Dynamism & Struggle

Dynamism & Struggle

Dynamism & Struggle

Simona Halep didn’t always make it look easy.

Simona Halep didn’t always make it look easy.

By Giri Nathan
February 7, 2025

Simona Halep calls it a day in Cluj-Napoca. // Getty

Simona Halep calls it a day in Cluj-Napoca. // Getty

I had been expecting a slow but steady Simona Halep comeback. Not a sudden retirement this week at age 33. But this last phase of her career has been sad and murky, at every turn, so this fits.

In 2022 she hired Patrick Mouratoglou as coach, which was followed soon by poor results, an on-court panic attack, and a public Instagram apology from Mouratoglou for those poor results. Later that year she made a Wimbledon semifinal and returned to the top 10. But she also received a provisional suspension after tests revealed the banned substance roxadustat—which Mouratoglou also eventually apologized for, since his team gave her the tainted collagen supplement. In 2023 there was the full-on doping suspension for irregularities in her blood samples over time. Then in 2024, after an appeal, that was shrunk from four years to nine months as she was found at “no significant fault or negligence” for the adverse test result.

After all that, she returned to the court as a wild card in Miami 2024 and immediately went three sets with Paula Badosa. That’s what had me suspecting a comeback. It was misleading. That was the last time she’d ever get remotely close to beating a player of her own stature. She played just five more matches in total, and won one. She said this week that she has been unable to recover from her injuries, in particular one to her knee cartilage. Thus, a brief retirement speech, in her home country of Romania, at the WTA 250 in Cluj-Napoca.

It’d be a shame if this dismal coda made people misread what is pretty clearly a Hall of Fame career. To pierce through the gloom, just return to memories and footage of Halep at her peak, from 2017 through 2019, as one of the most adept counterpunchers ever to play in the WTA. A short-statured, compact player, Halep ricocheted all over the court like a flung Super Ball. With her explosive first step and ease recovering from the corners, her court coverage could confound any opponent. Other people’s power didn’t bother her—she loved to redirect their pace—and her own low power was no problem. She simply figured out how to hurt her opponents in situations where they thought it impossible to get hurt. Even while careening from one sideline to another she could throw her full body weight into punishing counterattacks. Halep is an all-time elicitor of where did that come from?

One theme of her early career, though, was some reticence when closing out big matches. She lost her first three major finals, all in three-setters. Most conspicuously, Halep lost the 2017 Roland-Garros final despite being up 6–4, 3–0, to an unestablished teenager; the upside of that is that we can now say “Grand Slam champion Jelena Ostapenko.” Less troubling, but also disappointing, was her valiant 2018 Australian Open, where she played her way to the final on an ankle she had grotesquely injured earlier in the tournament, and lost narrowly after a defensive master class against Caroline Wozniacki.

At the next major in 2018, Halep arrived at Roland-Garros to rectify last year’s result. At that point she was world No. 1, in her prime at age 26, with $26 million in prize money, a fresh Nike deal, and still without a major title. She fell down a set and a break to Sloane Stephens in that final. And then, as she explained later, she remembered that she’d been on the opposite end of that score line the previous year. So she knew that a recovery was possible. She won that final by remembering how she lost it.

With her second major win, there was less intrigue, because she delivered arguably history’s cleanest performance in a major final. This was at Wimbledon in 2019, despite facing the tournament’s seven-time winner in Serena Williams. Halep dismissed her in 56 minutes, only hitting three unforced errors, a near-mystical performance. Halep, listening to audio from that championship point this week, said it was the most important and beautiful match of her career.

She didn’t always make it look that easy. Her matches were thrilling precisely for that reason, for all the dynamism and struggle. “I don’t want to cry. It’s a beautiful thing,” she said in her retirement speech, in Romanian. “I became world No. 1, I won Grand Slams. It’s all I wanted. Life goes on.”



The Hopper

—CLAY Tennis on Beatriz Haddad Maia’s US Open run.

—Giri on Iga Swiatek’s loss to Jess Pegula.

—Jon Wertheim’s mailbag is full this week.

—Sara Errani and Andrea Vavasori have won the US Open mixed doubles.

—Tim Newcomb on Taylor Fritz and Asics.



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Nike’s Vapor Franchise Expands to Start 2025

Nike’s Vapor Franchise Expands to Start 2025

New on-court shoe releases in March.

New on-court shoe releases in March.

By Tim Newcomb
February 5, 2025

Images courtesy of Nike

Images courtesy of Nike

If you’re a fan of the latest Nike Vapor lineup, you’ve got two new options to choose from for 2025, as the brand recently launched both the Vapor 12 and the Vapor Pro 3.

As Nike continues its confusing naming run of tennis footwear, the Vapor 12 features a reworked upper and updated traction pattern meant to be lighter than the Vapor 11. Returning to the line once made famous by Roger Federer is a Nike Air Zoom unit in the heel. A “firm midfoot plastic piece,” as the brand calls it, also makes a return to the lineup, which helps reduce rubber on the outsole while still offering stability when cutting.

