After an action-packed clay court and grass court swing, all eyes are now back on the hard courts, yet again. North American hard-court swing is around the corner, and we’re now all set to enter a few preparatory tournaments ahead of the 2025 US Open. On one side, players like Coco Gauff are keen to forget her horrid Wimbledon campaign with a dream run on her home soil. On the other side, players like Aryna Sabalenka have now taken some days off to keep themselves fully prepared for the big event, which kicks off on 24 August.

Aryna Sabalenka has withdrawn her name from the Canadian Open, citing fatigue as the primary reason behind her decision. Sabalenka has played a total of 56 matches this season, and while making this announcement, she added, “I’m looking forward to kicking off the North American hard-court swing, but to give myself the best chance for success this season, I’ve decided it’s in my best interest to skip Montreal.” Just like Jannik Sinner, even Sabalenka will be keen to retain her crown at the US Open.

However, amid all the buzz surrounding these superstars of the current era, two tennis legends, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, have now yet again managed to secure a place in the headlines. How?

Serena Williams returns to the tennis court

Just a few days ago, Venus Williams announced her return to the Tour. The 45-year-old has accepted a wildcard into the WTA 500 Mubadala Citi D.C. This will be her first competitive tournament since the 2024 Miami Open and also her first main draw match since 2023. Shortly after that, the social media literally erupted, seeing her younger sister Serena Williams skillfully returning volleys on a tennis court. Well, amid the buzz surrounding the US Open, fans have now started wondering if the six-time champion is planning to make a comeback.

Well, back in 2022, the year in which she took retirement from the sport, Serena Williams wrote, “I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me.” Instead, she preferred to call it “evolution.” Although she was far away from tennis these days, Williams never failed to share daily updates with her fans on social media. We’ve seen her share her fitness routines with her fans and also drop pictures of her body transformation. Talking about fitness, she once said, “Fitness will always be a part of my life.”

Guess what? On Friday, when we saw Serena Williams’ video clip where she was seen hitting a few balls, it never looked as if she had retired from the sport almost three years ago. Same fluency, same intent, and moreover, her insane fitness levels yet again got portrayed through that clip. She captioned that post with, “Still Serena.🎾” and Dr. Dre’s ‘Still D.R.E.’, echoed in the background. Epitomizing resilience?

Perhaps! But the thing is, Serena Williams hasn’t confirmed any official plans about her comeback yet. So, there are just speculations, but the speculations are well alive at the moment!

Maria Sharapova lists her Manhattan Beach property for around $25 million

Switching from one legend to the other! The five-time Grand Slam champion, Maria Sharapova has listed her Los Angeles-area home for $24.995 million. This property is located in Manhattan Beach, Calif., about 20 miles southwest of downtown L.A., and Maria Sharapova (current net worth $220 million, according to Forbes) has owned this property since 2012.

In 2021, she paid $4.1 million for the ocean-view property. In 2019, while talking about the architecture of this house, Grant Kirkpatrick told AD, “She was involved in every single aspect of this house, down to the most minute detail and material permutation. To say that she simply collaborated with us does not adequately describe her dedication and influence on the design.” He revealed that there’s not a chair or table that came into the house that Maria Sharapova didn’t analyze, dissect, and discuss. Sharapova paid attention to every stitch and groove!

This house opens into a grand double-height foyer with a spare but graceful floating staircase. Speaking more on this, the tennis star said that she was inspired by Japanese architecture and minimalist aesthetics. Why did they plan to let go of this stunning property, though? Well, as per the WSJ’s reports, Sharapova and her fiancé, British businessman Alexander Gilkes, have now planned to spend more time in Europe, and this could be one of the main reasons behind this decision.

