Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.
This week, there were statement wins on the clay on both the men’s and women’s tours, ahead of the first headline combined event on the red dirt: the Madrid Open.
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The second Grand Slam of the year will not be adding more cameras to player areas, following privacy complaints from a number of tennis stars at January’s Australian Open.
Coco Gauff was filmed smashing her racket seven times, in what she thought was a private area, after losing in the quarterfinals to Elina Svitolina. During a news conference, Gauff said “maybe some conversations can be had, because I feel like at this tournament the only private place we have is the locker room.
“I kind of have a thing with the broadcast. I feel like certain moments don’t need to broadcast.”
In a news conference a day later, Iga Świątek asked “are we tennis players, or are we animals in the zoo?”
In another, Novak Djokovic said that he “was surprised that we have no cameras while we are taking a shower.” A Tennis Australia spokesperson said that “striking the right balance between showcasing the personalities and skills of the players, while ensuring their comfort and privacy, is a priority for the AO.”
In a virtual news conference Thursday, French Open tournament director Amélie Mauresmo said that while broadcasters had asked for more access to player areas, the tournament wants to “maintain the respect for their privacy.”
“They need to have a private area so we won’t change on that stance,” Mauresmo said.
“And we will not add cameras. This is the position we’ve decided to take, and we have taken this position for a few years. We want to maintain this and not change on that ground. This is for the service to players.”
The French Open will also respond to the Australian Open’s other player brouhaha: wearable technology.
Players will be allowed to wear approved devices that track biometric data on a trial basis at Roland Garros, and that trial will also be implemented at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
In Melbourne, Aryna Sabalenka, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner were all asked to remove their Whoop bands — a bracelet that tracks biometric data including heart rate variability, skin temperature and blood oxygen — before matches.
WTA and ATP Tour events have permitted them for years, and the International Tennis Federation, whose rulebook the majors follow, also allows them to be used. But the four Grand Slams are yet to individually approve wearables at their tournaments, once again drawing attention to how fractured the sport is between its multiple, often contradictory, governing bodies.
The ban drew also criticism from the players involved. Sabalenka, who is a Whoop ambassador, argued that they should have access to their own health data. It’s commonplace for athletes across sports to track biometric data to attempt to maximize performance from a training and recovery standpoint.
Information gathered from live matches can be particularly valuable because it’s impossible to reproduce the same conditions an athlete faces in competition on a practice court.
“There is certain data that we would like to track a little bit on court. It’s not for the live thing,” Sinner said at the Australian Open, countering the idea that wearables offer a tactical advantage. “It’s more about what you can see after the match. These are data that we would like to use also in practice sessions.”
Now, Grand Slam tennis is joining the ranks of the NBA, NFL, MLB, WNBA and professional golf, all of which permit wearable technology in some capacity — and Sinner will know exactly how much his heart rate fluctuates, should he find himself in another five-set marathon final against Alcaraz in Paris.
With Alcaraz and Djokovic (both right arm) out of the Madrid Open due to injury, world No. 1 Sinner intends to play the ATP Masters 1000 when the main draw starts Tuesday. One of Sinner’s coaches, Simone Vagnozzi, said during the Monte Carlo Masters that he might miss the event too, but the Italian has traveled to the Spanish capital, where he could win a fifth ATP Masters 1000 tournament in a row.