Served 5 Setter
Alcaraz tattoo watch, Venus in Austin, padel growth and more.
Happy Friday, Chuckers!
Producer Mike has your five tennis headlines in 10 minutes or less, just the right amount while you’re emerging from an Australian Open recovery coma.
Did you miss Served episodes this week?
Australian Open Recap with Andy and JW
Love All with Kim Clisters and Blair Henley
Q&Andy with Dallas Open Tournament Director Peter Lebedevs
Email your question for Q&Andy to askandy@servedmediagroup.com
Click below to watch today’s 5 Setter on YouTube, and come back here for this week’s bonus stories.
Tiley Proposes Women Play Best of Five
This is not the Craig Tiley–related headline anyone expected after the Australian Open. The tournament director plans to push for women to play best-of-five-set matches in the latter rounds of Slams.
According to The Athletic, Tiley cited data that shows viewership increases the longer a match lasts.
The idea for longer women’s matches has been around in tennis circles for years, usually connected to the persistent issue of equal prize money for men and women. Tiley’s reasoning is a new angle—and contradicts the prevailing wisdom that shorter matches are the way to attract new fans.
It’s the first time a major tennis authority figure—someone in a position to make it happen—has proposed the change. Kim Clijsters and Blair Henley dove into the topic on this week’s episode of Love All. Jump to the discussion below.
Davis Cup Weekend: What to Watch
This weekend, 26 World Group teams are vying to stay alive in this year’s Davis Cup competition. A few highlights:
Canada hosts Brazil. Rising stars Joao Fonseca (Brazil) and Gabriel Diallo (Canada) face off in what might be the popcorn match of the weekend.
Hungary hosts USA. Tommy Paul and new Australian Open doubles champion Christian Harrison lead the Americans against Hungary’s squad with Fabian Marozsan, who nearly upset Daniil Medvedev in Melbourne.
Norway hosts Great Britain. Jack Draper is back for the first time since August. He opened with a win for GB over Next Gen’s Nikolai Budkov Kjaer Thursday. Without Casper Ruud, Norway is the underdog against Draper, Cam Norrie, Jacob Fearnley, and the reigning Wimbledon doubles champs, Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool.
What’s at Stake
The 13 winners will move on to Round 2 in September. They will be joined by Spain, last year’s finalist
The 13 losing teams will play next year to keep their spot in the World Group.
The seven winners in September will move on to the final in November, joined by Italy, last year’s champion.
Coachless Raducanu Rolls in Romania
Emma Raducanu is baseline-blasting again, and it’s working. The British No. 1 reeled off three wins at the Transylvania Open this week to reach the semifinals.
It’s Raducanu’s first tournament since parting ways with coach Francisco Roig after her Australian Open ended in the second round. Roig wanted her to play with more variety, and she wasn’t feeling it after six months of working together.
In Romania, she hasn’t lost a set and has dropped two bagels on the competition. Against Kaja Juvan in the second round, she came back from 0–5 in the first set and won 11 consecutive games.
“I don’t think I’ve ever come back from five-love down before, so that’s a first to add to the experience.” —Emma Raducanu in her on-court interview
As for the coaching situation, Roig was her eighth coach in four years. One more split and we’ll have to cue the Ferris Bueller “nine times?” memes.
Doha and Dallas Set With Loaded Fields
You heard about the bold-face names who withdrew from next week’s tournaments in 5 Setter, as Carlos Alcaraz, Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula decided to sit out another week. But there are plenty of stars in action.
WTA 1000 in Doha, Abu Dhabi
The first WTA 1000 of the year features eight of the Top 10 in the draw. The top five seeds are now:
Iga Swiatek
Elena Rybakina
Amanda Anisimova
Coco Gauff
Mirra Andreeva
ATP 500 in Dallas, Texas
The Dallas Open has avoided withdrawals. Still on tap:
Ben Shelton
Taylor Fritz
Casper Ruud
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
Learner Tien
Frances Tiafoe
Andy will partner with Sam Querrey to take on John Isner and John McEnroe in an exhibition match February 7
On yesterday’s Q&Andy, Dallas Tournament Director Peter Lebedevs joined the show to explain how tournament sausage is made, and Andy explained why he wanted to partner with Mac.
ATP 500 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands
No chance for a rematch of the Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev AO semifinal—both pulled out of the ABN AMRO Open, leaving these top seeds:
Alex de Minaur
Felix Auger-Aliassime
Alexander Bublik
Jack Draper
ATP Golden Swing
Next week kicks off the cult-favorite Golden Swing, a trio of clay-court tournaments in South America every February. It’s named in honor of the 2004 Chilean Olympic team, which swept the men’s gold medals in singles (Nicolas Massu) and doubles (Massu and Fernando Gonzalez).
First, Joao Fonseca tries to defend his maiden ATP Tour title in the IBE+ Argentina Open in Buenos Aires (Feb. 9–17). Francisco Cerundolo and Matteo Berrettini are also in the field.
Afterward, the Golden Swing goes to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Santiago, Chile.
Quick Hits
Is the Australian Open too much of a good thing? (The Defector)
Madison Keys survived a bite of cheddar apple pie (The Players Box)
Novak Djokovic’s 2012 AO racket sold for a record $540k (ESPN)
Can pickleball destroy your marriage? (Washington Post via The Dink)
We are obsessed with this comedian–slash–tennis fan ⬇️
The Weekend Draw
ATP 250 Occitanie Open
Montpellier, France
Semifinals: Sat., Feb. 7
Final: Sun., Feb. 8
WTA 500 Mubadala Open
Abu Dhabi, Qatar
Semifinals: Fri., Feb. 6
Final: Sat., Feb. 7
WTA 250 Ostrava Open
Ostrava, Czech Republic
Semifinals: Fri., Feb. 6
Final: Sat., Feb. 7
WTA 250 Transylvania Open
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Semifinals: Fri., Feb. 6
Final: Sat., Feb. 7
Davis Cup World Group Qualifications
Various locations
Matches today through Sun., Feb. 8
Full international WTA and ATP broadcast lists
Davis Cup international broadcast list
Tiebreak Trivia
In the 5 Setter podcast, we asked: Which Olympic gold medalist in singles became a serious competitive squash player after he retired?
Answer: Stefan Edberg
The six-time Slam champion lobbied for squash’s inclusion as an Olympic sport. One racket sport isn’t enough for the Swedish legend—he also plays racketlon, a competition that comprises one set each of table tennis, squash, badminton and tennis.
We’ll be back Tuesday with a new episode. In the meantime, join us in the chat!
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I tagged you guys on twitter but you better not forget to mention in your next podcast that 41 year-old VERA ZVONAREVA won both her singles matches in qualies to make the main draw of Doha, a WTA 1000. Put some respect on her name!
João Fonseca unfortunately isn’t playing in the Davis Cup this weekend. Decided many weeks ago (pre AO) not to participate due to the lingering injury that kept him out of Adelaide and Brisbane