Wimbledon is over, and now we’re heading towards yet another mega tennis show at the North American hard-court swing. At the grass-court major, we saw Jannik Sinner taking his revenge on Carlos Alcaraz within 35 days of his French Open defeat. Following his impressive win at Wimbledon, Sinner will start as a clear favorite at the US Open. In this tournament, he will have the chance to end a 17-year-long drought, but for that, he needs to defend his title. Roger Federer was the last one to defend his title in New York.
Talking about title defense, on the women’s side, we have Aryna Sabalenka. After missing out on the chance of clinching titles in the previous three Slams, Sabalenka has claimed that she believes she has the “best chance” of winning titles on hard courts. However, she has recently announced her withdrawal from the Canadian Open. Perhaps she’s seeking a bit of rest before the mega battle in NY!
Coming to the Americans, Coco Gauff won the French Open title this year, but she failed miserably at Wimbledon. After losing her first-round match against Dayana Yastremska in straight sets, she admitted she was “disappointed” and “struggling in the locker room“. However, amid all these, there is also something to celebrate for Gauff. What’s it? Let’s take a look at some of the interesting stories that have been running in the headlines for the last few hours in the tennis world.
Coco Gauff wins ESPY award for the second time in a row
Despite having a horrid grass court campaign, Coco Gauff finally finds something to cheer about. She has outshone the likes of Aryna Sabalenka, Jannik Sinner, and Carlos Alcaraz to earn the ‘best tennis player’ honor at this year’s ESPY awards, presented by ESPN. Even in 2024, she won the award, and following that, we saw her find success at the China Open, WTA Finals, before making a long run at the clay court events this season.
In 2025, the world number 2, Coco Gauff, has a win-loss record of 31-10. Although several fans in the tennis world have already started to raise a few question marks about the voting process and the criteria used for the award, we must remember Gauff’s recognition has now become far beyond the tennis courts. The ESPY Awards not only highlight Coco Gauff’s athletic achievements but also her growing influence in the tennis world. What did she say after winning this award, though? After securing this prestigious award for the second time in a row, she tweeted, “Woke up to finding out I won another ESPY! Ahhh Thank you.“
woke up to finding out I won another espy!! ahhhh thank youuuu
— Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) July 17, 2025
Interestingly, the 21-year-old even got a shout-out from her compatriot Taylor Fritz! An Instagram page named ‘Sportsish’ shared a video clip, where Fritz was asked to name one woman in sports that inspires him, right now. In reply, he named two-time Grand Slam champion Coco Gauff!
American tennis star Danielle Collins makes a shocking revelation
After graduating from the University of Virginia, Danielle Collins started her professional career in 2016. Throughout these nine years, she has won four singles titles and has reached a career-high ranking of world number 7 on 11 July 2022. She has been part of many big matches in her career, including the finals of the 2022 AO and the QF of the 2020 French Open. Over the years, her performance has gone through a lot of ups and downs, but there is one thing that has remained constant in her game. What’s it?
Aggression! Due to her ferocious nature on the court, she is often hailed as ‘Danimal’. No wonder how many times we have seen her giving it back to the hostile crowd during her matches. Even during this year’s AO, when she was facing a lot of boos and jeers from the Aussie crowd during her match against the local favorite, Destanee Aiava, she was spotted mocking them and blowing a kiss towards them.
However, in the recent episode of the ‘Reign’ podcast, Danielle Collins shared a very different experience. She spoke about her horrifying experiences with misogyny and called out unacceptable behavior from a cameraman. She revealed, “I had a situation when I first got on tour, and I was dealing with a cameraman that was very persistent. I lost a long three-set match, come off the court and kind of like, cramping, and I’m tired and all the things are happening, and this guy goes, ‘Oh Danielle, I’m so sorry, can I give you a hug?’ and I look at like my coach and I’m like sure.” But that wasn’t all!
She later on added, “He goes in to hug me, and all of a sudden, he goes in to kiss me. And I’m like, oh no. He literally starts making out with the side of my face. So yeah, people don’t see that behind the scenes.” We’ve seen players getting annoyed with the cameraman multiple times in the past as well, but this incident was really shocking and certainly unacceptable!
