Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.

This week, the Davis Cup qualifiers brought drama in the extreme, two Americans made deep tournament runs, and Jannik Sinner debuted a YouTube channel.

Why is Sinner becoming a YouTuber?

There’s that old saying that movie stars want to be jocks and jocks want to be movie stars.

The axiom brings us Jannik Sinner, Australian Open champion and YouTuber. As the sporting world awaits the release of “My Way,” the Netflix tennis documentary on Carlos Alcaraz, Sinner decided to add his contribution to film in the form of a vlog documenting his run to the title in Melbourne. The men’s world No. 1 joins a growing crop of players choosing to take control of their own media output as much as they can, capitalizing on their fame without using intermediaries. The promise is of direct access, but it can often feel more like a stage-managed evasion of anything they don’t want people to see.

Don’t expect too much insight into what makes the famously private and composed Sinner tick. Big reveals: he’s friendly to his drivers; he likes to drive golf carts kind of fast around Melbourne Park’s service roads; Slam final Sundays are very special to him and still feel rare, even though he’s experienced three of them in 13 months; he celebrates his titles with a burger.

The film begins the day after Sinner’s fourth-round win over Holger Rune, which he pulled off while battling an illness. According to the vlog, after he did that he figured he’d win the tournament.

Everyone else kind of did too.

What now for Simona Halep?

Simona Halep, a two-time Grand Slam champion, has said that “the thought of retiring crosses my mind very often.”

In an interview with Golazo, Halep, 33, said that a knee injury was making her seriously contemplate her future. “The knee injury I have is quite serious and difficult to recover from,” she said.

“I don’t know if I’m afraid to push myself, but when I feel pain, it’s hard to play at my highest level. It’s very difficult to get back to where I was, especially after such a long break.

“The thought of retiring crosses my mind very often. I’ve reached an age where I have injuries that are hard to recover from.

“My knee won’t heal completely; I was advised to undergo surgery, but it’s a complicated procedure, and I don’t think I will go through with it.”

Halep is ranked No. 870 having only returned from a doping ban last March, after testing positive for the banned substance roxadustat at the 2022 U.S. Open.

Halep was provisionally suspended in October 2022 and then given a four-year ban in September 2023, but this was reduced on appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to nine months in March 2024. CAS ruled that Halep “bore no significant fault or negligence.” Because she had already served far in excess of nine months, Halep was able to return straight away. Halep has always denied knowingly taking the banned substance roxadustat and presented evidence that the fluctuations in her haemoglobin levels were within her normal range.

She was given a wildcard for the Miami Open soon after her return, but Halep has only played five matches since her suspension ended; she last appeared at the Hong Kong Open in October and she will make her return this week at the Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca, in her native Romania. Halep had been given a qualifying wildcard for the Australian Open in January — the first wildcard of any sort that she had been given for the Grand Slams since returning from her doping ban — but had to pull out injured.

It feels increasingly unlikely that the former world No. 1 and French Open and Wimbledon champion will ever get anywhere close to those heights again.

Why did the Davis Cup bring so much drama?

The incident involving exuberant celebrations, a collision, three time violations and an international dispute between Zizou Bergs of Belgium and Cristian Garin of Chile needs its own explanation. But the Davis Cup qualifiers, usually an exhibition of stronger tennis nations beating weaker ones, proved unusually dramatic across the board. If there is any news, it’s probably for the wrong reasons.

So it proved, on court and off. The U.S, Germany, Czech Republic, Spain, Croatia, Argentina, Australia and France all avoided ignominy this weekend, winning their ties with supposedly weaker tennis nations. Serbia and Great Britain, hampered by injuries to Novak Djokovic and Jack Draper, not so much — even though an inspired Holger Rune and Yoshihito Nishioka were never going to be pushovers for Denmark and Japan respectively.

The winning teams advanced to the final round of qualifiers, which will take place in September, the weekend after the U.S. Open.

The U.S. defeated Chinese Taipei with a lineup of first-timers — Alex Michelsen and Marcos Giron — in singles and long-timers — Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek — in doubles. Bigger guns will likely be in the squad for a home tie against the Czech Republic in September, who will be toting Jakub Mensik and Tomas Machac, but captain Bob Bryan might well stick with his doubles pair. Ram and Krajicek were replaced by Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton at the last minute with everything on the line against Australia in a quarterfinal last November; the gamble did not pay off.

