Over his years covering tennis for The New York Times, Futterman has noticed that top players cry, crack and even quit at a rate that must be (unscientifically) higher than most sports. Plenty of players are unstable by the time they reach the pro tours, but even well-adjusted players aren’t immune. Why was Coco Gauff crushed after winning her 2025 US Open fourth-round match at an event that showers her with affection? What does living in Andre Agassi’s shadow do to the American men who aren’t the unicorn Agassi was? The list goes on.

Or rather, the stories and Futterman’s analysis go on for 329 pages, much of it taking the reader behind the scenes of the sport. Futterman reports on exclusive interviews at Naomi Osaka’s L.A. house, where she works with a ballerina; over a giant dinner with Novak Djokovic at the US Open; in an SUV with Agassi stuck in New York City traffic; to a posh Greek resort where agencies scout the world’s best under-12 players.

Newsletter Megan talked with Matt before the book’s release today.

Megan: Was “why is it so hard” a question you needed to answer for yourself, or did you already know the answer after all these years around the sport and felt like nobody was asking players about it?

Matt: It’s a question I needed to figure out. It doesn’t happen in other sports. Steph Curry did not quit basketball when he was 28 and winning championships for the Golden State Warriors. Tom Brady did not quit when he was rolling off Super Bowls with the Patriots because it was just too much for him. Golfers generally don’t quit -- so it’s not necessarily an individual-sport thing.

Megan: Why is it a phenomenon in tennis?

It’s such a hard sport on so many levels because of the dynamic from the time you’re a small child, and what it means to commit yourself to it. I use the word “cruelty” slightly glibly, but it begins really early.

Megan: Was it tricky to get players to talk about it?

Matt: Yes and no. As soon as you ask a player, “Why is this so hard? What’s the struggle here?” -- and you do it with a bit of empathy -- they’re pretty good at talking about it.

Megan: Did you feel like you arrived at a satisfying answer?

Matt: Yeah, because you hear all these stories. Why is it so hard for Zheng Qinwen? Because her parents abandoned her when she was 6 years old [at a tennis academy in China, which they said they were visiting for just the day before leaving her there]. I told Tommy Paul that story and he said, “Why aren’t they in prison?” And he was serious. It launched him into this whole rant about the parents he had seen. He said, “I would win matches, and then I would see a parent take his kid behind a tree and smack him around. I saw that.”

Then there’s Novak Djokovic being fully aware that his parents took the advice of his teacher, Jelena Genčić, who said, “Put all your money on this one,” and Novak carried that burden from the time he was 11 years old. Then you get to the physical part of it, and Stefanos Tsitsipas saying, “What other sport is there where you need the lungs of a marathoner, the speed of a sprinter, the flexibility of a gymnast and the hand-eye coordination of a .350 hitter in baseball? Show me another sport.”

Megan: When you put it like that…

Matt: And then there’s the loneliness of it.

🎤 Matt Futterman

“There are a lot of tennis players walking around who don’t seem that happy. I think there are a lot of danger spots in the growth of a tennis player.”

Megan: You also include amid the challenges that players are handed a definition of success that almost nobody can meet -- Slam or bust.

Matt: It’s drilled into you from the beginning that the definition of success is being No. 1 or winning a Grand Slam, and there aren’t very many people who get to do that. So you have Madison Keys, who has had a perfectly excellent career, made millions of dollars, camped out in the top 10 -- and she was nearing 30 thinking she was basically a failure and was struggling to separate her identity from her results. Or Taylor Fritz, who has been as high as No. 4 in the world and will be the first one to tell you, “If I don’t win a Grand Slam, I haven’t really done shit.”

If you’re the fourth-best player in the NBA, you are making $60 million a year, you are first-team All-NBA, you are a Hall of Famer. Life is pretty good.

Megan: It doesn’t help that players are hurt all the time, either.

Matt: That’s another reason why it’s so hard: the season is so long. Every other professional athlete gets three to four months off during the year. And it’s not just the physical toll. It’s the sense, except among the very few, that even if you make it to the top, falling off the top feels so much worse than being on top ever felt good. Being No. 1 is not that comfortable, because there is only one way to go -- down. And you’re hunted.

Megan: One person you didn’t go deep on is Roger Federer. Was he just better adjusted?

