Another Dip in Hot Lava
Another Dip in Hot Lava
The OG Air Tech Challenge 2 is making a comeback.
The OG Air Tech Challenge 2 is making a comeback.
By Tim Newcomb
January 26, 2024
Image courtesy of Nike
Image courtesy of Nike
When you mine tennis nostalgia, you’re bound to churn up hot lava. That’s exactly what Nike has planned for a 2024 retro release of the 1990 Air Tech Challenge 2 “Hot Lava,” made famous by Andre Agassi.
The innovative sneaker debuted on Agassi’s feet in California in early 1990 before really turning heads at the French Open later that year. Along with the three-quarter height, synthetic leather, visible Nike Air bubble for the first time in Nike tennis, and unique lock-down design, the shoe featured splashes of pink and black dubbed Hot Lava.
Arguably the most famous shoe in the history of Nike tennis, the brand released a retro version first in 2008, then again in 2014. We saw more versions in 2016 and a limited run in 2019. The Jordan Brand borrowed the pattern in 2018 for a Legacy 312 and a LeBron 16 released in 2019 with a nod to the colorway.
As first reported by Sneaker Files, the 2024 version will launch in fall, which places it likely around the US Open, which this year had Nike flashing new Mac Attack retro colorways and teasing a Supreme-exclusive Courtposite that is now available. Agassi himself has been seen around the Australian Open this year, so expect to see more of the tennis legend throughout 2024.
The 2024 Hot Lava may include some vintage coloring that gives it a different hue from the original, including the potential for “phantom” and “pale ivory” added to the design. No matter the final tones, Nike has a tennis sneaker still exciting fans more than three decades later.
Follow Tim Newcomb’s tennis gear coverage on Instagram at Felt Alley Tennis.
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Dominance and Bedlam at the Australian Open
Dominance and Bedlam at the Australian Open
This Australian Open draw tells twin stories of an evolving WTA.
This Australian Open draw tells twin stories of an evolving WTA.
By Giri Nathan
January 26, 2024
Aryna Sabalenka has cruised into her second straight Australian Open final / Associated Press
Aryna Sabalenka has cruised into her second straight Australian Open final / Associated Press
This Australian Open draw tells twin stories of an evolving WTA. Dominance is beginning to solidify at the top of the tour in a way we haven’t seen in years…and yet, there’s still plenty of bedlam to keep things spicy.
The bottom half of the draw maintained order. Seeded players generally kept it together and took care of business for at least a round or two. There was space for the occasional thrilling breakout, courtesy of hyped teens of the past (Amanda Anisimova) and present (Mirra Andreeva), but the elite of the elite serenely slashed their way to the semifinal, a showdown between Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff. In terms of narrative continuity, it’s a joy to see some repeat customers in the late rounds of these Slams. And it’s no real surprise to see these two picking up right where they left off in the US Open final. In this match they comfortably surpassed the quality of their duel in New York—leaving some of the nerves behind, ratcheting up the execution—and Sabalenka took it in two taut sets. I’ll happily watch a dozen more rounds of this offense vs. defense clash over the next few seasons. Sabalenka emerged having won 26 of her last 27 sets in Melbourne.
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Meanwhile, the top half of the draw embraced chaos. One key disruptor was the 19-year-old Linda Noskova, a long-rumored talent self-actualizing with flair. She overpowered the world No. 1, Iga Swiatek, caught a little luck with an Elina Svitolina retirement, and bowed out of her quarterfinal in tears, but previewed a significant career to come. In large part the chaos in this half was supplied by Dayana Yastremska, whose mere presence in the tournament wasn’t to be taken for granted, given that she was down a break in the third set of her last match in the qualifying rounds. She survived, though, then dove as deep into the main draw of a Slam as any qualifier in history besides Emma Raducanu in 2021. Newcomers were alerted to Yastremska’s rich history: a former No. 21 ranking, sudden retirements from matches while on the precipice of defeat, a side hustle in pop music, a positive test for an anabolic steroid that was later cleared with a “kissing” defense even more memorable than Richard Gasquet’s, and a Ukrainian home life disrupted by Russian belligerence. She took out two major champs. By the fourth round, rising star Qinwen Zheng was the highest-ranked player remaining in this half of the draw, and she was its last survivor, dispatching Yastremska in their semifinal.
