Culture

Naomi Osaka, The Comeback Interview: A tale of pregnancy, fear and a ballerina

Published

12 months ago

January 13, 2024

Naomi Osaka, The Comeback Interview: A tale of pregnancy, fear and a ballerina

It was late September when Naomi Osaka, the four-time Grand Slam champion and transcendent star of her sport, finally got on the phone with her former coach to talk about her next comeback.

Wim Fissette is a cerebral Belgian who thinks long and hard before taking on a player, even one with a resume like Osaka’s. He had one, very serious question.

Is it going to be different this time?

There was then another conversation, with Florian Zitzelsberger, a 34-year-old German who is one of the most respected strength and conditioning coaches in the world. Zitzelsberger had worked with Osaka before, too. He asked her the same question, and another important one, too.

Why?

World-class tennis players worth hundreds of millions of dollars are not used to pushback like this. They get what they ask for, when they ask for it, and don’t get a lot of questions about it.

But Fissette and Zitzelsberger had been down this road with Osaka, 26, who is maybe the most naturally talented and athletic player on Earth. She also has a complicated relationship with the sport that made her a generational, global star unlike anything women’s tennis had ever seen. She staged comebacks after extended breaks in 2021, and then again in 2022. Both got cut short because of injuries, struggles with mental health and, in the case of this latest one, the birth of Osaka’s first child, Shai, a daughter, in July.

Osaka returned to competition in Australia last week (Patrick Hamilton/AFP via Getty Images)

Everyone asks Osaka these questions. Osaka, a walking billboard for intentionality, has answers. Do not mistake that soft, sing-songy, often quizzical voice for a lack of fortitude.

This a woman who, as a barely known and shy 20-year-old, thumped Serena Williams in the U.S. Open final in 2018, even as the match descended into chaos, with the greatest player in the history of women’s tennis and a teeming crowd of 23,000 doing everything in their power to topple her.

Osaka brought tennis to a halt amid continuing police violence against Black people in August 2020. Then she brought seven masks adorned with the names of victims of police violence to the U.S. Open that year — one for each match she intended to play, and did, as she won the title. In 2021, she forced a conversation about mental health by skipping her news conference at the French Open. When officials threatened to toss her from the competition, she withdrew, and made them look foolish for their overreach and lack of empathy.

Excited about the Australian Open? Then follow The Athletic’s tennis coverage here

So of course she had answers for Fissette, for Zitzelsberger and for anyone else who wanted to know.

“At the core of everything, I want to show my daughter everything in the world, and I also want her to remember me playing tennis for as long as I can play tennis, because this is such an important part of my life,” Osaka says one brilliantly sunny California morning last month beside the practice court in Sherman Oaks that became her main place of work early in the fall. “I know the athlete’s lifespan isn’t that long. I probably won’t be able to play past when she’s, like, 14 or something like that. But I do want her to have a memory of me playing.”

She has another reason, too. The last time Osaka had been on a competitive tennis court, she withdrew from the Toray Pan Pacific Open in her native Japan with abdominal pain. She was not going to let that be her walk-off.

“I don’t want people to remember me like that,” she said.

For the final three months of 2023, that private court at a sprawling home in the heart of the San Fernando Valley that her team has rented was the headquarters of Osaka 2.0, or maybe it’s 3.0. She is calling everything that came before this “Chapter 1”. What comes next is “Chapter 2”.

This December morning, she is smashing through a practice set with Andrew Rogers, a former star at Pepperdine University and the University of Tennessee, who is part of a rotating cast of male practice partners that Fissette has brought in. Osaka’s skin glistens in the sun as she chases down balls in the corners, defending with a new energy that hasn’t always been there.

On a changeover, Fissette tells her to find that balance between rushing a point and being too passive. Maybe it takes hitting two balls to get the point where you want it to go, he tells her as she stares out at the court rather than at him.

Moments later, she blasts her serve, once one of the game’s most potent weapons, sending Rogers way wide. She jumps into forehand returns. She charges into the court to take backhands early. And, of course, because she is Osaka, she makes sure to say, “Nice serve,” when Rogers aces her.

Rogers is a sweaty mess when he chases down the last of her low flat balls.

“She’s very much like a guy off the ground,” he says, his breathing slightly labored several minutes after they finish. “And her wide serve to the deuce court (right side)… that’s a lot.”

Naomi Osaka with practice partner Andrew Rogers (far left) and coaches Wim Fissette (holding racket) and Florian Zitzelsberger (far right) (Matt Futterman/The Athletic)

But will it be enough? Is there a version of Osaka that is good enough to compete with the best of the best in the women’s game — the power of Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina, and Aryna Sabalenka, the savvy and relentless defense of Coco Gauff, the guile and athleticism of Marketa Vondrousova, the grit of Jessica Pegula? How soon can she find it? Will she want it too much?

“Wim and Flo (Zitzelsberger), they constantly tell me to be proud of myself because there are moments where I do get a little down or a little frustrated because I’m constantly chasing this ‘me of the past’, if that makes sense,” she says pensively. “I know that’s not realistic, because in my head the ‘me in the past’ was like a perfect player, which I know I’m not, looking at like old tapes of myself, and I know that right now I’m actually doing a couple of things better than I was doing before.”

Women’s tennis has evolved since Osaka last ruled it. Fissette and Zitzelsberger are assuming that what she was will not be good enough. Last month, they even brought in a ballet dancer who has worked with Zitzelsberger’s other athletes to help Osaka improve her movement and raise her game to the place where Fissette always thought she could go — if her mind was fully committed to the task.