Matt: I didn’t go deep on him. My friend Chris Clarey (another tennis journalist) has gone very deep on him, David Foster Wallace went very deep on him, and by the time I started this, Roger had retired. There are snippets. I got to watch some tennis with him at Laver Cup last year.

But yes, I think there are some people and some players who have a gift for enjoying it and embracing it and experiencing it in a certain way. Roger is very comfortable in his own skin and in his life. It will be interesting to see how Coco handles it if she gets to No. 1 and hits a period where she is more consistently dominant, because she seems so comfortable with herself in any setting.

Having said that, you don’t have to search very far to find the period when Nadal overtook Roger. At the trophy ceremony in Australia -- I think it was 2009 -- his words were, “It’s killing me.” He had lost the French, Wimbledon and then Australia, and it did sneak out. He lost his grace at moments, like with Djokovic at the 2011 US Open semifinal, when he said Djokovic was just lucky hitting that shot.

Megan: I always thought it was the audacity of Djokovic going for it that Federer couldn’t stand. That it worked.

Matt: Yeah, but also pull the lens back a little. He is getting on 30 at that point. He realizes he has been knocked off the perch by one guy, and now here is this other guy, and he has to know on some level that this guy is better than me now, and he is going to start beating me more than I beat him. Nobody gets out completely intact. And Roger misses it terribly, too.

Megan: How so?

Matt: He is at peace with the fact that he had his great time, and it was wonderful, and he wouldn’t change a thing, except maybe not getting injured at the end. But he still itches to get out there. He says in the book, “How cool would it be to go out there and play a really intense match right now?”

Megan: That surprises me, because the way most of the stories in the book go, you would think they would be thrilled when it’s over.

Matt: Some of them are. I was talking to one of the guys who runs a big agency, and he said, “Most players hate tennis. They’re sick of it. They just want to get what they can out of it, make their money, get out and go on with the rest of their lives.” When they are in it, they may feel that way at times, because it is really hard.

But if you’re a top player, you’re going to have to come to terms with the fact that the biggest thing you’re going to do in your life -- separate from raising a family; I mean the most public thing, the thing that gets the most people excited -- is behind you by the time you’re, what, 34? And you’ve probably got another 50 years on the planet. How do you fill a day?

Megan: Is almost every player traumatized in some way?

Matt: Sure. That’s my experience of it. If you asked me who is seemingly the most well-adjusted player, Coco would be at the top of my list. But 11 months ago, she couldn’t get her serve over the net and was breaking down during a post-match interview. That was hard to watch. It was painful. And she’s Coco -- she’s the queen of the tournament, the belle of the ball, a two-time Grand Slam champion at that point and still crushed, experiencing this kind of life crisis.

Megan: Do we need to worry about Jannik Sinner?

Matt: Jannik Sinner will tell you how hard it was when he was 16, 17, and his father is a cook and his mother is a waitress, and he knew exactly how much money they had put into him. He had this constant mathematical equation running in his head. It wasn’t until he won Next Gen and got some money and could cover his expenses himself that he said, “OK, now I can stop breaking rackets and losing my temper.” He says that’s why he is calm on the court -- once he got his parents out of debt, once it was no longer on them, everything else was easy.

Megan: It’s pretty serious to say tennis is inherently traumatic, as you have.

Matt: I think it’s a problem that there are a lot of tennis players walking around who don’t seem that happy. I think there are a lot of danger spots in the growth of a tennis player.

Megan: Starting very young, too.

Matt: The sport has created an ecosystem where it seems like you need to specialize from the time you’re very young. Not go to regular school, go to an academy, leave home, all of that. I think that can be pretty traumatic.

The Tsitsipas family seems to have landed itself in a pretty unhealthy situation. So some of this is unique to tennis, and some of it isn’t.

Megan: Are there players who come through it well adjusted?

Matt: The Czech women. Most of them seem to go to normal school. A lot of them stay at home, they play in clubs. I met Tereza Valentova a couple of years ago, and she said, “I’ve got my finals going on right now at Roland Garros. I’ve got to get back to class.” The Czech women seem to have something of a normal-ish approach to it. So it’s not everybody. But it’s a lot of people.

Megan: How does someone read this book and still feel okay about supporting the sport and rejoicing in it?

