Served 5 Setter
Padel Taking Over? ITF Player Care Program & More.
Happy Friday, everyone!
This week on the Served 5 Setter: Another WTA star ends their season early, the ITF’s new Player Care Program, and a fight over court space in Scotland. Plus, the kissing defense returns in a doping case, and historic news for junior wheelchair tennis.
Watch or listen now to stay ahead of the game. Keep scrolling for bonus stories that didn’t make the episode!
Six Kings Slam Showdown: Alcaraz vs. Sinner
It doesn’t matter where or when, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner seem destined to meet in finals. The rivals will meet in the title match of the Six Kings Slam exhibition on Saturday.
World No. 1 Alcaraz swept Taylor Fritz on Thursday while Sinner beat Novak Djokovic. The Italian defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in Wednesday’s quarterfinal.
The “New 2” have combined to win the last eight Grand Slams and have faced-off in five finals in 2025, most notably at each of the last three majors. Saturday will be a rematch of last year’s title match in Riyadh, where Sinner took the victory and the reported $6M paycheck.
Check your subscription, the final will be streamed live on Netflix.
ITF to Change Name in 2026 for “Clearer Identity”
The International Tennis Federation will officially change its name to “World Tennis” in 2026, following a vote by its member national tennis associations on Thursday. The new brand will be launched next summer as part of a phased rollout plan.
This rebranding aims to provide a clearer and more relevant identity that reflects the ITF’s role as the global governing body of tennis, aligning the brand with other major international sports organizations.
ITF President David Haggerty said the change is part of a broader strategy to unify, strengthen, and grow tennis worldwide while enhancing engagement among players, fans, and stakeholders.
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Djokovic Inspired by Sports Legends to Keep Playing
Novak Djokovic, inspired by LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Tom Brady, said he plans to extend his tennis career into his 40s. Speaking in Riyadh ahead of his Six Kings Slam match on Thursday, the 38-year-old highlighted longevity as a key motivation, and said he’s excited to see how far he can push his limits despite physical challenges.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion said he plans to play in all four majors in 2026, as he continues his quest to capture that historic 25th major title. He reached the semifinals at each Slam in 2025.
Djokovic, who co-founded the Professional Tennis Players Association, also expressed excitement about future changes in tennis.
“I feel like tennis is a sport that can be greatly transformed, and I want to be part of that change,” he said.
Tennis Australia to Host ‘All Abilities Week’
Tennis Australia will launch its inaugural ‘All Abilities Week’ from October 20-26 as a way to “celebrate and raise awareness of inclusion in tennis.”
The goal of the initiative is to highlight and expand participation across wheelchair tennis, blind and low vision tennis, intellectual disability and autism tennis, deaf and hard and hearing tennis and para-standing tennis, according to the organization’s website.
Events will be held all week at facilitates across the country to promote tennis as the nation’s “most reflective and widely played sports.”
Speaking of providing opportunities for all athletes, check out the 5 Setter Podcast to learn more about a milestone moment for junior wheelchair tennis.
After his memorable run in Shanghai, Valentin Vacherot now leads the ATP Tour in Under Pressure Rating.
Coco Gauff leads the WTA Tour with 405 double faults this year, 125 more than second-place Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Aryna Sabalenka hit the most winners in WTA 1000 events this season with 861.
In the 5 Setter Podcast we asked: Which current WTA pro is the most recent player to have won both the Under 16 and the Under 18 titles at the Orange Bowl?
The answer: Ashlyn Krueger. The World No. 48 won the 16u Orange Bowl title in 2019 and the 18u title in 2020.
Weekend Draw
Keep your eyes on Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina this weekend. Not only will they meet in Saturday’s semifinals, they’re also looking to qualify for the WTA Finals. Mirra Andreeva, who lost her opening match, is the third player in contention for the final two spots.
Top seed Naomi Osaka withdrew from her quarterfinal match due to injury, sending Jaqueline Cristian into the semis. She’ll face Tereza Valentova as Leylah Fernandez meets Sorana Cirstea in the other semifinal.
Second-seeded Daniil Medvedev advanced to the semifinals on Friday and will face qualifier James Duckworth. Alex Michelsen awaits the winner of Jan-Lennard Struff and Corentin Moutet in the other semifinal match.
Lorenzo Musetti and Felix Auger-Aliassime headline the draw heading into Friday’s quarterfinal round in Brussels. Jiri Lehecka and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina are also in quarterfinal action Friday.
The top four seeds advanced to the final eight in Stockholm. Holger Rune, Casper Ruud, Denis Shapovalov, and Ugo Humbert look to add another title to their 2025 campaigns.
All finals will be played on Sunday, October 19.
Full international WTA & ATP broadcast list.
We Want To Know…
…as we near the end of the season, what was your favorite match of 2025? Drop your take here!
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Hot on the heels of the Rick Draney interview and the note about the Tennis Australia “All Abilities Week”, I would love to see at least one of the slams schedule the wheelchair tennis finals directly before the men’s and women’s finals. This worked well for doubles. I feel like the four slams could figure out a rotating methodology for spotlighting doubles, wheelchair, and junior finals ahead of the main draw finals to maximize interest.
Love the pod and the newsletter. Really appreciate the work. Just listened to this week’s five setter and wanted to drop a thought. Padel and paddle are two different racquet sports, so it’s confusing when padel is pronounced as paddle. On another note it’s a change from its language of origin’s pronunciation, which feels uncomfortable. I get that we sometimes need to anglicize phonemes (it’d be pretty obnoxious if most native US English speakers were leaning hard into rolling r’s for example), but pah-DELL is within our phonetic range. If we can do Iga Swiatek, I think we can do padel. People just need to hear it as well as read it. Anyway, that’s my two cents. Thanks again for giving us all the content. I look forward to the print and the audio every week.