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.

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.