“Everyone who is here believes she never reached her full potential,” Fissette says. “We had three nice years, we won two slams, and it was really good. But I was, in some ways, disappointed.”

Osaka could have never played a competitive match again and still likely made the International Tennis Hall of Fame. She could have walked away as one of the wealthiest women in the history of sports. At her peak, when she was winning championships and lighting the Olympic flame in Tokyo, she had as many as 15 sponsors and was taking in an estimated $50 million a year in endorsements and prize money for multiple years. Handled properly, that is generational wealth.

Two years ago, she and her agent, Stuart Duguid, were waiting in a lounge at a Tokyo airport getting ready to fly back from the Olympics when their conversation turned to empire building in the fashion of Osaka’s friends and mentors — Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant. Both remember the conversation like it was yesterday.

“All these male athletes have platforms and production companies, why does no female athlete have that?” Duguid asked one evening last month at an Adweek conference in Los Angeles, where he and Osaka were featured speakers.

Osaka with the Australian Open trophy in 2019 (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Together, they have embarked on creating their own empire. She and Duguid launched an agency, Evolve, which is now working with other athletes and also golf’s LPGA and soccer’s NWSL. They began investing in companies. They founded a production company, Hana Kuma, her version of James’ Uninterrupted.

Osaka knows that playing tennis and winning championships will help build her empire. But returning to tennis wasn’t simply a business decision or a way to make her daughter proud. It was something visceral.

Last January, in her fourth month of pregnancy, she didn’t watch the year’s first Grand Slam

“I avoided watching the Australian Open because I knew it would make me feel very upset,” she says.

She also limited how much she watched the rest of the year.

“It always makes me very competitive and very hungry,” she says. “Whenever I see someone play I always want to play, too.”

Anyone who caught a glimpse of Osaka watching the U.S. Open, from the front row of Arthur Ashe Stadium, her face a combination of bitter and blank, could see she was not content being an observer. Zitzelsberger said Osaka’s goals go far beyond participation.

Osaka and coach Fissette work in Brisbane last week (Patrick Hamilton/AFP via Getty Images)

“She wants to be the world No 1 again,” he says after practice one day a few weeks ago. “She saw all the players and everything that was going on the last one and a half years when she was not there. And this just gave her a feeling, ‘I have to get back to here. I want to have it again’.”

Osaka says she first stepped back onto a tennis court in mid-August, a little more than a month after giving birth on July 3. It was just a casual hit, but even after so many months away, her feel for the ball was still there, an overwhelming relief.

Rediscovering her movement was trickier.

“Some of my muscles were gone and also my core was completely destroyed,” she says.

She wanted to get back to training as soon as she could realistically pursue it. She knew her main priority was mothering Shai, something she was still learning how to do.

It wasn’t easy. There were a lot of sleepless nights, when she would pad around her Los Angeles home sad and insecure and frustrated. She had been the best in the world in tennis. How could she be bad at the most natural thing, something women have been doing for thousands of years and that everyone else made look so easy?

Osaka at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane just after Christmas (Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

“Towards the tail end of pregnancy, I was very scared, there were always thoughts in my head: ‘Am I going be a good mom? How will I know if she appreciates how I parent?’ Things like that,” she adds. “I am still a little bit nervous but, I don’t know, the more I talk to moms, the more I realize that everyone goes through that,” she says. “It’s OK to have those feelings because that’s how much you love your baby, and that’s how much you want to do good by them.”

Fissette said Duguid called him in mid-August, looking for advice on hiring a coach. At the time, Fissette was in his first months of coaching Zheng Qinwen, a rising star from China. He was still trying to get to know her and click in the way he had with Osaka and Victoria Azarenka.

He and Duguid met again at the U.S. Open in September, where Zheng made her first Grand Slam quarter-final and Osaka appeared with swimmer Michael Phelps and Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, to speak about mental health. It was there that she affirmed her intention to play in 2024. By the end of the month, Fissette had quit coaching Zheng and announced he would coach Osaka.

Zheng said she was blindsided and heartbroken. Fissette said he was going to stop coaching Zheng regardless of Osaka. He has nothing but praise for Zheng — “a super nice girl” who always worked hard — but they simply did not click.

“I’ve worked with a few players where I thought it was the ideal coach-player relationship,” he said. “Great communication, always great energy. I always felt like I had an impact with my coaching.”

Then it was time to sit down with Osaka for an honest talk. She told him there was nothing whimsical about this next tennis venture. It wasn’t about playing the next year. It was about the next five or seven years, enough so she could compete for the most important titles with Shai watching.

“Since I came here, I felt those words every single day,” Fissette said. “She’s like the happy kid on the court.”

Given the grueling and largely monastic life that Osaka has embraced to become the version of herself that can compete with Swiatek and Co, happiness is no small thing.

She and Shai are up by 7 a.m. Like most babies, Shai is at her best in the morning. So Osaka likes to play with her for an hour and a half before she leaves for training, though there are mornings when Zitzelsberger will want her to do a cardio workout before breakfast to improve her metabolism. Her diet has consisted of a combination of lean meats (she has always loved sushi, which helps), fruits and vegetables and protein shakes. She and Zitzelsberger kept an eye on the clock, too, since she was, at times, “interval fasting”, which necessitates eating healthfully and plentifully within an eight-hour window, and fasting for the other 16 hours of the day. Normally, she was at the Sherman Oaks house that serves as her training center by 9am.

