Jon Wertheim

2 weeks ago | newsobserver.com | Jon Wertheim

We can debate whether or not defense wins championships in team sports. But today we know defense definitely wins major tennis titles. On Saturday afternoon in Paris, amid cold, damp and windy conditions, Coco Gauff simply neutralized an aggressive opponent and won her second major, taking the 2025 French Open title, beating Aryna Sabalenka 6-7, 6-2, 6-4.

3 weeks ago | si.com | Jon Wertheim

As it is written, Wednesday is mailbag day …I don’t know how much people paid for their night session tickets, but I certainly would have felt [cheated] to have paid for a less-than-fascinating match between [Jannik] Sinner & [Andrey] Rublev. Meanwhile, there were [four] competitive women’s matches played during the day including the surprise upset of [Jessica] Pegula by a French woman, [Loïs] Boisson. That would have been a great night match.

3 weeks ago | si.com | Jon Wertheim

They sure grow up fast, these cage fighters. Could it really have been eight years ago already that Sean O’Malley was stealing the show on Dana White’s Contender Series? Here was a scrappy, mouthy bantamweight—and most of the weight came from his abundant body ink and his copious multi-colored hair—winning sensationally and talking more sensationally, still. Deploying sneaky movement and a nuclear-grade right hand, O’Malley went a dozen pro fights without a defeat.

3 weeks ago | si.com | Jon Wertheim

We talk in tennis of a transition game, moving from one set of strokes to the next, moving seamlessly up the court from one position to another. Professional tennis is undergoing a more cosmic transition game, pivoting from the Big Three/Serena Williams Era—where four bankable, historically great players each won more than 20 majors—to an era of many stars, if not quite at the same wattage. This was thrown into relief during Week 1 at Roland Garros of 2025.

4 weeks ago | si.com | Jon Wertheim

They sat alone in the small locker room, alternately trying to ignore each other and making awkward, nerves-concealing small talk. Even underground at Roland Garros—and then on the red clay tennis court above—there were contrasts that could not have been more obvious. One was a lithe Floridian, then 20, a righty whose personality expressed itself in her precise tennis, predicated less on power than composure and calm. The other was 18, about to defect from what was then Communist Czechoslovakia.