Hey, everyone. Welcome back, and happy 2026!
• The Served podcast recapped the ATP and WTA 2025 seasons and spins forward:
• Novak Djokovic divorced the PTPA:
After careful consideration, I have decided to step away completely from the Professional Tennis Players Association. This decision comes after ongoing concerns regarding transparency, governance, and the way my voice and image have been represented.
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) January 4, 2026
• Legion of Boom fan David Law is featured here.
• Want a player to support in Australia?
• Michelle Agins—queen of the block party; among the coolest people I know; also an awesome tennis photographer—shares her recipe with the world.
Next week we’ll talk about the 2026 (Venus Williams’s last? Stan Wawrinka’s last? Craig Tiley’s last?) Australian Open.
Onward, blazing through a bunch of your questions …
Jon
Happy holidays and happy new year to you and your readers.
What are you hearing through the grapevine [about the Carlos Alcaraz–Juan Carlos Ferrero split]? Spanish outlet Marca reports that Carlos’s camp, especially his dad, had a few issues with JCF. Apparently they gave JCF a contract and didn’t amend it in any shape or form, based on how JCF felt.
JCF also just spoke to Marca saying that he invested a ton in developing a young player and would have loved to continue. He emphasized this isn’t about money. It’s a lot of damage control with kernels of truth sprinkled in between. What’s your take on this? And what’s the actual story? We’ll find out in Melbourne, right?
Deepak (NYC)
• This unexpected breakup still echoes. And, you’re right, this will be a topic in Australia. Regardless of how Carlos Alcaraz fares, he’ll no doubt be asked about his coaching situation. And rest assured, anything less than a title will be seen as a rebuttal to his personnel move.
What happened? It’s still unclear. I have this from one source, and one source only. But I was told this was about money, yes, but not salary or compensation. Rather, I was told, it was about Juan Carlos Ferrero and his hard-line approach that was (is?) at odds with Alcaraz maximizing his off-court income. Yes, the exhibitions that had him crossing oceans and compromising training days in the offseason. But also a sense that, to maximize his vast potential, he needed focus and commitment, not photo shoots and corporate appearances.
This wouldn’t mark the first time an agent/parent and coach differed on an approach, a labor/leisure division, or a long-term/short-term strategy. Here’s what makes this extraordinary:
A) The depth and success of the relationship. Remember, again and again, Alcaraz referred to Ferrero in terms of a “second parent.” This went so far beyond breaking with a guy brought in to shout “Vamos” and “stay aggressive.”
B) By accident or design, the apparent absence of the player at the center of the discussion.
C) The brinksmanship that resulted in the dissolution. How this team didn’t put a wedge in the train wheel, sit in a room—perhaps even hire a mediator—and set some processes and boundaries before blowing up one of the great partnerships in recent tennis history… that, to me, is the bigger mystery than what actually happened.
Jon, when are we getting the tennis version of Heated Rivalry? And why hasn’t a tennis player come out yet??
Eva, Cambridge, MA
• First, I’d love a better sense of the appeal of Heated Rivalry. We’re all in our bubbles and social silos, but I can’t think of a holiday conversation without a reference to this HBO series. Social media is all over this show. I’m open to the possibility that Heated Rivalry—and thus the reader’s question—is terra incognita in other parts of the world. But, wow, does this scripted series (which tells of a covert relationship between two hockey stars) seem to be a full-on cultural force.
Anyway, why has there never been an openly gay active ATP player in the top 100? There are lower-ranked players who have opened up about being part of the LGBTQIA+ community. Brazil’s Joao Lucas Reis da Silva became the first openly gay active men’s tennis player in 2024. Mika Brunold came out as gay in a 2025 Instagram post.
The topic comes up a lot. There was this Out Magazine article, now almost 20 years old. Ben Rothenberg also tackled this topic a few months ago. I’m not sure I have much to add. Some quick thoughts:
Yes, even when under-indexing, it is statistically highly unlikely that there are no gay players in the top, say, 50. It’s virtually impossible that there have never been gay players in the top 50.
Are there homophobes in the locker room? Probably. There will also be racists, sexists, anti-semites and Islamaphobes. Is it a critical mass? I don’t think so. Are the majority of players tolerant? Absolutely. And the tennis landscape is not without queer people. There are players with gay siblings. There are gay officials. There are gay WTA colleagues. There are gay fans (galore).
