Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.
This week, the tennis battle for prestige heated up in Cincinnati, the Canadian Open brought progress and familiar problems for a star of the sport and a rising American won a title in fitting circumstances.
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An eternal struggle arrives in Ohio
As the tennis calendar cycles through its four Grand Slams, the Australian Open, French Open and U.S. Open and Wimbledon engage in a quiet but fierce contest for the unofficial title of the best tournament of them all. They increase prize money. They improve player facilities. They move qualifying on-site to deliver longer events, more ticket sales and more revenue (except for Wimbledon, which is bidding to expand and join the three-week party the others have).
The Grand Slam arms race isn’t the only elbow-sharpening that goes on at the top of tennis. Indian Wells, Calif., is the home of the BNP Paribas Open, which has long held the unofficial but coveted title of the “fifth Slam,” at least since it moved to its current location, the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, in 2000. The Miami Open, which immediately follows Indian Wells in the calendar, was held in similar regard before, but some of its luster has faded.
This week’s Cincinnati Open, the first edition following a $260million (£193m) renovation of the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, a short drive from the Ohio city that gives the event its name, is causing a stir among some of the players. Speaking on court with doubles partner and 2024 Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejčíková, Jelena Ostapenko said: “I almost feel like it’s the fifth Grand Slam. Those changes in one year? This is something unbelievable.”
What used to be a bunch of parking spaces and walkways has become a clubhouse (56,000 square feet); an outdoor pavilion (16,000 square feet); an indoor tennis center with six courts (53,000 square feet), and an operations center (20,000 square feet).
There are 13 new courts, including a new 2,300-seat sunken stadium. The site has doubled in size from 20 to 40 acres.
But does it have a case? Indian Wells has prize money going for it in two senses: it pays more, and does so more equally. The Cincinnati Open women’s singles champion will this year receive $752,275; the men’s title winner will get $1,124,380. At Indian Wells back in March, Mirra Andreeva took home $1,127,500 while Jack Draper received $1,201,125, with the difference in total prize money accounted for by ATP Tour player contributions.
More than 500,000 fans attended in California, around 100 miles east of Los Angeles and near the affluent desert resort of Palm Springs, with the U.S. Open warm-up event in the Midwestern state of Ohio expected to attract around 300,000 this year.
Saudi Arabia’s long-desired 1,000-level event looked ready to be a tacit bid to dethrone Indian Wells, but that soon-to-be-announced tournament is now expected to be a significant contraction from its ambitions to host a combined event of two 96-player draws.
This year, Italian Tennis Federation (FIT) president Angelo Binaghi expressed a desire to turn May’s Italian Open into a “fifth Slam” by expanding to three weeks, which would have entailed acquiring the license for the Madrid Open, which precedes it in the calendar. That remains a desire, and a distant one.
Progressive competition between the 1,000-level events is a boon for the ATP and WTA Tours as the power games between them and the four Grand Slams rumble on, but for now, if a “fifth Slam” does exist, Indian Wells looks safe in its self-appointed slot.
James Hansen
Progress for Naomi Osaka in Canada?
With every positive tournament Naomi Osaka has, the progress she makes is at the mercy of how she loses.
Last week’s run to the Canadian Open final was a step in the right direction for the four-time Grand Slam champion, but as the title slipped away against 18-year-old Victoria Mboko, Osaka entered an all-too familiar maelstrom.
Having won the opening set and lost the second, Osaka fought back tears in the third as the match started to get away from her. Mboko saved four break points to move ahead 3-1, a lead she would never relinquish. In the closing stages, including the final game, Osaka appeared to even give up on points. Her on-court interview afterwards lasted about 20 seconds and included no mention of her opponent.
Osaka later explained in a social media post that she “was in a daze” during those on-court speeches, focusing on not repeating past speeches that she felt had not gone well. In quotes provided through the WTA Tour, she said: “This morning, I was very grateful. I don’t know why my emotions flipped so quickly, but I’m really happy to have played the final.
