A shock loss for the U.S. in ‘World Cup of tennis’ and the challenge of team competitions

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

This week, clay season began in earnest with the Monte Carlo Masters, the first 1,000-level event on the surface of the year, on either tour. It also featured some surprise results in the Billie Jean King Cup, which pointed to a wider phenomenon for the event.

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A tale of upsets on the international stage?

The last qualification round for the Billie Jean King Cup finals took place over the weekend, and it provided the kind of upset stories that have long been the competition’s hallmark, just as in its men’s counterpart, the Davis Cup.

On the indoor clay of Ostende, Belgium, the home team stunned an inexperienced U.S. group missing many of its star names. The timing of the qualifiers, which arrive on the hinge of clay-court season, as well as the possibility of long trips out of the geographical cadence of the circuit, led to many teams going without key players, and the U.S. was no exception.

In the absence of Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Amanda Anisimova, the top-ranked player was Iva Jović, the rising teenager and world No. 16. She lost two rubbers to world No. 94 Hanne Vandewinkel and world No. 149 Greet Minnen respectively, while world No. 48 McCartney Kessler had to retire in the third set of her meeting with world No. 20 Elise Mertens, meaning the U.S. failed to qualify for the final stages for the first time in 10 years.

In Australia, Great Britain was missing its four highest-ranked players: Emma Raducanu, Sonay Kartal, Katie Boulter and Fran Jones. Mika Stojsavljevic, a 17-year-old ranked No. 275, came into her match against Australia’s Talia Gibson in Melbourne looking to bridge a rankings gap of more than 200 places and defy a partisan home crowd. This is a frequent phenomenon in both the women’s and men’s international team competitions, as they search for the relevance that more frequent platforms offer, as well as a workload that players are willing to commit to.

Helped by a potent serving display that included 12 aces, Stojsavljevic was able to overcome all of those. Gibson, ranked No. 56, was a quarterfinalist at last month’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., but Stojsavljevic’s 7-6 (4), 7-5 victory, which included an ace and three winners to kick off the first set tiebreak, gave Britain a 2-0 lead in the tie after Harriet Dart had secured an upset victory of her own against Kimberly Birrell. Britain ultimately won 3-1.

Stojsavljevic, the 2024 junior U.S. Open champion, has been balancing competing on the third-tier ITF World Tennis Tour with studying for A-levels in politics and English literature. Luckily, this juggling act is nothing new to Stojsavljevic, who last summer competed in the WTA event in Nottingham during her GCSE exams. Standing at six feet, one inch, she has already reached three World Tennis Tour finals, winning a W35 event (the second-lowest classification of tournament) in Birmingham, England last year.

Blessed with a huge serve and powerful groundstrokes, Stojsavljevic has arguably the highest ceiling of the three talented British youngsters coming through, alongside fellow 17-year-old Hannah Klugman and Mimi Xu, who is a year older.

She’ll be hoping that Friday’s memorable upset will act as a springboard to eventually fulfilling her huge potential.

— Charlie Eccleshare

An unsurpassable hurdle for doubles on the ATP Tour?

There’s been a refreshing increase of late in leading men’s singles players entering the doubles events at ATP Masters 1000 events, the rung below the Grand Slams. Doing so has long been common among WTA players, but a relative rarity on the ATP side.

This year has been slightly different, though. At the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. last month (where men’s players do often show up for the doubles), there was Novak Djokovic partnering Stefanos Tsitsipas, while Jannik Sinner teamed up with the American Reilly Opelka. At the Miami Open, top-10 players Alexander Zverev and Alex de Minaur joined forces with Marcelo Melo and Rinky Hijikata respectively.

Those four pairs only won one match between them, offering a reminder of the challenges singles players face when attempting the switch to doubles.

In Monte Carlo last week, there was a reminder of another problem. If singles players do win a match in the doubles, there’s a decent chance they’ll then pull out if they remain in the singles event. That was how things played out with Sinner and Zizou Bergs, a hugely exciting pair who won their first round against Tomáš Macháč and Casper Ruud in two tight sets before promptly pulling out of their next match, with both still in the singles.

It’s understandable that players want to protect themselves from overexertion, and it makes sense for them to enter the doubles to give them a bit more match time in case they exit the singles early. But it feels like a shame that if a top player like Sinner enters a doubles tournament, then there’s effectively a cap on how much they’ll play in it — unless they suffer an unlikely early exit in the singles.

Generally it’s a fun attraction for fans to see top singles players in the more informal doubles environment; the hope is that some can start lasting longer than just a match or two.

— Charlie Eccleshare

What to take from a strong home performance on the indoor clay?

Ever since Dominic Thiem’s retirement in 2024, Austrian tennis has been waiting for a new hero.

Last week at the nation’s biggest women’s event, the Linz Open, 18-year-old Lilli Tagger showed off her potential on the indoor clay, a fine surface for evaluating players in the early stages of their careers.