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All that left us with a compelling final: Sabalenka vs. Zheng; No. 2 seed vs. No. 12; a 25-year-old in her gasp-inducing prime vs. a talented 21-year-old who reached this level slightly ahead of schedule. They’re two of the tour’s heaviest ball-strikers, as Zheng gins up huge topspin with a western forehand grip like Swiatek’s. Both are also high-powered servers who’ve had some demons with the second serve, and while Sabalenka has left her incessant double faults in the past, Zheng is still doing some troubleshooting. Their journeys to the final were quite different. Sabalenka has faced two other major champions ranked in the top 10 and hasn’t dropped a set in the tournament; only Gauff had managed to pry at least four games off her in a set. Whereas Zheng’s unusual path to the final did not include an opponent ranked in the top 50, making it hard to assess her level with much confidence. (Perhaps the closest Zheng got to a former major champ in the last fortnight was a charming run-in with her idol and countrywoman Li Na, who won her Australian Open exactly a decade ago; there’s an awesome photo of Zheng watching that win on TV as a kid.)
Qinwen Zheng’s path to the final did not include a top 50 opponent. / Associated Press
Qinwen Zheng’s path to the final did not include a top 50 opponent. / Associated Press
These two have met only once before, in the quarterfinal of last year’s US Open, which Sabalenka won without much fuss. Sabalenka’s baseline game is likely sturdier at the moment, and she’ll be the favorite as she looks to defend her title. Zheng, the tournament’s ace leader, will have to serve with conviction to keep Sabalenka’s hyper-aggressive returns in check. Expect some brutal and brief points in this final, aces and hissing winners in abundance. Whoever wins, that poor tennis ball loses.
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The Hopper
—If you haven’t had enough Meddy, here’s Giri on his epic win over Hubie Hurkacz earlier in the week.
—Rafael Nadal will continue his comeback in Doha next month.
—ESPN offers a primer on the Alexander Zverev domestic abuse charges.
—Nick Kyrgios opens up, as they say, in the Sydney Morning Herald.
—Jon Wertheim has some choice words for Margaret Court.
—Billie Jean King still has a lot to say, from The Cut.
—ICYMI: Tim Newcomb’s Australian Open shoe report.
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An American Duo Flies Under the Radar in Melbourne
An American Duo Flies Under the Radar in Melbourne
Quietly, Tommy Paul and Amanda Anisimova Have Made An Impact in Week One.
Quietly, Tommy Paul and Amanda Anisimova Have Made An Impact in Week One.
By Giri Nathan
January 19, 2024
Did you know that Tommy Paul is the second highest ranked American, hot on the heels of Taylor Fritz? / Associated Press
Did you know that Tommy Paul is the second highest ranked American, hot on the heels of Taylor Fritz? / Associated Press
Fun first week in Melbourne. Let’s check in on a pair of Americans who I was not remotely thinking about at the start of this tournament, but are now worth your consideration. Unintentionally, it’s also a celebration of New Jersey excellence.
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AMANDA ANISIMOVA
Last May, at age 21, Amanda Anisimova quit tennis with no return date in mind. Having been marked for greatness as a teen, and having delivered greatness on several instances, she lucidly announced her burnout. “It’s become unbearable being at tennis tournaments. At this point my priority is my mental well-being and taking a break for some time. I’ve worked as hard as I could to push through it,” she wrote. R.I.P. to one of the smoothest backhands on the planet, it seemed.
If that’d been the end of her career, it would have been a brief but remarkable one. In 2019, she beat Simona Halep and Aryna Sabalenka en route to the Roland-Garros semifinals, becoming, at just 17 years old, the youngest woman to reach that stage of the tournament in over a decade. Later that same year, she lost her father, who had been her lifelong coach; that was followed by a period of grieving, and soon after, the pandemic, and then an overall loss of form. She rebooted in 2022, beating defending champ Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open, making the fourth round at Roland-Garros and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, returning to the top 25. And then a few months into 2023 she called it off. She hung out at home, took college classes, and got really into painting.
