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, the ethics of hitting straight at your opponent, the theater of tennis handshakes, and the inertia around equal prize money came to the fore at the Italian Open.
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Do players need to get over body shots in tennis?
After Arthur Fils came back from a set down to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas, the two players met at the net for the handshake. It evolved into a strange discussion, in which they animatedly told each other that neither of them had a problem with a point midway through the second set.
Fils, the French No. 1, raced to the net to pick up a Tsitsipas drop shot and scooped it back into play. The Greek, also his country’s No. 1, had an easy finishing shot at the net, and duly ripped a backhand for a winner — straight into Fils’ upper body, who turned to the side as the ball struck him on his left arm.
Tsitsipas put his hands up in apology, as Fils turned and returned to the baseline. Come the end of the match, Tsitsipas impressed upon Fils that he wasn’t going for his face, while taking issue with Fils’ riling up of the crowd. Fils impressed upon Tsitsipas that he had to use the crowd to raise himself — and that he didn’t care about being hit by the ball. The chair umpire saw it fit to step between them, but no intervention was required.
The incident follows an exchange at March’s Monte Carlo Masters, in which Italian doubles specialist Andrea Vavassori chided Ben Shelton for hitting him in the chest with a forehand during a doubles match. The American responded by saying Vavassori was “so soft,” adding that “it’s doubles, bro” while pulling up his shirt to reveal a bruise of his own.
Body shots are more common in doubles. There are twice as many players on court and fast exchanges close to the net are more common. In singles, the body shot’s sense of being taboo or lacking etiquette (or needing an extended discussion at the net) often overwhelms the fact it can be the best option. Players are big targets, and because of the way Tsitsipas and Fils were positioned on court, squeezing a ball across the service box or down the line would have been much more difficult. The most likely way to win the point was to go down the middle, giving Fils less time to react and less room to jab his racket out for a ball going past him on either side.
This is not like Novak Djokovic’s legendary glare at Cameron Norrie, who hit the 24-time Grand Slam champion with an overhead from just a few feet away at the same tournament in 2023. Nor is it like Tsitsipas’ hammering shots at Nick Kyrgios during their tempestuous third-round clash at Wimbledon in 2022. Hit the opponent first and ask questions at the net later — and maybe accept that more often than not, the body shot is just the best shot.
James Hansen
The pageant of the handshake, with a better ending?
She may have lost her opening match in the singles event, but this was a hugely significant Italian Open for Daria Kasatkina.
Having recently switched nationality from Russia to Australia, Kasatkina shook hands with her Ukrainian opponent Marta Kostyuk after their match in a landmark moment for tennis. Russian and Ukrainian players haven’t shaken hands with one another since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Before the match, Kostyuk had posted a statement on social media advertising her respect for Kasatkina, who has also spoken out against the war in the past.
“Since the beginning of the war, I’ve chosen not to shake hands with Russian or Belarusian players — as a personal stance against Russia’s aggression,” Kostyuk wrote.
“But when someone not only tells the truth, calling Russia the aggressor, but also acts on it, that deserves respect. Daria Kasatkina has clearly spoken out against the war and gave up her Russian sports citizenship.
“That takes courage — and I acknowledge it. I hope this is not the final step, but part of a deeper commitment.”
A week after announcing her change of allegiance, Kasatkina said in a news conference, “If I want to be myself, I have to make this step.”
Following her 6-4, 6-2 loss to Kostyuk, Kasatkina shared a warm hug at the net with another Ukrainian, Nadiia Kichenok, the next day. Kasatkina was on the winning side this time, teaming up with the United States’ Peyton Stearns to beat Kichenok and Shuko Aoyama of Japan 6-3, 6-4 in the women’s doubles.
Charlie Eccleshare
What’s going on with the Italian Open’s prize money?
At this year’s Italian Open, WTA players will do the same amount of work as their ATP counterparts, but for less pay — despite Angelo Binaghi, the president of the Italian Tennis Federation (FITP), promising two years ago that there would be equal prize money by the 2025 tournament.
Instead, men are paid more at every stage of the tournament, with a disparity of more than $120,000 (£90,195) for the two singles winners. A representative from the Italian Tennis Federation did not respond to a request for comment on why the 2025 pledge has not been fulfilled.
Other 1,000-level combined events — one rung below the Grand Slams — already have equal prize money and the WTA Tour has committed to all 1,000 events meeting that standard for 2027. Financial disparity remains a bad look for a sport in which one of the big selling points is the prominence of the two tours. With equal prize money across all four Grand Slams since 2007, it’s easy to think that this issue has been solved, but tournaments like this one offer a reminder that there is more to do.
Charlie Eccleshare
How to preserve a tennis court’s history?
There has been plenty of sturm and drang in Rome this week about the new seats at the Nicola Pietrangeli Arena.
Tennis aesthetes get gooey at the site of the 90-year-old stadium surrounded by the 18 Carrara marble statues. The stone benches surrounding the court seat roughly 3,000 people. Untold hordes more have traditionally surrounded the court while standing.
With the tournament gaining popularity and becoming more crowded every year, organizers added six banks of seats, providing space for roughly another 2,000 spectators.
The downside, to some, is that the new seats block an easy view of those oversized statues that Benito Mussolini, the fascist leader of World War II-era Italy, ordered to be built to evoke the history of the Roman forum and its imperial might. Ten still loom over the court from behind the baselines, at the sporting complex once called the Foro Mussolini.
How tennis fans feel about the change may depend on how they watch a tennis match on Pietrangeli. Plenty of TV viewers have griped about it on social media. As he sat on the stone benches behind the south baseline, Jens Grasen, who travelled from Germany for the tournament, said he didn’t like it much at all.
“It was a mistake,” he said. “The beauty goes away a little.”
The Pietrangeli court is one of the free-access courts at the Foro Italico, which means spectators can access it with a grounds pass, and there were plenty of locals who also had no problem with the new look.
“There are a lot of people who want to be in this stadium,” said Micol Fiorintini, who lives in the town of Anguillara, near Rome.
“You can still see the statues in the corners. The seats are a lot more comfortable than the stones.”
Matt Futterman
Shot of the week
Corentin Moutet’s three hours and 43 minutes against Holger Rune ended like this.
Recommended reading:
- The secret Vatican City tennis court gets a Pope who loves to play
- Tennis fans are ready for a revolution that will be televised. Will the French Open provide it?
- Why Iga Świątek’s serve isn’t helping her recent form
- After the new Pope comes Sinner: Italy’s sporting avatar returns to the tennis court
📅 Coming up
🎾 ATP
📍Rome: Italian Open (1,000) featuring Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Jack Draper, Alexander Zverev.
📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 , Tennis TV
🎾 WTA
📍Rome: Italian Open (1,000) featuring Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, Kostyuk, Bianca Andreescu.
📺 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.
(Top photo: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic)
