Culture
Jannik Sinner’s tennis ban does ranking no harm as rivals falter in Sunshine Double
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 Miami Open crowned its champions, with Aryna Sabalenka and Jakub Menšík taking the singles titles. Elsewhere, men’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner had a great hard-court swing while playing just one tournament, the sun did not shine on home players and Mirra Andreeva used doubles to keep her feet on the ground.
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How did Sinner’s absence leave him untroubled as world No. 1?
Adding up the ranking points earned by men’s players at this year’s Australian Open, BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open, the highest tally belongs to someone who participated in only one of those events. The big ATP winner from the first Grand Slam of 2025 and then the post-Melbourne ‘Sunshine Double’ in California and Florida is Sinner, who played neither of the latter two tournaments because of his three-month anti-doping ban.
While the back-to-back Australian Open champion was getting some training reps in before his return to the tour in May, his rivals all failed to capitalize on his absence. It’s almost guaranteed now that Sinner will still be No. 1 when he begins his comeback in five weeks on home clay at the Italian Open in Rome.
The nominal world No. 2 Alexander Zverev was also last seen playing proper tennis in Melbourne — the difference between him and Sinner is that he has played in five events since. But the German has looked like a shadow of himself from the moment Sinner beat him in that Australian Open final, and after losing his first match in Indian Wells, he went out to Arthur Fils in the Miami Open round of 16, despite having been a break up in the final set.
Sinner’s main rival, Carlos Alcaraz, was beaten in his first match in Miami. In Indian Wells, he had failed to recover from a first-set horror show in the semifinals, losing to eventual champion Jack Draper. Alcaraz occasionally looked lost during both matches — as he did when losing in the Australian Open quarterfinals to an injured Novak Djokovic.
Djokovic looked refreshed in Miami after his own early exit in Indian Wells, but didn’t have to beat a top-14 player to get to the final. When he got there, he lost precisely the kind of match he’s made a career of winning. His opponent in that final, Menšík, was superb in a 7-6(4), 7-6(4) win, but neutralizing big servers and winning tiebreaks have long been two of Djokovic’s calling cards.
Menšík, 19, had a breakthrough tournament, as did Draper in Indian Wells, but among Sinner’s established rivals, it’s generally been a pretty challenging month.
Sometimes in sport, players’ most helpful results come when they are not even present.
March 2025 undoubtedly strengthened Sinner’s position at the pinnacle of men’s tennis, without him playing a single point.
Charlie Eccleshare
How is Andreeva using doubles to keep her grounded?
It was a sunshine double of sorts for Andreeva too, who followed up her Indian Wells singles title by winning the Miami Open doubles, with her close friend and compatriot Diana Shnaider.
Andreeva, the 17-year-old Russian, is unusual among the world’s top 10 in continuing to play regular doubles, and long may it continue — because the benefits go beyond just her tennis.
She and 20-year-old Shnaider play together with the kind of levity that is generally non-existent in the one-on-one combat of singles, and can only be beneficial to two youngsters getting to grips with the grind of professional tennis. The timeline of the WTA Tour is littered with prodigies burning out because of the sport’s suffocating pressure.
The pair’s sense of humour came in handy Sunday, during the lengthy rain delay that interrupted their 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-2 final win over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Miyu Kato of Japan.
It is Andreeva and Shnaider’s second title as partners, having first joined forces when they laughed their way to Olympic silver medals in August. Since then, both have spoken about how much they enjoy playing together and the way it benefits them.
Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva with the Miami Open doubles trophy. (Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
“When we play doubles, we both don’t like when it’s very tense,” Andreeva said in an interview at Melbourne Park in January. “So, for example, when the score is 5-4 and we have to serve for the match, we’re both at the same time trying to say some jokes or just chill a bit.
“We always make fun of ourselves, so if she hits an amazing shot. I’m like, ‘Have you seen that? Are you Roger Federer? I mean, come on, stop it.’ And then after that, I feel like she’s fired up and she makes even better shots. And when I play a good shot, she’s always like, ‘My God, what are you doing? I mean, if you play like this, we’re going to win a slam.’”