With a reworked outsole also came an updated rubber compound designed to be lighter than the previous rubber. Nike reduced the weight of the upper and then created a “firm foot frame” wrapping the midfoot plate from the heel to the toe meant to improve stability.

The Vapor Pro 3 takes a different approach, with the Air Zoom unit not in the heel like the Vapor 12, but under the forefoot. The updated Pro 3 features a smaller unit than the previous version, but the brand says that also allows the shoe to offer more flexibility in the toe box.

The new rubber compound on the Vapor 12 is also available on the Vapor Pro 3. The midsole foam remains the same, but Nike did update the feel around the midfoot and heel meant to improve stability during cutting. 

Follow Tim Newcomb’s tennis gear coverage on Instagram at Felt Alley Tennis.

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Asics Drops the All New Gel-Resolution 10

Stalwart Asics Gel-Resolution Launches 10th Iteration

New on-court shoe releases in March.

New on-court shoe releases in March.

By Tim Newcomb
February 5, 2025

Image courtesy of Asics

Images courtesy of Asics

When it comes to Asics tennis, there’s little else as successful as the brand’s Gel-Resolution sneaker line. The most popular tennis product in brand history—and one of the most popular models in the industry—launched its 10th iteration in January, giving the Gel-Resolution X an update focused on comfort and support, the brand says.

A new midsole design includes both Flytefoam in the forefoot and FF Blast Plus Eco foam in the heel, paired with the brand’s signature gel cushioning, meant to improve the underfoot comfort of the model. An updated Dynawall stability feature on the upper now wraps the heel for improved support.

“The comfort and support in this new model are game changers,” says Brazilian tennis player Beatriz Haddad Maia.

Other design tweaks include a higher medial ankle cut meant to support the ankle and a customizable lacing system. Asics launched the model ahead of the Australian Open and features a range of colors for both men and women.

Follow Tim Newcomb’s tennis gear coverage on Instagram at Felt Alley Tennis.

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A Jarring Tableau

A Jarring Tableau

A Jarring Tableau

Novak Djokovic added a master tactician
in coach Andy Murray.

Novak Djokovic added a master tactician in coach Andy Murray.

By Giri Nathan
January 31, 2025

Novak goes to the head of Andy’s class. // Alamy

Novak goes to the head of Andy’s class. // Alamy

After stepping away from the tour last summer, Andy Murray followed the destiny of many a retired tennis player: getting extremely into golf. On the side, he was also playing some phone tag with his old colleague Novak Djokovic. It’s a funny story, via Simon Briggs of The Telegraph: “Novak had messaged me, just wanting to chat. It was just before Shanghai [which started on Oct. 2], and we’d exchanged messages and missed calls and stuff. Then eventually I was on the 17th hole of the golf course, and the guy I was playing with said to me, ‘Do you know what’s next?’ I was like, ‘No, not really.’ He said, ‘Do you have any plans to do any coaching?’ And I said, ‘Honestly, I can’t think of anything worse to do right now.’”

After the golf, sitting in his car, he received a phone call from Djokovic inviting him to do just that: coach. Murray had to clear it with his family. They accepted it, on the premise that Djokovic was presumably winding down his career, so it wouldn’t be too extensive of a time commitment. It would also be on a trial basis. Player and coach would spend 10 days training in the offseason, take a break—Murray was headed on a ski vacation with his family—reunite for the Australian Open, and then evaluate the partnership after the tournament.

For Murray, it was a chance to work for a man he’d known since they were juniors, a peer who had once even been recruited to play for the same country. (One of the more amusing counterfactuals on the ATP is Novak Djokovic playing under the Union Jack.) After 36 matches against each other—Djokovic won 25—they’d finally have their incentives aligned. Murray could bring a few things to his rival: a fresh source of motivation for a man who had nothing left to win, an intimate understanding of Djokovic’s own game, the overall tactical savvy that Murray was known for, and scouting reports on the ATP players Murray had been competing with as recently as five months prior. When you poach your coach out of his first year of retirement, those insights are still hot and fresh.

Speaking after their offseason training, Djokovic reported that the partnership was enriching, if peculiar. “Just overall, a very nice and strange feeling to have him on the same side of the court. We have been rivals for 20-plus years and always kind of kept secrets from each other about the way we practiced, the way we prepared, and the way we approached the matches.” It was also peculiar for us watching from the outside. Thanks to the Australian Open’s new courtside coaching boxes, we could see Murray conferring with Djokovic mid-match, miming backhands, muttering his observations, delivering a fist pump here and there, calmly absorbing Djokovic’s outbursts. Murray’s demeanor in the box was quite mild, closer to his dry civilian persona than his vinegary on-court persona. “I felt a lot of nerves and stuff in the buildup to the matches,” said Murray after the tournament, “but when I was watching it I felt like I was able to sort of switch that off. I felt calm at the side and was sort of watching, trying to do my job.”