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It's great to see a smile on the face of Amanda Anisimova in Melbourne. / Associated Press
It's great to see a smile on the face of Amanda Anisimova in Melbourne. / Associated Press
I was surprised to see her name back in the draw this year. Now I am half-wondering if she will win the Australian Open. Not one of her three matches so far has lasted even 90 minutes, all of them straight-set victories. We are again treated to the uncanny smoothness to Anisimova’s game, the way she ambles around and hits balls that seem to ping right off her racquet, as if in a hurry to flee the strings and sail frictionlessly through the air. It’s light, clean, accurate tennis without any undue strain. And it is very, very hard to stop, as her opponents—No. 13 seed Liudmila Samsonova, Nadia Podoroska, and Paula Badosa—have discovered firsthand. Next up, in one of the most anticipated matches of the tournament: the No. 2 seed Sabalenka.
TOMMY PAUL
Raise your hand if you know that Tommy Paul is a defending Australian Open semifinalist. That memory somehow leaked out of my brain in the intervening year. I remember several of his successes from 2023, but not this one, and judging by how thoroughly the hype machine has locked in on Ben Shelton, I wonder if the No. 14 seed is really getting his due. (Pour one out for both Frances Tiafoe and Shelton, early exits this week.) Paul plays some very watchable tennis. Supreme athleticism and soft hands pair wonderfully, and as we learned last summer, they’re also a strong answer to Carlos Alcaraz. Those two men played three-setters in consecutive weeks, with Tommy winning in Toronto and Carlitos bouncing back in Cincinnati. I’d liked Paul’s game but it was only during those matches that I realized quite how much game he had, gawking as he matched Alcaraz’s movement and pace for long passages of play.
Paul talks a lot about how he behaves like a professional now—he’s now confirmed the widely known story that he showed up to his 2017 U.S. Open doubles match still drunk from the previous night and received a double-bagel for his troubles—his ranking has been steadily trending up over the last two years to reward those efforts. The 26-year-old is now chasing down Taylor Fritz, whose days as the top-ranked American man may be numbered. Paul reached the quarterfinals or better of 10 events in 2023 and proved that he is fit and versatile enough to win in a range of ways across all kinds of conditions, morphing into a patient grinder or a big shotmaker depending on the situation. A front-row seat to his two-sets-down comeback against Roman Safiullin at last year’s U.S. Open turned me into a believer.
So far this tournament has been fairly smooth going for Paul, who drew a tough second-round opponent—the big lefty Jack Draper—and avenged a straight-set loss to him from the previous week. If Paul succeeds in his third-round match against Miomir Kecmanovic, he could find himself matched up with Alcaraz in a best-of-five format for the first time. I am enjoying that little pseudo-rivalry and an upset would not be so outlandish.
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The Hopper
—If you’re interested in more on Coco Gauff’s new kit, Tim Newcomb will fill you in here. (And if you’re at the Australian Open and want to get a bit loose, Tim can help with that too.)
—Sumit Nagal had a big result in Melbourne, per Giri in Defector.
—We’re a bit late to the ball (so to speak) on this one, but Gerald Marzorati’s piece on the return of Naomi Osaka, just when tennis needs her the most, is worth a read.
—Speaking of Naomi, if you missed it in Melbourne this week, you can hear “coach” Craig Shapiro’s live interview with Osaka biographer Ben Rothenberg here, on the Craig Shapiro Tennis Podcast.
—In May, Alexander Zverev will face trial over allegations he physically abused a former partner
—Rafael Nadal becomes the latest sporting ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and John McEnroe is not pleased. Furthermore, Jon Wertheim reports on a wider backlash Saudi Arabia’s courtship of pro tennis.
—The Media Center lost a giant this week. Farewell, Mike Dickson.
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The 2024 Australian Open Shoe Report
The 2024 Australian Open
Shoe Report
The 2024 Australian Open Shoe Report
The tennis shoe game takes on the Australian summer with special editions and new arrivals.
The tennis shoe game takes on the Australian summer with special editions and new arrivals.