Shnaider, who is having a tricky singles season after a breakthrough 2024, also feels the benefits and said in an interview in New York before last year’s U.S. Open: “I need some jokes on court. I need some smiles. I need to have some talks with a partner enjoying doubles. Because for me, I’m just getting released from the stress and some tightness.
“And I knew that she’s a very open person. She’s very emotional. She loves to talk, loves jokes and loves smiling. So I was like, ‘This is the right fit’.”
Before their doubles win in Miami, Andreeva had endured a stressful singles defeat to Amanda Anisimova in the third round, while Shnaider lost to Anna Blinkova in the second.
They could have both packed up and left Miami then for some rest or practice. Instead, both found something more valuable on the doubles court.
Charlie Eccleshare
Not the ‘Sunshine Double’ the American men were hoping for
A couple of months ago, this looked like it could be a pretty special Indian Wells and Miami swing for American men.
With world No. 1 Sinner sidelined and the sport’s best-ever Djokovic something of a question mark and about to turn 38, it seemed like there could be an opening for a group of rivals who are often at their best on home soil. The top Americans are hard-court players who aim to make hay during the North American hard-court swings — especially this one, which precedes a three-month trip to Europe and its organic surfaces.
Ben Shelton was coming off a run to the Australian Open semifinals. Taylor Fritz wasn’t far removed from being a finalist at last year’s U.S. Open, being runner-up at November’s ATP Tour Finals and winning the United Cup with his country in January. Tommy Paul was a top-10 player. Frances Tiafoe always gets fired up for the home fans.
When it was over, Fritz, still battling a right abdominal injury, had the best showing across the two events, falling to Menšík in the Miami semifinals in a third-set tiebreak. He managed to lose while not having his serve broken all night. A couple of bad decisions in the first and third-set tiebreaks kept him out of the final.
Shelton fell in the quarters of Indian Wells to eventual champion Draper. Not bad, and he seemed to have found his groove on the gritty, high-kicking hard courts in California. But then, in Miami, he lost his opening match to a wild card, Coleman Wong of Hong Kong.
Paul disappeared during his round of 16 match in Indian Wells against Daniil Medvedev. In Miami, he lost his second match to Francisco Cerundolo. He’s 7-4 since entering the top 10. Tiafoe? He went 2-2 in the Sunshine Double, with losses to Fils and Yosuke Watanuki.
And on it went.
Learner Tien didn’t win a match. Alex Michelsen won just one.
Not good weather for the home players in March.
Matt Futterman
Danielle Collins gets a win
Danielle Collins couldn’t retain her title in Miami, but ended up coming away with a different kind of trophy.
Collins came upon a dog that had been hit by a car during her time in the city. She pulled over, took the animal to a local veterinary hospital and saw to it that it got the care it needed, through surgery and five days on oxygen.
With the pup pulling through, Collins announced that she had adopted it and named it “Crash.”
“His breathing is back to normal, his wounds are healing, and he is definitely enjoying all the love he is receiving,” Collins shared on Instagram, showing the newest addition to her family snuggling with her in bed. Crash joins Quincy, who has accompanied Collins on the tour for some time now.
“He is curious, affectionate, and grateful for a second chance at life. It was so incredibly painful to witness a dog in so much pain after being hit by a car, and left in the middle of the road with so many people driving by his curled-up body. I’m just grateful I was able to be there and get him the care he needed.”
Perhaps not another trophy. But maybe something better. And a good thing for Crash that Collins decided not to retire at the start of this season.
Now she has another title to defend this week in Charleston, S.C., where she’ll be looking to stay inside the world top 32 and get a seeding for the next Grand Slam in Paris next month.
Matt Futterman
Recommended reading:
🏆 The winners of the week
🎾 ATP:
🏆 Menšík def. Djokovic (4) 7-6(4), 7-6(4) to win the Miami Open (1,000) in Miami. It is his first ATP 1,000 title.
