Will the Australian Open’s ground pass cap see other Grand Slams make crowding concessions?

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, a Grand Slam ticketing conundrum, a new title winner with a signature shot and a loophole that might need to be closed.

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Will one Grand Slam’s decision affect the tennis ticketing equation?

As Grand Slams keep racking up attendance records, the first of the year has made a small decision that could prove to be a seismic one.

The Australian Open will cap grounds pass allocations for 2027, on the back of a record-breaking 2026 event which saw just under 1,370,000 fans visit. The tournament announced the move last week, with Tennis Australia’s chief commercial officer Cedric Cornelis saying in a statement that “this decision reflects the growing popularity of the AO and will help ensure fans are able to make the most of everything on offer across the precinct.”

At last year’s event, a string of record-breaking attendance days put pressure on the tournament’s infrastructure, as well as on the thing that fans want to see: The tennis. Sales of grounds passes, which run $59 AUD (around $40) were paused on the first Sunday, but otherwise went unregulated, leading to lines stretching around field courts which do not have many vantage points for those who can’t find seats on the courts themselves. This effect was exaggerated when rising talents with fervent new fanbases, like Alex Eala of the Philippines and João Fonseca of Brazil, took the courts. On the first Thursday over 100,000 fans visited a complex which has around half that many fixed seats.

All four majors are navigating this balance. Increasing popularity and selling as many tickets as is possible boosts revenues; revenues can be used to reinvest in infrastructure and to make tournaments better in the ongoing arms race for supremacy between the four Grand Slams. It can also put pressure on the fan experience, though, especially because expanding the physical footprint of each tournament’s site to meet demand ranges from complex to almost impossible. The Australian Open has added balconies and courtside bars to create capacity above ground rather than across it in recent years.

Whether or not the other three majors follow the same plan — and what impact it will have on the 2027 edition of the Australian Open — remains to be seen. The main draws start January 17.

Why a champion with a one-handed backhand should not be put down to novelty

Austria’s Lilli Tagger won her first WTA Tour title at the Prague Open Sunday. Tagger, 18, defeated Daria Snigur of Ukraine 7-6(3), 6-2, coming from 4-1 down in the opening set to force a tiebreak and cruising from there.

Tagger’s performance was punctuated by a series of flashing one-handed backhand winners, putting more spotlight on the shot which makes her something of a unicorn on the WTA Tour. Her coach, Francesca Schiavone, remains the last women’s player to win a Grand Slam title with a one-handed backhand, which only makes the importance of the shot in Tagger’s game more compelling.

She even has a good story to explain her use of the shot, which has largely been jettisoned from both the men’s and women’s game because it can be easier to exploit using either high bounce or ball speed (or both) than a two-handed backhand. When Tagger was 10, coaches dissuaded her from switching from two hands to one.

So when she was 12, she made a bet with her coach at the time that if she won a tournament, they would make the switch. What the coach taking that bet says about their faith in Tagger, their belief in reverse psychology, or both is for another day, but she won and made the change.

If Tagger’s backhand has a downside beyond on-court stability it might be that its rarity and potential for dazzle obscures the reason why she is on the rise, having moved into the top 50 for the first time with her title in the Czech Republic. Tagger is just over 6 feet tall and still developing an already formidable serve. It was that shot and her follow-up forehand, far more than her backhand, that carried her to junior success, including winning the French Open girls’ singles title in 2025. Her height also softens the impact of any attempts to kick the ball out of her strike zone on the backhand side, which should let her protect it when needed.

So, herald Tagger and her one-hander — but don’t let it outshine the tools that are most likely to propel her to even greater things.

And a tennis rule with a loophole that needs closing?

The lucky loser is one of the funkier tennis concepts. Get knocked out of qualifying for a tournament, and whether by ranking, luck of a draw, some combination thereof — or just hanging around (depending on the event) a player can get a reprieve and find themselves in the first round. Sometimes, a player will defeat someone in qualifying, only to face them again in the first round of the main draw as a lucky loser.

But what about when a player goes out of qualifying in slightly different circumstances?

Cruz Hewitt, who the D.C. Open in Washington gave a canny wild card after the Australian’s run to the Wimbledon boys’ singles final, got through thanks to two consecutive wins over players who had to retire due to injury. The second was Zachary Svajda of the U.S., who could barely move during the third set of a 1-6, 7-6(3), 2-0 (RET) win for Hewitt, the son of two-time Grand Slam singles champion and former world No. 1 Lleyton.

Svajda duly retired from the match, but his retirement due to injury didn’t stop him from being in contention for a lucky loser spot. The same thing happened at the Los Cabos Open — Australia’s Bernard Tomic retired from his final round of qualifying, but entered the main draw as a lucky loser. This is not against any rules, but leaves a sour taste in fans’ mouths. Whether Svajda and Tomic can take advantage of their fortune remains to be seen.

— James Hansen

🏆 The winners of the week

🎾 ATP:

🏆 Quentin Halys def. Alexander Bublik (1) 6-4. 7-6(6) to win the Austrian Open Kitzbühel (250) in Kitzbühel, Austria. It is his first ATP Tour title.

🏆 Luca van Assche def. Alexander Blockx (4) 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to win the Estoril Open (250) in Estoril, Portugal. It is also his first ATP Tour title.

🎾 WTA:

🏆 Lilli Tagger def. Daria Snigur (8) 7-6(3), 6-2 to win the Prague Open (250) in Prague. It is her first WTA Tour title.

🏆 Tamara Korpatsch (5) def. Anna Bondár (4) 6-3, 6-3 to win the Hamburg Ladies Open (250) in Hamburg, Germany. It is her second WTA Tour title.

📈📉 On the rise / Down the line

📈 Lilli Tagger moves up 29 places from No. 74 to No. 45 after her title in Prague, a new career high.

📈 Luca van Assche ascends 30 spots from No. 78 to No. 48 after his title in Estoril, also a career high.

📈 Tamara Korpatsch joins Tagger and van Assche in reaching the top 50 for the first time, after rising 35 spots from No. 81 to No. 46, also a career high.

📈 Alexander Blockx rises six spots from No. 38 to No. 32 — also a career high.

📉 Corentin Moutet falls 17 places from No. 40 to No. 57.

📉 Leylah Fernandez drops nine places from No. 25 to No. 34.

📉 Damir Džumhur leaves the top 100, moving down 15 spots from No. 87 to No. 102.

📉 Taylor Townsend also leaves the top 100, dropping 22 spots from No. 83 to No. 105.

📅 Coming up

🎾 ATP

📍Washington: D.C. Open (500) featuring Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Jack Draper.

📍Los Cabos, Mexico: Los Cabos Open (250) featuring Denis Shapovalov, Moïse Kouame, Francisco Cerúndolo, Michael Zheng.

📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV

🎾 WTA

📍Washington: D.C. Open (500) featuring Jessica Pegula, Elina Svitolina, Naomi Osaka, Alex Eala.

📍Memphis, Tenn.: Memphis Open (250) featuring Ekaterina Alexandrova, McCartney Kessler, Maya Joint, Zeynep Sönmez.

📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel

Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men’s and women’s tours continue.

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