Every great tennis player has a weakness, especially in their early years. Roger Federer’s single-handed backhand, a work of art, was vulnerable when the ball bounced high. Rafael Nadal exploited that ...

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 new tennis serve entered the canon, the first ...

One of the more significant storylines at this year’s Australian Open was the effort Carlos Alcaraz made in the off-season to improve his serve. The theme echoed one from the previous year, when ...

The Athletic has live coverage of Day 3 of the 2025 U.S. Open. FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. — There comes a time in every tennis player’s career when they have to do something that truly scares them, ...

Rule 22 covers service lets, saying that a serve “that touches the net . . . and is otherwise good . . . shall not count and the server shall serve again.” A lot of players don’t like that rule and ...

Naomi Osaka’s tennis career has been, quite frankly, a rollercoaster. Not just any rollercoaster, but one of those heart-in-your-throat drops-with-a-couple-of-loops type of rides. Just as fans started ...