When the partnership was first announced, it sounded like a stunt, but as the matches went on, and I became desensitized to the jarring tableau, it wasn’t hard to see the appeal. Djokovic had the luxury of discussing nitty-gritty details with a player who’d always been known for his meticulous approach to the game. They spent their time puzzling out “how I can gain an inch more court positioning,” Djokovic said.

Murray, reflecting on their early days together, said in an interview on the Australian TV program The Project that coaching was “more demanding” than he’d expected. “I wish I’d known that when I was playing. Then maybe I would’ve been a bit easier to work with.” To his credit, Murray wasn’t skimping on any of his homework. According to Tim Henman on the Eurosport broadcast, the novice coach had prepared for Djokovic’s first-round match by watching 20 hours(!) of his opponent, who had never before played a main-draw match at a major. Even speaking as a big fan of the young Indian-American, that is just a staggering amount of Nishesh Basavareddy footage to consume.

If that was Murray’s standard, I can’t fathom how much Carlos Alcaraz footage he ate up in anticipation of their Australian Open quarterfinal. Murray, one of the most vocal proponents of young talent you’ll ever see, had identified Alcaraz as a future world No. 1 back in 2021, and in 2024 tweeted “Watching Alcaraz play tennis makes me smile,” with a blushing smile emoji and a heart emoji. Given those facts, it was a little surreal to watch him cheer a 10-time Melbourne champion on to victory over a rising superstar. But that’s what the money is for. After pulling off the spectacular four-set triumph on a bum hamstring, the player screamed in triumph, the coach could be seen letting out an enormous sigh, and the two shared a courtside hug.

A defeat of Alcaraz deep at a Slam was probably something like a 98th percentile outcome for this new partnership. But it also only lasted another set of tennis. Djokovic retired due to his hamstring injury after dropping the first set of his semifinal against Sascha Zverev. “I’ll definitely have a chat with Andy and thank him for being here with me. Give him my feedback, which is, of course, positive, and see how he feels and we make the next step,” said Djokovic after the match. He said they were still “hotheaded and disappointed” and would chat once they’d had a chance to “cool off.” He has yet to offer any public update.

Murray, meanwhile, also had positive reviews of his coaching experience, even if he did feel it was a bit “embarrassing” to get so much credit for Novak’s successes. He said that he felt equipped to handle the strategic and psychological aspects of coaching but still had a lot to learn about the technical side. He also sounded grateful as a pure fan of the sport: “I got to witness some amazing tennis, and one of the best matches that I’ve seen live, against Alcaraz.”

Right after he retired, he tweeted “Never liked tennis anyway.” This from a man who got a metal hip so he could play more of it. Nobody will ever manage to pry him away from this game.



The Hopper

—CLAY Tennis on Beatriz Haddad Maia’s US Open run.

—Giri on Iga Swiatek’s loss to Jess Pegula.

—Jon Wertheim’s mailbag is full this week.

—Sara Errani and Andrea Vavasori have won the US Open mixed doubles.

—Tim Newcomb on Taylor Fritz and Asics.



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K-Swiss Pinnacle

K-Swiss Reaches for New Heights with its Pinnacle

New on-court shoe releases in March.

New on-court shoe releases in March.

By Tim Newcomb
January 30, 2025

Image courtesy of K-Swiss

Images courtesy of K-Swiss

K-Swiss is calling its new March footwear release the Pinnacle, a name meant to telegraph exactly where the shoe falls within its tennis performance lineup.

“We needed to create a high-end, innovative shoe that could compete with the biggest names in the industry, especially at the pro-tour level,” M.J. Kim, K-Swiss footwear designer says. “The goal was to design a standout product that featured the latest technology and was worn by a top athlete like Andrey Rublev.”

Rublev is already wearing the model, having announced the partnership before the 2024 U.S. Open. As K-Swiss welcomes the release of the new Ultrashot 4, which was seen on K-Swiss athletes (and Frances Tiafoe, for that matter) during the 2025 Australian Open, the upcoming Pinnacle offers a tennis sneaker with a full-length carbon-fiber plate, the key technical calling card of the silhouette.

The curved profile of the front of the plate helps with movement in all directions, for improved stability and agility, Kim says. Sandwiching the plate between two types of midsole foams helps improve feel and comfort. The shoe also features a lateral support element, a high-durability outsole, a breathable mesh upper reinforced with TPU, and a lacing system with an internal strap for customized fit.

Kim says the see-through materials and changing opacities help subtly show the technology. “From a distance, the shoe looks like a clean, simple sneaker, making it versatile enough to wear off the court while still showcasing its innovation,” he says. Expect the Pinnacle to release in time for the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells this March. 

Follow Tim Newcomb’s tennis gear coverage on Instagram at Felt Alley Tennis.

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SIGN UP — YOU'RE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR SECOND SERVE.


High Voltage

High Voltage

High Voltage

Madison Keys plays the match of her life.