Matt: Cognitive dissonance is a very powerful thing. I still watch and love football.

Megan: Despite the concussion problem, you mean?

Matt: Right. I don’t think being a fan of a sport makes you complicit in its sins. I think it depends on your involvement. If you have a kid who plays, if you play yourself, be an agent for good. Set a good example, encourage good behavior. For me, when Zheng Qinwen told me her story, I wrote about it. I said: This is not good, this is not normal. I think it’s good to be aware of what’s going on. But I don’t think you are causing harm to some 8-year-old in Florida by watching the D.C. Open.

Megan: Does the sport need to do anything about all this?

Matt: I don’t know what could be done. All the data says you have to start really young. ✹

The Served team collectively spent 680,000 hours watching Roland Garros and the digital coverage over the last three weeks. That’s an unscientific number, but it feels about right. Here are the moments we’ll remember most.

Flower Power (Producer Ella)

Flavio Cobolli stopping mid-match in the final to eat a flower.

Magic Maya (Newsletter Megan)

Maja Chwalinska’s run. If she didn’t steal the show from Mirra Andreeva in the end, she shared it with such natural charm. I loved her moment at the TNT desk with Agassi. She was star-struck, and when he gushed about her game, she said playfully, “Andre! Stop!” She handled the competition, the attention and the occasion amazingly well.

Senta a Púa! (Social Emmy)

The 19-year-old star João Fonseca coming back from two sets down to take the victory over the one and only Novak Djokovic in the third round. The Brazilian crowd cheering on Fonseca created a truly dopamine-inducing atmosphere. South American players are definitely the ones to watch in the upcoming years.

Doing It for the Kids (Social Sophie)

After Matteo Arnaldi’s semifinal withdrawal, Flavio Cobolli practicing on Philippe Chatrier and finding himself with an open spot on court. So he did the logical thing: pulled a fan out of the stands for a few rallies, turning a canceled match into one of the most wholesome moments of the tournament.

Viva l’Italia (Marissa)

The other Italian players stepping up in the wake of Jannik Sinner’s early exit. As encouraging as it was to see Matteo Berrettini back in form, it was equally exciting to see the younger Flavio Cobolli and Matteo Arnaldi make deep runs. If the USWNT has Triple Espresso, what can we call this trio?

Down But Not Out (Newsletter Megan Again)

Felix Auger-Aliassime tripping into the shot of the tournament.

We have been following the University of Arkansas story closely since the school abruptly cut its men’s and women’s tennis programs without discussions with coaches or alumni. On Thursday, the university reversed its decision after a feverish fundraising effort by former players and other supporters. They came up with $5 million to fund the teams for two years, and the money will buy more than uniforms—it also buys the program time to find a long-term solution and keep college tennis at Arkansas.

Served talked to one of the alums behind the reinstatement effort, Simon Robinson, who played for the Razorbacks in the 1980s. The New Zealander explained how the group convinced the chancellor to reconsider the decision.

Robinson choked up several times discussing the ordeal of the last 20 days and what it meant for the Northern Arkansas tennis community to come together.

“You got to fight like a tennis player. You’ve got to grind. You’ve got to compete. You can’t give up. Our analogy was, Man, we’re down a set and a double break and John Isner is serving and it doesn’t look good. But you know what, you still have a chance. And we made it work,” Robinson said.

It’s an emotional and powerful interview that reveals how important NCAA tennis is to the greater American tennis community—and what other tennis alumni bases might face soon in the new age of college sports.

Here’s your chance to beat Andy Roddick at tennis…predicting. It’s really not that hard. During Served’s Roland Garros Bracket Challenge, 4,467 people outperformed him. We want even more Chuckers to bury him in Served’s first Wimbledon Bracket Challenge, so to help out, we asked previous Top 3 finishers for their strategies.

The Served Bracket Challenge is free to play. Brackets are due by the start of main-draw matches on Monday, June 29. That’s 11 a.m. in London, or 6 a.m. Eastern time in the United States. You can save your results and change your bracket until then.

Enter the Served Bracket Challenge

Don’t Overthink the Early Rounds

The points structure in the Served Bracket is progressive, increasing by 10 for the first four rounds and 20 for the last three. What you get right in the Round of 16 and quarterfinals matters far more than what you nail on Day 1.

