Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.
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This week, Serena Williams returned, an awkward run of results for two best friends continued, and the dog days might be over at Wimbledon.
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How did Serena Williams’ comeback feel?
It was the headbands that got me.
I can’t think of a moment I’ve been excited about a GOAT coming out of retirement. Call me grumpy, but I tend to get bummed out at the idea of a monumentally accomplished athlete returning to see what’s left to squeeze out of their career. I want these all-time greats to be satisfied enough to move on with life; I want them to avoid having to face being fractionally as good as they once were; I want society to be able to let its legends lie.
I also know this type of mindset is utterly opposed to one of the things that makes generational athletes spectacular: The undying desire to push one’s limits as far as possible.
Still, I had mixed personal feelings about Serena Williams’ return. As a reporter, I am interested in getting a look at her tennis. As a follower of the sport, I wasn’t quite as swept up with the Queen returning as others seemed to be, though I understood Williams wanting her children to see her play competitive tennis — to know her fully.
I did not expect to be so transported watching her play.
It wasn’t Williams’ tennis that did it at first, but rather the sights and sounds of her game on a grass court in London, coming through my TV on a late summery afternoon, just the way I watched her win so many Wimbledons as a kid — first as a teen, then as a young adult.
I chuckled to myself when she first walked out and I saw the two skinny headbands bobby-pinned to her bouncy curls, her specific bubble ponytail trailing down her back. A friend texted, “she’s still loyal to that hairstyle.” I smiled. Then I heard the grunts, the wails, a “YES!” the familiar sounds of Williams competing. Watching her service motion was like climbing into a time machine, though I appreciate its grace and power much more now than I was able to 15 years ago.
Then it was over, and I was watching Williams twirl in victory as she waved at the crowd alongside Victoria Mboko, as she always does after a match. I wasn’t thinking about how far Williams might make it at a Grand Slam, or if she would play singles. I wasn’t trying to analyze the broader impact of a 44-year-old woman playing professional sports.
I was sat on my couch, awash in nostalgia, thinking how lovely it is to spend an afternoon watching Williams play tennis.
— Ava Wallace
How do best friends cope with one-sided matchups?
For Iva Jović, last week’s women’s event at Queen’s marked the second straight tournament in which she thrashed Alexandra Eala — one of the 18-year-old American’s best friends on tour. They’ve played doubles together at a couple of events this year, and their friendship goes back to the 2022 U.S. Open girls’ tournament.
That was when they first faced one another, with Eala of the Philippines, who is now 21, and future French Open champion Mirra Andreeva beating Jović and compatriot Shannon Lam 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the girls’ doubles.
Close friends having to face one another is a longstanding tennis dynamic, and can lead to some uneven head-to-heads or strange matchups. Serena and Venus Williams were too close for their matches to have any real edge or needle, which resulted in a few disappointing matches for the neutral. Russian pair Daniil Medvedev, and Andrey Rublev meanwhile are so friendly that the latter is the godfather to Medvedev’s daughter. Medvedev leads the head to head 7-2, creating a “big brother-little brother” dynamic, in which the older sibling has almost always won out.
So far in their young rivalry, Jović, the world No. 19, has won both meetings with Eala, ranked No. 33, handsomely: 6-4, 6-2 in the French Open first round in May and then 6-2, 6-2 in the second round at the Queen’s Club in west London last week.
“I wish we could play at later stages of the tournaments,” Jovic said in a news conference after her latest win. This echoed a sentiment offered by America’s Tommy Paul a couple of years ago, when asked how he found facing good friends like fellow Americans and contemporaries Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz. “I hate playing them first or second round,” he said in an interview.
“Playing semis or finals of a big tournament? That’s what we dreamed about when we were young.”
During an interview ahead of Wimbledon 2024, Fritz said that he hates such matchups.
“It’s tough to get into it when you’re playing a friend. I’ve had a good record in these matches, but it’s definitely uncomfortable.”
Jović and Eala will hope they’ll soon be meeting when the stakes are even higher.
— Charlie Eccleshare
Why are tennis players’ dogs back in the spotlight?
Tennis players’ dogs were everywhere at the French Open this year. They were sitting in boxes on Court Philippe-Chatrier, running around the players’ lounge, napping in news conferences and, in the case of one dog, celebrating on court with Mirra Andreeva after she won her first Grand Slam title. Luna, canine companion to Conchita Martinez, Andreeva’s coach, surely made Andreeva’s own pup, Rassy, jealous watching from home.
Roland Garros treated the pups like royalty. Responding to a notable uptick in recent years of players traveling with their dogs on tour, the French Open partnered with a luxury dog concierge who provided individualized care for players’ pups. Roland Garros viewed the service as an extension of how they take care of their players, who got to focus on their day jobs while knowing their beloved pets were being pampered.
Wimbledon, in keeping with its stately tradition, isn’t quite as dog friendly.
