Holiday Drop Shots!
“This Week’s Drop Shots” details the latest results, hot takes, and breaking news from around the tennis world in a quick and easy-to-read format.
Happy Holidays from the Cracked Racquets family! We hope you enjoy some well-deserved time off, and perhaps have some spare time to watch some classic matches, prepare for a loaded 2021 season, or whatever you find most enjoyable. As promised…here’s your weekly newsletter with stories and highlights from the tennis world!
ATP and WTA Calendars
Recently, the ATP and WTA released the first 7 weeks of their respective calendars. I think we can safely say that everyone is looking forward to turning the page on 2020 and kicking off the 2021 season! For the men, action starts in Delray Beach and Antalya on January 5th. For the women, WTA tennis will commence at the same time in Abu Dhabi, with both tours having Australian Open qualifiers beginning January 10th. More info can be found in these articles (ATP and WTA).
Best of 2020
Every day until the New Year, our very own Alex Gruskin is counting down his favorite podcast episodes from this year. Of course this is no easy task to sift through hundreds of content pieces, but follow along on Twitter where we’ll be pointing you to the top picks. Yesterday’s choice was his conversation with Bret McCormick, who came on the Great Shot Podcast to discuss the relationship between gambling in tennis. Give it a listen here and stay tuned for today’s pick!
Players to Watch
2021 is a follow-up to perhaps the most atypical season we’ve ever seen, so naturally we have so many questions about the players. While it’s nearly impossible to narrow down a list of who’s most key to watch, we did our best on this week’s Deciding Point episode. Give it a watch to see our picks for the 5 players on the ATP tour who are most interesting to keep an eye on this coming year. Next week, we’ll have the WTA version for you too!
ATP Awards
The ATP announced its awards for the 2020 season, so check out the full list here! But, we’ll give you some of the highlights:
Comeback Player of the Year: Vasek Pospisil
Most Improved Player of the Year: Andrey Rublev
Newcomer of the Year: Carlos Alcaraz
Also note that Roger Federer casually scored his 18th straight Fans’ Favorite award this year…