Madison Keys plays the match of her life.

By Giri Nathan
January 24, 2025

Madison Keys celebrates her win over Iga Swiatek on Thursday. // Getty

Madison Keys celebrates her win over Iga Swiatek on Thursday. // Getty

I can’t keep track of the number of times I felt convinced that Madison Keys was doomed.

Late in the third set of her Australian Open semifinal, she fell into a 0–40 hole in two different service games (and got broken once); she was down match point while returning serve at 5–6; she spent much of the decisive tiebreak trailing by a mini-break. And her opponent, Iga Swiatek, has never been one to flinch. In the five matches leading into this semifinal, Swiatek had lost an average of 1.4 games per set. She had been stamping out any signs of life; I’d mentally already written her into the final. Keys had managed to blitz her the second set, but the third set was looking far dicier.

Okay, if I’m keeping it real, keeping Melbourne hours is an imperfect art, and I was falling in and out of consciousness throughout the third set. I only watched the replay the next day after I already knew the result. So it was more a matter of how rather than if she won. And the how just kept eluding me. Watching the replay, I thought she would lose, even though I knew she had won. A Swiatek double fault there, a hard-won rally there—little hints of it. But the Keys win never felt plausible until I was watching them shake hands at the net.

Once the confusion faded and I looked back at the entirety of the 5–7, 6–1, 7–6(8) match, however, it was clear that this was the single best performance I’d ever witnessed from Keys. She’s a talented player who has nevertheless digested a lot of disappointment deep in these major tournaments. I attended her puzzling semifinal against Aryna Sabalenka in the 2023 U.S. Open, a match where she won the first set 6–0, served for the match in the second set, and even led by a break in the third set, but still lost. And last year there was pain at Wimbledon: a fourth-round match where she led Jasmine Paolini 5–2 in the third set, only to pick up an acute hamstring injury and retire in tears at 5–5.

This time, against Swiatek, there was no lapse, mental or physical. She barreled onward with signature Madison Keys tennis, which is powerful enough to leave even a defender like Swiatek flat-footed and hopeless. Until now I wasn’t sure that Keys could sustain her flat power against the best players in the world, under this much pressure, without spraying a few too many errors to survive. I watched rallies expecting the third or fourth ball to fly, but here she managed to keep that power under control.

Perhaps some of the credit for that control belongs to a bold offseason racquet change, a story laid out wonderfully by our friend Ben Rothenberg at Bounces. Keys had been playing with a Wilson racquet since she was a kid, but switched to a Yonex on the counsel of her husband-slash-coach, Bjorn Fratangelo, and despite the skepticism of her agent. Hoping she’d use equipment that was easier on her body, Fratangelo also got her to abandon her natural gut strings. With this new setup she noticed her wrist pain went away and the balls all started landing in. She hasn’t officially signed a deal with Yonex, but her performance at this tournament must be making any eventual contract that much sweeter. As for why the racquet works so well for her: “So to be totally honest, I have no idea why I like this racquet,” Keys told Rothenberg. I’ve always admired how players, even the well-spoken ones, can be quite numinous and vibe-y when discussing their racquet specs. Words are for us nerds; for the ones who can actually do the thing, at that level, all that matters is the feel.

Ten years ago, Keys was a teenager, making her first major semifinal at this tournament, setting expectations aggressively high and not quite meeting them. Now, at 29, her mind is open enough to experiment with the biggest variable in her tennis life, and she has been rewarded with her second major final appearance. She has dispatched a slate of seeded opponents like Danielle Collins, Elena Rybakina, Elina Svitolina. If this Swiatek match was the best match she’s ever played, she’ll need to order another one of those. Her opponent in the final is one of the few opponents who can match her power and even surpass it as needed: Aryna Sabalenka, hunting for an Australian Open three-peat. Keys, reflecting on their 2023 U.S. Open semi, said she played it too safe and felt bad. This time, though, she wants to embrace the discomfort of the moment, to play her boldest tennis and walk away without regrets.



The Hopper

—CLAY Tennis on Beatriz Haddad Maia’s US Open run.

—Giri on Iga Swiatek’s loss to Jess Pegula.

—Jon Wertheim’s mailbag is full this week.

—Sara Errani and Andrea Vavasori have won the US Open mixed doubles.

—Tim Newcomb on Taylor Fritz and Asics.



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Back from the Grind

Back from the Grind

Back from the Grind

Book Review: The Racket, by Conor Niland

Book Review: The Racket, by Conor Niland

By Patrick J. Sauer
January 22, 2025

Ireland Davis Cup captain and author Conor Niland // Getty

Ireland Davis Cup captain and author Conor Niland // Getty

Before we collectively embark on our 2025 tennis safari, there’s something we all need to do. Close our eyes, take a deep breath, and contemplate for a moment what it truly means to be the 129th-ranked player on the ATP Tour.

