Tennis Unfiltered

Calvin Betton, George Bellshaw and James Gray are back with another look at the week in tennis. This week: the doubles fightback starts in Washington, more Masters 1000 withdrawal fallout, the 2028 Olympic schedule is announced, the most epic Davis Cup finish ever, and three new tour title-winners.

Here's what they discussed

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Washington tournament owner Mark Ein has been doing the media rounds this week (including a stop on Ben Rothenberg's Bounces), and it caught our ear when he declared himself a doubles superfan.

Ein says Washington has gone as far as almost any tournament to promote doubles, including proactively engineering eye-catching pairings rather than leaving it to chance

His pitch: nothing beats watching top players mixing it up in doubles on a 1,500–3,000 seat side court, right on top of the crowd.

He acknowledges the counter-argument other tournaments make that doubles soaks up a lot of prize money, but argues the format needs to "add unique value" to earn its keep.

Washington will live mic doubles players again this year, the third year running.

Tournament director Valerie Tetreault has called for change after both Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic pulled out of the Canadian Masters 1000, a repeat of last year, when both skipped Toronto.

Tetreault is disappointed but understanding of the players' need to prioritise health given the schedule.

Her broader point is that repeated last-minute withdrawals from Masters 1000s raise a real issue for the sport, since fans "rightfully expect to see the world's best compete."

She's calling for adjustments to better protect the integrity of Masters 1000 events.

The 2028 Olympic tennis event, to be held in Carson, near where the Williams sisters grew up in Compton, will start just three days after the Wimbledon men's final.

Kicks off the Wednesday after Wimbledon, running as a 10-day event

Mixed doubles starts July 19, singles draws begin July 20, doubles from July 21

Will top players get involved in the mixed? Not likely

World No. 1043 Ammar Alhogbani was serving for the match against Malaysia when he was violently sick on the baseline, and then a monsoon hit at 5-3, 40-15 in the third set.

Play resumed seven hours later. Alhogbani came back and won it

Saudi Arabia are promoted to World Group 2 in the most dramatic fashion imaginable

Kitzbuhel: Quentin Halys

Wins his maiden title at 29. Once a highly-rated junior with four Grand Slam finals (singles and doubles), he never translated it into a senior career until cracking the top 100 four years ago - and has now broken into the top 50.

Estoril: Luca van Assche / Titouan Droguet & Kyrian Jacquet

An all-French sweep: Van Assche took the singles, while Droguet and Jacquet won the doubles as alternates — including a first-round win over Calvin's pair Luke and Jan.

Prague: Lilli Tagger

Beat Daria Snigur 7-6, 6-2 to win the title, becoming the youngest player in the top 50 at 18 and the first player born in 2008 to win a WTA title.

Also beat home favourite Barbora Krejcikova in the semis. Won the girls' French Open title last year.

Austrian, trained at the Schiavone academy near Milan and coached by Francesca Schiavone.

Hamburg: Tamara Korpatsch

Beat Hungary's Anna Bondar 6-3, 6-3 to become the first German champion in Hamburg since Steffi Graf in 1992. Germans had gone 0-4 in finals there since.

Born in Hamburg. Her dad was a truck driver and the pair used to tour ITF events around Germany in a borrowed camper van to save money

EXTRA, EXTRA

Australian Open caps cheap tickets after overcrowding problems

US Open mixed doubles entries have been announced so far, but could change before the deadline

Jiri Lehecka has snapped up Fred Fontang as coach, freshly departed from Felix Auger-Aliassime's box

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This week, James, George and Calvin tackle the trans debate, after the WTA announced a change to their gender eligibility policy. (Read the whole story here: ⁠https://www.benrothenberg.com/p/wta-require-genetic-sex-tests-dna-trans-women-tennis-womens-tennis-document⁠)

They also discussed...

- Carlos Alcaraz spotted at the World Cup final and on the entry list for the Cincinnati Masters

- Joao Fonseca shows off the Brazilian pulling power

- Barbora Krejcikova, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev all win titles in a throwback week (but so does Daniel Merida, to claim his maiden ATP title)
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Welcome to your weekly, full-length free episode of Tennis Unfiltered. It contains more James, George, Calvin and two-time Wimbledon champion Henry than you could ever dream of, all for the low, low price of £0 per month.

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Well, there you have it. Wimbledon 2026 in the books. Doesn't the player protest over prize money feel an awfully long time ago? Since then, so much has happened. Here's what this last podcast for a few days covers...

Cruz Hewitt, son of Lleyton, reaches the boys' final but loses to an American qualifier called Jordan Lee

It's a serve-fest in the men's final with one of the lowest average rally lengths in years

Alexander Zverev takes the first set and seems to have grown a forehand...

...but Jannik Sinner hangs tough and waits him out, sticking to the gameplan and eventually breaking the German down

Zverev is in real danger of becoming likeable, charming the Wimbledon crowd with his acceptance speech

Meanwhile, Sinner remains a character with whom the British public struggle to connect

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This is a short preview of our daily podcast from Wimbledon, to give you a flavour of what we are doing each day during the Championships.

If you want to support the podcast, get full-length daily podcasts from grand slams, ad-free listening and so much more, go to ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/TennisUnfiltered⁠⁠ and sign up for the Tennis Unfiltered Supporters Club.

Listen to the full version of this episode here: https://www.patreon.com/TennisUnfiltered/posts/wimbledon-2026-163552660

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Grand slam champions - AGAIN! Henry Patten and Harri Heliovaara have done the TUSCers proud at Wimbledon by triumphing in straight sets over Arevalo and Pavic.

We've given Calvin Betton the evening off - and he was about four beers deep by the time we sat down to record. Instead, Eleanor Crooks is back to join James and chat about a straightforward (thank goodness...) win for the lads and the women's final.

Linda Noskova very nearly goes all Jana Novotna and chokes a stunning lead - but completed an impressive reset after the second set to make sure she secured her first grand slam title

Karolina Muchova produces her best line of the tournament by congratulating her "ex-friend" in her post-match speech

Henry and Harri win two more tie-breaks to claim their third grand slam title - and Henry takes a well-aimed swipe at the ATP in his own speech

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This is a short preview of our daily podcast from Wimbledon, to give you a flavour of what we are doing each day during the Championships.

If you want to support the podcast, get full-length daily podcasts from grand slams, ad-free listening and so much more, go to ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/TennisUnfiltered⁠⁠ and sign up for the Tennis Unfiltered Supporters Club.

Listen to the full version of this episode here: https://www.patreon.com/TennisUnfiltered/posts/wimbledon-2026-163473940

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George Bellshaw hoped he would be able to nip down after work and watch the final few sets of Sinner-Djokovic - but the one-sided nature of both men's semi-finals

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