Tennis in 2024: Five things we’ve learnt so far
With a week’s tennis having unfolded already in 2024, we look at five things we’ve learnt so far from the ATP and WTA Tours
(Federico Pestellini/Panoramic)
The year is barely 10 days old, but already 2024 has taught us a lot about how the coming tennis season is likely to unfold.
With the United Cup taking place across Perth and Sydney, as well as events in Hong Kong, Brisbane and Auckland, here are five things we’ve learnt from the first week of the 2024 tennis season.
The battle for top spot on the WTA Tour is going to be fascinating
It’s rare that all of the world’s top four start the year well in tennis, but that’s exactly what we saw on the WTA Tour last week.
Iga Swiatek led Poland to within literal millimetres of winning the United Cup, winning all five of her singles matches for the loss of just one set. As expected, her bakery has already opened shop in 2024, with a bagel and three breadsticks served up across Perth and Sydney.
Elena Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff all made the finals of their respective events. Both Gauff and Rybakina looked impressive in particular, with Rybakina demolishing Sabalenka 6-0, 6-3 in the final, claiming the trophy in Brisbane for the loss of just 15 games and barely four hours on court. Gauff had a similar stroll to the final in Auckland, before overcoming a tough test from Svitolina to successfully defend a title for the first time in her career.
With these four beginning fast, and Jessica Pegula still an unknown quantity, the battle at the top of the women’s game is going to be fascinating to watch in 2024.
Nadal’s comeback won’t be token
Rafael Nadal back on the ATP Tour was perhaps the biggest storyline of this year so far, with the Spaniard winning two matches at the Brisbane Open in his first competitive tennis in 12 months.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion’s performance assured tennis fans of one thing: his comeback won’t be a sad, token lap around the tennis calendar one last time. Nadal displayed an incredible level for someone who’s been on the sidelines the better part of a year, with the 37-year-old striking blistering forehands and covering the court as well as he did before his injury.
For those who were worried that Nadal would be back, but his level would never return, that fear has been well and truly allayed. Sure, there are physical considerations to be managed, with the Spaniard already withdrawing from the Australian Open to rehab a small muscle tear, but we’ve seen enough to know that Nadal will be very, very competitive whenever he takes to the court in 2024.
Sky Sport has a lot of work to do
Speaking of women’s tennis, fans in the United Kingdom have been outraged at the depth and quality of coverage so far this year.
With Amazon Prime not renewing their five-year coverage deal of the WTA and ATP Tours, rights have gone to Sky Sport. Unfortunately, this has also meant a shift in how many matches are covered.
Fans have taken to social media to air their complaints, with one tweeting “Sky Sports Tennis is horrendous and we can’t watch our favourite players, or the matches we are interested in, won’t ever see another change of end… Feel sad that after not missing a tournament with fantastic Amazon Prime now we will lose touch.”
Another explained that “Sky Sports Tennis have no idea what they’re doing as [I’ve] been able to watch very little of the first week of the 2024 season because [there are] no multi court coverage/replays.”
While one disgruntled fan simply stated, “Amazon is sorely missed and Sky need to get their act together.”
Dimitrov’s 2023 season was no flash in the pan
In more positive news, Grigor Dimitrov showed last week that his 2023 season was no fluke.
Last year, the Bulgarian strung together his best season since 2017, when he qualified for and won the Nitto ATP Finals. He rose to No 14 in the world after winning 66 per cent of his matches in 2023 and making a run to the final of the Paris Masters, where he toppled the likes of Daniil Medvedev, Hubert Hurkacz and Stefanos Tsitsipas, before falling to Novak Djokovic.
The last time Dimitrov had a strong year, he fell off significantly the next season. This year, however, the former No 3 has begun in the best way possible, winning his first tournament in six years by claiming the Brisbane title.
The 32-year-old looked dangerous on the hard courts, striking the ball sweetly in his title run that saw Dimitrov lose only one set, in his opening clash against Andy Murray.
De Minaur has something to prove
Perhaps one of the most overlooked and underrated players on the ATP Tour over the past few years has been Alex de Minaur.
The Australian is only 24 years old, and yet has seven titles to his name as well as a Masters 1000 final and a Grand Slam quarter-final.
However, the shadow of first Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev, and then Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Holger Rune has seen de Minaur largely overlooked by tennis pundits. Add in the fact that he has no flashy weapons that make the highlights reels, and the Australian has had very little screen time so far in his career.
This clearly irks the 24-year-old, who has now cracked the world’s top 10 and is the first man from his country to do so since Lleyton Hewitt, the best part of two decades ago. When asked on-court how he feels about the achievement, de Minaur’s comments immediately jumped to all those who failed to believe in him.
It’s clear de Minaur has something to prove in 2024, and he’s doing a good job of it so far.
