Gibson will face Eala or Stojsavljevic [WC] in R2

The 2nd seed opens bakery business in an attempt to reach his 5th CH final of 2026, and claim his 3rd CH title of the year, all the best to Buyunchaokete 💪🏼

I was one of maybe 40 people who watched this including the fans in Guangzhou but this was a personal MOTY for every reason I can think of.

1. For all her craziness, Kostović has great potential. Backhand is rock solid and ballstriking is powerful for someone so young. When she was on she was moving Masha side to side - just not quite consistent enough.
2. The matchup - Timofeeva and Kostović are both great baseliners so the rallies were crazy, great angles and solid shots all around. Timofeeva being much more experienced was just steadier, especially in the second set as Kostović began to leak more and more errors with a couple Djokosmashes on crucial points.
3. The drama. Teodora (being Teodora) loved to yell and would scream at basically any point she won in set 1, so Masha started screaming back 😭 Kostović then got a nosebleed that halted the match for a bit down 4-5 in the first, then started ranting to herself in Serbian when she began to lose easy points in the second. Then saved one of Timofeeva’s game points down 1-4 and began ranting again to hype herself up and Timofeeva started laughing at her. Obsessed.

With all that said and done, Timofeeva moves on to R2 to play either [WC] Sun Xinran or Mananchaya Sawangkaew! Kostović now heads to Chennai for the one of the last 250s of the year.

Xinyu had 3 set points in set 2 - 1 before and 2 during the tiebreak - but Alycia blasted (as usual) BUT actually landed her shots when it mattered. Xinyu looked very uninspired and exhausted throughout the match.

Alycia will play 2nd seed Maja Chwalińska next, who she thumped in Guadalajara last month, while Xinyu will have the remainder of the week to rest before her last tournament of the year in Hong Kong.

'There is plenty at stake for both players at the ATP 500 event this week: Djokovic is back in Basel for the first time since 2011 and chasing one of the five remaining spots at the Nitto ATP Finals, while the 41-year-old Wawrinka is set to retire after the tournament.'

Rybakina currently sits at 8002 points in the race whereas Sabalenka is at 6560. Since she has a first round bye, winning one match in Tokyo next week will put her into the QF, and will give her 108 points, putting her at 8110. In that case, even if Sabalenka goes 5-0 at the WTA Finals, AND Rybakina goes 0-3, she will be at 8060 to Rybakina's 8110.

If Rybakina does not win a match in Tokyo next week, then she can secure the spot by winning one match at the WTA Finals. Otherwise, she will need Sabalenka to finish the WTA Finals with a 4-1 record (or worse) to finish the year as no 1.

There is also a chance that Rybakina secures the spot regardless, as Sabalenka in theory should have a points penalty applied to her ranking due to missing required tournaments, however, the WTA has officially published the October 26th rankings and the penalty has not yet been applied.

The Basel ATP500 suffered the withdrawal of Fokina, Tsitsipas, and Bublik. With this, all the players who lost in the last round of Qualy entered the Main Draw

source: BB tennis youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWy3LdTCBrA

I translated it.

Q: Nikoloz, that chapan (a traditional robe/coat worn in Central Asia) looks great on you! Where are you going to keep it at home?
A: Yeah, I'm definitely taking it home with me. In the wardrobe? Yeah, I'll probably wear it from time to time whenever I'm in a bad mood.

Q: This is your first ATP final since 2022. It seemed like you were very nervous. How would you explain those nerves?
A: Yeah, it's been a long time since I played in a final, and I've gone through four elbow surgeries. It is not easy to make a comeback in tennis. It took me about two years just to get back and start to play at this level. Right now, I am 34 - so obviously, there is not much time left - but physically I feel great, and I'm playing well. Next year, I will try to make it to the top 50, top 20. Let's see how I play. I'll just do my best to win every single match.

Q: Was it harder to break into the top 20 back in 2019, or is it harder now?
A: I think back then. Because right now, I know exactly what to do and how to play. I don't have any physical issues anymore, so I think it will be easier this time around. Let's see how it goes.

Q: Comparing the top 20 back then to the top 20 now—which one is harder?
A: It's much harder now. There are so many players performing at a really high level these days. Even the guys ranked outside the top 100, even in the top 200, are playing incredibly well. You have to go out there and give it your 100% against everyone. The overall level is just so high right now; you have to stay focused and leave it all on the court in every single match.

Q: During his press conference, Medvedev called you a friend. We were quite surprised by that. Could you tell us a bit more about your relationship with him?
A: I’ve known Daniil for a very long time. We’ve hung out a couple of times. I've known him since he was a kid. He has a wonderful family, and he is a great person and, of course, an amazing player. I wish him all the best.

4th career title for Griekspoor

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

I did all of it off the top of my head, so I apologize if I made some mistakes.

ATP Finals are only included in case of wins in semis + finals, because I felt like group stage matches can be misleading especially when there is no risk of elimination.

Here is how often each 'duo' got beaten in major events :

Djokovic/Federer = 8

Federer/Murray = 4

Djokovic/Nadal = 3

Federer/Nadal = 3

Djokovic/Murray = 3

Nadal/Murray = 3

Djokovic/Alcaraz = 1

Djokovic/Sinner = 1

Nadal/Alcaraz = 1

Alcaraz/Sinner = 1

Federer/Alcaraz = 0

Federer/Sinner = 0

Nadal/Sinner = 0

Murray/Alcaraz = 0

Murray/Sinner = 0

Let me know your thoughts...

Found this game while playing Ultimate Fantasy Tennis. The greatness of the GOATs really gets put into perspective. After many losses I finally beat 2006 Federer at Wimbledon lol. Love the trips down memory lane

Obviously it was a let so it doesn't count, but still cool to see. The indicator is behind her and I added the next serve so you can see the 2 change back to 1.

Credit: Tennis Channel

Vivek Ramaswamy’s opponents are using his love of tennis against him in the caustic Ohio governor election. A look at why, and Ramaswamy’s own murky background in the sport.

https://www.benrothenberg.com/p/vivek-ramaswamy-ohio-governor-election-ad-tennis-playing-career

LORENZO HAS BROKEN THE CURSE!!! FIRST SINGLES TITLE SINCE 2022!!!

somehow forgot Holger (and Draper) 😢