Eugene and Lucy re-break exclusive coaching news – courtesy of Zack Evenden – and get into everything happening at Indian Wells among other things
Naomi Osaka, speaking on The Shop, said that she has the “itch again” to play. Also described her relationship with social media and how she deletes apps from her phone to avoid them.
Zack Evenden confirmed to us he’s now working with Americans Hailey Baptiste and Whitney Osuigwe. Very excited about this relationship.
Baptiste picked up a nice win over Jasmine Paolini at the Chicago Fall Tennis Classic (WTA 500) before going down in three sets to Victoria Azarenka in the second round.
Gael Monfils reached an ATP Tour level final for the 17th consecutive year! Only Rafael Nadal has a longer streak. Lost out to Jannik Sinner in the Sofia Open championship match and the young Italian was very complimentary in his victory speech, telling the Frenchman “tennis needs you”.
Indian Wells
Lucy had Mark Petchey, Andy Murray’s former coach, in her Twitter mentions following Emma Raducanu’s second-round exit. The US Open champion lost to Aliaksandra Sasnovich in straight sets which was no real surprise.
Lucy’s tweet: “Reading a lot of tweets showing support to Emma due to pressure. Very nice to see but would have been great if y’all kept the same energy for Osaka but hey.”
Petchey’s response: “@LucyyKT I have unfollowed both. Meaningless probably in the overall scheme but I don’t want to be part of the problem that they suffer such huge expectations of providing the perfect life on social media. If we want to protect them then actions will speak louder than words.”
Sloane Stephens and Heather Watson went to three sets in their opener in tough conditions. Stephens then fell to Jessica Pegula in round two.
Madison Keys beat Kaia Kanepi in straight sets before going out to ninth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in round two.
Wildcard Katrina Scott fell to Amanda Anisimova and Baptiste fell to Martina Trevisan both in round one.
Lucky loser Paolini is into the third round after wins against Mai Hontama in round one and a huge win over 14th seed Elise Mertens in round two – first top 20 win of the season. Plays Pegula next.
Coco Gauff, seeded 15th (first-round bye), is through to the third round after seeing off Caroline Garcia in three. Takes on Spanish 21st seed Paula Badosa next. Gauff is also playing doubles with Leylah Fernandez!
Frances Tiafoe is going well! Took out Benoit Paire in 62 minutes and followed that up with an impressive 6-0, 6-4 win over 32nd seed Sebastian Korda. Takes on eighth seed Hubert Hurkacz next.
Qualifier Christoper Eubanks reached the second round of a Masters 1000 event for the first time after a 6-3, 6-3 win over Egor Gerasimov. Takes on 29th Nikoloz Basilashvili next.
First-round byes for seeds Felix Auger-Aliassime(7) and Monfils (14). *Auger-Aliassime starts against Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Monfils opens against Gianluca Mager again.
*Recorded before Auger-Aliassime took to court
Honourable mentions
Paul Jubb won two M25 titles in Portugal in September. The 21-year-old Brit has four ITF titles to his name in 2021.
Dustin Brown and Andrea Vavassori secured the Napoli Challenger doubles title – second trophy as a pair this year.
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