Let’s start by pointing out the obvious. Reaching #129 is an incredible achievement in and of itself, putting the owner of that ranking—held at the start of the Australian Open by 21-year-old Jaime Faria of Portugal—in rarefied air. It’s a ranking well within the somewhat arbitrary, but nonetheless long-standing, Top 150 upper echelon. And yet, #129 is a far cry from the more tennisly salient Top 100, which places the practitioner squarely on the ATP Tour with a now-guaranteed $300,000 basic income. A #129 ranking means trodding the lesser tours, a singular track in which dwelling amongst the 99th percentile—being better at this impossible game than nearly everyone on the planet—requires beating the bushes in front of few fans for little to no money, all in the hopes of climbing the points ladder. Where maybe, just maybe, you claw your way to playing an early-exit center-court millionaire-superstar-warm-up match at a major.

It’s a life Conor Niland, the greatest male tennis player Ireland has ever produced, knew all too well. In 2010, he topped out at #129 but managed to battle his way to an Arthur Ashe showdown against Novak Djokovic in the opening round of the 2011 U.S. Open. Unfortunately, with less than zero margin of error, Niland lost the physical battle with a night-before-the-match meal described as a “pork salad” and had to retire in the second set down 6–0, 5–1. Niland may have thrown up his chance at tennis immortality, but he can take pride in stealing a game off Novak, who went on to win his first of four U.S. Open chips. (Quick refresher on how insane Djoker’s career has been, he beat debutant Faria in the second round of the Aussie last week.)

Niland lays out his seven-year professional odyssey in The Racket: On Tour With Tennis’s Golden Generation—and the Other 99%, the deserving winner of the 2024 William Hill Sports Book of the Year. Niland’s blisters-and-all memoir is an ace, the liveliest craic about the struggles of life on the tennis margins I’ve come across. The Racket serves up a killer mesh of gallows humor and glorious heartbreak, a clear-eyed portrait of the liminal no-man’s-land where Niland was light-years from onetime peer Roger Federer (head-to-head teenage record; Niland 1, Fed 0), and also theoretically within a handful of lucky break points, of crossing the magical Top 100 threshold. Alas, as Niland says, he and every other tennis player have “a deep and lasting relationship with their highest ranking.” Niland’s numbers don’t lie, but it turns out, when told by a first-rate prosesmith, the journey to the middle—from #1,325 at 19 to calling it a #1,041 day at 31—is as fascinating and mystifying as one to the top of the tennis universe.

Along the way, Niland reached the stars, getting a mutual-respect social media boost from fellow non-Brit Andy Murray, helping get Niland a Wimbledon wild card, and hitting with 16-year-old #25-ranked Serena Williams at the Bollettieri Academy. In both cases, Niland quickly crashed back to Earth. In 2011, as the first Irishman to play at Wimbledon in 30 years, he choked away a 4–1 final-set lead to France’s Adrian Mannarino—a contest that warrants its own excruciating chapter, “The Longest Day”—dooming his dream Federer rematch on Centre’s holy grass. Still, Niland fulfilled his personal prophecy, which morphed from a childhood fantasy of winning Wimbledon to the more prosaic professional goal of simply playing there.

Oh, and over two hours of ground strokes, Serena never asked Niland what his name was. Win some, lose a whole lot more.

Fitting his Celtic roots, the no-tennis-ball-can-to-piss-in blarney is as thick and creamy as a pint of stout. (No joke, Niland describes the constant battle to find quality practice balls at sub-tier events as “reliably painful.”) The Irish is strong in The Racket. It feels like a story best unspooled over many nights in front of the fireplace at the pub, beginning with the fact Niland rose up from the streets of Limerick in the first place. Given the sport’s Victorian English origins, the Emerald Isle apparently has as much love and respect for tennis as the Queen Mum’s remains—there were no clay courts in Ireland in Niland’s era—and the country offered small potatoes support-wise. A lack of funds and an institutional buttress runs throughout The Racket, as Niland matter-of-factly details how after finishing up a flush college run at Cal-Berkeley, he was on his own.

Fellow countryman George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.” Niland takes that dictum straight to The Racket’s pages, laying out step-by-step how a Challengers existence puts future prestige to rest and becomes solely about making ends meet. Niland avoiding extraneous expenses by washing his kit in the bathtub, surviving on the free protein bars, and calculating whether it’s worth tanking a match to avoid flight-change penalties became the norm. But so did living up to the tennis wannabe’s mantra, “Keep working hard, it will happen,” which means travel, travel, and more travel. That ain’t cheap. At one point, Niland jets from Dublin to Doha hoping to secure an open slot, only to end up trying to convince himself a few Qatari practice rounds and a bit of ruddy face time with whatever governing organizer types were around was worth it. (Spoiler: It wasn’t.)