“Bracket challenges are not won on Day 1, so the focus is more on picking players who have chances to advance to the third or fourth round. There are many players who are consistent and have a track record of making the second or third round. “ —Henry from Roselle, Illinois

“My main rule of thumb? Never overthink the early rounds, because the tennis gods love destroying a perfectly logical bracket by day three.” —Steve from Chicago

Even though most points are available in rounds 1 and 2—640 points each—those toss-ups are harder to predict. That’s when you might use one player’s secret trick.

“A non-zero percentage of my picks were decided by who had the cooler kit or who I’d rather have a beer with.” —Steve from Chicago

Bonus Points Tip the Scales

The scoring system rewards two types of upsets:

• Correctly picking an unseeded player to beat a seeded player doubles the round’s points.

• Picking a lower seed to beat a higher seed yields a bonus equal to the seed difference (e.g., No. 20 beating No. 10 is worth an extra 10 points).

The unseeded bonuses are the bigger prize, and they can compound. An unseeded player who makes the fourth round could rack up 60 bonus points by taking out seeds along the way.

The Australian Open Bracket winner illustrated this perfectly, finishing with 186 bonus points, more than double what the second- and third-place finishers accumulated. The key was correctly predicting unseeded Wang Xinyu to upset two seeded players in the women’s draw.

“Since I’m from Hong Kong, I saw comments and discussions from Hong Kong and Chinese players about Wang Xinyu, which helped me successfully predict some of her upset wins.” —Gaile in Hong Kong

In the Australian Open contest, Andy’s seed bonuses (Victoria Mboko over Clara Tauson for +3 , Iva Jovic over Jasmine Paolini for +22) gave him the edge on JW.

The lesson: Look for one or two unseeded players with legitimate upset potential and back them to make a run, and target high seeds who are struggling for an upset.

Find Your Upsets in the Middle Rounds

A common bracket mistake is fixating on the winner while sleepwalking through the quarterfinals.

“In order to win, you need to have the players playing at the end. First-round upsets are great to have, but finding those milder upsets where players go multiple rounds is more important.” —Henry from Roselle, Illinois

This holds even more true when there is a runaway favorite for the title (Jannik Sinner). Everyone will have him at the end. Correctly picking a fourth-rounder, quarterfinalist or semifinalist that most others pass on can give you a bounce.

The reason Andy beat JW in the Australian Open women’s bracket is that he had a perfect fourth round. He nailed all the winners, whereas JW missed two. Those points, combined with his 25 bonus points from seed differentials, gave him 165 points more than JW, enough to overcome JW’s 104-point edge from picking the champion (Andy went with Sabalenka).

Remember the Best-of-Five Factor

The longer format changes the calculus for the men. Consider experience and fitness.

Use the Bracket’s Data Feature

Served’s bracket has valuable data built right in. Hover over any match to pull up the head-to-head and each player’s seven most recent results. You can also hover over each match result to see the opponent, score and tournament. The square with an arrow next to the player’s name pulls up full results for the year.

If you can make an informed pick in a handful of matches, those wins can easily add up to an extra 100 or 200 points.

“When it comes to the later rounds, I do take into account matchups and head-to-head records. I also take into account performance on surfaces.” —David from Stamford, Connecticut

“How a player handles their last loss and their confidence level going into a major will factor heavily in my choices.” —Kris from Ruby, New York

A note on the form tool: Matches are listed from most to least recent, so interpret accordingly.

Watch for Withdrawals

Keep tabs on any late withdrawals and revisit your draw in case they change your choices. Otherwise, whoever takes that person’s spot in the draw will replace the pick in your bracket. This affected the Roland Garros Bracket this year. Arthur Fils pulled out at the last minute, and lucky loser Jesper de Jong took his place. Many Chuckers had Fils going deep—Kim even had him in the final. If they didn’t change their picks, they had Jesper de Jong going deep instead.

You can change your brackets up until the first ball—Monday, June 29, 11 a.m. London time, 6 a.m. U.S. Eastern time.

Note the Served House Rules

1. Qualifiers are good early-round picks. They are battle-tested and confident after three wins. If they are drawn against an opponent of a similar ranking, don’t assume the higher-ranked player is the favorite.