Zitzelsberger has worked with postpartum athletes before. The initial work, he said, focuses on rebuilding the core, which has softened for childbirth.

Osaka was no different. The power of a tennis shot starts with a push from the toes, rises through the ankle, loads through the pelvis, hips and trunk and travels through the shoulder and into the arm. The hand is merely a whip. But to function properly, every link in that kinetic chain has to be optimized.

Osaka alongside Murthy and Phelps at a mental health forum at the U.S. Open in September (Timothy A Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

Osaka’s daily preparation for her comeback started with an osteopathic treatment to align her body. That treatment lasted 30-45 minutes. Then she endured another 30-45 minutes of dynamic stretching and drills that accentuated change of direction, jumping, sprints, acceleration, deceleration and stopping. That helped to prepare every joint and made sure they were functioning optimally for tennis. She then spent roughly two and a half hours on the court. A 60-minute strength and movement workout followed.

Zitzelsberger prefers free weights, which he said improve balance. Osaka did rep after rep of lightweight (for her) deadlifts, squats, and lunges with kettlebells, though sometimes Zitzelsberger asked for two quick reps with maximum weight to build explosive power. There was a post-training treatment, and Osaka headed home around 3pm.

There, she napped if Shai was napping, but otherwise, she played and cared for her until about 7.30pm. She put Shai to sleep, and then headed to bed shortly after. (Shai didn’t make the trip to Australia, because of the long flight, but Osaka plans to take her with her the rest of the season.)

Zitzelsberger and Fissette stood close to each other through nearly every practice, always trying to figure out how to better train Osaka’s body to support the player she needs to be. She and her team have accepted that the serve-forehand version of Osaka that topped the rankings four years ago would not be able to bully the competition around the court the way she used to.

Players are moving so much better now, Fissette says. Even the most offensive players, like Swiatek, are phenomenal defenders — Osaka had been good defensively, not great. She needs drop shots to make opponents move as she never has to before, and volleys to close out points in the front of the court.

In mid-December, they were focused on making her legs and core strong enough to hit an open-stance backhand with power, something only a few players in the world — Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Swiatek — can do. It’s a defensive shot that a select few can use offensively. The open stance allows for a quicker recovery. But the trick is being able to bend and generate power from an extremely awkward position.

Enter Simone Elliott, a ballet dancer from Seattle who spent much of the past three decades dancing with companies in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. Lately, she has been working with skiers, tennis players, soccer players and other athletes to refine their movements. Fans of German team Borussia Dortmund have Elliott to thank every time goalkeeper Alexander Meyer dives to deflect a shot with the tips of his fingers.

Elliott, 36, said she feels a special kinship with tennis players. Like many of them, she left home at 15 to fly overseas and pursue her career. In December, at the request of Fissette and Zitzelsberger, Elliott began helping Osaka learn how best to reach those deep positions she needed to get into while chasing down balls and how to explode out from them.

Osaka hits a backhand in Brisbane (Patrick Hamilton/AFP via Getty Images)

“It’s about getting hungry or curious about the movement that you are doing every day, investing yourself into each movement, understanding your body, understanding your breath and being present with the entire experience, and then finding that freedom within your game,” Elliott says after watching Osaka practice during her first week in California.

Elliott then rises from her seat and, in a split second, assumes the lowest open-stance backhand position and bursts out of it effortlessly.

“She’s a beautiful mover,” Elliott says of Osaka.

Could she have been a ballet dancer?

“If she worked with that discipline and that focus,” Elliott says, “she could do whatever she put her mind to.”

Tennis is an impatient place, especially for a former world No. 1.

A baseball player coming back from more than a year away from the sport might spend a couple of months climbing through the minor leagues. Osaka headed to Australia knowing that her second tournament would be one of the five most important events of the year. Given that she has had little success on the clay of Roland Garros or the grass of Wimbledon, it’s probably the second most important one for her, behind only the U.S. Open.

Fissette has tried to play down the importance of Osaka’s initial results. He described Australia as “a big test for us to see where we are at, but Australia is just the beginning”.

The goal, he said, is to have Osaka rounding into top form during the summer hard court swing in North America. He is sure that can happen, “as long as she can really stay in this mindset where she wants to just grow every day”.

In her last stint on the tour, Osaka struggled with the inevitable losses and stumbles that happen to even the best tennis players. At her first tournament back in Brisbane, where she won her opening match against Tamara Korpatsch of Germany, Osaka spoke of searching for ways to draw energy from the hubbub that will surround her, taking off her headphones to give back some of the love she has long received in a way that never came naturally for a woman who, as a girl, was painfully shy. She said that she imagined her daughter watching her as she played and as she signed autographs, she envisioned Shai being one of the kids reaching out to her with a Sharpie.

She wants to leave the sport better than how she found it. Players have thanked her for bringing to light the mental strain that news conferences can cause. That meant a lot.

She wants the next gifted girl who comes to the sport from cracked public courts to have an easier time than she and her sister did, to not get dissed by the potential sponsor that blew off her family because, even after the Williams sisters, how could girls coming from an environment like that reach the top of the game?

“They knew that we were good enough, but it was just like the circumstances of what we were in,” she says. “A lot of kids that we probably don’t even see are so amazing and talented, but since they aren’t given the grants or the opportunities, we just never see them to their full potential.”

That’s what she’s going after now — her full potential, off the court and on it, too, where she is convinced the best Naomi is yet to come.

