Served 5 Setter
Serena's vintage moment, Sinner's status and a bonus episode with Andy
Welcome to your weekly 5 Setter, an express roundup of all things racquet sports with Producer Mike. In this episode:
Serena Williams returns
Jannik Sinner’s health update
Rankings jumps
Grass-court withdrawals
Wimbledon’s record prize money increase
Tiebreak Trivia
Click below to watch today’s 5 Setter on YouTube, and come back here for this week’s bonus stories.
Bonus Podcast: Wimbledon’s Prize Money Increase
Recently, Andy talked with Deborah Jevans, chair of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, and Wimbledon Tournament Director Jamie Baker to drill down on the decision to bump up prize money by 20% after the top players protested at Roland Garros. Here’s the special episode.
Sinner, Sabalenka, Alcaraz Among Global Sports Influencers
Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz have been named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in Sports 2026, which came out this week.
Sinner and Alcaraz are in the Icons section (with the likes of LeBron James and A’ja Wilson), while Sabalenka got the nod in the Leaders category for speaking out about the players’ dissatisfaction with prize money in Rome, which has led to the largest one-year increase at Wimbledon this year.
Other tennis-adjacent honorees:
Pickleball champ Anna Leigh Waters (Innovators)
Table tennis star Sun Yingsha (Innovators)
Soccer star Trinity Rodman (Titans), Ben Shelton’s girlfriend
Skier Lindsey Vonn (Innovators), a tennis superfan
Golfer Nelly Korda (Leaders), Sebastian Korda’s sister
Tatjana Maria Snubbed for Wild Card—And Wins Anyway
Last year, Tatjana Maria qualified for Queen’s Club and won the title. This year, the 38-year-old missed the ranking cutoff for the main draw, which was No. 18. She is ranked No. 54. She requested a wild card as the defending champion, and was surprised to be turned down.
🎤 Tatjana Maria
“When I got the message from Laura Robson, the tournament director, saying all the wild cards would go to the British players, which I understand, of course, but as a champion, it’s tough for me. I thought I deserved a wild card.”
Nevertheless, Maria entered qualifying as the No. 1 seed and won her way into the main draw. Then she won her first-round match against Maria Sakkari. At press time, she had won the first set over Elena Rybakina in the Round of 16.
The snub drew a contrast to the British Lawn Tennis Association’s decision to give Feliciano Lopez a wild card to the ATP Queen’s Club tournament eight years ago, when he was in the same situation as Maria—the defending champion who was ranked too low to enter on his ranking.
Maria had another complicating factor in her favor. She played the WTA’s Birmingham tournament the week before, and if she had made the quarterfinals, she wouldn’t have been able to make it to London in time to play the Queen’s qualifying. She would have had to choose. As it happened, she lost in the round before the quarterfinals.
Her circumstances weren’t enough to overcome the LTA’s wild card policy, which expressly gives preference to British players: “Wild cards are used to provide carefully planned competitive development experiences for players on the LTA player pathway.”
Maria, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2022, made the ranking cutoff for Wimbledon.
Bounces interviewed Maria at Roland Garros for a more contextualized story, behind a paywall.
Kyrgios Makes His Return
Nick Kyrgios returned to the ATP this week and got his first singles win in 15 months. He beat Corentin Moutet in Stuttgart 6-3, 6-4, then lost to No. 104 Shu Shimabukuro 6-4, 6-7, 4-6 in the second round. Kyrgios and Alexander Bublik are into the quarterfinals in doubles.
The often-injured Australian has played only sporadically since 2022, when he made the Wimbledon final and US Open quarterfinals. Since then, he has had four surgeries and played only seven singles matches (with one win) until this week. He is currently unranked and entered Stuttgart on a wild card.
The 31-year-old served 84% against Moutet and didn’t face a break point in the 69-minute win.
🎤 Nick Kyrgios
“I’m pleased with the way I played. I’m pleased with the way I’m feeling. My body—I’ve put in a lot of work. I’m really happy to be back.”
He will play Halle next week on a wild card, then will need to play qualifying to enter Wimbledon unless he receives a main-draw wild card.
Quick Hits
Andre Agassi, Caroline Wozniacki, James Blake and Genie Bouchard will play an exo on the Wimbledon Court in New York City’s Central Park, a pop-up taking over the famous Wollman Rink from June 26 to 29, complete with strawberries and cream. The exo on June 26 is free to attend. Book the court for yourself here.
Not remotely free: Roger Federer’s doubles exhibition at the US Open on August 25. Tickets sold out immediately when they went on general sale yesterday. Nosebleeds start at $250 on resale.
After we taped the episode, Victoria Mboko withdrew from Wimbledon with the knee injury she sustained in her doubles match with Serena Williams. See how it affects the draw.
In a recent pre-tournament press conference, Wimbledon officials reminded players that the All-England Club does not permit dogs. A far cry from the French Open’s dog concierge.
The Athletic released a new report on tennis match fixing. Let us never become desensitized to the word “kneecapping” in the context of tennis. Chilling stuff.
Changes may be coming to the storied Golden Swing, the ATP’s clay-court tournaments in South America in February. Carlos Alcaraz had thoughts.
Flavio Cobolli and Stefanos Tsitsipas both appear on roster lists for Germany’s Bundesliga club tennis teams this summer. Cobolli’s team plays the second tier, not even the highest level. Not all roster members play, but there is precedent for highly ranked professionals playing the Bundesliga. Angelique Kerber did in 2018, when she was ranked No. 11 in the world and won Wimbledon.
Alexander Zverev is up to fourth on the all-time prize money list. Here’s a prize money tracker for the year. (Sportico)
Take a bow, Dan Evans. The Brit will retire after Wimbledon. ⬇️
Q&Andy Recap
This week, we released a private conversation with Rafael Nadal from the U.S. premiere of Rafa, his Netflix docuseries. Andy moderated the discussion with Nadal and director Zach Heinzerling for a star-studded audience in New York City that included Anna Wintour and Seth Meyers.
📮Submit a question by emailing askandy@servedmediagroup.com or send it through our website or social media.
Love All Recap
Kim and Blair unpacked all the twists and turns at Roland Garros, plus Kim’s memories from playing in her first Slam final on the red clay and her stories from attending the tournament this year.
The Weekend Draw
HSBC Championships (Queen’s)
WTA 500, grass
London, U.K.
Friday, June 12: Round of 16 and quarterfinals, doubles quarterfinals and semifinals
Saturday, June 13: Semifinals
Sunday, June 14: Singles and doubles finals
Boss Open
ATP 500, grass
Stuttgart, Germany
Friday, June 12: Round of 16 and quarterfinals, doubles quarterfinals and semifinals
Saturday, June 13: Semifinals
Sunday, June 14: Singles and doubles finals
Libema Open
ATP/WTA 250, grass
’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Friday, June 12: Round of 16 and quarterfinals, doubles quarterfinals and semifinals
Saturday, June 13: Semifinals
Sunday, June 14: Singles and doubles finals
Tiebreak Trivia
In honor of Serena Williams’s return to the doubles court, we asked: Who is the only player besides Venus to win Slam titles with her?
The answer: Max Mirnyi. He and Serena won mixed doubles at Wimbledon and the US Open in 1998, when Serena was just 16 and before she won a major in singles. Miyrni is now in Aryna Sabalenka’s entourage.
📝 We’ll be back Tuesday with a new episode. In the meantime, join us on Substack during the weekend’s matches.
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“Jannik was turned inside out like a sock.” I cannot stop laughing at this! It caught me so off-guard 😂