Why shadows on a tennis court cause headaches for players and fans

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, a player’s injury comeback led to a wider discussion, the strangest shadows in tennis struck again, and a star of college tennis on and off the court found more success.

>If you’d like to follow our fantastic tennis coverage, click here.

>How did one player’s injury announcement fit into a wider debate?

>After Holger Rune confirmed he would miss Wimbledon as he recovers from a ruptured Achilles tendon, his manager and mother, Aneke, added further context.

>Holger has not played since a full rupture of his left Achilles at the Stockholm Open last October, and Aneke put his injury into conversation with several sidelined or recently injured players in his age bracket, including Carlos Alcaraz, Jack Draper and Lorenzo Musetti, all of whom withdrew from Queen’s, the prestigious Wimbledon warm-up event played last week.

>“It is concerning to see so many young players sidelined by injuries,” she said in a text message.

>“Over the past years, players have repeatedly tried to engage about improving conditions.”

>Rune, Alcaraz (inflammation of the tendon sheath in his right wrist), Draper (bone bruising in left elbow, tendon injury in right knee) and Musetti (left thigh injury) are all 23 or 24 years old. Draper is returning at the Eastbourne Open in England this week, but Alcaraz and Musetti are yet to set a return date.

>Another rising talent, Arthur Fils, is also out indefinitely. The 22-year-old withdrew from this year’s French Open with an unspecified injury, which he said in a news conference was related to his hip. Fils had only recently returned after nine months managing a stress fracture in his back, which has been a chronic concern since he was a child.

>Aneke’s focus was the quality of the balls and the speed of the courts on the tour, which have also become fixations for players.

>“Over time, courts have generally become slower, while the balls used on tour are noticeably heavier and slower (lower quality?) than they were years ago,” she added.

>“That means players are required to generate more force, over longer rallies, on slower surfaces. The result is longer matches and significantly greater wear and tear on the body.”

>Leading players, such as Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Taylor Fritz, have been vocal critics of the quality of the balls used on tour, and of a prior lack of standardization between events. Those players and others have drawn a link between new balls fluffing up more quickly (and so requiring more force to generate the same speed) and an increase in injuries on the tour, while multiple players have attributed their heaviness to matches feeling slower and rallies longer.

>Tour data shows that rally length has either remained flat or decreased over the past five years, while court-speed data shows that hard courts across the tour have increased in speed in the past five years, not slowed down.

>The ATP Tour has also reduced the number of ball types used at tournaments, with more consistency across each part of the season, according to an internal document reviewed by The Athletic. As recently as the fall of 2024, four different ball types were used across a run of five events on the same surface.

>The spate of injuries on the men’s tour — and the extent to which they are linked to the present conditions of the sport — is a topic that everyone in tennis has a view on. Sometimes it is obvious when an injury is a freak incident, rather than an accumulation problem, but sometimes it is less so. The more, younger players who suffer persistent injuries, the more the debate will tip toward the nature of contemporary men’s tennis itself.

>Charlie Eccleshare

>How to solve one of the strangest tennis problems?

>Germany’s Halle Open may have attracted an impressive field this year, but it has held a far less desirable accolade for much longer: The worst shadow in tennis for those watching on television.

>This is a subjective category — and there is quite a bit of competition in the sport — but the images, even from inside the stadium, tell their own story.

>Daytime matches at the Madrid Open can see one quadrant of the court, and sometimes as much as half of it, flooded with dazzlingly bright light which makes one of the players, and the ball, disappear during points. The Berlin Open (also played last week) and the Italian Open (which follows Madrid) suffer from shadowy court patterns, some from stadia and some from overhanging flora, both of which can make matches on television borderline unwatchable.

>The architecture of certain venues, which aren’t built tennis-first, is what most often turns some tennis spectacles into carbuncles. Halle’s main stadium, which has a capacity of over 12,000, is used as an indoor venue for most of the year. Camera angles on TV, roof design, and even the way the courts are facing can all have an impact too.

>In the competitive battle for eyeballs, these eyesores can literally be a turn-off.

>Charlie Eccleshare

>How did a figurehead of college tennis star on the court?

>It’s been quite a senior year for Reese Brantmeier, the University of North Carolina Tar Heel who seems to know how to win on and off the tennis court.

>Brantmeier won the NCAA singles title in November. At the time, the 21-year-old was also lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the NCAA aimed at allowing student-athletes in tennis to keep the prize money they earn in pro tournaments before and during their time in college.

>By this spring, Bantmeier and her lawyers had settled that lawsuit, on very favorable terms for the plaintiffs. Players can now keep all their prize money ahead of their enrollment. Brantmeier and her co-plaintiff, WTA Tour pro Maya Joint, got $10,000. The NCAA set up a compensation fund for players who have had to leave prize money earned before their enrollment on the table in recent years.

