbledon over the summer. 

This was by far Tommy Paul’s best season of his career and has been steadily improving year after year. He went 3-1 in finals this year as well. 

Grigor won his first title in 7 years in Brisbane at the start of the year, and made three more finals, including at the 1000 event in Miami. 

Overall, they both had career years in 2024, and have the chance to build on that success in 2025. Injuries, motivation, and draw matchups will be big deciding factors on how each of their seasons go. I can definitely see them both maintaining their high rankings, and maybe even picking up a 1000 level title or two…

The second fan wants to know what 2025 holds for the Novak Djokovic x Andy Murray player-coach collaboration. 

Both of these players actually have experience in this type of coaching relationship before.

Novak’s last two coaches have been former players in Boris Becker & Goran Ivanisevic. Under Becker, he won six slams during one the most dominant periods of his career. He won 10 slams while with Goran. 

Murray has been coached by Ivan Lendl and Amelie Mauresmo, both former players as well. 

The main difference between all of these scenarios and this current one is the age difference. 

Andy and Novak are significantly closer in age to each other than they have been with any of their former coaches. This could be both a positive and a negative factor. Having experience playing on the tour at the highest level at the same time will be huge. But, this could also create some conflict in how to conduct practices, training, and scheduling. Adapting to each other’s routines and having open communication will be key in maintaining a positive morale all around.

While Murray has never coached professionally before, he does bring some great qualities to his new position. 

The ability to relate to Novak and what he goes through both on and off court will be invaluable. He also brings a “never say die” mentality to the team that could further motivate Novak. That is a quality that Djokovic already possesses, but having someone else around with a similar mentality could provide that extra boost he needs.

Until we see this pairing together in a tournament, we can’t know how great or not so great a fit it is. If Murray can be a stabilizing and fresh presence for Novak, the pairing will be successful. However, if there are too many disputes over how things should be done, it may never even have a chance to get off the ground. Only time will tell, but it should be really entertaining to watch in the meantime.

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Highlights Of The Week

Even though there aren’t any big tournaments going on, there are still some highlights to see.

Check out some of the best moments from the exhibition events at Madison Square Garden & the Spectrum Center  featuring Carlos Alcaraz, Jessica Pegula, Frances Tiafoe, Sloane Stephens, Emma Navarro, & Ben Shelton!

One Last Thing!

Once again, If you guys want your questions answered in next week’s newsletter check out the post in the Community tab of the Courtside Tennis YouTube channel. You can also email us, drop them in the discord, or leave a comment on our most recent Youtube video. Make sure to put Courtside Digest before the comment so that way we can find it more easily. Thanks!