What A Difference A Year Makes…

Welcome back! It’s a packed edition here, so get comfy :)

What a difference a year makes… A year is a blink of an eye, but sometimes the “before and after” image is a shock to the system. Iga Swiatek and Amanda Anisimova, for different reasons and at different stages of their careers, have left Wimbledon 2026 as shadows of their 2025 journeys. The fascinating building and rebuilding of champions… How, why, what’s next?

Félix Auger-Aliassime shares why Alejandro Davidovich Fokina “can save his saliva” after a tense end of match that pushes the Canadian to demand that the instances finally change one specific MTO rule. He also shares how Novak Djokovic helped him in Indian Wells this year in a very unexpected way, as he’s now about to face him in the quarterfinals. “I thought, “You know what? Maybe he’d be open. I have nothing to lose.”

Finally, read also how Harri Heliövaara and Henry Patten intend to fight for doubles as it seems under threat following leaks about a drastic reform wanted by the ATP. “Obviously the ATP have kind of done this in isolation from the rest of the tennis world… (…) The head of ATP player relations left a few days ago, and the board members are avoiding me like the plague,” said Patten. Have the singles players reached out to help? How to solve the issue? They chatted about it all.

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Félix Auger-Aliassime qualified for another Grand Slam quarterfinals and, after beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (6-7(4), 7-6(6), 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-1) in a drama of a match, he was as angry about the way a specific rule was used than he was delighted of now facing Novak Djokovic, a player he said he found courage to reach out to for help this year. Read what he said in English, but also in French with me afterwards.