Sinner Masters Madrid, Kostyuk Flips Her Career & Updates From the ITIA
Plus: Decoding the Project RedEye prize money mission at the top of the game
Context-free soundbite: “It's a bullshit excuse for a rest day.”
This week on Served, Andy and Producer Mike get into the Xs and Os of Jannik Sinner’s absolute dominance in the Madrid semi and final. Andy also has an informed take on Alexander Zverev’s controversial assessment of the men’s game right now, drawing from their conversations during the off-season.
Plus: Marta Kostyuk’s winning strategy, Mirra Andreeva’s turnaround and the latest move from the top players behind Project RedEye, a campaign for more prize money at the Slams.
Coming Up This Week on Served
Love All on Wednesday with Hailey Baptiste
Q&Andy on Thursday with Fabio Fognini
5 Setter on Friday
Enjoy the new episode and this week’s bonus stories.
The latest stories that matter right now
Venus Williams’s Wimbledon Tribute at the Met Gala
Venus Williams has married tennis and fashion on the court for 30 years, and last night, when she co-hosted the Met Gala fashion extravaganza, she pulled off the same idea on the red carpet like no one ever has.
The focal point of her couture ensemble was a Swarovski crystal chest plate inspired by the Wimbledon trophy she has lifted five times. (It happens to be called the Venus Rosewater Dish in a weird coincidence.) The statement piece appears in her National Portrait Gallery painting by Robert Pruitt. Pruitt’s depiction includes jewelry replicating part of the Rosewater Dish’s celestial motifs. Stylist Ron Burton brought the whole look to life for the Met’s red carpet this year.
“It reflects not just my journey but the legacy of those who came before me—especially pioneers like [tennis’s first Black major champions] Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, who paved the way,” Williams told Vogue of her look.
Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka also attended the bash in New York. Osaka is planning to play the Italian Open this week. She has a first-round bye.
Jannik Sinner’s Dramatic Turn
In today’s episode, Andy and Producer Mike talk about the improvements Jannik Sinner has made to his game, fueling a historic run of five consecutive Masters 1000 titles. Now we have to add acting chops to his list of weapons.
Lavazza, an Italian coffee company that sponsors Sinner, released a new commercial ahead of the Italian Open in Rome this week. Sinner presides over a corporate brainstorming session and has more to do performance-wise than in previous commercials. He’s charismatic. He delivers C-suite gravitas. He fiddles with an ink pen convincingly, going with a continental grip.
Our verdict? Bravo. Judge for yourself.
Madrid Milestone: Two Women Coached the Final
On the same weekend that a female trainer won the Kentucky Derby for the first time, tennis saw a similar milestone. Two female head coaches, Conchita Martinez and Sandra Zaniewska, faced off in a WTA 1000 final, if not for the first time, then the first in a long time.
Zaniewska coaches Marta Kostyuk, who took the title, and Conchita Martinez coaches Mirra Andreeva.
The occasion was momentous enough for both the WTA Tour and Rennae Stubbs to call attention to it. Last year, ESPN reported that only 19 percent of the WTA’s registered coaches are women.
Kostyuk credits Zaniewska with helping her become a different player emotionally, an effort that laid the foundation for her first WTA 1000 title last week.
Marta Kostyuk (2023)
“I’m a person who talks, and it was very difficult for me because when you work with a male coach, most of them don’t talk. They cannot express what you feel and adjust. I’ve been coached by my mom for most of my life, by a woman. I’m very happy and I really hope that examples of mine and Sandra will bring more coaches on tour and the girls will trust more women.”
The WTA 1000 series launched in 2009, but for the purpose of finding similar scenarios, we included the Tier 1 events that predated the 1000s back to 1990. Since then, two women have coached the final only a handful of times. The most recent all-female matchup appears to have been in 2006, when Elena Dementieva beat Martina Hingis—both coached by their mothers—in the Tokyo final.
3
WTA 1000 finals Mirra Andreeva has reached, the youngest ever to do so
By making the last round in Madrid, Mirra Andreeva became the first teenager in WTA Tour history to play in three 1000 finals since the series introduction in 2009. Her other two 1000s were in Dubai and Indian Wells last year, both of which she won. She is also the second-youngest finalist at Madrid after Caroline Wozniacki in 2009.
Andreeva turned 19 during the tournament and received her first pair of high heels as a gift. It looks like she already broke them in (slide 7).
Quick Hits
Of all the coverage Marta Kostuyk’s instantly legendary back handspring received, Nadia Comaneci’s comment is the best. (via Gulf News)
Jannik Sinner left Madrid with too many streaks and records in progress to count. The ATP gives it a shot.
The last person to beat Sinner, Jakub Mensik (Doha in February), is in his section of the Italian Open draw. They could meet in the third round.
Emma Raducanu trained for the Italian Open with Andrew Richardson, her 2021 US Open coach.
Here are the men’s and women’s teams that made it to the Division I NCAA Championships Sweet 16 (aka Super Regionals), to be played this weekend.
It never gets old. ⬇️
PADEL: Juan Lebrón and Leo Augsburger, a pair plenty of fans weren’t sold on when they teamed up five months ago, validated their partnership in Brussels last weekend by winning their first Premier Padel title together—and leaving no doubt. They took out world No. 1s Arthur Coello and Augustín Tapia and No. 2s Alejandro Galán and Fede Chingotto.
TABLE TENNIS: Drama at the 100th World Team Table Tennis Championships in London! China’s men lost back-to-back matches for the first time in 26 years, meaning they entered the knockout stage yesterday with a lower seeding than expected. The Chinese women’s team went through the group stage without dropping a game. Follow the action at worldtabletennis.com.
PICKLEBALL: Partners, a docuseries following the PPA Tour, dropped today on Prime Video with plenty of behind-the-scenes drama.
SQUASH: The sport sold out all available inventory in the first 2028 Los Angeles Olympic ticket drop this month.
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Instead of referring to Sinner as an algorithm or AI, I think of him more like a T-1000 😂 Shape shifting, seemingly indestructible, liquid metal. OK maybe not that last one but get what I’m trying to say!