By Giri Nathan Rafael Nadal announced on Thursday that he will miss the most meaningful tournament in his career. (He also announced that he intends to retire at the end of the 2024 season, but I don’t have the space or the nerve to tackle that in this humble email.) For the past 18 years, there has been no Roland-Garros without Rafa. Fourteen times he has been there on Sunday to hoist the Coupe de Mousquetaires. Not this year. It’s a disappointment for anyone who likes to watch the rugged artistry of an evolving clay-court genius, or just the meticulous picking of wedgies and alignment of wa ..read more

By Giri Nathan The last time Sofia Kenin beat a top 10 player, she was en route to winning the Australian Open. That was 2020. Later that year she was the runner-up at Roland-Garros. For anyone invested in her success, that must all feel prehistoric by now. Now 24, the child prodigy–turned–major champ had been hurt and/or adrift for two whole seasons. After falling outside the top 300, Kenin has recently worked her way back up to world No. 134 but is very much a work in progress. (Just the other day in Madrid she got nixed first-round by world No. 75 Maryna Zanevska in less than an hour.) Gen ..read more

By Giri Nathan The payoff is spicy, but you’ll have to stick with us.  Madrid, 2017, Eugenie Bouchard versus Maria Sharapova. Both players had just come off challenging three-setters, and this one also went three, before Bouchard won 7–5, 2–6, 6–4. It would be Bouchard’s only career victory against her childhood idol in five tries. And it was the last attempt she’d get, because in 2020 Sharapova wound down what will almost certainly be a Hall of Fame career, give or take a little hand-wringing. “I definitely had some extra motivation going into today,” Bouchard said after her victory. Wh ..read more

By Giri Nathan Clay is in full swing, but its king is nowhere to be found. Rafa Nadal hasn’t played a match since suffering a hip injury at the Australian Open. He offered a not-so-sunny update on his condition in a video on Thursday. “The reality is that the situation is not what we would have expected,” he said. Recovery for his injured psoas muscle was initially projected to take six to eight weeks; this marks week 14. “I was training, but now a few days ago we decided to change course a bit, do another treatment and see if things improve to try to get to what comes next,” he said, admitti ..read more

By Giri Nathan Flashy tennis players tend to have baggage. The flash might be the result of self-destruction or nihilism. (Consider Bublik, Kyrgios, Moutet.) The flash might be a good spectacle, but a little heartbreaking because it’s never quite backed up by wins. (Pour one out for Gael Monfils.) The flash might be a mask for a deficit of truer tennis gifts. (Now you be the mean one and insert a player of your choice.) But that is why it’s such a joy to have Ons Jabeur, who brings us all the sizzle and none of the guilt. In fact, her artistry is in service of winning tennis matches, which, a ..read more

By Tim Newcomb We swooned in 2014 when Roger Federer pulled on a pair of his Nike Vapor 9s at the US Open with a full-on Air Jordan 3 collaboration design, while Jordan himself watched tennis live at Flushing Meadows. Then Nike surprised us all with a second version of the collab in 2017, again debuting at the US Open. Six years later, the Vapor-AJ3 mash-up makes a return, this time in Racer Blue, albeit without the famed “RF” logo.  The April 14 release from Nike opts for a Vapor X sneaker in all things construction but styled up with plenty of AJ3 touches. The white-based tumbled leath ..read more

By Giri Nathan If you’ve spent enough time staring at the U.S. Open practice courts over the past few years, you might have been entranced by a mysterious, reedy figure. Chris Eubanks is 6 foot 7, and the figure he cuts on a tennis court is unlike any other. The lines are almost dancerly, the serves are monstrous, and the one-handed backhand is rare on a player of his stature. “Giraffe” and “daddy longlegs” were apt nicknames offered by his friend Sloane Stephens last month. Watching Eubanks try to qualify in Queens, August after August, I figured he’d be a fantastic watch, if only he could p ..read more

By Giri Nathan I don’t have many thoughts while in Florida. Perhaps this is why tennis champions are honed here—too hot to get too in your head. But I have been thinking about popularity, watching the crowds flock at the Miami Open. Some players win a lot while not playing interesting tennis. Many players play interesting tennis while not winning a lot. When these two qualities happen to coincide—interesting, winning—people latch on and seem to never let go. That’s also why there are far too many of these newsletters written about a select few players. I believe that any topic, and so any ten ..read more

By David Bartholow Fragments of time from tennis paradise, 2023 edition. Above: The 2023 BNP Paribas Open starring Carlos Alcaraz, Elena Rybakina, Aryna ..read more

By Giri Nathan Photographs by David Bartholow Spooky feeling alert: Did I detect, on Thursday evening, some part of myself rooting against Carlos Alcaraz? That can’t be right. Already? He’s barely two haircuts into his pro career. He conducts himself with humility and a goofy smile. He won’t turn 20 until May. And yet watching him on Thursday evening he felt already like a monolithic and inevitable presence, the kind that you can picture holding the trophy before the tournament begins, the kind that squeezes the optimism out of the generation above him and the one below. This is all a complim ..read more