By Tim Newcomb
January 18, 2024
For me, a fresh season of tennis majors means a fresh approach to tennis sneakers. As players don their latest kits, many also have a new sneaker colorway—or model—that made the long trip to the southern hemisphere. Of course, some of the silhouettes worth viewing were either short-lived or never even saw Melbourne’s summer sun, but other designs, from New Balance, Asics, and Nike, may last well into the second week. Let’s explore some of the best sneaker snippets from Australia.
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COCO GAUFF
New Balance Coco CG1 ‘Primary Power’
Image courtesy of New Balance
The only signature* shoe in the sport for a current athlete, New Balance has dominated the tennis sneaker game for over a year with Coco Gauff’s CG1 signature. Since unveiling the model in summer 2022, we’ve seen roughly a dozen colorways launch, including the “City Brights” edition Gauff wore to victory at the 2023 US Open.
The first 2024 colorway comes for the Australian Open as New Balance and Gauff show off Primary Power. Cordell Jordan, New Balance footwear designer, told me the team wanted to be bold and impactful, using a modern yet nostalgic tone. That means the ’90s-inspired model features the sea salt color mixed with other blues, red, yellow, and white to give the first design of the year a novel start to 2024 as we eagerly anticipate continued CG1 colorways.
The Primary Power colorway, available to the masses, matches well with Gauff’s apparel, featuring a predominantly yellow or blue kit, depending on her choice for the match. That gives New Balance a seamless design from head to toe on the brand’s star tennis athlete and the leader in the sport’s sneaker game.
*A signature sneaker is defined as a model designed in collaboration with an athlete for the specific needs of that athlete and is not an inline model that is given special “player edition” colorways or designs tied to an athlete.
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NOVAK DJOKOVIC
Asics Court FF 3 ‘Novak’
Image courtesy of Corinne Dubreuil/Asics
Tossing a number on the side of a tennis sneaker has never been quite as impressive as what Asics is now doing for Novak Djokovic. Sure, we’ve seen high figures representing the number of major titles adorn the shoes worn by Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer, but for the 2024 Australian Open, the blue-and-white Asics Court FF 3 Novak added a “24.” That’s big.
Already we’ve seen Asics join the fray on honoring Djokovic’s major titles by placing a “23” on his shoes for Wimbledon last summer. The Japanese brand repeated the effort during the 2023 US Open. But the victory in New York City has Asics dusting off a “24” for the mostly blue model in Australia.
Djokovic signed to Asics in 2018 and wore the latest Gel-Resolution model at the time. He later switched to the Court FF model and helped market the launch of the third iteration of the shoe that was released in January 2023. While we saw a largely blue model during the US Open, we’ve got even more blue on the Australian Open version, allowing the player-edition 24 colorway to stand out even more.
NAOMI OSAKA
Nike GP Challenge 1 ‘Osaka’
Image courtesy of Nike
While Naomi Osaka’s player-edition model may have had only an 86-minute appearance during the first round of the Australian Open, the colorway of the new Nike GP Challenge 1 sneaker lives on via retail sites the world over.
Nike spent much of 2023 breaking out Osaka-themed versions of the Air Zoom GP Turbo, including designs full of snack-inspired creations, even though Osaka wasn’t playing on the tour. The latest tennis model from the Oregon-based sportswear giant is the brand-new GP Challenge 1, a shoe worn by both Osaka and Frances Tiafoe. While we have inline colorway options to choose from, Osaka unveiled her special edition during her first major tournament appearance since giving birth, offering up a design that mimicked Osaka’s one-off dress for the match.
The shoe’s base black-and-white motif is accented with purple and green, all part of the new design of the GP Challenge 1, a shoe that features Air Zoom units in both the forefoot and heel. With the inline colorways more heavily focused on white and black, fans of the new model who want to add color to the mix have the Osaka colorway to appreciate.
MATTEO BERRETTINI
Asics x Boss x Matteo Berrettini Gel-Resolution 9
Image courtesy of Boss x Asics
Okay, we know, Matteo Berrettini pulled out of the Australian Open just hours before he was scheduled to make a return to the court. So, while his shoes never actually hit the Plexicushion acrylic surface in Australia, they were already unveiled, undoubtedly waiting in the wings somewhere in Melbourne, and getting us excited over the sport’s only fashion collaboration on a performance model.
