Week 24, 2024

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Gill Gross & Ben Ornstein
June 18, 2024

No time for rest, two weeks until Wimbledon! Here’s what we found interesting this week:

  • Murray Retirement Comes Into Focus

    In Short: Wimbledon or the Olympics are the likely targets for Murray’s farewell tournament. He says finishing at one of those events is “more fitting” than the US Open or Davis Cup.

Andy Murray: Retiring at Wimbledon or Paris 2024 Olympics would be fitting

Andy Murray says he would prefer to retire at Wimbledon or the Paris Olympics as his tennis career draws towards an end.

bbc.com/sport/tennis/articles/cd117r7w54eo

  • Olympic Participation Announcements

    Why It’s Interesting: A lot of withdrawals already. The change in surface, the packed tennis calendar and the lack of rankings points on offer are clearly having an impact. Meanwhile, Casper Ruud is taking a different approach.

  • Damning Comments From Tsitsipas’ Physio

    Why It’s Interesting: Christos Fiotakos is leaving the Tsitsipas camp and calling into question his work ethic, focus, and expectations. We expect Stefanos to refute this assessment. The original reporting is in Greek but Twitter/X user Gerda has the translation.

  • Alcaraz Has Secured The Bag (15-20 Million Per Year)

    Why It’s Interesting: Nike Tennis has been largely in retreat since Roger Federer’s 2018 departure, losing the likes of Grigor Dimitrov, Andrey Rublev, Marta Kostyuk, Marketa Vondrousova, Sloane Stephens, Ajla Tomljanovic and Leylah Fernandez thereafter. This latest move from Nike demonstrates they’re still interested in the elite star class. We’ll stay tuned for the Carlitos logo.

REPORT: Nike has inked Carlos Alcaraz to an extension—and he'll get a custom logo | Tennis.com

The Spanish sports website Relevo reports that the contract may net Alcaraz an estimated $15 to $20 million annually.

www.tennis.com/baseline/articles/report-nike-has-inked-carlos-alcaraz-to-extension-and-he-ll-get-a-custom-logo

  • Filming Federer’s Final Days

    Why It’s Interesting: Asif Kapadia and Joe Sabia are the co-directors of Amazon Prime’s “Federer: Twelve Final Days.” Here they’re interviewed on the Sports Media Podcast With Richard Dietsch to explain how this documentary came to be. It’s more interesting than it sounds; this footage was never supposed to be seen by anyone outside of close friends and family.

Filming Roger Federer’s final days as a tennis professional

Listen to this episode from Sports Media with Richard Deitsch on Spotify. Episode 405 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features Asif Kapadia and Joe Sabia, the co-directors of “Federer: Twelve Final Days,” which follows Roger Federer through the final 12 days of his professional career. The documentary will stream on Prime Video beginning June 20. In this podcast, Kapadia and Sabia discuss how the project came to be; Sabia starting out the project as doing a home video for Federer’s friends and family; why Federer provided such intimate access; how Kapadia sees Federer in relation to his other doc subjects; getting access to Rafa Nadal, Novak Dojokovic and other top players; how to capture the elegance of Federer on the court and more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

open.spotify.com/episode/2gFaxtrXF9HPH4Xdwz9mai?si=8YbuQNM7TzWsIaFLwPJg3A&nd=1&dlsi=aa79c93bedb74c59

  • For U.S. Viewers: Here’s What Watching Roland Garros Will Be Next Year

    The Basics: Linear coverage across TNT, TBS and TruTV with all courts streaming on (HBO) Max.

TNT Sports Reaches Expansive Agreement with French Tennis Federation to Be New Home of Roland-Garros in the U.S. Beginning in 2025

TNT Sports, a division of Warner Bros. Discovery, has reached a groundbreaking 10-year agreement with the French Tennis Federation to add Roland-Garros to

press.wbd.com/us/media-release/tnt-sports-reaches-expansive-agreement-french-tennis-federation-be-new-home-roland

  • Raonic Re-Enters The Chat in Raonic Fashion

  • Gill’s Take: This is one of the best non-slam weeks of the tennis calendar. Enjoy, everyone!

On this week’s Monday Match Analysis, Gill breaks down the ATP finals from the first week of grass season and what they mean for each player. Jack Draper secured his first career title with a three-set win over Matteo Berrettini in Stuttgart and Alex De Minaur continued his stellar play with a straightforward championship Sunday win over Sebastian Korda in Hertogenbosch. Gill also looks at storylines heading into Queens and Halle this week along with Monday’s results.

Hey everyone, Gill Gross here. While I’m grateful for any amount of success I’ve had talking tennis on the internet for the past half decade, I believe we should all be doing better in this sport as creators and as fans. The tennis content economy is far behind other sports by metrics of engagement and popularity. This newsletter is our effort to DRAW the great things we find in tennis every week- we search for content that teaches us, makes us think, makes us laugh and ultimately makes loving this sport the best possible experience. Our vision is to speed up the growth of a robust content economy in tennis, for the benefit of fans, players and creators alike.

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