NEW EPISODE: Larry Stefanki on Coaching the Greats

Andy's last coach talks about their partnership, his time with Marcelo Rios and winning Indian Wells as a wild card himself.

Mar 10, 2026

Context-free soundbite: “Sphincteritis has got a hold of you.”

Buckle up, Chuckers. Supercoach Larry Stefanki—the only person who can call our host “Andrew” besides his mother—joins Andy and JW to shoot the breeze on his time with Andy, Marcelo Rios, John McEnroe, Tim Henman…the list goes on. Plus, his own crazy Indian Wells win and the top players he passed on coaching.

📣 There’s more Served—and more Stefanki—coming your way this week;

Love All with Kim, Blair and guest Zeynep Sönmez tomorrow
Q&Andy—Stefanki Part 2, answering fan questions—on Thursday
5 Setter on Friday
Indian Wells live chats—watch social media for details

Enjoy the new episode, then read today’s stories below.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

The stats behind the best match this week

Joăo Fonseca def. Tommy Paul 6–2, 6–3
Indian Wells third round

Joăo Fonseca has entered this season’s chat after a 1–3 start in January and February—although he did take the Rio Open doubles title to recapture that winning feeling. He roared to life in his match against Tommy Paul on Sunday, nuking forehands through the court. Next up: his first meeting with Jannik Sinner tonight.

73%

First-serve points won by Fonseca

59%

First-serve points won by Paul

50%

Total return points won by Fonseca

20–12

Fonseca’s winner-to-error ratio

12–31

Paul’s winner-to-error ratio

1

Break point for Paul (converted)

10

Break points for Fonseca (converted 4)

2

Match points Fonseca saved in his second-round win over Karen Khachanov

11

1000-level match wins for Fonseca, the second South American to achieve 10+ as a teenager (with Juan Martin del Potro)

1

Masters 1000 fourth round reached by Fonseca

The latest stories that matter right now

WTA Players Receive Serious Threats

Last week, two WTA players received a photo of a handgun along with a demand to lose their next match. According to The Athletic, the FBI is contributing to the WTA’s investigation.

The threats targeted Italy’s Lucrezia Stefanini at Indian Wells and Hungary’s Panna Udvardy at a WTA 125 tournament in Turkey.

When Stefanini’s news broke first, she said on Instagram that the WTA told her it could have resulted from a data breach, including players’ phone numbers. According to The Athletic, the WTA walked it back after Udvardy was threatened.

Udvardy said her message included a threat to kidnap her mother. Her parents contacted the Hungarian embassy in Turkey, which sent security to the tournament for the 27-year-old.

Here’s Udvardy’s detailed account on Instagram.

The messages were sent through WhatsApp, unlike most betting-related threats that come via social media.

Italy to Add a Grass-Court Tournament

Angelo Binaghi, president of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation

The ATP’s indoor 250 European Open in the fall will move from Brussels to Milan in 2028 and become a Wimbledon tune-up. It will be the first grass-court tournament ever in Italy.

The Italian Tennis and Padel Federation paid $24 million for the rights, according to Italy’s largest daily newspaper, Corriere Della Sera. The acquisition is the latest power play by the Italians, who are increasing their footprint in pro tennis on the foundation of a men’s talent wave led by Jannik Sinner. Italy has won the last three Davis Cups, hosted the ATP World Tour Finals in Turin since 2021 and produced eight current Top 100 players, trailing just France (11), Argentina (nine) and the United States (nine).

Sinner is unlikely to play the 250 event. It’s scheduled for the week after the French Open, so unless the World No. 2 loses early in Paris, he might be unavailable to play so soon after the long clay-court season wraps up. However, Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini and semifinalist Lorenzo Musetti should gravitate toward the lawns.

According to the Corriere, Italian federation president Angelo Binaghi has grand ambitions for tennis. “They have developed a real industrial plan to keep growing and even surpass football,” the article says. It adds that Binaghi wants to upgrade the Milan tournament to the 500 level in the future.

Economic signs are pointing in the right direction. The article says ticket sales have increased by 30 percent at the Italian Open and 41 percent at the World Tour Finals, and tennis and padel together produce $1.2 billion in tax revenue for Italy every year.

The move will leave Belgium without an ATP or WTA tour-level event for the first time since 1899, with the exception of one year, 2014.

ATP Debuts the Tunnel Walk

Zizou Bergs, Frances Tiafoe, Alex Michelsen (ATP Tour)

The men’s tour introduced its version of the NBA’s tunnel walk at Indian Wells last week.

Eight ATP players got professionally styled and flexed their fashion sense upon arrival to the tournament in partnership with GQ Sports, which shared the clips on social media.