🎾 WTA:
🏆 Sabalenka (1) def. Pegula (4) 7-5, 6-2 to win the Miami Open (1,000) in Miami. It is the Belarusian’s 19th WTA Tour title.
📈📉 On the rise / Down the line
📈 Eala moves up 65 places from No. 140 to a career high of No. 75 after her run to the Miami Open semifinals.
📈 Menšík ascends 30 spots from No. 54 to No. 24 after winning the Miami Open.
📈 Tereza Valentová moves up 41 places from No. 211 to a career high of No. 170 after winning the ITF W75 event in Murska Sobota, Slovenia.
📉 Medvedev falls three places from No. 8 to No. 11, leaving the ATP top 10 for the first time since 2019.
📉 Caroline Garcia drops 27 places from No. 74 to No. 101, leaving the WTA top 100 for the first time since 2013.
📉 Thiago Seyboth Wild tumbles 15 spots from No. 96 to No. 111, leaving the ATP top 100.
📅 Coming up
🎾 ATP
📍Houston: U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship (250) featuring Paul, Tiafoe, Michelsen, Tien.
📍Marrakech, Morroco: Grand Prix Hassan II (250) featuring Tallon Griekspoor, Lorenzo Sonego, Otto Virtanen, Pavel Kotov.
📍Bucharest, Romania: Tiriac Open (250) featuring Sebastian Baez, Gabriel Diallo, Botic van de Zandschulp, Nishesh Basavareddy.
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻
🎾 WTA
📍Charleston, S.C.: Charleston Open (500) featuring Pegula, Madison Keys, Zheng Qinwen, Belinda Bencic.
📍Bogotá, Colombia: Copa Colsanitas Zurich (250) featuring Marie Bouzkova, Camila Osorio, Iva Jovic, Alycia Parks.
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.:
Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men’s and women’s tours continue.
(Top photo: Patrick Hamilton / AFP via Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
Where do you turn when you need advice? A chatbot? A life coach? A wise and trusted friend?
How about a poet? Poets may not be famous for making the best life choices, but because they subject the mess of human existence to the discipline of language, they can be as helpful as any therapist or mentor.
Good poets know the rules and when to break them, which is something they can teach the rest of us.
To wit:
Giving advice is a peculiar literary undertaking. It flourishes in certain popular genres — graduation speeches, newspaper columns, country and western songs and poems like this one — but what, in these contexts, is it really for?
I’m thinking of situations when you don’t urgently need help but nonetheless enjoy reading answers to questions you may not have thought to ask. What interests you isn’t the content of the advice — you could get all the life hacks you want from A.I. — so much as the voice of the person dispensing it.
Wendy Cope is an English poet, born in 1945, who has been a fixture of her country’s literary scene since the 1980s. More recently, her short, buoyant poem “The Orange” has been widely memed online, bringing her to the attention of new readers beyond Britain.
Cope favors rhyme, meter, brisk jokes and tart aperçus. She addresses romance, friendship and the petty absurdities of modern life with disarming good humor. The last line of “The Orange” is “I love you. I’m glad I exist.” Somehow she makes it the opposite of cringe.
This isn’t the kind of poetry you would describe as “confessional.” And yet …
Question 1/7
Stop, if the car is going “clunk”
Or if the sun has made you blind.
Don’t answer e–mails when you’re drunk.
Tap a word above to fill in the highlighted blank.Want to learn this poem by heart? We’ll help.
Fill in the missing words below. You can always refer to the reading by A.O. Scott and full
text above.Let’s start with the first stanza.
A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself. This week’s literary geography quiz highlights places where authors were born (or lived) that later became locations in their books. To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. At the end of the quiz, you’ll find links to the works if you’d like to do further reading.
AMERICA, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries, by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
For those of us in the national memory-keeping business, anniversaries hold near-totemic power. Satisfyingly round units of time, ideally bearing fancy, Latin-derived names, serve as the overburdened pegs on which to hang think pieces and museum exhibits, revisionist documentaries and maudlin public ceremonies. The arbitrary nature of such occasions is precisely what gives them their charge, inviting us to set aside complacency and submit to a comprehensive check-in.