2025 US Open participant sues NCAA

This story is about a 20-year-old tennis player who plays college tennis for the North Carolina Tar Heels. Her name is Reece Brantmeier. She won the 2019 United States 16s national title and finished second at the 2021 United States 18s national championship, losing to Ashlyn Krueger. Brantmeier won the ACC Player of the Year award for women’s tennis and earned All-American honors in both singles and doubles in the spring. She is a player with enormous talent, and in fact, she also played a crucial role in leading Heels to a Final Four berth and an ACC championship.

Owing to her incredible performances, she and her teammate Alanis Hamilton got an invitation to the US Open Tennis Championships. However, as per the NCCA rules, Brantmeier will not be able to claim most of the prize money that she could potentially earn in this tournament. At the 2021 US Open, she was only allowed to claim $10,000 of the $50,000 in prize money she earned as a high schooler. As a college athlete, she’s not allowed to take any prize money other than what she has spent on expenses. 

In March 2024, Brantmeier filed a federal lawsuit in North Carolina, alleging the NCAA’s restrictions violate antitrust laws. According to her lawyer, “The NCAA’s arbitrary rules restrict the amount of Prize Money that Student-Athletes competing in Tennis may accept, causing anticompetitive harm to the markets for their labor and reducing their earning ability.“

As things stand, Reece Brantmeier will be at the 2025 US Open. So, all eyes will be on her and Maya Joint, who is also a co-plaintiff in the current legal battle.

Tim Henman makes a bold claim about the 2021 US Open champion, Emma Raducanu

Injuries and lack of consistency have been two of the biggest hurdles in Emma Raducanu‘s career. In 2021, she became the first qualifier in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam singles title, beating Leylah Fernandez (CAN) in the final, and she didn’t even drop a set in the entire US Open. However, following that incredible success, Raducanu has failed to live up to the expectations. 

So, before starting the 2025 season, when she was asked to reveal her goals for the upcoming season, she said, “I want to play more than I did this year.” Keeping her fitness level up to the mark is currently the biggest challenge for the Brit. However, she has already played 32 matches this season (winning 18 out of them), and her best result came in Miami and Queen’s, where she reached the QF. 

Recently, while doing an analysis of Emma Raducanu’s performance in this season, former British number one, Tim Henman, shared a very interesting opinion. He said, “She’s a much better player than she was in 2021 because she’s had four more years of experience and now she’s started to build more of a team around her. She’s been competing so much more this year, which therefore emphasises the physical resilience that she’s got because she was always getting injuries.“

He further added, “So I just hope she can continue in that vein because if she keeps doing the right things on the practice court, the results will come on the match because she’s that good a player.” Henman says it’s great to see Raducanu playing on the biggest stage against top-ranked opponents. With the US Open knocking at the door, it’ll be interesting to see if she can yet again put up a magical performance in NY.

The 20-year-old American tennis star opens up on a long-debated topic in the tennis world

When it comes to the Electronic Line Calling system, different players have different opinions in the tennis world. For example, American tennis star Taylor Fritz thinks it’s much better to just have the electronic line-calling system calling the lines rather than the umpires. He said that he doesn’t like having to think about challenging calls in the middle of points. However, others like Arthur Fils have a different opinion on this. He thinks this type of technology makes the game lose its charm. So, Fils believes having the line judges is more like having more “life on the court.“

Just like him, even Karen Khachanov says that he’s more for the line umpires than ELC! There have been quite a few controversial calls in the recent past, but what does Alex Michelsen have to say on this? During a conversation with Andrew Whiteaw on EssentiallySports, Michelsen said, “Honestly, like I think the game is so fast that it’s tough for the human eye to really see it sometimes. And, you know, it’s just like, you know, how are you going to call like a 140 serve down the T that hits the line? Like, how are you going to call it? On grass, I guess you get the chalk. So like that’s easier, but it’s so tough for a human to see that like hardcore. How do you see that? You know, it might look out or it might look in, you know, it’s just, I feel like the electronic line call is the way to go, but obviously they still have to, you know, fix that a little bit because it’s not perfect.“

He thinks ELC is good, but what are your thoughts on this, though? Share your views in the comment box.