Ons Jabeur announces break from professional tennis
The 30-year-old Tunisian tennis star, Ons Jabeur, became the talk of the town when she reached the finals of both Wimbledon and the US Open in the same year (2022). Following that, a year later, she yet again made it to the final of Wimbledon. However, even this time, she felt one step short of her first major title. Despite being hailed as the ‘Minister of Happiness’, disappointments have been very much part of her tennis journey. Talking about disappointments, she was forced to give a mid-match walkover to Viktoriya Tomova in her first-round match at Wimbledon due to an injury.
She was in tears after this setback and also admitted her disappointment by saying, “I’m pretty sad. It doesn’t really help me with my confidence.” Later on, she also added that she will now try to disconnect a little bit from tennis and try to enjoy life outside of the sport. A few days after that indication, the WTA announced that the Tunisian has withdrawn her name from the Montreal Open.
Following this, Jabeur came up with a social media post. In that post, she wrote, “For the past two years I’ve been pushing myself so hard, fighting through injuries and facing many other challenges. But, deep down, I haven’t felt happy on court for some time now. Tennis is such a beautiful sport. But right now I feel it’s time to take a step back and finally put myself first: to breathe, to heal, and to rediscover the joy of simply living.” Having said that, she claimed even when she’s away from the court, she’ll stay close and connected in different ways and share this journey with her fans.
The former world number 2 has already dropped to 71 in the singles ranking. Can she make a strong comeback after this little pause in her career? Well, time will tell!
Iga Swiatek’s interesting confession about her Wimbledon glory
It took Iga Swiatek just 57 minutes to win her first Wimbledon title. She defeated America’s Amanda Anisimova by 6-0,6-0 in a pretty much one-sided final. Anisimova looked absolutely shattered after failing to fulfill the expectations. In her post-match interview, she admitted that she was a bit “frozen there with my nerves” and also said, “It’s not how I would have wanted my first Grand Slam final to go.” Nothing went as per her plans in this match. Swiatek had the control right from the word ‘go’, but how did the Pole manage to secure this emphatic victory?
Recently, while speaking to Kamil Wolnicki of ‘Przeglad Sportowy Onet,’ she said the situation was pretty much unusual and she didn’t expect this at all. However, having said that, she also added, “I didn’t watch all of Amanda Anisimova’s matches, only fragments, but I knew how she played and I knew I had to be focused…She was stressed, and from the first ball, I felt that she was playing with a slightly slower hand, that she had less decisiveness. And I, in turn, felt more and more self-confident, and the situation became such that the difference in levels widened even more.” Was Swiatek a bit arrogant here?
Perhaps not! Because she claimed, “In fact, however, it was me who wanted to do my job and I didn’t think too much about my opponent.” She said that she didn’t even want to consider the option of slowing down and letting her get into the match because she “cared” too much about this win. It was sheer dominance from the Pole from the start till the end!
Emma Navarro shares her biggest concern about Jannik Sinner ahead of their mixed doubles event
Jannik Sinner has been in red-hot form this year, and he has already bagged two major titles this season. Perhaps now he will be looking for his third at the US Open. However, before getting things started at the singles event, he needs to join hands with America’s Emma Navarro for the star-studded mixed doubles event at the 2025 US Open. In that event, Carlos Alcaraz will play with Emma Raducanu, Taylor Fritz will partner with Elena Rybakina, while the 24-time major champion, Novak Djokovic, has joined hands with his compatriot, Olga Danilovic. There are plenty more in that list!
However, before we get to that event, Emma Navarro shared a major concern about her doubles partner. What’s it? In a social media post, the American was heard congratulating Jannik Sinner on his incredible triumph at Wimbledon. But shortly after that, she said, “I watched a lot of your matches. I watched the final, and you look like you’re playing a lot of good tennis. But I’m just getting a little worried because I didn’t see that much net play. You did hit a tweener between your legs at the net at one point, which was kind of cool, or whatever, but you missed the overhead. I don’t know if that even counts. I’m going to need you to just put in a good bit of work at the net on the doubles court in the next month or so.“
Navarro hopes Sinner improves his game before their mixed doubles event. She added, “I’m out here working hard in doubles pretty much every day, so I need you to step up your game a little bit and sort of match my level a little bit. Let’s get to work, buddy.” How excited are you to watch these two in action, though? Share your thoughts in the comment box.
The post Tennis Recap- Gauff’s ESPY Win, Collins’ Horrid Encounter, Ex-Wimbledon Finalist’s Grim Update, and More appeared first on EssentiallySports.
