This week, the illusion of tennis existing outside of world events collapsed again, an institution hinted at change and milestones were made on the WTA Tour.
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How did tennis’ already-burst bubble pop again?
As Harri Heliövaara and Henry Patten accepted the Dubai Tennis Championships men’s doubles title after a 7-5, 7-5 win over Marcelo Arévalo and Mate Pavić, tennis was the last thing on most people’s minds.
Iran fired retaliatory missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, following American and Israeli strikes on Tehran on Saturday morning. Dubai’s airport was damaged in a strike, with four people injured. The United Arab Emirates closed its airspace, as did Qatar, where men’s tennis player Holger Rune, who is out with an Achilles tendon injury but has been doing some of his rehabilitation in Qatar, posted a video of apparent missile interceptions.
The tournament, an ATP 500 event, continued, with the men’s singles final between Daniil Medvedev and Tallon Griekspoor only not played because Griekspoor had to withdraw with an injury. The airspace closures meant Medvedev, Heliövaara, Patten, Griekspoor (who will not play due to injury) and numerous tournament officials, staff and journalists have not yet traveled to California for the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, which begins March 4.
A representative for Medvedev, a former world No. 1 and U.S. Open champion, said on Saturday that they were trying to get the player out. Alexander Bublik, another ATP Tour player, said his flight out of Dubai left shortly before it became impossible to leave the UAE.
In Mexico, the Mexican Open in Acapulco went ahead as planned, with heightened security, after the killing of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, the longtime leader of one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, by Mexican security forces. The death of “El Mencho” led to unrest in several parts of Mexico.
Last Monday, tournament organizers had to release a statement denying media reports the event had been cancelled on security grounds. The ATP 500 tournament took place in Guerrero — one of five states the U.S. government had at that time warned citizens against travelling to due to the risk of violence.
“The event is proceeding as scheduled and the tournament is running normally,” the statement read.
As in Dubai, it was, but not really. Tennis has never been able to exist in a bubble adjacent to global events, as much as tournaments might like it to be so. And while the Mexican Open commented on its situation, the Dubai Tennis Championships is yet to issue anything on the situation in the United Arab Emirates. It posted a news story and statement regarding Griekspoor’s withdrawal with injury and Medvedev’s title (the first he has won more than once), but nothing on the impact of the missile and drone strikes on the tournament. The trophy ceremonies, both for the doubles and the singles, took place in a stadium so empty that it appeared there was no tournament going on.
In an equally parallel universe, Medvedev’s quirky win and its timing led to an outpouring of social media memes and gags, seemingly unheeding of the reality of violence and military aggression relative to tennis — which now heads to Indian Wells, whose owner, Larry Ellison, has previously donated tens of millions of dollars to Israel’s military through non-profit organization Friends of the Israel Defence Forces.
“It is not clear whether it will last long or not. Therefore, we are just waiting, let’s say, what will happen next in the next hours, days,” Medvedev said about his predicament, in an interview with Russian broadcaster Bolshe. Tennis will play on. So will the world from which it cannot separate itself.
Could one of tennis’ institutions make a seismic change?
With the All England Club locked in a legal battle to try and expand onto the golf course across the road, Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam with just two weeks of money-spinning action on site.
The other majors have become three-week extravaganzas, with qualifying played onsite in the opening week alongside, in the case of the Australian Open and U.S. Open especially, a range of other activities. The pro-am “One Point Slam” was a huge hit at the Australian Open this January, while the U.S. Open last year moved its mixed doubles event to that opening slot with a slimmed-down format and more focus on singles players.
Should Wimbledon win its legal battle against local residents — it is awaiting a verdict on whether the Wimbledon Park golf course land is subject to a statutory trust, meaning it must be kept for public recreation — it would have the option of putting on opening-week events and hosting its qualifying tournament on the same courts as the real thing.
Speaking to a group of reporters on Friday, Tim Henman, who is on the All England Club board and a four-time Wimbledon semifinalist, discussed what the expansion could look like. Giving his own opinion, rather than the board’s, he said he didn’t imagine a One Point Slam, but said having greater accessibility and the chance for more fans to see players in qualifying would be “amazing.”