“I’m actually, like, striking a really great backhand now,” she says.

(Lead graphic: John Bradford; Photos: Chris Hyde, Getty)

Culture

NHL trade matchmaker: Predicting where top targets go by the deadline, part 2

Published

7 hours ago

December 28, 2024

Press Room

NHL trade matchmaker: Predicting where top targets go by the deadline, part 2

We are now exactly 10 weeks away from the NHL’s March 7 trade deadline.

That leaves enough runway for the needs of buyers and sellers to shift before the biggest decisions are made — or for buyers and sellers to switch places. But in a season where there’s already been plenty of trade action, it’s not too soon to try to find some fits between teams and players available on our latest NHL trade big board.

With that in mind, here’s part two of trade-board matchmaker.

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NHL trade matchmaker: LeBrun and Johnston predict where top targets go by the deadline, part 1

Team: San Jose Sharks
Position: F
Shoots: L
Age: 32
Contract term: 2025 UFA
AAV: $5 million

LeBrun: Vegas Golden Knights

The 32-year-old Granlund leads the Sharks in scoring and is on pace for a career high in points. He’s meant a lot to San Jose off the ice, too, as far as his leadership and influence around the youngsters. He also likes it there. All of which is to say, it’s not a slam dunk he gets dealt before the deadline just because he’s a pending unrestricted free agent. The expectation is that Granlund’s agents, Todd Diamond and Mark Gandler, will have a discussion in the new year with Sharks general manager Mike Grier. But the team will need to balance any potential extension with the kind of offers it’ll get on the trade market, and there will certainly be some. Granlund’s versatility of being able to play all three forward positions with comfort will appeal to contenders. He may also augment his trade value depending on his performance under the spotlight playing for Finland in the 4 Nations Face-Off in February. Looking into my matchmaker crystal ball, let’s make him a Vegas Golden Knight. The Sharks and Knights got together on a trade deadline deal a year ago involving Tomas Hertl. Keeping in mind Granlund’s versatility and the unfortunate reality of always being concerned about Mark Stone’s health, I like the idea for Vegas of adding this kind of depth.

Johnston: Minnesota Wild

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since Granlund was a first-round pick by the Wild who spent seven seasons playing for the organization. Still, wouldn’t it be a nice homecoming story? Minnesota could really use a forward who can toggle between center and wing while chipping in with some offense. Granlund ticks all of those boxes and should come with an added level of comfort given his familiarity with the organization. The cap aspect will need to be worked out since San Jose doesn’t have any retention spots still open and Minnesota has some added challenges while operating in long-term injured reserve, but those aren’t big enough hurdles to keep this from happening.

Team: Philadelphia Flyers
Position: D
Shoots: R
Age: 30
Contract term: 2027 UFA
AAV: $5.1 million

LeBrun: Winnipeg Jets

It wasn’t too long ago that Ristolainen’s contract scared teams, but it’s funny what happens with a 20-minute-a-night, top-four defenseman finds his game more consistently, as he has this season. Suddenly, with the salary cap going up, a $5.1 million cap hit for the next two and a half years isn’t so bad at all. That’s why league sources say the Flyers have indeed received calls this season asking if they would be willing to move Ristolainen. The answer from the Flyers is yes — if there’s a certain price met. They would want a good prospect or young player in return or a combination of a prospect and a pick. And while trading for a player with term on his contract isn’t your typical deadline deal since most contenders prefer rentals, I can see it appealing to a few teams. For example, the Jets. I’d like to see the Jets add the kind of size on the right side of their defense that Ristolainen would bring. And after giving up a first-round pick last season for rental Sean Monahan only to see him leave July 1, and keeping in mind how difficult it is for the Jets to attract free agents to Winnipeg, I like the idea of acquiring a player under contract. So there you have it, I’ve got the Cup-contending Jets taking on Ristolainen.

Could Rasmus Ristolainen end up in the Central Division? (Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)

Johnston: Dallas Stars

The Stars made a big splash by acquiring Chris Tanev ahead of last year’s deadline but were unable to retain him in free agency over the summer. They haven’t yet filled that hole on the right side of their blue line. The term remaining on Ristolainen’s contract fits in with the Stars’ win-now window, and the improvements in his game should hold appeal given how few defensive stoppers are expected to be available in the marketplace. Depth is essential for any team gearing up for a long spring, and Dallas is all in on trying to win the Stanley Cup.

Team: Chicago Blackhawks
Position: F
Shoots: L
Age: 33
Contract term: 2025 UFA
AAV: $6 million

LeBrun: Utah HC

The Blackhawks actually haven’t committed yet to trading Hall, although given where they are in the standings, one would imagine that’s the most logical course of action for the veteran pending unrestricted free agent. It hasn’t been the best of seasons for the 33-year-old winger, but something tells me that a move to a Cup contender might ignite a little flash from the former Hart Trophy winner. He’s always been one of the smartest players in the league. The hockey IQ hasn’t dulled even if the skating has slowed down a little. If the Hawks are willing to eat some of Hall’s $6 million cap hit, there’s no question in my mind there will be a market for him. Hall has a modified no-trade clause, so his agent, Darren Ferris, could have a role in helping the Hawks find a suitor. So hear me out here: Utah HC as a buyer! This is only realistic in a world in which Utah stays in the race in the second half. They could use a little more offense. Hall has some brand-name cache that would be fun to bring into the NHL’s newest market, and Utah has plenty of cap room, plus a strong desire to stay in the playoff chase.