Niland’s intense low-level schedule shouldn’t be called a grind because that word has inexplicably gained positive pro-worker mindset connotations in certain circles. So we’ll go with “slog.” At his peak, the slog led to playing in 68 tourneys over 85 weeks, in places only the most dedicated cartophiles would recognize, like La Palma, Bucaramanga, Prostejov, Braunschweig, and Houston. Niland endured a bone-chilling –37 temp to play indoors in literal Siberia and battled debilitating 95-degree outdoor heat in Greece. The wildest chase of a precious ATP ranking point involved a seven-hour taxi ride across Uzbekistan with the luggage in his lap and a driver who took an extended lunch break. All for the glory of a Facebook post to a handful of followers back home, one declaring a Niland Bosnian flameout with the brilliant back-page tabloid headline “Conor is…Banjaxed in Banja Luka.”

Beyond the money, the starker reality of The Racket is there was none of the expected camaraderie to make the slog even a wee bit less lonely. Nope. Guys drank by themselves, because God forbid a player get a leg up knowing an opponent is slightly hungover instead of enjoying an entertaining night with the lads. After seven years on tour, Niland retains zero friendships despite crossing paths with countless dudes around his age surviving that brutal tennis life. As he describes it, making a name for oneself on the ITF World Tennis Tour or Challengers circuit isn’t about tennis abilities, “it’s about being able to cope with the strange bedfellows of regular boredom and constant uncertainty. Not many succeed.” And even fewer get the unrequited thrill of almost smashing a Zendaya threesome.

Niland would get his brief celebrity shine after the Novak crap-out, even appearing on an RTE talk show featuring Cuba Gooding Jr., Sinéad O’Connor, and McLovin, but it’s not like he was Stephen Cluxton or Noel Skehan or some kind of big shot. Niland claims contentment just by having gotten out of tennis without a “reflex resentment” of the game, impressive given his pretax earnings over those seven years amounted to $247,686. Do the math. Or don’t. It’s depressing. Therein, though, lies the brilliance of The Racket, and it can be calculated.

Even as a literary sports character, Niland isn’t an archetype. He’s not Rocky Balboa, a down-and-out ham-and-egger who gets his one do-or-die championship shot and seizes it. Nor is he Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy, a supremely talented Icarus who can’t get out of his own way and flies too close to the 18th green. Neither underdog nor overdog, Conor Niland was a tennis stalwart who simply fell a cut below the top dogs and lived to tell the tale. The current captain of Ireland’s Davis Cup team made his peace—and a hell of a memoir—with all #129 of it:

I don’t believe it’s a contradiction to say that I didn’t fulfill my potential while also saying I couldn’t have tried any harder.

Fair to say, he’s already fulfilled his potential as a writer. Certainly, the irony of a tennis nobody possibly earning recognition and acclaim for being one such fella won’t be lost on his Gaelic wit. Good on ’ya, lad. Reflecting upon the book, what shines through in The Racket didn’t leave me shaking my head and pining for what Conor Niland’s career might have been. It left me nodding in respect for what it was.



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Gorilla vs. Bear Mix 2

Gorilla vs. Bear
x
The Second Serve

Gorilla vs. Bear
x
The Second Serve

The second mix from the iconic OG music blog Gorilla vs. Bear.

The second mix from the iconic OG music blog Gorilla vs. Bear.

By TSS
January 21, 2025

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Honor Student

Honor Student

Honor Student

When it comes to doping tests in tennis, Chris Eubanks has done his homework—others, not so much.

When it comes to doping tests in tennis, Chris Eubanks has done his homework—others, not so much.

By Ben Rothenberg
January 17, 2025

Chris Eubanks has gone to the head of the class. // Getty

Chris Eubanks has gone to the head of the class. // Getty

Christopher Eubanks had a common initial reaction on the morning of Aug. 20, 2024. 

“I woke up and saw the news. I was pretty shocked, like everyone else,” Eubanks told The Second Serve in an interview this week at the Australian Open. 

Jannik Sinner, the recently installed ATP No. 1, had just been revealed by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) to have tested positive for the banned substance clostebol; that revelation was made simultaneously to the announcement that an independent tribunal had already ruled that Sinner bore “no fault or negligence” for the positive tests for the substance, which he had explained was transmitted to him unintentionally from his massage therapist’s finger. 

A No. 1-ranked player testing positive was an unprecedented shock that sent ripples and whispers through the sport. But while others around tennis started talking, Eubanks started reading.  

“I wanted to prepare in the event that I, as a current player, was going to be asked about it,” Eubanks said. “And so I took it upon myself to read all 33 pages of the report. A few passages I had to reread multiple times to try to get an understanding of it.”

Eubanks was preparing both as a player and as a commentator for ESPN, whom he worked for for the duration of the US Open after being eliminated from the draw.  

Eubanks wasn’t ultimately asked about the case in a press conference or on-air, but the topic of doping rules and procedures had his “interest already piqued” when the topic popped up again at the top of a tennis ladder.

“Then Iga’s case comes about: another ITIA case,” Eubanks said of Iga Swiatek’s positive test for trimetazidine, revealed on Thanksgiving Day. “And again, because of preparation for doing Tennis Channel a few months later, I wanted to try to educate myself as much as possible on the facts of the case.”