Ardent tennis fans have known about Tagger for some time — she won the French Open juniors last year without dropping a set and reached the final of the WTA Jiangxi Open in November — but this was a step into the mainstream, especially in her home country. First, Tagger took out former world No. 2 Paula Badosa, before saving eight set points in the second set against Liudmila Samsonova to again win in straight sets, pinching the second set tiebreak 13-11. It was a thrilling victory that delighted the home crowd, and fully justified the tournament’s decision to offer Tagger a wildcard.

In the quarterfinals, Tagger looked as though she might repeat the trick when she saved two set points in the opener against Anastasia Potapova. But Potapova, who recently switched nationality from Russia to Austria, dug in to take the tiebreak and eventually cruise to a 7-6(7), 6-0 victory.

Tagger’s vanishingly rare single-handed backhand makes her stand out, but the foundations of her game are built on her serve and forehand, which she made good use of with the time — and calm conditions — that indoor clay offers. The last women’s player to win a Grand Slam with a single-handed backhand, Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, is Tagger’s coach.

As a result of her Linz exploits, Tagger’s ranking has jumped from No. 117 at the start of the week to No. 91, meaning she’ll have automatic entry to the Grand Slams and Masters 1000s for the first time.

And with that picture-book backhand, Tagger would appear to be Thiem’s successor in more ways than one.

— Charlie Eccleshare

A reset on a surface that gives players some stability?

Mirra Andreeva put a bumpy March behind her and picked up her second title — and second WTA 500 trophy — of the year Sunday with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Potapova in the Linz final, also benefiting from the rare indoor-clay environment.

It was a calm Sunday for the 18-year-old, at least compared to the way her previous two tournaments ended. Andreeva cursed either the crowd or her team or both on her way out of Indian Wells after a tight three-set loss to Kateřina Siniaková, then lost in three sets to Victoria Mboko at the Miami Open in a match where she took a medical timeout to receive treatment on her lower back.

Andreeva, whose coach, Conchita Martinez, was absent in Linz, wasn’t rattled by a dominant first set from Potapova. The newly minted Austrian, who won the title in the city in 2023, raced to a 6-1 lead, but Andreeva regrouped in the second set. She leant into her defensive strengths and held steady while Potapova started rushing between points and forcing her way into awkward, unsuccessful volleys.

Potapova ended the match with 30 winners to 42 unforced errors. Andreeva was clearer with her game plan and cleaner, ending with 32 winners to 35 unforced errors.

“I don’t want to jinx anything so I just have to say it, it’s a tradition now for me — I want to thank myself today again for fighting until the end, for trying to find solutions, for never stopping and believing until the end that maybe, somehow, I can turn it around,” Andreeva said during the trophy ceremony.

“I think it paid off today as well.”

Linz, which was played on hard courts from its inception in 1987 until last year, provided Andreeva a smooth reentry into clay court season — as well as her first title on dirt since the Iași Open, a WTA 250, in 2024.

Because of the roof, the surface plays a little faster than outdoor red clay, which can be a nice transition from hard court season, giving players both a bit of assistance when serving and a bit of extra time to set up their groundstrokes.

Andreeva will stay under the roof and head to Germany for an opening-round match against the Stuttgart Tennis Grand Prix’s defending champion, Jelena Ostapenko.

— Ava Wallace

🏆 The winners of the week

🎾 ATP: 

🏆 Jannik Sinner (2) def. Carlos Alcaraz (1) 7-6(5), 6-3 to win the Monte Carlo Masters (1,000) in Monte Carlo, Monaco. It is his first 1,000-level title on clay.

🎾 WTA:

🏆 Mirra Andreeva (1) def. Anastasia Potapova 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 to win the Upper Austria Ladies Linz Open (500) in Linz, Austria. It is her second title on clay.

📈📉 On the rise / Down the line

📈 Jannik Sinner moves up from No. 2 to No. 1, replacing Carlos Alcaraz at the top of the ATP Tour rankings.

📈 Anastasia Potapova ascends 43 spots from No. 97 to No. 54 after reaching the final in Linz.

📈 Valentin Vacherot enters the top 20 for the first time, after rising six spots from No. 23 to No. 17.

📈 Donna Vekić reenters the top 100, rising 37 spots from No. 104 to No. 67.

📉 Lorenzo Musetti falls four places from No. 5 to No. 9.

📉 Loïs Boisson drops four places from No. 40 to No. 44.

📉 Stefanos Tsitsipas tumbles 19 spots from No. 48 to No. 67.

📉 Solana Sierra moves down 12 spots from No. 78 to No. 90.

📅 Coming up

🎾 ATP 

📍Barcelona, Spain: Barcelona Open (500) featuring Carlos Alcaraz, Jack Draper, Arthur Fils, Lorenzo Musetti.

📍Munich: Munich Open (500) featuring Alexander Zverev, Ben Shelton, João Fonseca, Alexander Blockx.

📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV

🎾 WTA

📍Stuttgart, Germany: Stuttgart Tennis Grand Prix (500) featuring Elena Rybakina, Iga Świątek, Coco Gauff, Elina Svitolina.

📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel

Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men’s and women’s tours continue.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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