Johnston: Colorado Avalanche

The Avs are one of the few top teams who could make room for Hall in their top six, which is likely where a player with his skill set needs to play in order to be most effective. The continued uncertainty around Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog, who has gone more than two and a half years without playing while recovering from a cartilage transplant in his right knee, makes the need for another left winger more pronounced. Hall may not skate at the same level as earlier in his career, but he’s still faster than average and could hold his own alongside Nathan MacKinnon in top-line duty if needed. At minimum, he would give the Avalanche more lineup flexibility than they enjoy now. The acquisition cost also shouldn’t be too significant for a veteran player unlikely to be part of the long-term solution for the rebuilding Blackhawks.

Will Borgen

Team: New York Rangers
Position: D
Shoots: R
Age: 28
Contract term: 2025 UFA
AAV: $2.7 million

LeBrun: Florida Panthers

The Rangers just acquired Borgen, but he’s a pending unrestricted free agent and unless New York can somehow stop the bleeding and turn around its season, the Blueshirts will be sellers and open to flipping him. The 6-foot-3, 204-pound Borgen would fit nicely in South Florida. I think in many ways, pending unrestricted free agent David Savard is a more obvious fit for the Panthers given his past relationship in Columbus with Panthers general manager Bill Zito, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Florida tried for Savard if it’s looking for a rental, right-shot D with some physicality who won’t break the bank. But Borgen would be the more under-the-radar move if indeed the Rangers decide to make him available.

Will Borgen, right, has only played three games for the Rangers, but he could be on the move again. (Wendell Cruz / Imagn Images)

Johnston: Vancouver Canucks

The Canucks have struggled since losing Filip Hronek to a significant lower-body injury earlier this month, and they’re not expecting him to play again before February. That’s exposed a gaping need on the right side of the blue line that management has aggressively been trying to address. Enter Borgen, who excels in the less-celebrated parts of the game like penalty killing, which Vancouver can certainly use. The stay-at-home defender is a good skater who should be able to step into a second pairing on a team and brings the kind of size teams view as an added plus come playoff time. Borgen will have plenty of suitors ahead of the deadline, but there may not be anyone more motivated to pursue him than Vancouver.

Team: Seattle Kraken
Position: F
Shoots: L
Age: 32
Contract term: 2025 UFA
AAV: $3.5 million

LeBrun: New Jersey Devils

All signs point to the pending unrestricted free agent winger getting dealt ahead of the deadline if the Kraken aren’t in the playoff chase, which seems rather likely as of now. My understanding is there are several contenders waiting to see if/when Tanev is on the market because they want a crack at him. He brings the kind of grindy game most playoff teams are looking for. He’s an excellent penalty killer who leads Seattle in shorthanded ice time. He won’t back down from anyone. I like the Devils as a fit. They’re looking for a bottom-six boost, and I can picture Tanev finding a nice spot in that Cup-contending lineup that has no shortage of offensive talent but could use a little more sandpaper.

Johnston: Vegas Golden Knights

Vegas went into the NHL’s holiday break with the league’s best points percentage, and there’s a strong expectation it’ll be looking to beef up before the deadline yet again. In fact, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Golden Knights pursue two forwards – one with more offensive ability, and a bottom-sixer to round out other elements of the team. Tanev falls into the latter category and may end up being the strongest player with that skill set available. A high-end skater who plays the game hard, it’s not difficult to imagine him fitting in with a team accustomed to using all four lines to win.

(Photo of Mikael Granlund and Brandon Tanev: Eric Hartline / USA Today and Alika Jenner / Getty Images)

Culture

Tennis mailbag: 2025 season and schedule, players to watch on the ATP and WTA Tours

Published

16 hours ago

December 28, 2024

Press Room

Tennis mailbag: 2025 season and schedule, players to watch on the ATP and WTA Tours

Tennis is back. Did you miss it? The season resumes from today, December 27, with the United Cup opening proceedings in Perth, Australia.

The Athletic’s tennis writers Matt Futterman and Charlie Eccleshare are here for the second of two mailbags, answering your questions submitted earlier this month. The first focused on tennis in 2024; this one will focus more on 2025 and the state of the sport, before a deeper look into storylines on the ATP and WTA Tours at the start of January.

Read on for their views on players to watch this year, the state of the political machinations at the top of tennis, and more.

Will H: Seems to be a generational transition brewing in the men’s game at the moment. Young guys like Jack Draper, Arthur Fils, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard and Ben Shelton seem poised to break into the top 10 and knock some of the previous gen (Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Hubert Hurkacz) down a peg. Do you agree, who do you expect to make a real push next year, and are there other names you’d throw in?

Charlie Eccleshare: I think I agree. My only hesitation is that I don’t know if that agreement comes from a selfish perspective rather than an analytical one. That isn’t a knock on Rublev, Tsitsipas and Hurkacz; it’s just exciting to have new blood and there’s a sense with those three (and others of similar vintage) that it may never happen for them at the very top level.

Maybe the next generation, without the kind of baggage those in their mid-twenties have built up, can be a genuine threat at the sharp end of majors… But that’s what was said about Tsitsipas et al. when they were about to replace nearly men like Kei Nishikori, Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic. Dimitrov is still here and around the top 10!

All four of Draper, Fils, Mpetshi Perricard and Shelton have the weapons to be a genuine threat to the very best — they already are on their day — and they certainly have it in them to push for top-10 places next year.