In his new book, “America, U.S.A.,” Eddie S. Glaude Jr. presents an intriguing variation on the genre, seeing the country’s 250th birthday as an anniversary of anniversaries: 50 years since the malaise-ridden, schlock-heavy Bicentennial. A century since the subdued Prohibition-era Sesquicentennial. A century and a half since telegraphed reports of George Armstrong Custer’s defeat by the Lakota and Cheyenne at Little Bighorn rudely interrupted the Gilded Age Republic’s 100th birthday party.
If an anniversary offers a snapshot of a moment, the core of Glaude’s book is an old-timey photo album, a collection of notable episodes from earlier national reckonings, long-ago glances in the mirror. An estimable scholar of Black history, politics and religion at Princeton — best known for “Begin Again,” his 2020 meditation on James Baldwin’s relevance for our times — Glaude focuses, as his subtitle puts it, on “how race shadows the nation’s anniversaries.”
Such celebrations, he contends, have never really been the moments for honest self-reflection they are often advertised to be. Instead, the nation usually shatters the mirror, refusing to accept what it prefers not to see. “American anniversaries are often moments to turn a blind eye to the evils of the past and the present,” Glaude writes, “to suppress the fact of America’s divided soul.”
It’s a clever concept, and, needless to say, perfectly timed. Last year, Glaude notes, the Trump administration executed a hostile takeover of the government’s studiously bipartisan 250th anniversary planning. It is now preparing a program that is certain to conceal more than it reveals about the country ostensibly being celebrated.
Glaude, in no mood for celebration, argues that such omissions and evasions also defined commemorations in the past. In 1875, Frederick Douglass predicted “one grand Centennial hosannah of peace and good will to all the white race of this country.” He was right: The nation reached 100 years old at a crucial moment in the post-Civil War fight over racial equality, with white Northerners ready to give up on Southern Reconstruction. The occasion would help the once-warring sections to reunite around a shared commitment to white supremacy. On May 10, 1876, at the opening of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the police tried to bar Douglass from the grandstand, until a white politician vouched for him.
The 150th anniversary came soon after a resurgent Ku Klux Klan successfully pushed for a restrictive immigration law aimed at keeping America a “Nordic” nation. At the lavishly funded, lightly attended celebrations in Philadelphia, Black veterans of World War I were excluded from marching in the opening parade. A writer with The Associated Negro Press wondered “what was in the breast of those black men who fought to make America safe for Democracy and on Monday stood on the sidelines, forgotten, as the Nordic strode by in all his vain pride.”
By 1976, when the nation marked its Bicentennial, the violence of the ’60s had destroyed any semblance of consensus. Vietnam and Watergate had eroded trust in the government. The commission initially tasked with organizing the anniversary was disbanded amid reports of corruption. Corporations filled the vacuum, Glaude explains, with “star-spangled whoopee cushions; patriotic toilet seats; Liberty hamburgers; red, white and blue beer cans.” The author, around 8 years old at the time, dimly remembers donning a pair of tricolor trousers.
A half-century later, Glaude is refreshingly honest about the depths of his despair. “I do not love America, and never have, especially now,” he writes in one of the more startling opening sentences I’ve read in some time. He dismisses this year’s Semiquincentennial as reaching back “to a storybook America that requires either the banishment of Black people from view or the reduction of our role in the country’s history, so as to affirm America’s ongoing quest to be a more perfect union.”
Undoubtedly true. But Trump doesn’t own the country, at least not yet, nor the 250th anniversary of one of the most radically liberatory and confusingly contradictory events in world history — an inspiration, as Glaude shows, even to critical observers of the American experiment, like Douglass. Far from the revanchist MAGA-palooza in Washington, I suspect this summer’s unasked-for invitation to national soul-searching may surprise us yet.
Despite his despair, Glaude concludes that “the past still offers resources for us to freedom-dream.” So, too, does this book.
AMERICA, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries | By Eddie S. Glaude Jr. | Crown | 270 pp. | $31
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