Intriguingly, he said he would be open to padel courts being built on the land where the golf club currently is. At the moment, Wimbledon’s expansion plan involves 39 new grass tennis courts, including an 8,000-seat show court.
Padel is increasingly popular in the U.K. and is under the remit of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), whose most recent figures last year showed that at the end of 2024, just over 400,000 adults and juniors in Great Britain played padel at least once in the preceding 12 months. That figure was more than three times the 129,000 at the end of 2023. Its growing popularity has left some tennis purists fearing that it could cannibalize tennis courts and stop people from playing the sport, an echo of the debate over pickleball in the United States, but its limited media-rights potential and complexities over planning permission are obstacles to its growth.
“In my opinion it definitely could be an opportunity,” said Henman, who’ll be covering Indian Wells as an analyst for Sky Sports Tennis, the UK broadcaster of the event.
“Why not? I think padel’s a great game. I love it and it’s expanding fast and it’s a game that can be played by everyone. It’s a lot easier than tennis so why not?”
Henman added that space on the current All England Club site would be a bit restricted, but that shouldn’t be the case on new land acquired if the expansion is approved.
“If every tennis club is turning every court into padel courts then then you’ve got a problem,” Henman said of any racket-sport competition between tennis and padel, “but I see it as another string to the bow of tennis clubs that more people get in there.
“More people are playing sport, more people are being active, more people are utilising those facilities — having a drink at the bar and having fun at a club.”
Wimbledon will learn the High Court’s verdict in the coming months, having initially been granted planning permission by the Greater London Authority in September 2024.
Even if things move quickly from here, the All England Club is unlikely to complete its expansion before the mid-2030s.
A welcome place for tennis players to vent?
At the Australian Open, player privacy became a talking point when Coco Gauff smashed a racket seven times after a quarterfinal defeat to Elina Svitolina, in what she thought was a private space. Instead, her frustration was broadcast to the world.
Gauff said afterward that there needed to be “conversations” about player privacy, while Iga Świątek added a day later: “The question is, are we tennis players, or are we animals in the zoo where they are observed even when they poop, you know?”
Novak Djokovic joked that: “I’m surprised we have no cameras while we’re taking a shower. That’s probably the next step.”
In apparent response, the ATX Open in Austin last week launched a “rage room” for players to vent behind closed doors.
The tournament, a WTA Tour 250 event, wrote on its social media platforms: “Introducing the ATX Open rage room – the first of its kind – where players can privately express frustration or emotion in a safe, camera-free environment.”
The posts also featured an image of a broken racket alongside a sign with the instructions “don’t smile,” and “count to three.”
Meanwhile, organisers of last week’s Dubai Tennis Championships set up a “Smash Room” truck for fans, withworld No. 261 Shang Juncheng invited to experience it for the tournament’s social media channels.
“I smashed a few items, including DVDs and big containers,” Shang said. “It’s loud and it’s intense but in a good way. You get everything out of your system in there instead of taking that frustration onto the court.”
Juncheng Shang letting it all out and blowing off some steam at the Smash Room at the #DDFTennis Fan Village.💥🎾 pic.twitter.com/7s4Z03KnVP
— Dubai Tennis Champs (@DDFTennis) February 25, 2026
How did Taylor Townsend and Peyton Stearns make progress after very different difficult periods?
Taylor Townsend ultimately lost the ATX Open final to compatriot Peyton Stearns 7-6(8), 7-5, but she made strides by getting there.
Townsend, 29, had never made a WTA Tour singles final before this week, and though she did not have to beat a top-100 player to get there, the result was a significant boost for the American after a challenging few months. After winning her semifinal against Ashlyn Krueger, another American, Townsend delivered a message that felt bigger than her victory:
“Everyone that’s talked s—, they gotta eat their words. I’m still standing, I’m still here, I’m not going anywhere,” she said during her on-court interview.
“And it’s only just gonna keep getting better from here so I hope that they buckle up.”
Townsend, who was criticized for, and then apologized for, videos she filmed calling Chinese cuisine “crazy” at last year’s Billie Jean King Cup finals in Shenzhen, China, did not elaborate on what the “s—” had been. Her comments drew some undeservedly sardonic criticism online for their apparent disconnect to winning a 250 semifinal, but that was perhaps the point. Townsend had skipped tournaments in Doha, Qatar and Dubai, United Arab Emirates after saying in a social media post that she had “a personal matter at home that came up, regarding my son.”
