By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, August 7, 2025 Photo credit: Matthew Calvis
Arthur Fils has withdrawn from the Cincinnati Open.
The 21-year-old Frenchman sustained a stress fracture in his back at Roland Garros that knocked him out of grass-corut season.
Fils returned to action in Toronto and beat Pablo Carreno Busta in his opener before losing to Jiri Lehecka 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Fils also partnered Toronto singles finalist Ben Shelton in the doubles draw where they won two matches.
French lucky loser Arthur Cazaux replaces Fils in the Cincinnati draw and will play either compatriot Alexandre Muller or American Jenson Brooksby in his opener.
By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, August 1, 2025 Photo credit: Rob Newell/CameraSport
Nick Kyrgios’ next career could see him pushing buttons.
In an interview at the Esports World Cup 2025, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this week, Kyrgios confessed his first sports love was not tennis.
Instead, he favored gaming and basketball.
“My passion was basketball and gaming,” said Kyrgios, sporting a black Call of Duty t-shirt during his interview. “To be thrown into a sport where tennis is very clean cut. You know, I’m very rough around the edges and I didn’t really fit the mold for a tennis player. And I really struggled with that early in my career.”
The devoted Boston Celtics fans said he’s spent hours playing Fortnite and Call of Duty. Kyrgios said his gaming compulsion often came at the expense of tennis training and tournament play on the ATP Tour.
The former Australian Open doubles champion said he’s dream of being a professional gamer.
“I would love to be [an esports] player,” Kyrgios said. “I’ve been criticized in my career for not putting enough time on the court. And I’ve missed tournaments and training because I’ve just been gaming purely because I love it and I don’t care.
“The thing about it is like esports continue to grow. You know, it’s always going to evolve, technology’s going to get better, a new game’s going to come out.”
The 2022 Wimbledon finalist shared he dropped “F-Bombs” in front of the Royal Box during his four-set loss to Novak Djokovic, but vowed he’s not going to change his style to fit traditional tennis norms.
“And now it seems I’m a bit more embraced. And I’m glad I’m able to put on a show,” Kyrgios said. “You know, when I played in front of the Royal Box at Wimbledon, I was throwing F-Bombs…
“But look, it’s been a struggle to kind of fit in. But you know now I kind of embrace it. I’m not going to change for anyone and it took me all the way here, so it paid off.”
By Richard Pagliaro | Monday, July 28, 2025 Photo credit: Robert Prange/Getty
A hometown farewell ignite fire in Genie Bouchard.
Playing the final tournament of her career before her home fans in Montreal, Bouchard turned back time with a rousing 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 win over world No. 82 Emiliana Arango.
Attacking relentlessly, the Canadian wild card rode a wave of energy from Montreal fans to score her first main-draw Tour-level win in more than two years.
“I always knew, of course, if I lost, it would be the last one be, but as soon as I got on the court, I really tried to take it like a regular match and really emphasize, like, the focus and just telling myself what I wanted to do each point,” Bouchard said afterward. “I’m blocking out all the kind of consequences, and I’m, like, Okay, I’ll deal with all that stuff after, let me just play tennis and enjoy the toughness of what playing a WTA match is, because it’s tough out there.”
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A physical three-set win required resilience from Bouchard, who handed Arango her first three-set defeat of the season.
Former world No. 5 Bouchard said her performance was a balancing act of savoring the physical pain while drawing on the pleasure and inspiration of Montreal fans exhorting her on nearly every point.
“You know, you have to kind of enjoy that pain, and so I did,” Bouchard said. “Then the crowd really was helpful in terms of motivating me and giving me energy, but at the same time, it’s almost– it can be a point where it’s almost so much that it can help me — it can make me lose my focus or I don’t want to get kind of too kind of excited or too high because you still have the rest of the match to play. So there were definitely moments where I had to kind of almost block out the noise and just pretend it was a normal point that just happened and just keep going because the crowd was very loud out there, and I really, really appreciated it.”
Refusing to surrender, Bouchard extended her career for at least one more match. The former Wimbledon finalist will face 2025 Wimbledon semifinalist and 2015 Canadian Masters champion Belinda Bencic next.
“She’s obviously a great player. It’s funny, I played here in Toronto ten years ago, and then she ended up winning the tournament,” Bouchard said of Bencic. “So, yeah, I know it will be a crazy tough match. I’ll probably do stuff in practice tomorrow, kind of thinking about playing against her. She loves to take it early, change direction. So I’ve had some battles against her, so I’m looking forward to it.”
