What's New, What's Not, What's Next? Mini edition (Feb. 17)
I don't have time to do a full write-up of everything that happened this week, so here's a briefer-than-usual round-up, with links to read more.
What's new?
Let's start with the off-the-court stories, which have dominated the news week.
- Jannik Sinner has agreed to a deal offered by WADA which will see him suspended for three months.
- The suspension will see him return in time for Rome, so he won't miss any Grand Slams.
- He won't be stripped of any further ranking points or prize money for the period since the failed doping test.
- Read more: BBC Sport - "World number one Sinner banned for three months".
- Elena Rybakina's coach Stefano Vukov has been officially suspended for one year following a WTA investigation into his alleged abusive behaviour.
- This is a very complicated and sensitive case that warrants further reading; the most in-depth reporting on this has been from the Athletic - "Elena Rybakina’s former coach Stefano Vukov suspended by WTA under code of conduct investigation".
- The U.S. Open have decided to abolish the regular mixed doubles championship this year in favour of a two-day exhibition-style event targeting singles players in the week before the main tournament.
Meanwhile, on the court...
- Amanda Anisimova is a WTA1000 champion after beating Jelena Ostapenko 6-4 6-3 in the Doha final.
- João Fonseca may have just gone from next big thing to just a big thing. He won his first ATP title this week in Buenos Aires, where he beat Argentine number one Francisco Cerundolo 6-4 7-6 in the final.
- Diego Schwartzman has officially retired, after making his final appearance in Buenos Aires.
- Miomir Kecmanovic won his first hard court title in Delray Beach where he beat Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina in a wild final. Kecmanovic staved off multiple championship points before reeling off the final four games of the match to win his second career tital and his first in five years.
What's not?
Ugo Humbert won another ATP final indoors. Humbert was the second seed in Marseille and beat Hamad Medjedovic in straight sets in the final. This is his seventh title overall and his fourth indoors, three of which have been in France.
Jelena Ostapenko remains undefeated against Iga Świątek, whom she dismissed once again in the Doha semi-final to take her head-to-head advantage to 5-0. Ostapenko was the first player to beat Świątek in Qatar in 4 years.
What's next?
The second of the back-to-back Middle East WTA1000 events is already underway in Dubai. As with Qatar, it's a stacked field this week, featuring most of the world's top 10. The defending champ is Jasmine Paolini; who would have predicted everything that she has accomplished since last year's tournament started?
The ATP has two 500 tournaments this week in Doha and Rio de Janeiro. The Rio field includes most of the players that played in Buenos Aires last week, including Alexander Zverev and João Fonseca. The top seeds in Qatar include Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Alex de Minaur.