NEW EPISODE: The Craig Tiley Interview
The new USTA CEO reveals why he left Australia to take "big swings" in the States.
Context-free soundbite: “‘Truck Stop Trungelliti’ might be my favorite nickname.”
The Served team crashed the USTA’s annual meeting in Florida for a live taping with new CEO Craig Tiley and president Brian Vahaly. Andy’s conversation with them goes deep on strategies to get kids in the game, the crisis facing college tennis and how the sport has managed to grow after Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams retired.
Also in this episode: Andy’s best piece of tennis advice and the Michael Chang story he will never forget.
Coming up on Served this week:
Love All on Wednesday with Kim’s former coach Carl Maes
Q&Andy on Thursday with Jason Stacy, Aryna Sabalenka’s performance coach
5 Setter on Friday
You got it, Aryna!
Enjoy the new episode, then come back here for this week’s bonus stories.
The biggest headlines from this week’s episode
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner play their opening matches in Monte Carlo today, and the tennis world will be waiting with bated breath to see if they both make the final and battle each other for the first time this year.
Jessica Pegula defended her Charleston Open title, becoming the only player in the Top 10 to win multiple titles on all surfaces.
Worth a read: The Athletic’s analysis of Pegula’s tiebreak habit.
Tommy Paul won the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston, saving three consecutive match points and flipping the script on his Miami Open loss to Arthur Fils.
Rafael Jodar won his first title at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech, Morocco, a mere three months after making his tour-level debut in Australia. More on him below.
Marie Bouzkova won the Copa Colsanitas in Bogota, Colombia, as the No. 1 seed.
Mariano Navone won his first title at the Tiriac Open in Romania, saving two match points in the semifinal.
The latest stories that matter right now
The Slide Show: Three Standouts From Clay Week 1
The first week on the clay gave us one Cinderella story and two close ones. Here are a few players who hit our radar this weekend.
Rafael Jodar (Spain). The 19-year-old was already hyped as a 2025 Next Genner and the 2024 US Open Boys Singles champion, but capturing his first pro title in only his seventh event raised eyebrows all over again. He’s now ranked No. 57, up more than 900 spots in the last year.
Yuliia Starodubtseva (Ukraine). The Charleston Open finalist has an “amazing story,” said Jessica Pegula at their trophy ceremony. The war in Ukraine has kept her away from home for four years since graduating from Old Dominion University in 2022. She coached in a New York country club before going pro with the help of a GoFundMe.
Roman Andres Burruchaga (Argentina). The heart goes out to a player who served for his first title with a 40–love lead only to leave the court empty-handed and in tears. The 24-year-old beat No. 3 seed Learner Tien and No. 5 seed Brandon Nakashima at the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships and moved up to No. 62.
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Last week, Iga Swiatek hired coach Francisco Roig. This week, the B-side of the story: Roig’s former player feels burned. Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard told L’Equipe that Roig dropped him like a bad habit to work with Swiatek. “It’s a ruthless world,” Perricard said. Yikes.
In today’s episode of Served, JW and Producer Mike discuss the larger trend: player–coach break-ups sounding more and more like Taylor Swift songs.
Another one: Stefanos Tsitsipas bit back last week at former coach Goran Ivanisevic for bashing him in the media as out of shape and poorly prepared. Tsitsipas’s bruised words came from an interview with Tom Kershaw of The Times.
🎤 Stefanos Tsitsipas
“If it was a way of him pushing me into working harder and getting my shit together, it was definitely not the right tactic. I was really hurt. I never expected that a coach could do that to me, and the worst thing is what he said was not true. I was not fit because I had been injured. It was like he kicked me when I was already down.”
It’s like they say: Love means nothing in tennis.
Wild Idea: Should the US Open Include Amateurs?
On today’s episode, an audience member at the live taping proposed that the USTA give everyone a chance to win a wild card into US Open qualifying.
If it sounds familiar, you’re right. The USTA already tried this. It was called the US Open National Playoffs. The tournament ran from 2010 to 2016 and anyone 14 and older could enter.
The problem was, it wasn’t limited to amateurs. The winners were always college standouts or former pros, not recreational players with a dream. The first men’s winner was Blake Strode, ranked No. 522 at the time. Chris Evert entered mixed doubles with ESPN host Mike Greenburg in the second year (and lost).
The USTA cancelled the series after 2016, saying: “We have seen from recent competitions that the Playoffs are being utilized by pro tennis players as a pathway to the US Open. This was not how the Playoffs were originally designed.”
So why not try it again and limit it to amateurs? Because, as Andy said, even he couldn’t win a US Open qualies match now. The best club players wouldn’t stand a chance.
Perfect Delivery: Friend or Foe?
At the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships last week, Ben Shelton told Tennis Channel that Frances Tiafoe left him out of plans to go to the NBA’s Houston Rockets game when they hosted the New York Knicks on March 31. He even called Big Foe a snake. TC fact-checked.
🎤 Frances Tiafoe
“He’s lying out of his ass. I never said that. I was waiting when I came on here for y’all to bring that up. I FaceTimed him as soon as I seen it today. I was like, ‘Man, you’re so full of it.’ It’s probably him getting me back for me calling him ‘part-time.’”
As for what Foe meant by that, it’s best if you Google it.
36
Marco Trungelliti’s age when he broke into the Top 100 this week
By making the final of the Marrakech tournament on Sunday, Trungelliti became the oldest man ever to debut in the Top 100 as well as the oldest ever to make his first ATP Tour final. He played 492 matches on the ATP Challenger level while persevering to reach this new height.
🎤 Marco Trungelliti
“Making the Top 100 was a big goal for basically my whole career. I feel over the past two years I was getting closer and closer in terms of level and mentally. Physically, I have been doing a lot better than my whole life, which helps a lot. It is amazing.”
Quick Hits
Carlos Alcaraz plans to play every week through the French Open in an effort to maintain his world No. 1 ranking with Jannik Sinner coming for it. (@Josemoron)
Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton and Learner Tien pulled out of Monte Carlo this week after deep runs in Houston.
Good read: How Jack Draper Became Fashion’s Go-To Guy in Tennis (SportsVerse)
Daniil Medvedev won Rome but still doesn’t trust himself on clay. (@tiempodetenis)
No, this viral point didn’t count. ⬇️ Here’s why.
PICKLEBALL: Say it ain’t so! We missed the chance to play pickleball with the band Weezer last week. They hosted a tournament for fans in Santa Monica, California, to go along with the announcement of their next tour. (The Los Angeles Times)
PADEL: With this week’s Premier Padel tournament in Qatar cancelled for security reasons, the padel world is buzzing about money instead of matches. A $15 million Series A funding round for the team-based Pro Padel League led by Charlotte Hornets co-owner Rick Schnall sparked a new league-high valuation for the Toronto Polar Bears of $25 million. (The Padel Paper)
TABLE TENNIS: Sun Yingsha made history by becoming the first woman ever to win three consecutive ITTF World Cup singles titles. World No. 1 Wang Chuqin finally secured his first-ever World Cup with a thrilling 4–3 victory against 18-year-old Japanese sensation Sora Matsushima, who is the top threat to Chinese dominance at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
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