Perfect Match?

Jannik Sinner made headlines last week because he passed on a potentially unprecedented and historic opportunity: win all Masters 1000s tournaments in a single year. Nobody has ever done it. With all the talk about how maladapted, weird and lazy Gen Z is purported to be, we wondered if there's a generational theme here (spoiler: they said the exact same things about Gen X, but no one remembers anything about us).Also,The DC Mubadala tournament's noble origin storyPlayer boycott of the US Open Mixed Doubles event: still happening?And more...

The Women's Tennis Association, arguably the most progressive sports association in history, has decided to require every female professional tennis player to prove that they are a woman. What certification will be acceptable to pass this new test? Oh, it's something called an SRY test, which checks for the presence of Y chromosomes. Funny story, the man who discovered the SRY marker thinks that the test shouldn't be used this way. Good times!Special shout out to Ben Rothernberg for breaking this story. Read his piece here.Also:Alcaraz is coming back!Aussie Open to limit cheap ticketsThoughts on (partially read) new gay tennis romance novel "The Open Era"

Men's tennis is failing us, in our view. It's top priority should be preventing Zv*r*v and Djokovic from winning a Grand Slam, and with Carlos out, the only one up to the challenge is Jannik Sinner. This is unsustainable!This week, Michele puts on her HR hat and puts Men's Tennis on a Performance Improvement Plan, complete with milestones and actionable goals (sorry I just barfed a bit in my mouth typing that).Also:Alcaraz is on the mend 💪Paige Lorenze is now Paige Paul 💍Alex DeMinaur and Katie Boulter got married the day of the Wimbledon Men's Final 🤔New tennis movies 🎬And more!

Serena's comeback at Wimbledon was impressive, adequate, or perplexing, depending on who is commenting on it. This week, we take on Serena's choice, as well as the odd circumstances around her dropping out of doubles at the last minute. What is all this really about? Does Serena herself even know?Also,The danger on the men's side (a Djokovic or Zverev win 😱)We will have a new champion on the women's sidePlayers fail to stage collective action around prize moneyNo dogs allowed at WimbledonAnd more!

As Michele predicted in the first episode of this season, Serena Williams will be playing singles this year at Wimbledon. But don't call it a comeback (as they say), for she is insisting she doesn't care if she wins: she's just wants her daughters to see her play. Hard to believe.Also:Tennis.com has stopped publishing content entirely (boo!)Paula Badosa calls her former relationship with Stefanos Tsitsipas "toxic" (we called that one too!)Corentin Moutet's $40,000 fine for dropping multiple f-bombsDanielle Collins is giving Valerie Cherish vibes on TC Live ("I don't wanna see that!")And more!

The bonkers 2026 French Open has concluded with the most disappointing Men's Final since Wimbledon 2019 (if you know, you know). The "deeply polarizing" winner (as the NY Times put it) has become a symbol of society's inability to properly address domestic violence allegations, leading to the emergence of the #anyonebutzverev hashtag when he became the favorite to win the tournament.Michele refuses to speak his name in this episode, and Bryan chooses to only use commentator mispronunciations (McEnroe's "Zah-VER-ev" and Agassi's "Zah-REV"). Dark times.Also:Maja Chwalinska's fairy-tale runTownsend/Siniakova win the women's doubles (setting up Taylor Townsend for the Career Slam at the US Open)Rafa praises David Ellison (but we forgive him)Trump ruins another sporting event, but Go Knicks!And more!