“Victoria played really well. I completely forgot to congratulate her on the court. She did really amazing.”
Osaka’s run there in Montreal lifted her ranking 24 places to No. 25, meaning she will be seeded at the biggest events for the first time since returning to the sport at the start of last year, after giving birth to her first child. She also won the kind of tight match en route to the final that she has been losing more than winning since that comeback, saving two match points to beat Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova in the second round.
That tournament was also Osaka’s first with new coach Tomasz Wiktorowski, and the positive results bode well for the next few months.
She should go into the U.S. Open in two weeks’ time with renewed confidence in her tennis, even if doubts will linger as long as collapses like the one in the final continue to happen.
Charlie Eccleshare
How Ben Shelton’s Canadian Open win fits his season
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner weren’t involved in the Canadian Open, so it was fitting that Ben Shelton came away with the title after running into a Sinner-and-Alcaraz-shaped wall at all three Grand Slams this year.
The American is now No. 4 in the ATP Tour “Race to Turin,” which counts ranking points won in 2025, despite only recording two top-10 wins all year. Both of those came last week in Toronto, during Shelton’s run to his first ATP Masters 1,000 title, one rung below a Grand Slam.
He beat world No. 8 Alex de Minaur in the quarterfinals and then compatriot and world No. 4 Taylor Fritz in the next round. Before that, Shelton had lost all five of his top-10 matches in the year, three of which came at the majors against the two runaway stars in men’s tennis. He lost to Sinner at the Australian Open and Wimbledon and to Alcaraz at the French Open. His record against top-10 players since the 2023 U.S. Open, where he reached the semifinals, is 3-10.
Shelton edged out Karen Khachanov in the final in Toronto, coming from a set down and winning a third-set tiebreak. He played his best tennis in the big moments, which has become a calling card for his career — except when up against the best of the best. So while the trophy is a milestone for Shelton in many ways, it also doesn’t offer much insight into how he is going to get over the biggest hurdle in the sport for pretty much everybody in the top 10.
Climbing up to best-of-the-rest status at age 22 is not a bad place to be, and he has reached a career-high ranking of No. 6 on the back of gradual improvements to his rally tolerance and performance in return games.
But Sinner and Alcaraz, who both returned to action at the Cincinnati Open over the weekend, cast a long shadow over the rest of the tour.
Shelton knows that to win more 1,000-level titles, and certainly Grand Slams, he’ll have to raise his game again to overcome the two players who have handled him with relative ease at the majors so far this year.
Charlie Eccleshare
🏆 The winners of the week
🎾 ATP:
🏆 Ben Shelton (4) def. Karen Khachanov (11) 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(3) to win the Canadian Open (1,000) in Toronto. It is the American’s first ATP 1,000 title.
🎾 WTA:
🏆 Victoria Mboko def. Naomi Osaka 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 to win the Canadian Open (1,000) in Montreal. It is the Canadian’s first WTA Tour title.
📈📉 On the rise / Down the line
📈 Victoria Mboko moves up 61 places from No. 85 to No. 24 after winning the Canadian Open.
📈 Ben Shelton ascends one spot from No. 7 to No. 6, establishing another career-high ranking,
📈 Naomi Osaka reenters the top 30 after rising 24 spots from No. 49 to No. 25.
📉 Sebastian Korda falls 12 places from No. 33 to No. 45.
📉 Emma Raducanu drops six places from No. 33 to No. 39.
📉 Flavio Cobolli leaves the top 20 after dropping five spots from No. 17 to No. 22.
📅 Coming up
🎾 ATP
📍Mason, Ohio: Cincinnati Open (1,000) featuring Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz.
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV
🎾 WTA
📍Mason, Ohio: Cincinnati Open (1,000) featuring Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, Iga Świątek, Madison Keys.
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel
Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men’s and women’s tours continue.
(Top photo of the Cincinnati Open: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
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