Three minutes a day, knowing about tennis in the world. Hello fans, today is Monday, March 3, 2025, and welcome to the afternoon newsletter brought to you by "Home of Tennis".
Let's start with a somewhat unexpected piece of news. This morning, Beijing time, the ATP officially announced that Chinese teenager Shang Juncheng withdrew from the upcoming ATP1000 Indian Wells Masters due to physical reasons. The day before, Xiaoshang was still practicing with China's first sister Zheng Qinwen, and suddenly withdrew from the game today, which puzzled Chinese fans. What was wrong with his body? Why do you retreat again and again? Can you play in Miami? Hope him recovers soon!
Let's get back to the field. Yesterday afternoon, Beijing time, the ATP500 Acapulco station came to a wonderful end. In the Men's Singles final, Czech Mahač was in fine form, beating Spain's Fokina 7-6(6) 6-2 to win his first career singles title. Mahac thus became the third Czech player to win the ATP 500 tournament since the restructuring in 2009, after Berdych and Stepanek. This week, he will rise to No. 20 in the world rankings.
After the match, Mahachi said that this championship means a lot to him. "I never thought I'd be able to do it at ATP 500, so it feels great for me. I've worked very hard in the past year, so I'm happy to have achieved something, which shows that I'm on the right path. And although the Spanish star Fokina reached the final in two consecutive tournaments, he unfortunately served the plate. So far in his career, Fokina has reached three tour finals, but all of them have failed to achieve his first tour title.
ATP 250 San Diego: Serbia's Jerre beat third seed and defending champion Báez 6-4 3-6 7-5 in the final of the singles final, breaking a five-year title drought and lifting the singles title for the third time in his career.
Women's Field: In the WTA 500 Merida singles final, top seed and rising American star Navarro was in great form, beating Colombian Arango 6-0 6-0 to win his second career title and first 500 title. With this title, Navarro reached 4,009 points in the world ranking, widening the gap with China's first sister Zheng Qinwen (3,780 points) to 229 points, and firmly sitting in the eighth place in the world.
WTA 250 Austin: In the singles final, top seed and American Pegula defeated fifth seed and compatriot Kessler 7-5 6-2 to win her first title of the season and her seventh career overall.
In the doubles final, the Chinese and Russian pair of Yuan Yue/Blinkova defeated the Chinese and American pair of Zhang Shuai/Kessler 3-6 6-1 10-4 to win the second doubles title of Yuan Yue's career. Last year she won the singles trophy and this year she topped the doubles tournament and collected all the titles in the tournament.
Finally, let's guess and recognize. The picture below shows a player returning the ball during a match. Can you recognize who she is without prompting?
In the last guess, the golfer gave the correct answer. That's right, the person in the picture is the rising American star Shelton.
(Source: Tennis Home Author: Maverick)