This Week in Tennis: Week of 02/24/2025

The ATP and WTA Tours come together in the desert of Southern California for the first combined tournament since the Australian Open. Indian Wells is considered by some as the “fifth Slam” and is one of the few most important non-Grand Slam tournaments.

Last week, the women played North American hard court warm up events in Merida, Mexico and Austin, Texas while the men were spread to 3 different continents, with tournaments on the clay courts of Santiago, Chile and the hard courts of Dubai, UAE and Acapulco, Mexico.

Last Week’s Champions (02/24-03/02)

ATP Dubai: Stefanos Tsitsipas def. Felix Auger-Aliassime, 6-3 6-3

In his 12th ATP 500 final, Tsitsipas finally wins a title

ATP Santiago: Laslo Djere def. Sebastian Baez, 6-4 3-6 7-5

Djere wins his first ATP Tour title since 2020

ATP Acapulco: Tomas Machac def. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, 7-6(6) 6-2

Machac wins the battle of 2 of the best players without an ATP Tour title

WTA Ausin: Jessica Pegula def. McCartney Kessler, 7-5 6-2

Pegula wins the first American vs. American final in the USA since the 2017 US Open

WTA Merida: Emma Navarro def. Emilana Arango, 6-0 6-0

Navarro wins the first “double bagel” final since Rome 2021

Matches of the Week

Men’s Match of the Week: Santiago Round of 16: Felix Auger-Aliassime def. Alexander Bublik, 7-6(7) 6-7(4) 6-3 (Excitement Index: 67.26, Excitement Average: 0.28)

Women’s Match of the Week: Merida First Round: Jessica Bouzas Maneiro def. Renata Jamrichova, 7-5 5-7 7-5 (Excitement Index: 107.89, Excitement Average: 0.43)

Notable Rankings Changes

WTA

#8 Emma Navarro, UP from #10

#11 Mirra Andreeva, DOWN from #9

#24 Marta Kostyuk, DOWN from #19

#38 Katie Boulter, DOWN from #26

#48 McCartney Kessler, UP from #56

#57 Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, UP from #66

#68 Yue Yuan, DOWN from #51

#77 Zeynep Sonmez, UP from #88

#80 Emiliana Arango, UP from #133

#85 Maya Joint, UP from #103

#94 Ajla Tomljanovic, UP from #111

ATP

#9 Stefanos Tsitsipas, UP from #11

#19 Ugo Humbert, DOWN from #15

#20 Tomas Machac, UP from #25

#33 Brandon Nakashima, UP from #42

#39 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, UP from #48

#59 Quentin Halys, UP from #77

#67 Luca Nardi, UP from #79

#68 Learner Tien, UP from #83

#73 Arthur Rinderknech, DOWN from #61

#74 Laslo Djere, UP from #103

#79 Corentin Moutet, DOWN from #65

#82 Alexander Bublik, DOWN from #51

One Incredible Moment

For a few hours, Venus Williams was about to make her return to the Tour. When Indian Wells announced their first batch of Main Draw Wild Cards, the men’s Wild Cards were Joao Fonseca and Learner Tien (Tien actually made it into the main draw without the WC), and the women’s Wild Cards were Petra Kvitova, who is a story herself having made her return from having her first child last week in Austin, and Venus Williams.

Typically, when a tournament announces a Wild Card, it has been offered by the tournament and accepted by the player. But a few hours after the announcement of the Wild Card being awarded to Williams, reports started to circulate that the 44-year-old had not accepted it. Now, about a week later, we are left with a very strange situation: a tournament announced a Wild Card and got everyone excited, while the player had prior commitments in Denmark.

The Week Ahead

This week is all about Indian Wells. Both Tours make their way to the desert for a 12-day 1000-level tournament. All the top players, including defending champions Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek, will be there, apart from Jannik Sinner, who is still suspended but has no points to defend in this tournament.

Indian Wells has changed the type of surface that it is using. This means that the courts, which have typically been some of the slowest, bounciest hard courts on tour, might play a little bit faster and be a little bit less bouncy than normal.

In last week’s post, we mentioned that Australian Open champion Madison Keys may have some issues at Indian Wells due to not having played any matches in February. Videos have been circulating from her practice sessions, and I have far fewer concerns. Her level still looks to be incredibly high.

Follow along with us and enjoy the tennis!

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