The dramatics came in France’s tie with Brazil. The umpire ruled that an errant groundstroke from Arthur Fils had touched Thiago Seyboth Wild on its way beyond the baseline, awarding a point to France that gave Fils a 5-4 lead in the second set and the opportunity to serve out the match. Seyboth Wild pleaded his innocence, less to the umpire than to Fils, who deferred to the umpire.

Come the end of the match, Seyboth Wild aggressively pulled Fils into a handshake in just about name alone.

How the American growth in women’s tennis rolled on

There are a silly amount of U.S. women having success. Madison Keys is the Australian Open champion. Keys, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro are all in the WTA top 10. Ann Li, the pride of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, joined their number by reaching the Singapore Open final on Sunday, where she lost to tour veteran Elise Mertens. Li is 8-4 this season, and on the way to the final, she had notable wins over Daria Saville of Australia and Anna Kalinskaya of Russia, the top seed.

She’s beaten former U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens twice this season and one of her four losses occurred in the first round of the Australian Open, when Keys beat her 6-4, 7-5. That’s a loss that aged well. Li will rise to No. 60 in the rankings this week.

Another lesser-ranked American had a pretty good week, too. The New York City-bred Aleksandar Kovacevic made his first ATP Tour final, losing to Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, who beat him 6-2, 6-7(7), 7-6(2) in Montpellier, France.

“Incredible match, incredible atmosphere,” Kovacevic, who saved match point in the second set with a down-the-line backhand winner, told an ATP communications official after it was over.

Kovacevic’s week included wins over Andrey Rublev of Russia, Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan and David Goffin of Belgium. He’s up to No. 72 in the rankings this week.

No rest for the weary though. “I have to play another match on Wednesday in Rotterdam,” Kovacevic said. “The focus is all on that.”

Shot of the week

A brilliant point between Petra Martic and Eva Lys.

Recommended reading:

Wimbledon appetite for 15-day Grand Slam is “zero”: Tim Henman

How Pam Shriver’s Grand Slam trophies, stolen during the LA wildfires, were found

Aryna Sabalenka is at the top of women’s tennis. Her endorsements and brand deals don’t yet match up

Tennis’ problem with the default rule

🏆 The winners of the week

🎾 ATP: 

🏆 Felix Auger-Aliassime (2) def. Aleksandar Kovacevic (Q) 6-2, 6-7(7), 7-6(2) to win the Open Occitanie (250) in Montpellier, France. It is the Canadian’s sixth ATP Tour title.

🎾 WTA:

🏆 Ekaterina Alexandrova (4) def. Dayana Yastremska (5) 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 to win the Upper Austria Ladies (500) in Linz, Austria. It is Alexandrova’s fifth WTA Tour title.

🏆 Elise Mertens (2) def. Ann Li 6-1, 6-4 to win the Singapore Open (250) in Singapore. It is the Belgian’s ninth WTA Tour singles title.

📈📉 On the rise / Down the line

📈 Dayana Yastremska moves up 20 places from No. 70 to No. 50 after her run to the final in Linz.

📈 Aleksandar Kovacevic ascends 27 spots from No. 102 to No. 75 after reaching the final in Montpellier.

📈 Ann Li reenters the top 60 after rising 25 spots from No. 85.

📉 Holger Rune falls two places from No. 12 to No. 14, lifting Ben Shelton to a career high of No. 13.

📉 Jelena Ostapenko drops nine places from No. 26 to No. 35, leaving the top 30 for the first time since June 2021.

📉 Alexander Bublik tumbles 10 spots from No. 39 to No. 49.

📅 Coming up

🎾 ATP 

📍Rotterdam, the Netherlands: ABN Amro Open (500) featuring Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Alex De Minaur, Arthur Fils.

📍Dallas: Dallas Open (500) featuring Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe.

📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV

🎾 WTA

📍Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi Open (500) featuring Elena Rybakina, Paula Badosa, Ons Jabeur, Belinda Bencic.

📍Cluj-Napoca, Romania: Transylvania Open (250) featuring Simona Halep, Olga Danilovic, Peyton Stearns, Anastasia Potapova.

📺 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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