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, the Japan Open witnessed a perfect game from Carlos Alcaraz, tennis fans in Beijing showed love to their WTA Tour favorites, and Alexander Bublik, a mercurial maverick, became “Mr. Consistent.”

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How did Carlos Alcaraz hit something close to his peak?

When Alcaraz hurt his left ankle early in his first Japan Open match against Sebastián Báez in Tokyo and fell to the floor with a grimace on his face, his tournament was in jeopardy.

By the end of his quarterfinal against Brandon Nakashima, the world No. 1 was grimacing again — not at his injury, but at the absurd heights he can reach when in full flow. The 6-2, 6-4 scoreline against the American did not do justice to how Alcaraz alternated between diamond-edged forehands and gossamer drop shots, luring Nakashima into seemingly neutral rallies before blasting the ball past him, or angling it away on seemingly impossible trajectories.

The highlight-reel winners, of which Alcaraz hit 39, get the acclaim and the awe. But it’s Alcaraz’s technical tweaks, making his serve more fluid and going from a rushable backhand to a too-compact backhand, to somewhere in between, that allow the flashiest parts of his game to glint off a backdrop of even greater security and consistency. He is 65-7 in 2025, has reclaimed the world No. 1 ranking from Jannik Sinner, and has buried the already creaky belief that he is a player of inconsistency.

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The final game against Nakashima epitomized the completeness of his tennis. Serving for the match at 5-4, an absurd crosscourt backhand flick took Alcaraz to 15-0. Two inside-out forehands into the American’s backhand then forced Nakashima to change direction down the line, looking for the apparent safety of a neutral, crosscourt forehand exchange. Alcaraz marmalized the ball for a winner. 30-0. Fleet-footed movement across the service boxes and another silly angle on a drop volley. 40-0. And then, after Nakashima sent a first serve back into the middle with good depth, slightly tucking the Spaniard up, Alcaraz shuffled backward and detonated an inside-in forehand to win the match.

Alcaraz’s ceiling has been the highest on the ATP Tour for some time; now he is raising his floor, too. Nakashima is not his most illustrious opponent of the year, but that is in many ways the point: Alcaraz is throwing off his tendency to adapt too much to the level of his opponent. Some brutal early wins at the U.S. Open showed off this trait, and his performances in Tokyo have done so, too.

James Hansen

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What makes Chinese tennis fan culture so special?

The start of the run of hard-court tournaments in Korea, China and Japan has brought racially insensitive comments from players on the ATP and WTA Tours: Taylor Townsend’s about Chinese food culture and Lorenzo Musetti about Chinese fans. Both players apologized; Townsend has since pulled out of the China and Wuhan Opens, citing an ankle injury, while Musetti appealed to fans for forgiveness after beating Adrian Mannarino over the weekend.

In the aftermath of Townsend’s comments, some fans brought signs to her matches at the Billie Jean King Cup, suggesting that if she ate more bullfrogs she would play better. Townsend had said “these people are literally killing frogs” after seeing bullfrog, a delicacy, on a menu at a buffet in Shenzhen. This witty, direct retort — and the speed with which others like it spread not just through stadiums, but through social networks Weibo and RedNote — is typical of how the country’s fans embrace tennis beyond the on-court action by leaning into the online culture and backstory that is so vital an entry point for casual fans.

Jessica Pegula, the 2024 U.S. Open finalist and daughter of Buffalo Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula, has learned that her player nickname is Da Fu, meaning “big” or ”first rich.” Emma Navarro, whose father, Ben Navarro, is also a billionaire, is Er Fu, meaning “small rich.” Coco Gauff is Fruit Salad Queen and was gifted a massive fruit basket in a video ahead of the tournament; Kateřina Siniaková is Instant Noodles(ová) because of her hair; Yuliia Starodubtseva is Alphabet Lady because of her many letters and vowels.

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“I think they’re so creative with a lot of off-court stuff, doing stuff for the podcast that we started,” Pegula said of the support in a news conference.

The home fans also got to greet their biggest star’s return to the sport, with Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen returning from elbow surgery. After beating Emiliana Arango of Colombia, Zheng said in a news conference that her injury was not yet fully healed, and that “coming here to the China Open really depends on the support of the fans, because my team wasn’t really supporting me in playing this tournament.

“In every training session, I see those fans and I said, I really want to play in front of these people,” she said.

James Hansen

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How did a mercurial talent become ‘Mr. Consistent?’

After Alcaraz, the man with the most ATP titles in 2025 might surprise a few people. The mercurial, sometimes maverick Alexander Bublik has also been “Mr. Consistent” over the past few months, during which he has won four titles. The most recent came last week at the Hangzhou Open in China, taking Bublik clear of Luciano Darderi’s three and putting the Kazakh behind only Alcaraz’s seven.

Three of Bublik’s titles this year have been ATP 250s, the lowest rung of tournament on the tour, but he also won a 500-level title at the Halle Open in Germany, beating world No. 2 Jannik Sinner in the process to end the Italian’s 49-match winning streak against players not named Carlos Alcaraz. The level of event should not diminish Bublik’s achievements, especially since he has also won on all three surfaces — grass, clay and hard  — in the same season. He is just the third man to do that since the start of 2019; the other two are Alcaraz and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic.

Bublik’s ability to make his at-times absurd talents more repeatable have taken him to a career-high ranking of world No. 16. He is also No. 13 for ranking points won in 2025, giving him a reasonable chance of qualifying for the ATP Tour Finals in Turin, the competition that is the benchmark of consistency over the course of a season.

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Quite the turnaround for a player once defined by his volatility.

Charlie Eccleshare

Drop shots

🍀 When France’s Arthur Rinderknech lost 6-3, 6-2 to Belgium’s David Goffin in China Open qualifying, he thought his time in Beijing was done. Instead, Rinderknech got into the main draw as a lucky loser after someone pulled out. His first-round opponent? Goffin, of course, and Rinderknech duly took his revenge with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 win. Such a strange turn of events must have last happened years ago … No, this is tennis. Márton Fucsovics defeated Luca Nardi in Dubai Open qualifying in March, only for the Italian to beat the Hungarian as a lucky loser in the first round.

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🥯 Iga Świątek is back in bagel mode. She has won a set 6-0 in four of her past five matches, and after serving 10 bagels in her first 51 matches of 2025, she has baked seven in her past 20.

Shot of the week

Carlos Alcaraz’s otherworldly performance against Brandon Nakashima had plenty of highlights. This crosscourt backhand flick on the full run was the most ridiculous:

🏆 The winners of the week

🎾 ATP: 

🏆 Alejandro Tabilo (Q) def. Lorenzo Musetti (1) 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(5) to win the Chengdu Open (250) in Chengdu, China. It is his third ATP Tour title.

🏆 Alexander Bublik (3) def. Valentin Royer (Q) 7-6(4), 7-6(4) to win the Hangzhou Open (250) in Hangzhou, China. It is his fourth title of the season.

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📅 Coming up

🎾 ATP 

📍Beijing: China Open (500) featuring Jannik Sinner, Learner Tien, Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev.