Grass Results, Serena's Form and More

Plus: The new Evert and Navratilova documentary

Jun 16, 2026

Context-free soundbite: “I want to smell it. I want to roll around on it. I want to get to know it. I want to be a good tennis player again.”

Grass season and all its stubborn kit stains are here, and Andy and JW are already circling names to watch after the first of three warm-up weeks before Wimbledon. Find out who’s impressing already—your Bracket Challenge prep starts now.

After the results recap, they offer a comprehensive take on Serena Williams’s comeback form and the coming Netflix documentary Chris & Martina: The Final Set, which JW executive-produced.

There’s more Served on the way this week:

Love All on Wednesday
Q&Andy on Thursday
5 Setter on Friday

The stats behind one big story

Robin Montgomery, Libema Open Champion

The 21-year-old American won her first WTA Tour title at ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, coming from qualifying to become the tour’s lowest-ranked champion since 2023.

7

Matches she won, including the walkover in the final

484

Her ranking when the tournament started

194

Her new ranking, a jump of 290 spots

4

WTA players who have won a title when ranked lower than Montgomery was

55

Aces Montgomery hit in her six matches

0

WTA Tour-level match wins she had this season before this week

9

Weeks Montgomery was sidelined with a wrist injury, from June 2025 to April 2026

Raducanu’s Happy Homecoming

Andy discusses the flak that Emma Raducanu has received in the last 48 hours for withdrawing from Nottingham this week after accepting a wild card. What wasn’t controversial is that she had a banner week at Queen’s Club, dominating two Top 20 players and winning a double-header on Saturday.

Back with Andrew Richardson, her coach when she won the 2021 US Open, Raducanu beat No. 18 Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-2 in the second round, then played her rain-delayed quarterfinal and semifinal on the same day. In the second match, she took out No. 19 Iva Jovic 6-2, 6-2. The crowd played a big part.

🎤 Emma Raducanu
“I was in awe of the atmosphere, in awe of the support I received all week. It means a lot, because the results don’t always go your way the whole season and you see things written about you or spoken about you. But when you play at home, you’re just reminded how much support there actually is for you.”

Here reward? Back up to No. 31 in the world, high enough for a seeding at Wimbledon, where the crowd will be thrilled to help her again.

Boulter Beats Rybakina

We can’t forget Katie Boulter’s week. She gave the London crowd a thrill when she took out world No. 2 and top seed Elena Rybakina 7-6, 2-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinal. Boulter saved 11 of 13 break points. Previously, she had won only seven games versus Rybakina in their two matches.

Polish Artist Creates Homage to Chwalinska

The good news for the town of Dąbrowa Górnicza in Poland: It produced a Roland Garros finalist, and now there’s a mural to prove it. Polish street artist who goes by Kawu painted a young Maja Chwalinska on her childhood courts.

The bad news: Those courts are toast. Abandoned, overgrown and slated to become social-housing blocks. So while Kawu was up on the ladder, the locals kept coming over with one request: Don’t let this court disappear quietly.

Chwalińska, now training two hours south in Bielsko-Biała, was touched, thanking Kawu and admitting she logged more hours on those courts than anywhere else in her career.

The pitch to save the site writes itself: Somewhere on a court like that, a kid is already practicing her new idol’s drop shot.

Perfect Delivery

Iva Jovic beat Amanda Anisimova 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in her Queen’s Club quarterfinal. In the third set, Anisimova ripped a down-the-line backhand winner, arguably the best backhand in the world, and mics caught the reaction from Jovic’s coach.

🎤 Thomas Gutteridge
“Lucky.”

Not remotely. Anisimova was in position and completely in control of the shot. But Gutteridge was giving his player what she needed to get over the line. It wasn’t as intense as his previous advice: to body-serve “down her [effing] throat.”

593

Serena Williams’s current doubles ranking

Serena has her first ranking in over three years. She earned 108 points for her doubles victory at Queen’s Club last week with Victoria Mboko, taking out the No. 3–seeded team and proving that the number next to her name means little. The former world No. 1 in doubles has won 23 women’s doubles titles, 14 of them majors.

Serena plays her next match today, partnering with Karolina Muchova in the Berlin Open. Like last week, she drew reigning US Open champ Erin Routliffe as an opponent. Routliffe is playing with Giuliana Olmos.

Quick Hits

Ben Shelton and Trinity Rodman (Marijan Murat/Getty Images)

Ben Shelton is undefeated this year when Trinity Rodman attends his tournaments. And he noticed.
Simona Halep had an official retirement ceremony on Saturday at a sports festival in Romania. The custom court represented her two Slam titles. (WTA)
The top players responded to Wimbledon’s prize money increase on Friday. Their enthusiasm? Capped at 14.4%. (ESPN)
Journalist Ben Rothenberg talked to Aryna Sabalenka this week in Berlin and reported that she has been talking to her former psychologist about the mental wall she hit at Roland Garros. “I’m trying a lot of new things right now,” she said. (Bounces)

Tournaments in Progress

ATP 500 HSBC Championships (Queen’s Club)

London, U.K.
Grass
Alex de Minaur, Jakub Mensik, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Tommy Paul

ATP 500 Terra Wortman Open

Halle, Germany
Grass
Alexander Zverev, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, Learner Tien, Joao Fonseca

WTA 500 Berlin Tennis Open

Berlin, Germany
Grass
Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Elina Svitolina

WTA 250 Nottingham Open

Nottingham, U.K.
Grass
Sara Bejlek, Leylah Fernandez, Emma Navarro, Zheng Qinwen

📺 ATP and WTA broadcasters

Wimbledon Bracket Challenge Starts in 17 Days!

The next Bracket Challenge opens on Friday, June 26. You can create or test your login at any time. Reach out as soon as possible if you can’t log in.

Go to the Served Bracket Challenge

SQUASH. The PSA Squash Tour Finals open tomorrow in Paris, its first time in Europe since 2013. The world’s top eight men and top eight women will compete on a glass court inside the historic Centquatre, with an all-new all-best-of-five knockout format. World champion Mostafa Asal is chasing a record-setting fourth title, and for the women, 19-year-old world champion Amina Orfi is the story of the season.

PADEL. In Rome last week, Ariana Sánchez/Andrea Ustero and Paula Josemaría/Bea González played the longest match in Premier Padel history at four hours and 12 minutes. Sánchez and Ustero ended Josemaría and González’s 22-match and five-title winning streak in the process. But they lost in the final to Delfina Brea and Gemma Triay. The tour heads to Valencia this week.

PICKLEBALL. Four events into the Major League Pickleball season and the New Jersey 5s have won back-to-back, most recently in Austin, where Anna Leigh Waters and Jorja Johnson went a combined 22–2. St. Louis leads the overall standings after playing three events to New Jersey’s two. MLP heads to St. Petersburg this week, June 18–22.

RACQUETBALL. With his Pro Nationals win in Missoula last month, Kane Waselenchuk clinched his 16th career year-end World No. 1 ranking. The IRT season wraps up this week in St. Louis with nearly 200 players.