The Weekly Recap: Pro Tennis Around The Globe

What happened in pro tennis around the globe in the past week? Plenty. We can't cover it all here but a few key highlights follow below in order to catch you up on all the action... 

Three ATP 250s Across Europe Finish

Three ATP Tournaments in Europe finished this weekend, all with very exciting results to analyze. At the Almaty Open in Kazakhstan, Karen Khachanov returned to the winner's circle, defeating a first-time finalist in Gabriel Diallo for the title, though it didn't come without a challenge. With Khachanov taking the first set 6-2, it looked like he was in good shape to race through the finish line. But the Canadian held his own taking the next set 7-5, but the more experienced player took the trophy in the end, with a score of 6-3 in the final set. This is the Russian's seventh tour-level title, and his second this year after winning in Doha earlier this season.

At the Stockholm Open in Sweden, Tommy Paul won the tournament for the second time after his 2021 victory which was also his first title. The tournament, dubbed as Paul's "favorite tournament in the world," was triumphantly won by the American as he asserted his place as one of the very best in the world. Paul defeated Grigor Dimitrov in the final, very comfortably in two sets, 6-4, 6-3. Paul didn't lose a set the whole week, and didn't seem to find himself in any panic no matter who was placed across the net. This boosted his hopes to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time, but he will need to claim at least 1000 more points to be in the running---an extremely hard task to complete with the number of tournaments in the calendar remaining growing scarce. Over all, it was a terrific way for Paul to end his season on a high, and maybe, just maybe, he can make history and qualify for the exclusive year-end bash. 

Finally, the European Open in Antwerp boasted a surprise champion: Roberto Bautista Agut. The Spaniard is in the latter part of his career, but this week proved he's not going anywhere quite yet. He didn't have a difficult time cruising to victory this week, with his major challenge coming in the semi-finals against Felix Auger-Aliassime who took the 36-year-old to three long sets. But he got over that hump and bursted through the semi-finals, before handling Jiri Lehecka with ease, 7-5, 6-1. Bautista Agut, ranked #45 after his victory, will next play in Basil opening against the 2nd seed Casper Ruud. It will be interesting to see if he can continue his momentum and complete the upset. 

Rafa Plays the Six Kings Slam 

Six "kings" traveled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this week to play a very high-stakes exhibition tournament. The new event was very exclusive with the winner taking a record 6,000,000 dollars---almost twice that of a grand slam's pool. This of course is the Six Kings Slam, which featured an impressive line-up of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, and Holger Rune. In the end, Jannik Sinner came out on top, but that wasn't the most interesting storyline of the week. The reason why this tournament was so important was that Rafa Nadal played Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic for the last time in his career---and they were two monumental occasions, especially the battle against Djokovic. The ailing Nadal could not contend with either opponent, but tears were shed as Nadal was presented with a golden racket in honor of his storied career after his clash against the Serb.

Photo credit: Gilad Rom - Flickr: Nadal, CC BY 2.0

Many legends honored the two's incredible rivalry, arguably one of the greatest of all time. Nadal will next play at the Davis Cup, where he plans to finish his incredible career. 

2 WTA Tournaments End

Two WTA Tournaments, both in Asia, finished up this weekend with enticing outcomes. At the WTA 500 event in Ningbo, China, Daria Kasatkina reigned victorious after a very strange week. Her first match against Anna Bodar was cancelled, and in the semi-finals against Paula Badosa, the Spaniard retired after losing the first set. So Kasatkina didn't exactly have a lot of time on court, but in the time she had she played very close, competitive, brilliant matches. In the early rounds against Katerina Siniakova and Yulia Putintseva, her opponents took her to three long sets, but Kasatkina endured them and arrived on finals Sunday fresh and ready for a final task. Her opponent was Mirra Andreeva, and boy did she have to work to get past her younger compatriot. After blasting Andreeva off the court in the first set, 6-2, the young Russian held her nerve to win the following set, 6-4, taking the match to a decider. And the final set wasn't a repeat of the first, instead it was won closely by Kasatkina 6-4, the crowd on their feet. This boosted her ranking up to #9, ending the year happily inside the top ten. 

Over in Osaka, Japan, an interesting week played out ending in a very unexpected finish. An almost unknown Suzan Lamens won the WTA 250, an outstanding result for the 25-year-old. She played seven matches across the week, including securing her spot in the main draw during the qualifying tournament. And then after that, she took down Lucia Bronzetti, Anna Bogdan, 7th seed Dianne Perry, and Kimberly Birrel, a fairytale-like story. Lamens, formerly ranked #125, took down Birrel 6-0, 6-4, in a brutal fashion. What's even more surprising is the week prior in Wuhan, she lost in qualifiers, with almost no expectation that the next week she would be a WTA champion. But Lamens proved everybody wrong---and she deserves this title after playing beautiful tennis, and staying focused as she took down higher ranked players in a brilliant fashion. 

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Written by: Will Turvey. Top photo: Delray Beach Open