Other names to look out for are the world No. 50 Shang Juncheng of China, who’s only 19 but possesses an excellent all-round game, and the exciting Brazilian Joao Fonseca (18), who looks like a star of the future. Belgian Alexander Blockx looks like one promising name of many on the Challenger Tour.

Of those slightly older, Flavio Cobolli (22 and ranked No. 32 after a breakthrough year) could make an impact, though he’s less explosive than some of his peers. World No. 25 Tomas Machac, 24, has serious weapons and could be a real threat if he can add some consistency to his game. Where does Holger Rune fit into all this I wonder? At 21, he’s younger than Draper and Shelton, but his trajectory makes it feel like he’s in the Tsitsipas category.

Matt Futterman: John Isner reached No. 8 and made the Wimbledon semifinals. He also banked $22.5million in prize money. That’s pretty good. Mpetshi Perricard may have more weapons and is smaller, so he likely moves better. I think we need to see him for another year before we figure out who he is.

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Tennis stardom is a roulette wheel. Joao Fonseca is ready to bet on himself

Anon: Which coaching shifts do you think will stand the test of time?

MF: I’m going to bet on Wim Fissette and Iga Swiatek, mostly on the basis of Swiatek’s talent and on Fissette being a pretty genial guy that everyone seems to get along with. Swiatek has a ton of weapons, some of which she has holstered for most of her dominance: when she first broke out, she could spin the ball as well as anyone and was volleying and hitting drop shots with aplomb.

If Fissette can help her unlock the closet where all that stuff has been stored the past couple years she should start winning Grand Slams outside of Paris and he will be a huge hit.

Christopher Z: For both tours, who had a down or absent year that you expect to make a comeback in 2025? Looking at the Australian Open entry list, some big names using their protected ranking include Pablo Carreno Busta, Nick Kyrgios, Reilly Opelka, Jenson Brooksby and Belinda Bencic.

CE: Bencic, the 2021 Olympic gold medalist in women’s singles, jumps out to me because when we spoke recently she sounded very serious about her chances of getting back to a really good level.

Belinda Bencic is hoping to return to the top of the WTA Tour after giving birth to her daughter. (Tiziana Fabi / AFP via Getty Images)

Of the others, it’s hard to imagine Kyrgios coming back from so long out and being a consistent factor on the tour, but I wouldn’t rule out him having enough to produce a magical moment or two. Of the others you mentioned, Brooksby at 24 looks like having the best shot at climbing his way back up the rankings next year.

The players to look out for might be the ones who began a comeback this year, like Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu and are looking to build on those foundations in 2025, ditto Karolina Muchova, who’s ranked No. 22 despite only returning from a nine-month absence in late June. Matteo Berrettini’s season only began in March because of injury so perhaps he’ll have a more settled 2025, though I fear at 28 he may have peaked already.

Otherwise, I’m excited by the prospect of a fit Denis Shapovalov after the long layoff he had, and how about Ons Jabeur? She hasn’t played since August because of a knee injury that wrecked her season, and surely everyone in tennis will be hoping that she can come back and be a factor next year.

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Kevin M: What’s the latest with the proposed changes to ATP/WTA scheduling?

MF: Two words: Not much. The leaders of the ATP like making their players play at least eight Masters 1000 tournaments. The WTA just secured equal pay down the road in exchange for mandatory attendance at the biggest tournaments. The only way any change happens is if players start refusing to show up at events after the U.S. Open. I don’t see a shorter season. Maybe the tours lose enough 250-level events that they gain back a week but it’s hard to see that anytime soon and it would harm tennis’ status as a global sport.

Tom J: Any news on the premium tour ideas that were floated earlier in the year? Has that just come to a temporary haunt until Indian Wells/Madrid again or is there behind-the-scenes progress?

MF: Tennis honchos keep referencing productive discussions. Players are fed up and feel like they are getting gaslit. The Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) has hired a team of lawyers and litigation of various kinds could begin in 2025. That could force change — or at least some serious talks instead of happy talk and gaslighting.

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Alex H: Do you think Jack Draper or Katie Boulter will continue to have another great year? Who is your tip for the next crop of Brits to emerge?

CE: If Draper can stay healthy then I see no reason why he can’t make the top 10. In tennis circles in Britain and outside it, the feeling is that Draper has top-five potential.

Boulter’s progress has been steady over the last few years, but the big question mark is whether she can deliver at the Grand Slams. She’s never reached the second week of a major, and last year didn’t even go beyond the second round. Improvement, or lack of it, at the biggest events will decide whether Boulter continues being a very solid top-30 player or something more.

Britain’s No. 2 Raducanu has had a very different career, winning a shock Grand Slam at 18 but struggling for the kind of consistency that’s been Boulter’s hallmark since. That’s what she’s striving for now, and with Maria Sharapova’s former trainer Yutaka Nakamura joining her team Raducanu is hopeful that she can stay fit and get back towards the top of the sport. A word also for Sonay Kartal, 23, who won her first title and cracked the world’s top 100 in 2024, having ended 2023 ranked world No. 235.

From the next generation, there is a lot of excitement about the British women coming through. The huge-serving Mika Stojsavljevic (16) won the U.S. Open juniors in September and came agonizingly close to a first tour-level win at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. She is arguably the pick of the bunch. There’s also Hannah Klugman (15), who won last year’s international under-18s tournament, the Orange Bowl, and came within a match of qualifying for this year’s Wimbledon. Keep an eye out also for Mimi Xu, a 17-year-old with excellent technique, if not the easy power of Stojsavljevic.

