As it is written, Wednesday is mailbag day …
• We’ll have finals coverage this weekend—including the 50 thoughts column—from Roland Garros 2026.
• Served is doing daily “Quick Served” podcasts every day from Roland Garros (and will be doing the same for Wimbledon.)
Onward …
For all the drama playing out on the clay courts of Paris, most of the chatter this week pertained to green plots of land and Serena Williams’s occupancy thereof. Yes, the tennis champion, 44 years old and winner of 23 major titles, announced her return to the sport after nearly four years away. As we reported on Served, she’s asked for multiple wild cards in doubles before Wimbledon. And assuming that goes well and her body recovers, she’ll begin full-fledged singles play.
We spoke with her former coach, Sascha Bajin, on Monday, within an hour of the announcement. As for my thoughts, it’s hard to see this as anything other than an overall good.
Let’s dispense with the risks and potential drawbacks. Nobody wants to see Serena struggle, much less get hurt—given her age and time off, we need to accept that those are possibilities. And if she thrives, inevitably, there will be a caveman contingent complaining about the quality of the WTA, where a woman in her mid-40s can rock up and beat full-timers, half her age. (The failure of logic here: This is Serena Williams we’re talking about.)
For the vast majority of fans who resist the hater crowd, how cool is this? A towering champion, with nothing to prove to anyone but herself, wants a test and challenge. She got herself into shape and takes her training and preparation seriously. She plotted a sensible path that includes setting up a base in Wimbledon and reconnecting with many of her former team members (Patrick Mouratoglou notwithstanding, expect to see lots of familiar faces in her box). She also gets to do this in front of her daughters, with her eldest, 8-year-old Olympia, getting a chance to watch her mother in action and appreciate it in a way she might not have in 2022.
Just as it’s a fool’s errand to predict the undulations of Novak Djokovic, who knows how this goes? The great ones are wired differently from the normies. Given Serena’s ubiquitous ads for GLP-1 medications, it seems fair game to note that she’s lost weight and her physique has changed. On the flip side, she’s back from maternity leave, as well as leave. Grass is the ideal surface for her return. Then again, on grass, she’s not only playing match-tough full-timers but may well draw a seed early on given her lack of ranking.
Odds are good that this return will be fun and that she’ll do something memorable. Odds are slim that there will be embarrassment. And even if there is, good for her for having the courage to put it—and herself—on the line.
Serena Williams is set to make her return to tennis at Queen’s Club. | Susan Mullane-Imagn Images
Q&A
We have all admired the brilliance of [Rafael] Nadal at the French Open and the excitement of the Carlos Alcaraz–Jannik Sinner final last year. That being said, do you ever miss the time when the French Open champion was up for grabs and we had champions like [Thomas] Muster, [Sergi] Bruguera, [Carlos] Moyá andJuan Carlos Ferrero?
Bob Diepold, Charlotte NC
• Here we are! I am lucky enough to have independence here; I don’t get paid based on ticket sales, ratings or buzz. But I am loving this star-deprived, unpredictable, all-wisdom-goes-out-the-window, parity-on-stilts tournament.
The Big Three (and Serena) were great, and Alcaraz and Sinner elevated the sport further. If we had had an Aryna Sabalenka–Elena Rybakina, Sabalenka–Iga Świątek final or a Sabalenka–Coco Gauff rematch, that would have been fine.
This has been something else entirely. There have been 31 five-setters at Roland Garros this year, two shy of the Open Era record of 33, and plenty of decisive-set super tiebreakers on the men’s and women’s sides.
Hi Jon,
$330.00 for a Round 1 Grounds Pass?
Best regards,
Jim Lenker, Buffalo
• There will be more on this in the reader rant at the end of the mailbag, but the USTA needs to get a grip on this. The U.S. Open ticket pricing is a disaster. I’ve heard from so many of you about your (justifiable) frustration.
There are all manner of explanations for the high ticket prices, some of them conflicting: It’s the bots. It’s AI. It’s the resellers.
(The USTA is so often playing defense. President Trump blindsided us! The borough of Queens is unreasonable! The unions are picking on us! The players don’t understand how much we invest in them! At some point, you have to stop playing victim and either take control of the messaging or use your power and resources to solve problems.)
Martina Navratilova was just telling me about a fan who asked her to sign an old ticket stub from the finals in the 1970s. She noticed that the price was $9. That’s roughly $50 today. Fifty bucks doesn’t cover parking today. The U.S. is a capitalist country. We understand and believe in the market, but markets sometimes require corrections, and this is one such instance.
Fans are priced out, and the event is simply beyond reach of all but the wealthiest, which:
A) is inconsistent with the USTA’s mission
B) begs for a reassessment of the USTA’s non-profit status
C) robs the event of energy
D) turns casual fans off to tennis
E) undermines the tournament’s resistance to paying players a larger percentage of revenue
F) just generally stinks
G) risks the wrath of Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
During Elina Svitolina’s post-match speech [in Rome], she noted that her husband had told her she was not very good at these orations; although she seemingly acquitted herself quite well. Any thoughts on players who should be in the trophy ceremony speech Hall of Fame and others who could brush up on this standard aspect of being in a final? Do the respective tours instruct players on this interaction with the public and the tournament staff or is it all up to the player?
Cheers, Ken Wells
Newport, RI
• Sure, just as some players have better serves and backhands than others, some players are better at trophy ceremonies (and post-match orations). I think of Svitolina as quite good at both, by the way.