Eubanks read not only the decision in the Swiatek case, but the procedural rules outlined in the 2024 Tennis Anti-Doping Programme.

“I wanted to cross-reference with an actual reading of the rule from the rule book so that I had a good understanding of it,” Eubanks said. “And then it just kind of went from there. Once I kind of got going in it, I was really, really invested in it. For me, I just wanted to make sure I had a good understanding of the facts of the case and [wasn’t] just allowing what I read on social media to dictate my perception of it.”

The more he became well-versed in the topic and its literature, the more Eubanks winced when hearing others misrepresent the facts of the cases. He chalked up the persistence of misinformation to “the time in which we live now.” 

“It was a bit, I would say, disheartening, to see things said publicly that—based on my understanding of the rules at the time—just weren’t factual,” Eubanks said. “They just weren’t true.”

One voice Eubanks did listen to—and retweet—was Richard Ings, a former tennis chair umpire who later headed the ATP’s original anti-doping operation and later the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA). 

“I like to say that I’m smart enough to listen to people who are smarter than me,” Eubanks said. “And so, because Richard has the background in it, he was one of the people that I looked to on social media to give some type of insight.”

As he gained his own literacy in the topic, Eubanks was frequently able to correct and educate his fellow players in conversations, like when they repeatedly said that Sinner must have done something wrong to have had his points and prize money from Indian Wells—the tournament at which his positive tests occurred—voided. 

“I tried to reiterate that that is a procedural rule,” Eubanks said. “That has to happen anytime you have an adverse analytical finding from an in-competition sample. That’s not a discretionary thing…. I think that was one of the more frustrating ones because I’d be like, ‘Guys, it’s in the report! It’s, like, right there! You can go back and look in the actual rule book and see. Come on, guys. It’s clearly written in black and white.’”

Eubanks even became versed in more obscure precedents in order to corroborate and defend the handling of the high-profile cases.

“They would ask me, ‘Well, do you think this would have happened if it hadn’t been Jannik Sinner?’” Eubanks said. “And my response was: It happened to Marco Bortolotti. His ITIA report is right there, easily accessible, and you can look it up. He tested positive on an in-competition sample at the end of the year in 2023. He was notified in either January or February. He submitted his response; he was allowed to continue playing, and then they eventually ruled it ‘No fault or negligence.’ It was the same exact process—minus obviously a lot of details because of how the clostebol got into Sinner’s system. But by and large, this process was the exact same. And when I mentioned Bortolotti, most of the players just don’t know. And I had never heard of Marco Bortolotti, and I’m playing out here. So I would oftentimes send them the report and go, ‘Read it! It’s the exact same, and it’s a lot shorter than Sinner’s.’”

Because of the unprecedented pair of high-profile cases in recent months, the ITIA arranged two open-door informational sessions at the Australian Open last weekend. Eubanks, who had lost in the final round of qualifying and was waiting to see if he might be able to get into the main draw as a lucky loser, was the only player to attend.

Adrian Bassett, director of communications for the ITIA, was struck not only by Eubanks’ presence, but by his preparedness: Eubanks arrived to the meeting with the PDFs of the decisions downloaded and annotated on his iPad, and a list of questions pre-written. 

“I don’t think you would naturally expect that from players,” Bassett said of Eubanks. “But it’s great that he did. He was engaged, and they were all sensible questions. And I hope we gave him sensible answers that helped his understanding of it. We’re always open to talking to players and answering their questions. But it definitely stood out.” 

Seeing his intellectual rigor and attention to detail, I asked Eubanks if he perhaps planned on something like law school after his tennis-playing career ends.

“No, no, no, no,” Eubanks insisted. “Way too much work. I would gladly just take the way that I am into other walks in my life. And whatever I choose to do, I’ll probably have that same kind of diligent approach to it.”



The Hopper

—CLAY Tennis on Beatriz Haddad Maia’s US Open run.

—Giri on Iga Swiatek’s loss to Jess Pegula.

—Jon Wertheim’s mailbag is full this week.

—Sara Errani and Andrea Vavasori have won the US Open mixed doubles.

—Tim Newcomb on Taylor Fritz and Asics.



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The 2025 Australian Open Shoe Report

The 2025 Australian Open
Shoe Report

The 2025
Australian Open
Shoe Report

Marsh green, flowers, and animals highlight
the Happy Slam.

Marsh green, flowers, and animals highlight the Happy Slam.

By Tim Newcomb
January 15, 2024

The Australian Open may be on the other side of the world for many tennis fans, but for brands it is the first real opportunity in a new calendar year to show off fresh designs. And sometimes new faces.

While some athletes may be sporting new footwear, others simply have added a little flair to their kicks, whether it’s Nike’s embellishments for a handful of players, fresh designs for Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev, a special colorway for Marta Kostyuk, or the next colorway of the sport’s leading signature shoe for Coco Gauff. 