Mika Stojsavljevic will hope to build on her success in 2025. (Luke Hales / Getty Images)

The boys are not at quite the same level, though Henry Searle, 18, became the first Brit in 61 years to win the Wimbledon boys’ singles title in 2023. Charlie Robertson, also 18, has had a promising year and is mentored by Andy Murray, but standing at a possibly generous 5ft 8in he’ll likely need to do some growing to make it on the ATP Tour. Oliver Bonding (18) and Viktor Frydrych (17) both went out early in the Orange Bowl last week, but are considered decent prospects.

Julian G: How do you see the popularity of tennis in the United States evolving over the next few years? It feels like other sports are making breakthroughs (F1 “Drive to Survive”, Golf with the popularity of YouTube), while tennis is at a standstill with the flop of Netflix’s “Break Point”.

MF: If USTA numbers are to be believed, tennis participation continues to rise, though outside New York City and some other urban centers where courts are scarce, I do see a lot of empty courts. As for television ratings, if the stars can keep making finals and breaking through with the help of their sponsors, that can help make up for the failure of Break Point. Plus, we’ll all be watching Zendaya and her boys on “Challengers” streams for a long time. Sequel? Please?

James Hansen: This theme is connected to the below questions, so I’ll put them in before answering more widely…

Anon: As always, my question is about the effect of tennis’ subpar broadcasting on the sport. The hideous light tan or pink court surrounds making the ball impossible to see as it bounces; the still too-high camera angle leaves calling slices or topspin up to the announcers; hardly showing the final handshake while loving ‘the box”, while sometimes not ID’ing who they are.

Sarah Bordeaux: What’s the latest and/or future of tennis broadcasting in the US? Tennis Channel (Plus) is now a standalone product, are there any potential suitors coming for Grand Slams or other broadcast rights, including for the Challengers/NCAA tournaments/etc, and what exactly is behind the Tennis Channel deal?

Sinclair has been very open about its desire to explore ‘strategic alternatives’ for the Tennis Channel, whether selling a stake or the whole property. Its move to direct-to-consumer suggests a willingness to try and keep up with a changing media landscape tennis is yet to really get to grips with.

ESPN will pay $2.04billion (more than £1.5bn) to air the U.S. Open through 2037 in a deal signed this year, while Wimbledon’s broadcast deal with ABC and ESPN networks comes in at $52.5million (£40.3m) per year as of 2024, according to SP Global. Broadcast rights remain gold dust, even as cable TV revenues decline and direct-to-consumer alternatives can, to date, only vainly attempt to make up the shortfall. Those broadcast rights — which are converted into the broadcasting that many fans, like Anon above, feel is often subpar — are important to Grand Slams because their value is tied to in-person attendance. If you are a huge tennis fan who can watch a tournament for free where you live, you are less often going to pay for a ticket to be there in person.

To keep that balance, the broadcast rights are very restrictive. Any footage cut up and put on YouTube or social networks like X, Bluesky and TikTok will get copyright-striked and taken down in short order, whether it is posted by a player who wants to reach their own fans or a fan just having some fun as part of the online tennis community.

This is where popularity comes in. A sport cannot grow if it cannot be discovered. A fan in the U.S. who sees a Coco Gauff TikTok or a meme about “Challengers” and wants to learn more about the world currently can’t watch highlights except on official channels and can’t watch much tennis at all without several subscriptions. A player who wants to engage people by documenting their life on tour can’t post highlights of their own matches. And in sanctioned media properties — whether documentaries produced by stars, or something like Break Point — tennis has largely failed to show fans why they should care about anyone outside the biggest stars where Formula One and golf have turned players further down their rankings into compelling personalities. Then, if they do make it, they already have an audience invested in their journey.

As cable in the U.S. gets less and less profitable, these lucrative media rights are, eventually, going to get less lucrative. If tennis doesn’t change its relationship with discoverability, it is going to get a big and bad shock when they do. Expect much more coverage of this here in 2025.

(Top photo of Jack Draper: Getty Images; top photo of Karolina Muchova: Associated Press)

Culture

Ashton Jeanty didn’t win the Heisman, but he’s still chasing history at Boise State

Published

1 day ago

December 27, 2024

Press Room

Ashton Jeanty didn’t win the Heisman, but he’s still chasing history at Boise State

Ashton Jeanty was into basketball more than football as a kid. So before he grew up to be a 5-foot-9 battering ram in cleats, his favorite athlete was LeBron James. Jeanty, who bounced around the globe as the son of a Naval officer, spent a chunk of his childhood in Florida when James was on the Miami Heat.

“Seeing (LeBron) beat all the odds,” said Jeanty, “I feel like I’ve been doing that same thing in my career.”

It’s why the Boise State running back will forever be the answer to that same question — Who’s your favorite athlete? — for a generation of Broncos fans.

Jeanty didn’t win the Heisman Trophy, finishing second to Colorado’s Travis Hunter. But he did collect the most points by a Heisman runner-up and forced the narrowest margin of defeat since 2009. He also took home the Maxwell Award (player of the year), Doak Walker Award (best running back) and unanimous All-American honors. And Jeanty has another major milestone in his sights.

He enters the College Football Playoff at 2,497 rushing yards this season, just 131 yards shy of college football’s official single-season record, set by Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders in 1988. Considering Jeanty has averaged 192.1 rushing yards per game this season, there’s at least a decent chance he rewrites that record in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff against Penn State on Dec. 31.