2. Getting Meddied is the new Cerundolo’d. Andy swore off picking Francisco Cerundolo after getting burned by him in the US Open Bracket Challenge. He’s over it, and now he’s wary of Daniil Medvedev. You have been warned.

3. Don’t pick against a Served or Love All guest before the third round.

4. Producer Mike’s Moneyball Method: picking whoever leads the head-to-head. What happens when there isn’t one?

   

There’s Time to Do Some Homework

It’s pretty hard to roll up to a Bracket Challenge cold and made a deep run. Cue up the Served and Love All tournament recaps to get your bearings. Our live-draw show has good intel on the nuances of grass and how they affect the draw.

“I try my best to follow results and watch highlights of the matches I don’t get to watch throughout the season so that I have a sense of who is playing well. Also, listening to the Served podcast every week definitely helps keep up with everything going on.” —Franco from New York City

The Redraw Is Just for Fun

You can redo your picks once we reach the Round of 16, but only your original picks score points.

Log In and Save Often

Make sure you’re logged in before you begin, or you will lose any selections. Also, save your Bracket as you work through it. The Save button is on the left side of the Bracket. Don’t wait until you’re finished to save. Technical errors happen.

The Bottom Line

Previous Served Bracket Challenge winners weren’t necessarily the most knowledgeable tennis fans in the field of 5,000. They were the ones who understood how points are actually earned—by surviving the middle rounds, chasing bonus points strategically and resisting the urge to play it safe when the scoring system rewards risk.

And every one of them said luck was a big factor. So pick your favorite player. Go with your gut. Back a dark horse. Take big swings. Good luck!

“My strategy was 40% tennis data and 60% pure chaos.” —Steve from Chicago

Join our Wimbledon Chat

Nike referred to the feat Sinner accomplished on Sunday in Rome, completing the Golden Masters 1000, the box set of all nine Masters tournaments, at some point in his career. The Italian Open was the only one missing from his resume. Masters 1000s rank one tier below the majors in tennis. There are nine of them, from March through November, on three different surfaces and three different continents. Novak Djokovic won all nine, but neither Roger Federer nor Rafael Nadal did. Carlos Alcaraz has bagged six of them.

Now we have to wonder: Could Sinner actually win them all…this year alone? The Grand Masters1 has never been done. Before we turn the page to the summer Slams, let’s preview where Sinner will stand when the Masters resume in August.

In Sinner’s favor, the remaining four Masters are on hard court, his best surface, and he has already won each once. He is likely to improve throughout the year, just as he did from 2025 to 2026. His first-serve percentage could tick up—it’s 63 percent for the year, No. 42 on the ATP leaderboard. Listen to Andy talk about Sinner’s recent upgrades above.

Cutting against his chances is the certainty that Sinner will eventually lose. The question is, when and where is he most vulnerable? Each remaining Masters 1000 poses a challenge.

Canada Is Early

The National Bank Open in August, the next Masters 1000, is the biggest threat to Sinner’s Grand Masters quest. When it became a 12-day tournament last year, the start date moved up a week. Now there are just three weeks between the Wimbledon final and first ball in Canada on August 2. Even with his first-round bye, if Sinner plays deep at Wimbledon, he would have just three weeks and change to be ready to begin his North American hard court swing. Three weeks for family time (which Sinner prioritizes), a vacation, recovery from playing nonstop since March, sponsor obligations and hard court preparation. He skipped Canada last year.

• Times played: 4

• Titles: 1 (2023)

• Career record: 7-3

💪 Sinner won his first Masters 1000 in Canada, kicking off his run to world No. 1.

🍌 Sinner lost early to Pablo Carreño Busta in Canada in 2021 and 2022. At least the second time, Carreño Busta won the title.

Cincinnati Is Hot

Other than Carlos Alcaraz, Sinner’s toughest opponent is heat. We have seen him struggle in muggy marathons. Cincinnati, held in mid-August, can be oppressively hot and humid during the day session. Last year, Sinner was sick during the final against Alcaraz and retired in the first set down 0-5. He wasn’t in any shape to play.

• Times played: 6

• Titles: 1 (2024)

• Career record: 12-4

💪 Sinner has reached the final in the last two years.

🍌 In 2022, he lost to Felix Auger-Aliassime after holding two match points.

Shanghai Can Be Hotter

Sinner’s last loss in a Masters 1000 was last year in Shanghai, which takes place in October. He retired from his third-round match with cramps brought on by sizzling heat.