Ahead of her semifinal against Krueger in Austin, she said of her winter split with longtime coach John Williams in a news conference: “It was an unfortunate situation. I’m not really ready to disclose the details as to exactly what happened. I will when I’m ready.”
Townsend’s son, AJ, joined her on the court after her quarterfinal win for the now-traditional hitting balls into the crowd.
For Stearns, the title win — for a Texas Longhorn on “home” court — also came amid challenging times. The WTA Tour opened an investigation into her coach, Rafael Font de Mora, during the Australian Open, after two former WTA players, including the 22-time Grand Slam doubles champion Pam Shriver, made official complaints relating to alleged misconduct and inappropriate relationships with players during Font de Mora’s previous time coaching on the tour.
Font de Mora denies all wrongdoing and said that questions about the complaints constituted “statements that are not true.” Stearns declined to comment on Font de Mora’s past work with players at the Australian Open and praised his coaching.
After winning the title, in front of avid tennis fan and Stearns fan Matthew McConaughey, Stearns said that she had found a spark again after a difficult second half of 2025 and start to 2026 on the court. Stearns went 16-11 in 2025 until the end of her Italian Open run in Rome, where she reached the quarterfinals, before going 3-10 through the end of the year and then 5-6 in 2026 ahead of the ATX Open. Now she has a title and a rankings boost to buffer the rest of her year.
Shot of the week
This was tied up early in the Mexican Open first round. Demonstrating the balance of a gymnast (despite being 1.98m tall), Alexander Zverev took advantage of a rule that means a player can reach over the net to hit a ball as long as he doesn’t touch the net himself. Zverev’s opponent Corentin Moutet couldn’t believe the German had pulled it off and asked for a video review. But to no avail, as the footage merely showcased Zverev’s remarkable feat of balance.
🏆 The winners of the week
🎾 ATP:
🏆 Daniil Medvedev (3) def. Tallon Griekspoor (W/O) to win the Dubai Tennis Championships (500) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is the first time Medvedev has won a title for the second time.
🏆 Flavio Cobolli (5) def. Frances Tiafoe (8) 7-6(4), 6-4 to win the Mexican Open (500) in Acapulco, Mexico. It is the Italian’s third ATP Tour title.
🏆 Luciano Darderi (2) def. Yannick Hanfmann 7-6(6), 7-5 to win the Chilean Open (250) in Santiago, Chile. It is the Italian’s fifth ATP Tour title.
🎾 WTA:
🏆 Cristina Bucșa def. Magdalena Fręch 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 to win the Mérida Open (500) in Mérida, Mexico. It is her first WTA Tour title.
🏆 Peyton Stearns (4) def. Taylor Townsend (WC) 7-6(8), 7-5 to win the ATX Open (250) in Austin, Texas. It is the American’s second WTA Tour title.
📈📉 On the rise / Down the line
📈 Cristina Bucșa moves up 32 places from No. 63 to No. 31 after her Mérida Open title, a new career high.
📈 Flavio Cobolli ascends five spots from No. 20 to No. 15 after his Mexican Open title, a new career high.
📈 Taylor Townsend reenters the top 100 after rising 32 spots from No. 119 to No. 87.
📈 Miomir Kecmanović rises 26 spots from No. 84 to No. 58.
📉 Stefanos Tsitsipas falls 13 places from No. 30 to No. 43 after failing to defend his Dubai Tennis Championships title. He leaves the top 40 for the first time since May 2018.
📉 Emma Navarro leaves the top 20, dropping five places from No. 20 to No. 25.
📉 Quentin Halys tumbles 34 spots from No. 68 to No. 102.
📉 Paula Badosa drops out of the top 100, falling 21 spots from No. 85 to No. 106.
📅 Coming up
🎾 ATP
📍Indian Wells, Calif.: BNP Paribas Open (1,000) featuring Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, Ben Shelton.
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV
🎾 WTA
📍Indian Wells, Calif.: BNP Paribas Open (1,000) featuring Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Świątek, Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff.
📺 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.
Sports Business, Culture, Tennis, Global Sports, Women’s Tennis
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