Aryna Sabalenka
Jannik Sinner

Nike NXT & Zoom Zero

In a trend befitting Nike, two of the brand’s top players wear discontinued sneaker models. Aryna Sabalenka still sports the Zoom Nxt and Jannik Sinner the Zoom Zero. Both defending AO champions received similar treatment for the 2025 tournament, with Sabalenka’s shoes now featuring a tiger image near the heel to match her famed tattoo and Sinner’s model adorned with a fox—complete with paw prints, mind you—to tie to a nickname he picked up long ago.

Getty

Getty

COCO GAUFF

New Balance CG2

This is the second major Coco Gauff has played in the sequel iteration of her signature shoe from New Balance. This CG2 Coco AO colorway complements the Australian outdoors with a classic “marsh green,” the brand tells me, but there’s also a tie to Boston.

“When working with Coco on the Coco CG2 Australian Open colorway, we really leaned in on the color green and the retro vibes that color has for both tennis and Boston,” Jodi Klann, footwear creative design manager at Boston-based New Balance, tells me. “Coco wanted this first colorway of the year to be wearable while elevated and mature. Coco’s ideas and inspiration from the world around her make working on her signature model very fun, especially when we get to pull in elements from past collaborations, sports, and cultural moments.”

Images courtesy of New Balance

Images courtesy of New Balance

Marta Kostyuk

Wilson Intrigue

Wilson’s new women’s-specific Intrigue shoe, created in collaboration with Marta Kostyuk, doesn’t launch until February, but the head-to-toe Wilson athlete has been wearing the model in tournaments since the 2024 US Open. For this year’s AO, Kostyuk has a special-edition colorway in white and red that matches her dress.

Image courtesy of Wilson

Image courtesy of Wilson

Novak Djokovic

Asics Court FF3 Novak

Each major, Asics creates a fresh colorway of Novak Djokovic’s Court FF 3 Novak player-edition model, which includes small Djokovic-specific logos on the tongue. For the 2025 AO, the theme remains blue, a color he wore at the event in 2024 and again at the US Open in 2024 (he donned red at the 2024 Roland-Garros).

Images courtesy of Asics

Images courtesy of Asics

Naomi Osaka

Nike GP Challenge 1

There’s a special Naomi Osaka version of the mainline Nike GP Challenge 1. And this one is all about sunshine and flowers. Osaka, one of the lead athletes on the GP Challenge 1, routinely sports her own designs. The AO version features orange and brown with plenty of flower decorations, including one on the forefoot and another flower popping off the tongue. The phrase “The sun shines where you are” is on the upper.

Images courtesy of Nike

Images courtesy of Nike

Daniil Medvedev

Lacoste AG-LT 23 x Daniil Medvedev

One of the few athletes on tour we can rely on to have his own player-edition model, Daniil Medvedev’s Lacoste AG-LT 23 silhouette comes with a base of white and plenty of blue accenting. The typical “Daniil M.” mark adorns the tongue.

Images courtesy of Lacoste

Images courtesy of Lacoste


Frances Tiafoe, who has made appearances in the Shoe Report in the past, made plenty of waves by switching his apparel to Lululemon ahead of the 2025 AO, but his footwear deal is still in limbo. For the tournament, Tiafoe is wearing the new K-Swiss Ultrashot 4. What he wears for the remainder of 2025 remains undecided.


Nike athletes have a few new options to choose from, as those choosing the Vapor Pro model now have the Vapor Pro 3—worn this year by Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper—and those in the regular Vapor model have the 12s, such as what Nick Kyrgios donned on court.

The new Vapor Pro 3 Premium. // Nike


Grigor Dimitrov, who was long a Nike stalwart, even wearing Vapor 9 models for years after his Nike deal expired, made a footwear announcement before the AO, signing with Adidas (he wears Lacoste apparel). Dimitrov opted for the Ubersonic for his first match at the tournament, which he retired from early.

Image courtesy of Adidas


Casper Ruud’s Yonex kits continue to feature his name and the flag of his home country, Norway, on the uppers. This year’s AO is no different, outfitting Ruud in a pair of player-edition red Eclipsion 5s.


Adidas athletes are showing off a “bright red and pink color” at this year’s tournament, which the brand says is inspired by the Australian desert. Adidas hasn’t offered up player-edition models for years.


Cam Norrie has switched to a head-to-toe Babolat deal, which puts him now in the all-new SFX 3 from the brand.


Leylah Fernandez continues to don her father’s unreleased Aesem branded shoes.


We thought that when Andy Murray retired from tennis, he’d also retire from the Shoe Report, but we are glad to see that he has been wearing Asics models while on the court coaching Djokovic. Murray played the past few years of his career without a shoe deal, so Djokovic’s sponsor obviously lined him up with some fresh kicks.


Follow Tim Newcomb’s tennis gear coverage on Instagram at Felt Alley Tennis.

Follow Tim Newcomb’s tennis gear coverage on Instagram at Felt Alley Tennis.

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