The Top 5 most important developments of a manic first week of the 2025 tennis season

“Tennis needs an Opening Day,” was one of the suggestions that used to pop up regularly when fans or writers were asked for ideas on how to raise the sport’s profile. The season, the thinking went, began too inconspicuously, with a few mid-level Australian Open warm-up events and the Hopman Cup exo in distant Perth. The game needed a way to announce that it was back, with suitable star-power and fanfare.

There is still no official Opening Day, but in 2025 it felt like we did have a proper Opening Week. Credit for much of that goes to United Cup, the team tournament that the ATP, WTA and Tennis Australia welded together three years ago. As a way to announce the arrival of a new season, and highlight the game’s dual-gender appeal, getting star players to team up and compete for their countries makes sense. This year, the final between the U.S. and Poland in Sydney brought us a bonus: A spicy—or icy, to be more precise—moment between two WTA stars that might last well into the season ahead.

But there was more than just the United Cup this week. There were comebacks and debuts, injuries and heartbreaks to follow in Brisbane, Auckland, and Hong Kong as well. Here’s a look at five of the week’s major developments, counted down in order of importance.

Novak Djokovic’s strengths weren’t quite as strong

We can forgive a 37-year-old, 10-time Australian Open champion for not breaking out of the gate quite as quickly as he once did Down Under. Djokovic was also without his new coach, Andy Murray, who was squeezing in one last ski trip before rejoining the tour. So maybe winning two matches, and losing to self-proclaimed serve-bot Reilly Opelka in the semis, isn’t a bad start for a guy who hadn’t played a match since October.

Still, Djokovic’s strengths weren’t quite as strong as usual in this one. The world’s greatest returner couldn’t find a return when he needed one, and the world’s most legendary tiebreak player couldn’t win the one that decided the first set. Even if he’s just 1/10th of a step slower now, that won’t get him any closer to Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz this season.

Read more: Novak Djokovic has a plan, with the help of new coach Andy Murray, to take on the tennis newcomers

Osaka, Opelka, Nishikori: Three promising comebacks, zero storybook endings

Until Sunday, Naomi Osaka, Reilly Opelka, and Kei Nishikori looked like they were going to make this the week of the resurgence. All three had been sidelined for extensive periods of time. None of them had made a final since 2022, at the latest—Nishikori hadn’t been to one since before the pandemic. Yet each turned back the clock in promising fashion: Opelka beat Djokovic and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, Nishikori beat Karen Khachanov and Cam Norrie; and while Osaka didn’t face any seeds, she looked sharper than she has for the last 12 months.

And then Sunday came. Opelka’s back seized up and he was forced to retire down 4-1 to Jiri Lehecka in the Brisbane final. Nishikori, 35, won the first set over Alexandre Muller, but couldn’t maintain that level over the last two. Most stunningly, Osaka ripped her way to a first-set win against Clara Tauson, then sat down and immediately began to cry. She had an abdominal injury that was acting up on her serve, and which forced her to retire, to the shock of Tauson and the capacity crowd.

It’s hard to know now whether Osaka and Opelka will recover for Melbourne next week. Game-wise, though, they look more than ready for 2025 as a whole.

Meet the new Kudermetova, and the same old Sabalenka

This week also came with a possible breakthrough. It belonged to 21-year-old, 106th-ranked Polina Kudermetova, the younger sister of Veronika. In her seven wins in Brisbane (two in qualifying), she beat 13th-seeded Samsonova and third-seeded Kasatkina to make the final. There she led WTA No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka by 6-4, 2-1, and had a break point for 3-1.

Up to that point, Kudermetova, despite her slight frame, had been the more precise and penetrating ball-striker, and had shown off an impressively deceptive drop shot to boot. Then, with a chance to go up a set and a break, she made her first tight swing, and shanked a backhand wide. Sabalenka, as No. 1s tend to do, didn’t let her get away with it. She held, broke, and mostly cruised to her first title of 2025 from there.

Read more: Aryna Sabalenka turns up the heat to claim Brisbane International title

Kudermetova is a new player to watch, while Sabalenka remains the best player in the women’s game, and the favorite to repeat at the Australian Open.

Rybakina progresses on court, confuses off it

You couldn’t ask for a better start for Elena Rybakina and her new coach, Goran Ivanisevic. She won two United Cup matches and lost one very good and close one to Swiatek—no shame in that. Rybakina was getting more shape and margin on her forehand; she was following more balls to the net; and, surprise of surprises, she seemed to be enjoying herself on court, and with Goran and her teammates on the sidelines. The 2023 Australian Open runner-up should be in the mix for the title again.

That is, if she can keep herself focused off the court, and in the interview room. Even as she began work with Ivanisevic, Rybakina was calling her old coach, Stefano Vukov, and inviting him to rejoin her team. Whether that happens in Melbourne remains to be seen. Vukov is currently under investigation by the WTA over abuse allegations, and has been banned from tour events, including the Australian Open.

Read more: CoCo Vandeweghe backs WTA investigation of Elena Rybakina's ex-coach Stefano Vukov

We obviously haven’t heard the last of this story. We’ll see if Rybakina, who defends Vukov against all allegations, can keep what’s happening away from the arena from affecting her while she’s in it.

The U.S. wins United Cup, and Iga-Coco freezes over

At the start of the week, I wrote that Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz, who comprised the U.S. United Cup team, found themselves in similar circumstances to start 2025. Each is a Top 5 player who finished last season on a high; each will come to the Australian Open with sky-high expectations; but each will probably have to play the best tennis of his or her life to win that title.

So far, it’s fair to say, so good. Gauff and Fritz, a two-person team, brought the U.S. its second Cup in three years. Gauff went 5-0, Fritz went 4-1, and they won the one doubles match they needed to win, against Canada. The Americans both saved their best for last, too.

In the final against Poland, Fritz beat an in-form Hubert Hurkacz in a high-level three-setter—both guys looked close to mid-season form. Down 0-2 in the third-set tiebreaker, Fritz found another gear, knocking off two forehand winners to sprint past Hurkacz and across the finish line.

If anything, Gauff-Swiatek was better. Swiatek fought with everything she had, to the point where tears began to well. She wanted to win for her country, and she didn't want to suffer a second straight loss to the American, an opponent she has always owned. But this time Gauff was up to the challenge. She served well, stepped farther up on Swiatek’s second serve, and hit aggressively from the baseline—no waiting for misses this time. The second set went back and forth, and many must have believed that Swiatek would find a way to break the dam down. Instead, it was Gauff who proved the studier competitor in the end.

Then there was the handshake. After Swiatek double-faulted on match point, Gauff mimicked a digging motion with her racquet; the U.S. players started doing that at the Paris Olympics last summer, to show they were “digging for gold.”

Swiatek might not have appreciated the gesture. Or she might not have appreciated Danielle Collins’ cheerleading from the sideline. Or something. Whatever it was, it led her to slap Gauff with the iciest handshake of the new season.

So ... who’s looking forward to seeing where Coco and Iga land in the Australian Open draw later this week?