The players featured in this debut shoot included some no-brainers already associated with personal aura—Frances Tiafoe, Andrey Rublev, Taylor Fritz, Zizou Bergs. Also, Jakub Menšík, Francisco Cerundolo and Alexander Zverev, looking more than comfortable. And lastly…Alex Michelsen. Can’t say we saw that coming, but the kid looked clean in his cream pants and navy knit polo.

The project is part of the ATP’s new effort to present tennis through the lens of fashion. Last summer, Vogue Business reported that the tour is rolling out more high-fashion initiatives.

🎤 Andrew Walker, ATP Tour senior vice president of marketing
“There’s a clear intersection in interests between tennis and fashion for our fans, and we see this as an opportunity to bring fans who might be following the sport more casually deeper into the fold.” (h/t to author Jessica Schiffer of the Hard Court fashion-beat newsletter)

The looks themselves were a little safe: five monochromatic jacket-and-pants combos and two classic fits of light-colored pants with navy knit on top. The only daring accessory was Bergs’s handkerchief head wrap.

Occasional runway model Reilly Opelka approved.

Perfect Delivery

Carlos Alcaraz’s 14–0 start this year is a long way from Novak Djokovic’s 41–0 start in 2011, but there’s already talk of Alcaraz breaking that record. One reporter asked Djokovic about the likelihood.

🎤 Novak Djokovic
"He can do it. He has everything needed in terms of game, adaptability to different surfaces and the level of fitness and recovery he has shown and matured over the years. If he keeps his body healthy, he is so good that he can win any tournament he participates in.”

Alcaraz would need to run the table between his fourth-round match tomorrow and the second round of the French Open, assuming he plays the same schedule as last year, skipping Madrid in April. That would mean sweeping Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome.

You Chuckers disagreed with Djokovic three to one in our recent poll.

11

Percentage of bagel sets won by Iga Swiatek in WTA 1000s

Iga Swiatek must get her cream cheese at Costco. She bagels one of every 10 sets she plays at the WTA’s highest level. Since 1990, only Gabriela Sabatini has out-bageled her, winning 12.9 percent of those sets 6–0. (Source: OptaAce)

The stat circulated last week when Swiatek won her opening round at Indian Wells 6–0, 7–5 over Kayla Day.

The Hole Truth

Total bagel record: 40 of 376 sets (10.6%)
Most bagel sets: Indian Wells, 11 of 62 sets (17.7%)
Best bagel percentage: Rome, 9 of 49 sets (18.3%)
1000 tournaments without a bagel: Canada and Wuhan

Dipping Into Breadsticks

To date, Iga has also recorded 61 breadsticks, or 6-1 sets. Combined with bagels, Iga’s Bakery has cooked up 16 percent of her sets at the WTA 1000 level.

Indian Wells produces the highest volume of bagels and breadsticks at 27 of 62 sets (43.5%) played in the desert

Baker’s Dozen

Here’s an extra stat in Swiatek’s bagel lore. She hit 250 weeks inside the Top 10 this week, and she debuted in the Top 10 after winning Rome in 2021, when she beat Karolina Pliskova in the final. The score was a double bagel.

Quick Hits

On Sunday, an elbow injury forced Coco Gauff to retire from a match for only the second time in her career.
On Tennis Channel, Chris Eubanks and Coco Vandeweghe are getting chippy
Venus Williams is still in Indian Wells (perhaps to play mixed doubles?) and watched Reilly Opelka and Jannik Sinner’s first-round doubles match, which they lost to the No. 1 seeds, Marcel Granollers and Horatio Zeballos.
Columbia University senior Michael Zheng was allowed to claim his $150,000 winnings from the Australian Open. (Front Office Sports via Forty Deuce)
Lance is the Roman Empire of Indian Wells.
That was fast ⬇️

PADEL: Last weekend’s sold-out finals in Giron, Spain, featured rematches of the previous week’s finals in Riyadh, but the results flip-flopped. World No. 1s Gemma Triay and Delfi Brea beat Ariana Sanchez and Andrea Ustero, breaking their five-month title drought. Fede Chingotto and Ale Galan upset World No. 1s Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia. (Premier Padel Tour)
PICKLEBALL: The Professional Pickleball Association is cracking down on cheating. A new rule took effect last week for courts where players call their own lines. Players can now pay $100 for a challenge after the match. Match results will stand, but the review committee will begin tallying bad calls and assessing fines on repeat offenders as a deterrent. (Pickleball.com)

TABLE TENNIS: The WTT Champions Chongqing tournament kicked off yesterday in China with heavyweight matchups right out of the gate. World No. 13 Satsuki Odo took down No. 2 Wang Manyu in straight sets. It was Wang’s first loss to a Japanese player in seven years. (WTT)