Using the Asics Gel-Resolution 9 as the muse, Asics worked with Berrettini and his clothing sponsor, Boss, to craft another Asics x Boss x Matteo Berrettini on-court design. The trio already pulled off the feat in 2023, but the look for the Australian Open was the cleanest yet, using white as the base, a gum sole look for the outsole, and black and brown accents for the logo marks. The sneaker design was set to pair with the Boss apparel kit.
Not only do we appreciate the design—this one is also available for the public to purchase—but the fact that Boss and Asics are working together is another welcome sight in the sport. This gives Berrettini’s kits a unified look that is so often not achieved when a player wears footwear from a different sponsor than their apparel maker. It also offers up a rare look at a performance brand collaborating with a fashion brand for a sneaker we can see—and appreciate—on the court.
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—Carlos Alcaraz is turning heads with his custom Nike sneakers. While not uncommon for top Nike athletes to get the custom treatment, all guesses have the Alcaraz shoes a mash-up between Vapor Pros and Vapor 11s, a unique blend as Nike athletes now routinely dip into old silhouettes for their on-court needs.
—Aryna Sabalenka, who now wears Nike dresses outside the typical tournament range, sports her Air Zoom NXT shoes in custom colorways to match.
—Daniil Medvedev is still sporting a version of the Lacoste AG-LT23 Ultra sneakers with his logo.
—Iga Swiatek switched to On apparel in 2023, but didn’t wear her version of On’s The Roger Pro shoe until after the US Open, making the Australian Open the first major she’s gone head-to-toe On.
—Leylah Fernandez may have one of the most unique tennis sneaker tales of the past few months, still opting for Puma Stewie 2 women’s basketball shoes (the signature sneaker for Breanna Stewart), which she switched to on her own with no deal during the 2023 US Open doubles tournament.
Follow Tim Newcomb’s tennis gear coverage on Instagram at Felt Alley Tennis.
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It’s All Smiles for Coco and Grigor in Australia
It’s All Smiles for Coco and Grigor in Australia
Coco Gauff and Grigor Dimitrov are trending in the right direction heading into the Australian Open.
Coco Gauff and Grigor Dimitrov are trending in the right direction heading into the Australian Open.
By Giri Nathan
January 13, 2024
Coco in fine form in Auckland last week. / Associated Press
Coco in fine form in Auckland last week. / Associated Press
What a joy to be back here, free-associating tennis thoughts in the wee hours of Friday morning and then smuggling them into your inboxes a few hours later—or in this special case, a couple of days later. I write pretty much all of these dispatches in the middle of the night, and like some tennis fans in Eastern Standard Time, I am now bracing myself to plunge fully into the nocturnal lifestyle, because all the action is on the other side of this planet. Every year I assure myself I’m going to live a more normal lifestyle during the Australian Open, and every year I succumb to it all the same. As the tournament opens on Sunday—for the first time ever, because of money—we’ll look at a player on each tour who’s coming in hot, who’s properly tuned up during these tune-ups. Before we proceed: a moment of silence for Diego Schwartzman, who, after 36 straight main-draw appearances in majors, crashed out of qualifying. We’ll miss you, Peque.
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GRIGOR DIMITROV
Before last week, Grigor Dimitrov had won his most recent ATP title in 2017. That was an excellent tennis season. I was naive then; it was my first season writing about the sport in somewhat granular detail. I thought Dimitrov would eat the world. I’d seen him take Rafa five sets in Melbourne, win some meaningful titles, and whip up some shots I had never seen. I had not yet grasped what is now obvious: that tennis could be pretty and still nonlethal.
Yes, Dimitrov had agility and fluidity and flexibility and touch; he also seemed intent on proving that these precious qualities could be summed up to yield woozy, maddening tennis. Over the next six seasons he’d drive me into silence with his passive game plans, blasé sliced backhands, messy serve. His tennis is tuned for all-court aggression, but his mind did not always seem all that interested in that pursuit. In time his name became a (valuable) lesson in withholding excitement about a player’s run of good form. It didn’t look like he’d be able to hang with the waves of new talent breaking on the tour. Eventually I stopped really noticing his name in the draws at all.
