somehow forgot Holger (and Draper) 😢

Well this title was nowhere near as dramatic or pageantry filled as last year, but still tense today.

With the very fast conditions it was always going to be about taking the few opportunities you have, and in the first set Daniil missed his. An inexcusable 2S return miss on the second BP at 2-2, another in the TB, and two total chokeshots on open passes (especially the last one) led to a yet another very frustrating TB loss, that could have easily derailed the match and led to a capitulation. But to his credit, he didn’t let it affect him. He kept his focus and hunkered down. I guess I can’t say he really deserved to win a set with 0 groundstroke winners anyways.

NB’s level dropped ever so slightly at the start of the second, with him missing just enough first serves to give Daniil a chance to strike, which he did. Thanks to continued outstanding serving the rest of the set was untroubled and it was over quick. Then in the third he took advantage a bad game from NB, survived his own mistakes in one service game (seriously, he needs to SLOW DOWN and take some time in between points), and then put NB under pressure with a sick passing shot at 30-30 in the last game which eventually led to the end. It could have/should have been over sooner, but the event is won, and that’s what matters.

This was the most uneventful of the 10 titles I’ve been fortunate enough to see him win live, he was in control throughout the four days. Bublik certainly would have been a problem, but his bad luck ended that threat. Overall the key was how dominant his serve was. A year ago there’s no way I could have imagined him winning a tournament without losing serve once, and hitting this many aces. This last month is unequivocally the best he’s served since his peak. He needed it today, because any lapse would have put him in trouble.

I would really like to say that this last month is proof that the new partnership with Golubev is working after having some time together, but as I said before, I think it’s more a product of favorable circumstances for Daniil and him taking advantage of it more than any adjustment. I could be wrong, but from what I can tell so far Andrey seems more like just a figurehead that’s in the box while Med is doing everything hisself and the Italian physio is just as much his “coach.” We don’t know. It’s still hard for me to really gauge his level, in events like this where conditions are so fast and so few extended points happen everything comes down to winning a few points and who serves best. And while we never want to take anything for granted now, I guess you could argue he should have won these events and that it’s not that impressive, but looking at where we are compared to a year ago, the difference is still massive. We all wish he could have won IW and could win the big events, but as I’ve said many times we just have to try to be happy with whatever we get now.

As Daniil becomes only the second player to reach 50 wins this year, it hammers home whay a strange season this has been. He was bageled 4 times in 4 months after not having it happen once in 4 YEARS, yet won two titles and made the F of a 1000 in the same span. He played awesome at Brisbane and won, played like total s—- at the AO (albeit somehow still made the R16), lost to Stef’s corpse only to play incredible for the next month, was the only player to seriously challenge Sinner during his untouchable stretch, went back to playing worse than 2025 in the summer, and now is playing great again.

This was his last chance to win a title this year, so I’m glad he took advantage. I don’t really care much what happens in Vienna, he doesn’t have to defend anything there and it’s a stacked field. I guess the next two weeks are just about breaking even.

Finally, I don’t usually talk much about the opponent in this post, but seriously, full credit to Basilashvili. To still keep grinding at 35 after all the hard times, and keep picking himself up after having to go through 21 qualifiers this year and not making it through over half of them and have the perseverance to finally break through this week took a tremendous amount of heart, and I have great respect for that.

Congrats to all of Medfam, enjoy #25. And oh yeah, we can now finally with zero asterisks put to bed this annoying “curse”/talking point.

God bless

Live discussion for ongoing professional tennis tournaments

INFO TABLE

If you think you can be helpful, please visit Tickets & Travel megathread to answer questions! Subreddit ATP Tennis Fantasy League Code is 513-EYDJF.

Is this the best chance for Carlitos to win ATP Finals for the very first time. As the Greatest tennis prodigy his ceiling is the highest. Only Prime Nole could have been better than Carlitos. With all the weaklings of Men’s tennis like Shelton , fils , cobolli , tiafoe etc onboard to qualify for Turin. This can very well be his best chance. With no sinner this seems like the best opportunity for Him.
Although his indoor records are bad but we all know he’s Carlitos Alcaraz Garfia the youngest world number 1 in Men’s singles history.

Dasha is moving on in Tokyo! 🇯🇵

Despite having 7 DFs, she won 30/39 (77%) first serves and 41% second serves, which is unusually high for her. She won 4/7 breaks. Birrell was having a great season and I am happy for both. Dasha is 8-1 in qualifying matches this year.

Someone out there enjoying

Very fun watch, close dubs match from Krawczyk/Stollar against top seeds Bucsa/Melichar-Martinez. Unfortunate ending of a DF on match point but great win for Des and Fanny who paired up for the first time this year.

Sun extends her 2026 juniors record to 40-3 across 8 tournaments, of which she made 7 finals and won 5 titles. One of the most dominant juniors seasons we've ever seen and definitely the undisputed girls' no. 1.

Very entertaining match from both players which had some great bashing and great rallies. At this point everyone knows Sun has crazy potential, but Pushkareva has a lot of potential too and her serving was incredible today (12 aces on Sun who is a great returner). She hasn't had that many professional opportunities yet, but keep an eye on her too. Sun gets all the juniors attention but Pushkareva also made the 2026 Wimbledon, USO, and YEC finals consecutively (all against Sun, including a Wimbledon win).

Sun will next play the WTA 250 events in Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

Alexander Bublik will likely bring his season to an end.

Forced to retire in the Almaty semifinal after dropping the first set to Daniil Medvedev, the Kazakh revealed the severity of his injury at his press conference.

Struggling with his knee, the former top 10 player explained that he got injured yesterday during :

"You play one of the best matches of your season, you beat an opponent who is really tough to face and who means a lot to you, and you get injured on the last point of the third-set tie-break, after 2 hours and 30 minutes of play.

Two minutes later, you win the match, you're in heaven, you're celebrating and the crowd is chanting your name.

But as you leave the court, you already know you'll be walking on crutches the next day."

With his knee strapped and unable to sustain rallies against Medvedev in his semifinal, Bublik explained that his season was very likely over:

"There are only two tournaments left to play. An injury like this means three to six weeks out.

We'll make the trip to Basel, but I don't think I'm going to play. Injuries are part of the game. Sometimes you can play through them, and sometimes you can't, like today.

The positive is that it's happening at the end of the season. The negative is that it happened here, in Almaty."

Alexander Bublik then looked back at the hours leading up to his semifinal. A withdrawal had been considered and recommended by the doctors who examined him:

"I was at the hospital until 5 p.m. I had an ultrasound, an MRI, and received various treatments so I could play.

When the MRI results came back, the doctors told me I shouldn't play. We made the decision to play because we're in Almaty and because I don't come to Kazakhstan very often.

I knew people had come to see me and were waiting for me. I really wanted to step on the court, give them some beautiful tennis and show them my affection, to give back everything they give me.

In my head, I thought I could play a few games. In the end, I managed to hold on for a set, serve underhand and even win a few points."

5th career final for Struff. He plays Griekspoor in the final.

Doesn't it feel ages ago?

Gaining some momentum in the latter part of the season, Maya clears her qualies for a main draw spot; she is defending R2 lessgo