>Later that spring, Brantmeier graduated, after pursuing a double major in exercise and sports science and studio art. And last week, she captured a wild card into the main draw of the U.S. Open singles competition, by winning the NCAA wild card playoff in Orlando, Fla. Brantmeier defeated Tennessee’s Katrina Scott, 6-4, 7-6(7).

>In the same playoff, Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton lost the doubles final to DJ Bennett and Ava Esposito of Auburn, who beat them 4-6 6-3 7-5. But even that loss came with a win — a wild-card entry into the doubles qualifying.

>— Matt Futterman

>What did a Sunday of finals say about American hopes for Wimbledon?

>When Sunday started, the schedule suggested that the U.S. might be raising several hands for contention at Wimbledon.

>Something of an American grass-fest appeared to be on across Europe. Jessica Pegula was playing Linda Nosková in the Berlin Tennis Open final. Emma Navarro was squaring off against Marie Bouzková in Nottingham, England. Tommy Paul and Francisco Cerúndolo were battling for the Queen’s title in London, and Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz were going after the championship at the Halle Open in Germany.

>By the day’s end, Tiafoe was the sole U.S. victor, after rolling through Fritz in straight sets. All the other Americans lost in three.

>So what’s the takeaway? Navarro was two points from winning the first set when Bouzková pulled up with a left ankle issue, but after treatment, Bouzková recovered to take the opener in a tiebreak and ask Navarro to win two sets out of two. There was little for Pegula to do in her third set against Nosková, when the Czech 21-year-old found a flow of service winners and laser groundstrokes. Paul was up a set and a break, but Cerúndolo started playing better on important points right when he needed to, and Paul started playing a little worse. Many such cases of all of those in tennis.

>Tiafoe, Fritz, Paul, and Pegula all deserve to be hopeful about deepish runs at the year’s third Grand Slam, though it’s unclear how healthy Fritz’s knees are. Navarro is still making her way back from time off to manage a health issue earlier in the year, and likely has longer-term aspirations.

>— Matt Futterman

>Shot of the week

>During an ATP Challenger Tour match between Australia’s Bernard Tomic and Ireland’s Conor Gannon in Dublin, one seagull decided that a banana meant for Gannon was, in fact, for the birds.

>🏆 The winners of the week

>🎾 ATP:

>🏆 Francisco Cerúndolo (7) def. Tommy Paul (8) 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-3 to win Queen’s (500) in London. It is the Argentine’s first ATP 500 title.

🏆 Frances Tiafoe def. Taylor Fritz (5) 6-4, 6-4 to win the Halle Open (500) in Halle, Germany. It is the American’s first ATP 500 title.

>🎾 WTA:

>🏆 Linda Nosková (8) def. Jessica Pegula (3) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to win the Berlin Tennis Open (500) in Berlin. It is the Czech’s second WTA Tour title and her first on grass.

🏆 Marie Bouzková (4) def. Emma Navarro (3) 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-2 to win the Nottingham Open (250) in Nottingham, England. It is the Czech’s first WTA Tour title on grass.

>📈📉 On the rise / Down the line

>📈 Nikola Bartůňková moves up 16 places from No. 62 to No. 46, a career-high ranking.

📈 Raphaël Collignon ascends eight spots from No. 51 to No. 43, also a career high.

📈 Linda Nosková rises three places from No. 13 to No. 10, also a career high.

📈 Frances Tiafoe returns to the top 20, rising seven spots from No. 26 to No. 19.

>📉 Stefanos Tsitsipas falls eight places from No. 80 to No. 88.

📉 Markéta Vondroušová drops 73 places from No. 49 to No. 122.

📉 Jack Draper tumbles 47 spots from No. 113 to No. 160.

📉 Wang Xinyu moves down 20 spots from No. 32 to No. 52.

>📅 Coming up

>🎾 ATP

>📍Mallorca, Spain: Mallorca Championships (250) featuring Luciano Darderi, Martín Landaluce, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Ignacio Buse.

📍Eastbourne, England: Tournament (250) featuring Jack Draper, Raphaël Collignon, Zizou Bergs, Térence Atmane.

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

>🎾 WTA

>📍Bad Homburg, Germany: Bad Homburg Open (500) featuring Iga Świątek, Mirra Andreeva, Naomi Osaka, Alex Eala.

📍Eastbourne, England: Eastbourne Open (250) featuring Jasmine Paolini, Barbora Krejčíková, Madison Keys, Jelena Ostapenko.

>📺 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, Women's Tennis

>2026 The Athletic Media Company