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Grigor Dimitrov gives himself a hand in Brisbane. / Associated Press
Grigor Dimitrov gives himself a hand in Brisbane. / Associated Press
But today, in 2024, at the crabbed old age of 32, Dimitrov is playing some of the finest tennis of his career. He’d been building up to this in 2023—defeating Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Hubert Hurkacz in a late-season boom—and he returned from the offseason with a new crocodile on his chest and ground strokes sharpened to daggers. His Brisbane final against Holger Rune was startlingly high-quality, a smelling salt right into the sinuses of week 1. It had been six years since his entertainment value and skill fell into such harmonious alignment. No lazy chipping in this one. That one-hander was ferociously driven, time and time again, until the job was done, and he’d won his first title in 2,240 days, which was the longest gap between titles in tour history. Always nice to see this guy crying for a good reason. He comes into the Open as the No. 13 seed, and I want to see what he will do.
COCO GAUFF
It might seem like a cop-out to drop the extremely famous name of the most recent Slam champ in here. Yes, you’re thinking, thank you sir for this esoteric knowledge, I can really use this insider tidbit to make some big bucks. First of all, gambling is not something I will ever endorse in these dispatches—if you seek that endorsement, just redirect your gaze to the whole zombified entirety of sports media—and second of all, I genuinely wasn’t sure if Coco’s winning would carry into this season. Her run on North American hard courts last summer was a real rampage, cresting with that US Open win, but it was difficult to tell how replicable success would be. Even that seesaw Open final, despite its indelible emotional imprint, wasn’t convincing on all technical fronts. Gauff could play the most hellacious defense on tour, but she couldn’t always end the points when she needed to.
After the Open, Gauff received some reality checks in the mail from Iga Swiatek—first in the semifinal in Beijing, and then at the WTA Finals in Cancun, straight sets in both cases. The American star had finally solved Iga for the first time that summer, but in those matches at the end of the season, the tour monarch yanked the rivalry firmly back her way, securing a 9–1 head-to-head. Against the strongest baseliners, Coco could be undone by the flagging depth on her forehand, a stroke that’s been technically rejiggered multiple times in her brief career. A Big Three had begun to take shape on the WTA, and I felt they had a level of technically sound offense that she’d struggle to match. Could she close the gap in 2024?
Gauff showed up in Auckland as if there’d been no offseason at all, resuming her hard-court supremacy. She cruised through the tournament, up until the final against Elina Svitolina, which got a little circuitous and wonky but, with a little resilience, ended in a successful title defense. Since losing in the first round of Wimbledon last summer, Gauff has gone 29–4. I wouldn’t quite place her among the favorites in Melbourne, but that is mostly a testament to the other wonders out there: Iga Swiatek is still doing to professional tennis players what a paper shredder does to sensitive documents, and Elena Rybakina just whacked Aryna Sabalenka 0 and 3 in the Brisbane final. But Gauff, the No. 4 seed at this Open, is just a few steps behind those two, and she never, ever, ever tires of chasing.
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The Hopper
—Don’t miss great interviews with Milos Raonic and our Giri Nathan on The Craig Shapiro Tennis Podcast. And if you’re in Melbourne, stop by the Journal Cafe on Tuesday, where Craig will be in conversation with Ben Rothenberg, who’s just released his biography of Naomi Osaka. Speaking of the self-described Fifth Grand Slam, subscribe to “coach” Craig’s new newsletter here.
—Break Point somehow dedicated a whole episode to Alexander Zverev, while leaving out a crucial part of his resume.
—Big Foe has been profiled by Esquire.
—It’s been a long break from pro tennis, so you can be forgiven for missing a fun piece Giri wrote for Defector on Jannik Sinner vis-a-vis Italian pastries. Also not to be missed in Defector is this piece on the first collective bargaining agreement in women’s hockey.
—While we’re on the topic of collective bargaining, please subscribe to the Club Leftist Tennis newsletter.
—And ICYMI, The Athletic offered a prescription for “fixing” pro tennis.