• Times played: 3

• Titles: 1 (2024)

• Career record: 9-2

💪 Sinner won Shanghai in 2024 without dropping a set.

🍌 It’s the Masters 1000 Sinner has played the least.

Paris Is Late

If Sinner keeps up his run this year, he will surely be tired and nursing injuries by the last week of the regular season in November. He will still have the ATP Finals and Davis Cup ahead of him (although he skipped Davis Cup last year and Italy still won). Will he even post at the Paris Indoors? It’s a long way away, and that’s the point—he has a lot of tennis to play between now and then. It’s extremely hard to have enough left in the tank in November for Paris, the ATP Finals and Davis Cup. That’s why Paris has produced so many one-time Masters 1000 winners.

• Times played: 4

• Titles: 1 (2025)

• Record: 6-2

💪 Sinner’s winning percentage on indoor hard is 81.1%, fourth all-time.

🍌 World No. 61 Marc Andrea Huesler beat him in 2022, one of Sinner’s worst losses in the last five years.

Jannik Sinner on his affinity for playing indoors

“You don’t have the wind, you don’t have the sun. You always have the same feeling on the court.”

Carlos Alcaraz Is Lurking

If Alcaraz returns from his wrist injury healthy and rested, he will have something to say about Sinner running the table at the Masters 1000s. He leads Sinner 6-2 on hard courts and hasn’t lost to Sinner on a hard court since 2023.

Stay Tuned

Our focus turns from the Masters to the majors as Sinner tries to complete his career Slam at the French Open in three weeks and then defend his Wimbledon title. We’ll pick this conversation back up in July.

Jannik Sinner bent over in the corner of Campo Centrale Friday night in his Rome semifinal against Daniil Medvedev. Only the cameraman next to him knows for sure, but it looked like the world No. 1 was getting sick. Certainly close enough. He wouldn’t talk about it in the press conference afterward.

“I cannot answer this question,” he said in Italian when asked for specifics on his ailment.

Deep in the second set, Sinner struggled physically, breathing so heavily and rapidly that some observers, including Flavia Pennetta, speculated about an anxiety attack. Sinner took an injury timeout in the third set for a leg massage, sparking cramp talk. He eventually won the match.

For tennis fans, the No. 1 player puking on court isn’t news. It’s a footnote, like when someone pulls off a tweener passing shot. Perhaps decorum compels us to overlook barf breaks. More likely, it happens so often that it barely registers.

We should stop to think about this for a minute. What other sport routinely pushes its athletes to the point of spilling their guts during the competition? Endurance races, sure. But even professional eaters don’t vom as often as tennis players.

Sinner wasn’t the first to toss his biscotti in Rome. Hamad Medjedovic experienced the unfortunate rite of passage on Monday during his third-round match versus Mariano Navone. Three hours in, he retreated to the backstop and heaved the contents of his stomach onto the red clay. It was so— how to put this delicately?—cascading that Sky Sports apologized for airing it.

It’s common enough that any longtime tennis fan can recall a player getting sick mid-match. The famous incident is Pete Sampras’s series of hurls during his 1996 US Open quarterfinal against Alex Corretja, but there are scads of others. Two weeks ago, it was Coco Gauff succumbing to food poisoning on the court. Carlos Alcaraz spewed in his Australian Open semifinal this year. Oscar Otte puked his way through qualifying at the 2021 US Open. Ask Alexander Zverev about his sick days and he’ll have to ask which one you mean, last year in Halle or 2021 in Cincinnati.

Long matches in the heat are the primary culprit, but there are other factors, such as the toll that traveling takes on the body. Sometimes it’s a conditioning issue. Sometimes nerves. A stomach bug. A combination.

In Sampras’s case, arguably the most famous for the drama and stakes, he also had to deal with millions of eyeballs. He wrote about it in his biography, A Champion’s Mind. “Shit, I’m going to throw up. I’m going to throw up, in front of the entire world!” he was thinking.

Here’s the even crazier part: In all of the cases mentioned in this story, the players didn’t just soldier on. They won.

Whatever it is, and wherever it happens (the flower beds, the tunnel, the towel, the back of the court), it’s something we take for granted in tennis, how often a player takes the queasy way out.