Making History

We have some new faces in the International Tennis Hall Of Fame, a BIG announcement was made about off-court coaching, and the Tour Finals are nearly upon us.

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

Who Was Inducted Into The Tennis Hall of Fame?

Three legendary players headline the 2025 International Hall of Fame class. Maria Sharapova, and doubles duo Mike & Bob Bryan will be inducted into the HOF next August. 

Sharapova won 36 singles titles, including 5 majors, during her illustrious career. She spent 408 weeks inside the Top 5, and is one of only 10 women to achieve a career singles Grand Slam. She also won the Olympic silver medal at the London games in 2012. 

The Bryan’s are arguably the greatest doubles team of all time. Throughout their careers, they combined for 119 tour-level titles, including 16 majors, and 1,109 total match wins. They also spent 438 weeks at No. 1 in the ATP Doubles Teams Rankings. The Americans also went a ridiculous 15 consecutive years making at least 1 Grand Slam final and made 178 tour-level finals overall.

These three are thoroughly deserving of this honor, and now their names will forever be etched into the history books with one more accolade: Hall of Famer.

What Are The New Developments With Off-Court Coaching?

Off-court coaching will be allowed at all levels of professional tennis in 2025. The decision was made at the ITF’s annual general meeting.

The ITF believes this move will make tennis “fairer and, potentially, more entertaining”. 

This new change means several things:

• Coaches can verbally talk to their player or use hand signals at any time except during a point.

• Players will have access to approved “player analysis technology” at times when coaching is permitted. 

• Coaching must be “brief & discreet” except during a changeover. 

This topic has been quite controversial, and some players are not happy with this new development. 

Denis Shapovolov took to X after this announcement was made and said “not just as a tennis player but as a fan of this sport it’s sad to see this new off-court coaching rule”.

Finally, the ITF said that the decision to implement the rule changes will be at the jurisdiction of the sanctioning body of each individual tournament or event. 

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out next season, and how much of an impact it will make on the game. 

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 @KO_Slice404 & @bearded_goat1745:

The first fan wants to know, what is the future for doubles in tennis? Is it doomed to fade out from the professional game or can it evolve and be reinvigorated?

This is a really interesting question, and one that is difficult to answer. Singles has always been the more popular discipline in tennis, and that isn’t going to change any time soon. 

One of the biggest proposals that has been suggested is somehow making doubles more attractive to “singles specialists” by increasing prize money, shortening the men’s singles format in the majors, or scheduling more doubles matches on big courts and showing them on TV.

However, adding in more top singles players into doubles draws also takes away spots for doubles specialists who rely on doubles to make their money. 

One of the biggest ways fans can help make doubles more relevant is by talking about it. It’s not that doubles isn’t marketable, it just does not get airtime because not enough people are asking for it. Tournaments like Indian Wells understand how popular doubles is and always feature great doubles matches. 

The bottom line is, if enough people speak up and advocate for more respect for doubles, the powers that be will likely at least start to listen.

We also have a video coming out within the next two months where we will answer this question more in depth. So be on the lookout!

The second fan wants to know if Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard is the best “serve bot” the sport has ever seen, and if he will keep it up.

His service numbers are absolutely insane. He had 87 aces in Basel last week, including 22 against Ben Shelton in the final. He is also averaging 18.6 aces per match, according to the Infosys ATP Stats. Gio is already #6 on the ATP’s all-time serve leaders leaderboard and has an overall serve rating of 297.1. For reference, the all-time #1 John Isner has a serve rating of 312.

While this is all impressive, is it sustainable? I believe it is. His serve does not have too many moving parts to it, and he already has so much confidence in both his first and second serve. I mean, the Frenchman is averaging 129 mph on his SECOND serve. It also helps that the rest of his game is fairly solid, so he doesn’t have to fully rely on his serve, as some other big serves usually have to do.

Only time will tell, but if he can keep these incredible numbers up, Mpetshi Perricard will surely go down as one of the greatest servers of all time.

Also before I forget, make sure to check out some of my favorite products from SuckerPunch linked below! Use code ‘Courtside-Punch’ for 25% off!

Click here for the Spicy Pepper shooter!

Click here for the Classic Dill shooter!

Who Won Last Week’s Tournaments?

A quartet of champs were crowned last week across both tours.

Jack Draper took down a red-hot Karen Khachanov to win the title in Vienna. The 6-4 7-5 victory secured Draper’s 2nd career title and a new career high ranking of #15. 

One of 2024’s many great newcomers Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard won the biggest title of his career in Basel. The 6’8” Frenchman took down Ben Shelton in the final 6-4 7-6 (4), firing down 22 aces in the process. He will now also rise to a new career high ranking of #31.

Qinwen Zheng continued her incredible 2024 with a WTA 500 title in Tokyo. She got the better of American wildcard Sofia Kenin in the final 7-6 (5) 6-3. Zheng only dropped one set in 4 matches. This is her 2nd title of the year and 4th overall. 

Over in Guangzhou, Serbia’s Olga Danilovic won her 2nd career title with a 6-3 6-1 win over American qualifier Caroline Dolehide. Danilovic’s first title came 6 years ago, when she was still a teenager. This win moved her up 34 spots in the rankings to a new career high of #52.

Who’s Playing This Week?

There will be play on three continents this week across both tours. The men will be in France for the Rolex Paris Masters 1000 tournament. These women will be split up at a trio of 250 tournaments in Jiujiang, China, Hong Kong, and Merida, Mexico

Most of the top players will be in action in Paris. Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, and Daniil Medvedev are the top 4 seeds. 28 of the current top 30 make up an increíble field for this year’s event. Novak Djokovic will be absent this time around, with questions about his motivation and future continuing to surround him.

The tournament in Jiujiang will feature Marie Bouzkova, Rebecca Sramkova, Moyuka Uchijima, & Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. 

In Hong Kong, Diana Shnaider, Katie Boulter, Leylah Fernandez, and Xinyu Wang are the top seeds. Tokyo finalist Sofia Kenin and former world No. 1 Simona Halep are also in the draw.

In Merida, Renata Zarazua, Nadia Podoroska, Ajla Tomljanovic, & Jule Niemeier are the top seeds.

What Does The Race To The ATP Finals Look Like This Week?

There wasn’t too much movement in the Race rankings this past week following the tournaments in Vienna & Basel.

Dimitrov & Paul swapped spots with Grigor moving up to #10 and Tommy dropping to #11. Both are in action in Paris, as are many of the other Tour Finals hopefuls. Holger Rune moved up two spots to #13 in the Race thanks to his semifinal run in Basel. Karen Khachanov is also making a late push, moving up 4 spots to #21. 

Also of note, Djokovic has withdrawn from Paris, putting his participation in the Tour Finals in doubt. He is still #6 in the Race, and still could qualify without playing a match until the Finals. If he does not play, an alternate would take his place. Alex de Minaur is currently in the top alternate spot at #9.

The final lineup will most likely be decided following the conclusion of the Paris Masters, as it is the last big tournament with opportunities to pick up big amounts of points. It should be a fun fight to the finish.

In Case You Missed It!

There were plenty of hot shots and great rallies in last week’s tournaments.

Check out the highlights below from the title runs of Jack Draper, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, Qinwen Zheng, and Olga Danilovic!

Click here for Jack Draper’s Vienna highlights!

Click here for Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard’s Basel highlights!

Click here for Qinwen Zheng’s Tokyo highlights!

Click here for Olga Danilovic’s Guangzhou highlights!

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!