Chief executive Sally Bolton reiterated the tournament’s policy earlier this week.
“The only dogs that we permit on site are service dogs, and those security and search dogs,” Bolton said in a news conference. “We’re in constant communication with the players and we don’t anticipate that being a problem, but that’s our policy and always has been our policy.”
That doesn’t mean there won’t be any dogs at Wimbledon. Several of the dogs who travel the tennis circuit are registered service animals. But will Wimbledon be catering to pups in the same manner as Roland Garros? It doesn’t sound like it — and it’s a bit hard to imagine a four-legged friend sitting at Centre Court.
Still, Wimbledon is known as the tournament that dotes on its players most. It’s hard to imagine their reputation for impeccable player care taking a hit because there isn’t a doggy pool on site.
— Ava Wallace
How much should tennis fans pay attention to viewing figures?
It’s tempting to draw conclusions about the state of tennis by using viewing figures from its most important matches, but their sensitivity to stardom means that context is key.
This year’s French Open men’s final, in which No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev beat No. 10 seed Flavio Cobolli over five tense sets, delivered 1.3 million viewers across TNT and truTV, according to data from Sports Business Journal. It was the least-watched French Open men’s final in more than 20 years, and was also down 25 percent on last year, when the two best players and biggest stars in men’s tennis, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, played out one of the most dramatic matches in the history of the sport.
That’s not exactly a surprising outcome.
It was a similar story with the women’s final. 826,000 watched Mirra Andreeva defeat Maja Chwalińska in straight sets, down 44 percent from 1.5 million for Coco Gauff’s three-set win over Aryna Sabalenka last year. That too was a hugely eventful match. Andreeva’s win over Chwalińska, the world No. 114 and qualifier who made a stunning run to the final attracted more viewers than the 756,000 that NBC drew two years ago for Iga Świątek’s similarly one-sided victory over Jasmine Paolini.
Overall, TNT had similar viewing numbers this year as 2025 — helped by an action-packed first week in which big names like Sinner, Novak Djokovic and Gauff suffered dramatic exits. The price a tournament pays for those kinds of upsets is having finals with less star power than usual. This year’s French Open averaged 387,000 viewers, down just one percent from 390,000 last year.
At a Wimbledon where many of the star names may have better fortunes, and Serena Williams could make a Grand Slam comeback after four years out, there will likely be another bounce in viewership.
— Charlie Eccleshare
Shot of the week
Serena Williams’ two-handed backhand winner off an overhead in her first match back was a ripper …
But the prize has to go to 17-year-old Thijs Boogard, for this audacious use of the underarm serve against deep-return master Daniil Medvedev when down break point:
🏆 The winners of the week
🎾 ATP:
🏆 Ben Shelton (1) def. Taylor Fritz (2) 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 to win the Stuttgart Open (250) in Stuttgart, Germany. It is Shelton’s third title of 2026; he defeated Fritz in two of his three finals played.
🏆 Kamil Majchrzak def. Alex de Minaur 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(5) to win the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships (250) in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. It is the 30-year-old’s first ATP Tour title.
🎾 WTA:
🏆 Donna Vekić (LL) def. Emma Raducanu 6-0, 7-6(6) to win Queen’s (500) in London. It is the Croatian’s first WTA 500 title.
🏆 Robin Montgomery (Q) def. Barbora Krejčíková (8) (W/O) to win the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships (250) in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. It is the 21-year-old’s first WTA Tour title.
📈📉 On the rise / Down the line
📈 Donna Vekić moves up 44 places from No. 76 to No. 32 after winning the title at Queen’s.
📈 Kamil Majchrzak ascends 29 spots from No. 76 to No. 47, a new career-high ranking.
📈 Robin Montgomery reenters the top 200 after rising 290 spots from No. 484 to No. 194.
📈 Jesper de Jong rises 11 spots from No. 83 to No. 72.
📉 Gabriel Diallo falls 30 places from No. 54 to No. 84.
📉 Tatjana Maria leaves the top 100, dropping 65 places from No. 52 to No. 117.
📉 Reilly Opelka also leaves the top 100, tumbling 16 places from No. 86 to No. 102.
📉 Zheng Qinwen falls 38 spots from No. 122 to No. 160.
📅 Coming up
🎾 ATP
📍London: Queen’s (500) featuring Alex de Minaur, Jakub Menšík, Rafael Jódar, Tommy Paul.
📍Halle, Germany: Halle Open (500) featuring Alexander Zverev, Félix Auger-Aliassime, Ben Shelton, João Fonseca.
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV
🎾 WTA
📍Berlin: Berlin Tennis Open (500) featuring Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff, Serena Williams.
📍Nottingham, England: Nottingham Open (250) featuring Zheng Qinwen, Maria Sakkari, Leylah Fernandez, Emma Navarro.
📺 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.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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