Tennis Briefing: Davis Cup progress, ill-fated Seoul tournament, two remarkably short matches

Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, there The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on the court.

This week, the Davis Cup returned, there were two very short matches – in very different ways – and a women’s tournament carried the brunt of the fatigue in the tennis schedule.

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What happens in the Davis Cup?

The last eight in the Davis Cup group stage finals were decided over the weekend, with Canada and the Netherlands joining Italy, Australia, Spain, Germany, Argentina and the United States as qualifying nations. The latter topped their group last week in Zhuhai, China, despite missing Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton.

Spain’s qualification will be a particular relief for the tournament organizers given that the finals will take place in the Spanish city of Malaga. Home fans can look forward to seeing the star quality of Carlos Alcaraz – and possibly Rafael Nadal – with the former looking much more like himself in Spain’s group matches against France and the Czech Republic. Alcaraz produced a consummate performance to defeat France’s Ugo Humbert 6-3, 6-3 after his first appearance since losing early at the US Open ended quickly on Wednesday when Czech opponent Tomas Machac was forced to retire with cramp at one set apiece .

After the match with Humbert, Alcaraz repeated what he said in New York about his performance on the American hard court not being good enough: “I have tried not to do the bad things that I did on the American tour. I had trained well, but training is one thing and competition is another.”

Others who struggled in New York also had satisfactory performances last week.

Canadian pair Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger Aliassime both crashed out of the US Open in the first round but helped their country to the Davis Cup showpiece in November. Shapovalov posted an impressive 6-0, 7-5 victory over Great Britain’s Dan Evans in Manchester, England, on Sunday, while Auger-Aliassime won all three of her matches on the week, including a straight sets success on Sunday against US Open semi-finalist Jack Draper. It was the first meeting between the two since the controversial end of their match in Cincinnati last month when Draper won with a shot that video replays showed was illegal.

The Davis Cup group stage finals will take place in Malaga from November 19-24, with Italy looking to retain their title. Recent winners Great Britain, France and Croatia all failed to make the cut.

Charlie Eccleshare

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Thirteen games, 37 minutes and a Benoit Paire

Scan these details of a men’s tennis match and a long-time tennis fan will likely think something like “Benoit Paire doing things with Benoit Paire”. Paire, 35, is one of the most mercurial players in the sport, capable of unleashing volleys from heaven and tantrums from hell (spitting on a ball mark in a match against Francisco Cerundolo in 2021 and packing his bag with at least one match remaining against Cameron Norrie at the US Open 2022, things of that nature.)

So watch a 6-1, 6-0 upset of Great Britain’s Jacob Fearnley at the Blot Open in Rennes, France, and it’s easy to see all the same things. Well, not really.

In reality, Fearnley broke a service game at 15-30 and then 30-30 in the first set, after breaking Paire in the opening game. His misses were mostly close to the lines, despite some scary forehand returns into the lower part of the net. Make no mistake, this was a one-sided blow – it just wasn’t the histrionic punch easily associated with the Frenchman… Until the end. Blowing kisses to the crowd that mocked him for the handshake, Paire wasn’t long off the field when he delivered his final assessment of the match.

😂😂😂

— benoit pair (@benoitpaire) September 11, 2024

Fearnley went on to win the entire tournament and bounced back from his own spell in the final. Quentin Halys won his first set 6-0, before Fearnley took the second on a tiebreak and cruised past the dejected Frenchman in the third.

In Monastir, Tunisia, Britain’s Sonay Kartal won her first WTA title, triumphing in the 250-level competition against Rebecca Sramkova.

James Hansen

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What follows after 37 minutes? Thirty-eight minutes

One of the great things about the Davis Cup is how the players somehow bridge huge ranking gaps to pull off major upsets. Or at least find ways to be competitive against much more high-profile opponents.

And then you get matches like the one last Saturday in Belgrade between 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic and world No. 770 Ioannis Xilas, of Greece.

Xilas drew with Serbia after Stefanos Tsitsipas pulled out and won a solitary match in a 6-0, 6-1 loss that lasted 38 minutes. In a sport where the average set lasts longer than that, it was a startlingly one-sided rout. Although less so given the 766 places Xilas gave up in the rankings – perhaps the surprise is that this sort of thing doesn’t happen more often.