This is in no way meant pejoratively, rather just an observation, but I have long marveled at the gap between Frenchman Gaël Monfils’s on-court instincts to entertain and his public persona. If you watch him play, you might expect some carryover of his boundary-pushing showmanship. Perhaps you’d think he’d be some version of Will Ferrell, Anthony Edwards or even Nick Kyrgios in the interview room. What you get instead is a measured, thoughtful guy who is nowhere near as outrageous as he is on the court. I can think of dozens of memorable he-did-not-just-do-that shots he’s executed over the years, and I can hardly think of a single memorable quote.
Incidentally, I recall seeing that Tommy Paul was recently asked what he would change about tennis. He mentioned eliminating the condition that the crestfallen runners-up give a speech immediately after losing a title opportunity.
Hi Jon,
Having never been to Roland Garros or the Aussie Open, but knowing how hot it can be in Australia during the Open, what do you think is the difference that downed Sinner? Is Roland Garros more humid and therefore the heat can take more out of a player? Was it fatigue from Sinner playing a long clay-court season? Or something else?
Chris
• I’ll preface this by saying that it’s folly for nondoctors to play doctors, for those not experiencing the pain to try to gauge pain (He could’ve played if he’d wanted to!) or for armchair types to diagnose injuries. That said, if you never addressed injuries and conditions, you’d be derelict, too.
This is speculation, but cramps and illness can be impacted by nerves and neurochemistry. There’s also diet, hydration and the intensity of the sun to consider. Saying he was fine playing in 96°F, why did he fade when it was 91°F? ignores these factors. I wonder if Sinner wore himself down playing Madrid and Rome, and if the expectation, as the wild favorite with the absence of Alcaraz, may have contributed.
In a mailbag this week you mentioned a six-inch height difference between Sinner and Alcaraz. Everything I’m seeing online lists Jannik at 6’3” and Carlos at 6’0”. What do you know that we don’t? Who’s lying?
Zach R.
• “Lying” sounds harsh, but media guides are notorious for being, shall we say, charitable to the athletes. Does this look like a three-inch height difference?
How many more singles titles will Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz combine for? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/eGpw2kpoxc
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 13, 2025
Hi, Jon:
In the A.I. era, the expressions “broken record” or “scratch CD” may as well refer to the period when the dinosaurs ruled, but let me say it one more time. The tie-breaking fifth set in which a player must win at least 10 games to end the match, cannot and does not help the athletes. I will add it does not provide more entertainment for “humane” fans. Uniformity across slams is no longer a good argument when there is a heat wave strong enough to defeat the top male player. Pun alert: The criticism that Sinner lacks a heat-resistant physiognomy needs “tempering.” What about a super tiebreak like in doubles? For the fifth set, players alternate serves, the first to get to 10—keep the two-point difference if you want—wins. All the slams apply the system. Win-win-win.
Greetings from BC (Canada), L. Pereira
• Just to be clear, at 6–6 in the decisive set, it’s a first-to-10 tiebreak. But the broken record (dated!) is that this sport really needs to examine length, for all sorts of reasons—from player health to fan engagement to scheduling to climate trends. Why not best-of-three matches in Week 1 and best-of-five matches in Week 2?
Jon, this might have been missed with all the lead-up to the French Open, and all the turbulence in the draw once play was under way, but I was surprised not to see anything in the recent mailbag regarding Daniel Altmaier kicking his racket into the crowd in Hamburg and receiving a penalty for racquet abuse rather than an immediate DQ. Fergus Murphy is an experienced umpire, so I was surprised to see play continue. Home cooking for the German player? The spectators seemed to go out of their way to say no harm was done, but should that be a factor? We have seen players DQ’d for far less, and probably will see it again soon …
Ken Mayer, Chandler, AZ
• Yeah, there is always a balance to this discussion. You hate to pile on, and try to remember that none of us wish to be remembered by our worst day.
But this was indeed some German home cooking. Here’s the offense; see for yourself. The rules are clear here: Had the racket struck someone, it would have been an instant disqualification, but because it didn’t, Altmaier played on. Think back to the 2020 U.S. Open when Djokovic was disqualified for hitting a line judge with a ball. It was the same principle, but a different result. The larger point is: Some restraint and emotional regulation would have gone a long way.
Andy Lachow, take us out:
Hi Jon,
If you want to do a real story about the U.S .Open, you should interview real tennis fans, like me (someone who was just watching [Valentin] Vacherot play a qualifier on HBO), about how horrible the ticket-buying experience is. I obtained an Amex card this year just to participate in the credit card presale. In advance, I mapped out the days I wanted to go—basically late first week and early second week when the Mets were away, because it makes it easier to arrive, park and leave.I signed on at exactly 9 a.m. and was placed in the queue—about number 7,000+. I patiently waited about an hour and 15 or so minutes until I got into the system. All I wanted was to buy two [Arthur] Ashe tickets high up in the stands to gain admission for myself and my son (Sam, who worked at SI as a summer intern years and years ago). We plan to spend the entire day on-site, never sitting in Ashe, but walking abound from side court to side court. However, every time I attempted to buy two tickets, the system would crash and I was told to reload. This happened at least six times. By that time, all of the tickets at face value were sold and the only tickets available were resale tickets at double and triple the price (at minimum). In a word, the system sucks. And my experience was not unique, as a quick Google search revealed. Hopefully I will have better luck when the tickets go on sale to the general public on Thursday. The U.S. Open/USTA doesn’t care if the bots and scalpers get the tickets because they are sold. The experience of the true tennis fan is irrelevant to them. As you can tell, the experience, which gets worse every year, leaves a sour taste in one’s mouth. Thanks for listening to my rant, if you managed to get this far.
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