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Served with Andy Roddick
Jack Draper OUT of Roland Garros, US Open’s New Partnership & Madrid’s Upset Fever | 5 Setter
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Foreign. What's up Chuckers? Producer Mike here. This is Served 5 Setter, your weekly roundup of all things racket sports. Five stories in ten minutes or less. Before we get into it, please hit subscribe on YouTube and give us a follow on your favorite podcast platform so you can stay up on All Things Served. We really appreciate the love and support. That said, today is May 1, 2026 and here's what we got for you. A handful of first time semifinalists take over Madrid. The next gen finals find a new home again, Pig Sui in their last ride and the US Open is aura maxing. But first, let's start in London. Jack Draper announced this week that he is out of Roland Garros. The 24 year old has been dealing with a knee tendon issue that forced him to retire mid match in Barcelona earlier this month, and the team has decided that getting healthy for the rest of the 2026 season matters more than chasing Paris. The world number 28 took to Instagram saying, quote, my knee is on the mend and I've started hitting balls, but unfortunately I have been advised not to play Roland Garros. As gutting as it is to miss another slam, the advice is not to rush straight back into playing 5 cent tennis on clay. See you soon. This story has layers beyond just losing Draper from the draw, and it is about rankings math. And the math is brutal. Draper made the fourth round of Roland Garros last year on his way to a career high ranking at 4 in June. Right now, every point the Brit does not defend, he loses. Now you're probably asking why doesn't he just take a protected ranking. Quick Refresher the ATP rule says if you are physically injured or ill and do not compete in any event for 26 consecutive weeks, you can petition to use your protected ranking to enter tournaments. Or when you come back, the catch is that word consecutive. Draper has been in and out all season. He returned in Dubai, beat Djokovic to reach the quarters in Indian Wells, retired in Barcelona with the knee that stop star pattern means the clock keeps resetting. He has not strung together six straight months off the tour so he does not qualify for the protected ranking. With this withdrawal from the French Open now official Draper will have just 560 points which would put him around 114 in the world rankings. We will get Andy and JW's take on this story on Tuesday's served episode and there is a full protected ranking breakdown in this week's newsletter link in the Show Description now on to set number two and we stay with the clay but head to Madrid where the women's draw just had one of those weeks that makes a generation of players believe three women punch their first ever WTA 1000 semifinals tickets let's run through it. First, Haley Baptiste. The 24 year old American faced world number one arena Sabalenka in the quarters. Arena had not dropped a single match all clay season and did not let this one go easily. Baptiste saved six match points before closing out the upset, giving the world number 32 the biggest win of her career and punching her ticket to the semis. Second, Anastasia Potipova. She came in as a lucky loser meaning she lost in qualifying and only got into the main draw because somebody pulled out. Anybody say tacos? One week later she is in her first WTA 1000 semifinal with a huge statement win over Alina Rybakina. Talk about taking advantage of a second chance. And third Marta Kostiak also into her first WTA 1000 semi. She paired it with a press conference where she opened up about therapy work she has been doing on the mental side of the game in recent years. That said, not all these women can go on to the finals. Thursday Baptiste run ended in a loss to Mira. Andreeva and Potipova fell to Kostyuk. Andreeva and Kostiyuk will face off in the finals on Saturday for just the second time. Kostiyuk currently leads the head to head one and O with a win over Mira in Brisbane earlier this year. You can catch a full breakdown of the finals matchup in this week's newsletter now at McDonald's a McDouble is 250 so you can get your gym gains on or just get lunch for only 2. 50. Get more value on the under $3 menu. Limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher for delivery. Let's stay in Madrid for set number three. Alexander Blocks took out Casper Ruud in straight sets to reach his first Masters 1000 semifinal. He is a 2025 Next Gen Finals alum and he is the youngest men's semifinalist in Madrid since Carlos Alcaraz did it back in 2021. Now this year we have watched Martin Landalouthe and Rafa Hodar post their own breakthroughs. Add blocks and you've got some Next Gen studs making waves. This story happens to coincide perfectly with another piece of Next Gen news that broke this week. Reports show that the ATP will soon that the event is heading back to Italy. The under 21 showcase has been hosted in Saudi Arabia the last few years, but it is leaving two years earlier than expected. We reached out to the ATP for confirmation of these reports and they said this further information regarding the location of the Next Gen ATP finals will be communicated in due course. We appreciate that insight. We will keep an eye on this story and keep you all posted onto set number four and the US Open just announced its newest official partner, the usta. And Aura, the smart ring company, announced a deal this week making Aura the official wearable of the US Open. Every player in the 2026 main draw will receive an OURA ring. The partnership is built around recovery, education, sleep tracking and helping players manage the load of a slam fortnite, per an article published by the Sports Business Journal. This also locks Aura in as a USTA coaching education partner, meaning the data those rings collect will feed into how the USTA develops the next wave of American players. Now here is a wrinkle. A lot of these players already have personal deals with other wearable brands. You may remember the Australian Open controversy earlier this year when they asked top players to remove their whoop devices mid match. Since then, both the French Open and Wimbledon announced wearables would be allowed during play in the 2026 tournaments. And now here's the USTA pushing it even further with a tournament and federation wide partnership waiting to hear if the Australian Open will change their policies heading into 2027. And finally set number five, where we have more news coming out of college tennis. Some Good, Some Bad let's start with the bad. Last week Arkansas announced it is dropping both its men's and women's programs at the end of this spring season. This week, Illinois State announced it's dropping its men's program but keeping the women's program. More than a dozen Division 1 schools now have cut their tennis programs since 2023. Okay, now on to the good ish side of the story. The NCAA Division 1 Tennis Championships start today with regional rounds kicking off across the country. Now get this Arkansas. The program that just got the rug pulled out from under it is in the men's bracket. The Razorbacks earned an at large bid and will face off in Round one against Cornell in Fort Worth today. So this apparently is going to be the last ride for the Arkansas tennis program. If I'm being honest, I am channeling hard the positive energy for this to turn into a Hollywood ready story where the Razorbacks go on a run to the finals and save their program. I might just be going full woo pig sui this weekend. But sadly, before we go all hog heaven on witnessing the start of a potential Cinderella story, we can't actually watch all the early rounds of the NCAA Tennis Championships. ESPN doesn't pick up the coverage until the quarterfinals on May 14. Could you imagine the opening rounds of the NCAA Basketball Tournament not being broadcast anyways, since the information on how to watch the national Championships is harder to find than the Templars treasure in a Nick Cage movie newsletter, Megan did some digging so you don't have to, and posted a full guide on how to follow the early rounds and beyond in today's email newsletter. Check it out and support these players and programs. And that leads us to our tiebreak trivia. Speaking of the NCAA, last year's Next Gen ATP Finals featured eight of the world's best players under 21. Here is the question how many of those players had previously played college tennis in the ncaa? We will have the answer for you in this week's five setter newsletter. Plus more stories that didn't make it into this episode, including the pop up court trend hitting Rome right now. To sign up, head to servepodcast.com or find us on Substack. Remember to hit subscribe on YouTube or follow follow us on your favorite podcast platform. As always, thank you to the Serve team for making this possible and I will see you chuckers on Tuesday.