The following day, Djokovic teamed up with Hamad Medjedovic to secure victory in the tie with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win in the doubles rubber against Aristotelis Thanos and Petros Tsitsipas.

The win means Serbia will compete in next year’s Davis Cup qualifiers for a chance to return to the group stage final.

Charlie Eccleshare

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How an ill-fated tournament bore the brunt of tennis’ long summer

After winning the Seoul title in 2023, Jessica Pegula was looking forward to even better things in 2024.

“Hopefully we can get even higher ranked players and more girls to come here and play. The city is amazing and I’ve had so much fun here,” Pegula, who is half Korean on her mother’s side, said after her win over Yuan Yue.

The American, who reached the final of this year’s US Open, discussed the tournament’s rise from the 250 level to the 500 level, starting this year. But when it came, world No. 3 Pegula had to pull out with a rib injury. Elena Rybakina, world number 4, and Emma Navarro, world number 8, also withdrew.

And then the coup, when world No. 1 Iga Swiatek informed tournament organizers that she would also skip the event, citing fatigue. So all four top-10 players are out in the first year of a newly elevated tournament. The new top four seeds, Daria Kasatkina, Liudmila Samsonova, Beatriz Haddad Maia and Diana Shnaider will see great opportunities; the tennis calendar will see another example of its grueling schedule doing more harm than good to the sport’s infrastructure.

James Hansen

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Picture of the week

Carlos Alcaraz looks a little more like Carlos Alcaraz here.

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Recommended reading:

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🏆 This week’s winner

🎾 ATP:

🏆 White Nettle (5) def. Andrea Pellegrino 7-5. 6-2 to win the Szczecin Open (Challenger 125) in Szczecin, Poland. It is the Czech’s fourth Challenger title.
🏆 Christopher O’Connell (1) def. Sho Shimabukuro 1-6, 7-5, 7-6(5) to win the Guangzhou Open (Challenger 100) in Guangzhou, China. It is his sixth Challenger title.
🏆 Jacob Fearnley (8) def. Quentin Halys (4) 0-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 to win the Rennes Blot Open (Challenger 100) in Rennes, France. It is Fearnley’s third Challenger title.
🏆 Student Ten (3) def. Tristan Boyer (6) 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 to win the Las Vegas Tennis Open (Challenger 75) in Las Vegas. It is Tien’s second Challenger title.

🎾 WTA:

🏆 Magdalena Frech (5) def. Olivia Gadecki 7-6(5), 6-4 to win the Guadalajara Open in Guadalajara, Mexico. It is Frech’s first WTA Tour title.
🏆 Sonay Kartal def. Rebecca Sramkova 6-3, 7-5 to win the Jasmin Open (250) in Monastir, Tunisia. It is the Briton’s first WTA Tour title.
🏆 Jill Teichmann def. Nuria Parrizas Diaz 7-6(8), 6-4 to win Zavarovalnica Sava Ljubljana (125) in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It is her first WTA 125 title.

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📈 On the rise

📈 O’Connell moves up 12 places from No. 87 to No. 75 following its title in Guangzhou.
📈 Camila Osorio rises 20 places from No. 81 to No. 61 after its run to the semifinals in Guadalajara.
📈 Fearnley rises 35 places from No. 164 to No. 129 after its title in Rennes.

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📅 Coming up

🎾 ATP

📍Chengdu, China: Chengdu Open (250) with Lorenzo Musetti, Shang Juncheng, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, Nicolas Jarry.
📍Hangzhou, China: Hangzhou Open (250) with Andrey Rublev, Holger Rune, Zhang Zhizhen, Brandon Nakashima.
📍Berlin: Laver Cup with Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton.

📺 UK: Sky Sports; USA: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV

🎾 WTA

📍Seoul: Korea Open (500) with Daria Kasatkina, Amanda Anisimova, Emma Raducanu, Diana Shnaider.
📍Hua Hin, Thailand: Tournament (250) with Wang Xinyu, Katerina Siniakova, Katie Volynets, Mayar Sherif.

📺 UK: Sky Sports; USA: Tennis Channel

Let us know what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men’s and women’s tournaments continue.

(Top image: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)