But Jeanty is more than just a Heisman runner-up and future first-round NFL running back who is on the verge of a record-breaking statistical accomplishment. At a Boise State program with a reputation for giant slaying and a rich history of running backs, he has managed to stand above the rest.

“Ashton Jeanty is phenomenal for college football, and he’s going to be phenomenal for the NFL,” said Boise State coach Spencer Danielson. “Not only from his play on the field but also the culture he brings with him.”

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There is some nuance to Sanders’ record. He rushed for 2,628 yards in only 11 games on his way to the Heisman in 1988; Jeanty has already played 13 games. And Sanders’ unofficial record is 2,850 yards if you add in the 222 yards he racked up in the Holiday Bowl, before bowl game stats were officially counted.

There will be those who discount Jeanty’s record if he does set it, but Sanders won’t be among them, sending a tweet ahead of Boise’s victory in the Mountain West championship wishing Jeanty luck.

“My fans can gripe, but records are made to be broken & I am rooting for you,” Sanders wrote.

Hey @AshtonJeanty2 – Wishing you luck tonight.
My fans can gripe, but records are made to be broken & I am rooting for you. I love seeing all these @NFL and @NCAA #RBs showing the value of the position. #RunTheRock pic.twitter.com/bk0NtPbAL0
— Barry Sanders (@BarrySanders) December 6, 2024

Asked about Sanders’ mark, Jeanty said it would be “like the cherry on top, to break a record that’s been around for decades,” especially after he came up just short in the Heisman race. But as Boise State enters the inaugural 12-team Playoff as a No. 3-seed from the Group of 5, the record — attained or not, contested or not — doesn’t change what Jeanty has achieved.

The stats are staggering, like if Paul Bunyan played high school football. Nearly 2,500 rushing yards, an FBS-leading 30 total touchdowns, 7.3 yards per carry and six games with 200-plus rushing yards. His season low was 127 yards against Portland State, and he got pulled at halftime. Jeanty outrushed 115 FBS teams this season all by himself. The next closest player to him in terms of rushing yards is North Carolina running back Omarion Hampton with 1,660. That’s less than the 1,889 yards Jeanty has gained after contact. He’s the first back to eclipse 2,000 yards rushing since 2019.

“I love watching Ashton play — the mix of physicality, speed and control,” said Alexander Mattison, a former Boise State running back now in the NFL with the Las Vegas Raiders. “But I’ve been able to get to know him, not just as a football player but a genuine person. It’s fun to see him get everything that he deserves. He loves the game, and if you love the game, it will love you back.”

There is an impressive pedigree of running backs at Boise State, with Jeanty set to become next in a long line of Broncos bell cows who have gone on to play in the NFL. Jeanty surpassed Cedric Minter as the program’s all-time leading rusher this season and broke a number of other records Minter has held since at least 1980. But the string of modern-day tailbacks stretches to Ian Johnson, who famously won the 2007 Fiesta Bowl on the Statue of Liberty handoff, followed by Jeremy Avery, Doug Martin, D.J Harper, Jay Ajayi (the former single-season record holder), Jeremy McNichols, Mattison and George Holani.

It’s quite a list, and that’s just the running backs. Former quarterback Kellen Moore is the winningest QB in FBS history (50) and the program’s only other Heisman finalist (he finished fourth in 2010). He remains a Boise State icon. Yet after this season, no one compares to what Jeanty has produced on the field or what he embodies off it.

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“He’s a unanimous captain, part of our leadership council,” said Danielson, who added that he meets one-on-one with Jeanty each week after those council meetings.

“Every single time we have those meetings, it is nothing about Ashton. He’s asking about the team, a player, asking how he can help lead better, have more of an impact,” said Danielson. “That is uncommon. He’s different in all facets.”

Jeanty does care about the awards and accolades. He hasn’t shied from that, whether rattling off the individual goals he had for himself this season or lamenting his Heisman finish by stating: “I really felt like I should’ve walked away with the award.” It’s part of why he returned to Boise State this season, believing he could achieve everything he wanted right where he was.

But Jeanty also cares about the legacy he will leave behind. It’s why he embraced being a team captain and leader and de facto spokesperson. It’s why he spurned more lucrative name, image and likeness (NIL) offers to transfer elsewhere last offseason. It’s why he established the Ashton Jeanty Endowed Scholarship for Football — in October, even before he broke all the records and became a Heisman finalist and carried the Broncos to a Mountain West title and first-round bye in the CFP. The scholarship has raised more than $180,000 toward its $200,000 goal, which will support future Boise State athletes.

“He’s like a movie star here,” said athletic director Jeramiah Dickey. “We had to finally get him security so we could cut off the autograph and photo lines. It was our responsibility to help him because he’s such a good kid, he didn’t want to say no to anyone.”

Jeanty is already the most decorated player in program history and has put Boise State in position to compete for a top-flight national championship for the first time. He has a chance to set a single-season rushing record that could stand for decades.

And none of it will outlast what he has meant to Boise State football and the community that surrounds it.

“Culture is about the people who are here — just bringing back what Boise State’s been, having a positive influence over everybody,” said Jeanty. “People won’t remember the stats, they’re not going to remember the games. But they’re going to remember how I treated people, how I carried myself throughout my time here and the impact that had.”

— The Athletic’s Vic Tafur contributed reporting

(Photo: Loren Orr / Getty Images)