This is not a condemnation. Players make their own choices, which ought to be respected. But say this: The first active top gay ATP player to come out would avail himself to an army of fans and, crassly, a welter of endorsements. He would be hailed in many corners as a pathbreaker and a trailblazer.
I understand the beef with Nick Kyrgios and the idea that he is a clown (he is), but not covering the biggest event in tennis for that day and the talk of the tennis world for a couple of days just bc Nick was involved impugns Served’s journalistic integrity. Holding your nose and covering it for 3 minutes would be a much better look.
@Peace2humankind
• Someone forwarded this to me. I gather it was posted on the Served comments section and directed as much at Andy Roddick as at me. But I’ll bite here. Last week’s exhibition was “the talk of the tennis world,” not because the results were significant, there were meaningful tennis stakes, or even meaningful moral or symbolic stakes. This exo was “the talk” because it was a cynical, universally-mocked cash grab. It was a Fyre Festival of unforced errors, involving a player to be pitied who has self-sabotaged his career vs. the WTA’s No. 1 player, who, mistakenly, thought she had something to prove.
As far as omitting this on Served, there was no defiance and no mandate to avoid the topic. Honestly, it just didn’t make the cut of worthy talking points. I would argue that the audience was better served—i.e., there was more integrity—sticking with events and topics that actually mattered, rather than performing the auditory equivalent of hate-watching. Sometimes, when people provide nothing but empty calories, and say, look at me, the best response is to withhold the attention so desperately craved.
The Kyrgios–Sabalenka match is just that—a tennis match. Does everything need to be politicized now? Some journalists (present company excluded) seem determined to manufacture controversy simply to generate copy. Yes, the match is silly and clearly a money grab, but attaching sweeping political or social significance to it is even sillier.
Fernando
• I do think your larger point is well-taken. Despite the tug of social media and its enragement-is-engagement algorithms, not everything has to fit into the culture wars. Not every event has to refract through a larger prism. To appropriate Sigmund Freud, sometimes a money-grab exhibition is just a money-grab exhibition. But when you call it “Battle of the Sexes,” you are setting yourself up for analysis that goes beyond forehands and backhands. You can’t have it both ways. Either it’s a silly, meaningless hit-and-giggle. Or, it’s a “Battle of the Sexes,” in which you are asking for “sweeping political or social significance.”
Thank you for supporting Iga [Świątek]. You are always fair with her when others are not always. I think she will win the Slam in 2026!
Jerzy
• Thanks. Just to be clear: I’m not sure “support” is what we do. Ideally, we are not engaging in active fandom, but rather an objective, balls-and-strikes approach. But your point is well-taken. You can like or dislike a player personally, but that shouldn’t dampen their achievements. Świątek is a generational player who will go down as one of the greats.
I think she has a real shot at the career Grand Slam. Australia is the only item not already in the shopping cart. “The Slam,” as in winning all four majors in a calendar year? That’s going to be tough. If peak Serena Williams didn’t do it….
Here’s a hot take, since we are here: The biggest obstacle to winning all four majors in one year? It is as much the hype and pressure and weight of the occasion as it is the 28 opponents on the other side of the net. Even when Steffi Graf pulled it off in 1988—never mind Rod Laver in the 60s—it was a different world in terms of exposure.
Hi Jon and Happy New Year. Madison Keys’s triumph at the 2025 Australian Open was perhaps the most surprising and satisfying tennis storyline of 2025. But she seemed to settle back into a top 15 groove for the rest of the year, advancing to the quarterfinals or better at a major only once more (in Paris). How do you assess her prospects heading into 2026?
Ted Cornwell, Minneapolis
• Thanks, you as well. With Keys—as with many players—so much of the answer rests on her health. I’m not sure if she “settled back” into a top 15 groove, so much as her body consigned her to that position. She won seven matches on that extraordinary run in Melbourne. She won zero matches—and played only three—post-Cincinnati.
HAVE A GOOD WEEK EVERYONE!
More Tennis on Sports Illustrated
- Venus Williams to Make First Australian Open Appearance Since 2021
- The Best Sports Moments of the Year, According to SI’s Breaking News Team
- Tennis Predictions for 2026
- Aryna Sabalenka Sent Blunt Message to Critics Amid ‘Battle of the Sexes’ Controversy
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Tennis Mailbag: Inside Carlos Alcaraz and Juan Carlos Ferrero’s Breakup .
