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, there was a drama over footwear, a champion hit back at her critics and a sobering message from an all-time great.

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Why did broken shoelaces take over a match?

As Rafael Jódar dropped his racket to the ground and pointed to his ears, fans at the Cincinnati Open rose to acclaim a stunning comeback.

Jódar, the 19-year-old Spaniard who has cut a swath through the ATP Tour this year, recovered from 5-1 down in the deciding set of his second-round match against Canada’s Denis Shapovalov to record a thrilling 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 win. He had been cramping. He had appeared physically spent.

But most controversially, he had changed his shoes — twice.

Jódar’s shoelaces broke when he was 4-1 and 5-3 down in the final set. On the first occasion, Shapovalov was serving. On the second, Jódar was serving. The first stoppage was relatively quick, as Jódar slipped an insole into a fresh shoe and then laced it up, but the second took much longer, to Shapovalov’s chagrin, because of an issue with an insole that Jódar’s father and coach, Rafael Sr., ended up having to insert at the side of the court.

Equipment timeouts are allowed and playing on with a broken shoelace can be dangerous for players. If they slide on hard courts, the design of some shoes — Jódar’s are Adidas Adizero Ubersonics — means that the laces can scrape over the surface and thus wear down and then break. Jódar, who drags the side of his back foot when he slides forward, has a sliding technique that can exacerbate this.

But equipment timeouts also exist in the realm of tennis dark arts, because the sport is so subject to shifts in momentum. Slowing a match down, whether to fix a lace or some other damaged article of clothing or equipment, can be seen as breaking an opponent’s rhythm. Shapovalov was unimpressed not just by Jódar’s second shoelace change, but by the fact that he was towelling his face and drinking water while doing it, which is not permitted.

He then discussed the incidents with Jódar at their handshake — though any shoe-related controversy should not overshadow losing six games in a row against a tiring opponent.

Jódar is also a serial lace breaker, with the same issue happening at the D.C. Open against Taylor Fritz and the Canadian Open against Brandon Nakashima. After the win over Shapovalov, he pledged to have more shoes with fresh laces ready in the future, but it’s unlikely to stop the noise after the next incident.

— James Hansen

How did a champion answer her critics — and a couple of memes?

The eye-test and the numbers say that since 2022, when she is on, Iga Świątek is better at tennis than any woman on earth. Good luck to the rest of the field when she’s spotting her serve and not rushing to try to slam every ball and end every point as quickly as possible.

That was the version of Świątek that showed up at the Canadian Open last week. She took some time off after a tough third-round loss at Wimbledon to Alex Eala, and arrived on the practice court with her coach, Francisco Roig, ready to try to find her best tennis self once more.

“I came back on courts much fresher and much more open to trying new stuff,” Świątek said during a roundtable with journalists at the Cincinnati Open Friday afternoon.

“We had like, two weeks I would say and then I came to Toronto and the work that we’ve done there for sure was a key to play better at this tournament and to play a game that is more patient.  I was able to grind more, be more solid, and at the end, that’s what paid off.”

It certainly did. Świątek mostly eased to the title, but when she faced adversity against Marta Kostyuk and Elina Svitolina — two of the form players of 2026 — she found her solidity and let her opponents make mistakes, rather than making them herself by trying to be more aggressive.

Świątek commemorated her title with a number of social media posts, one of which saw her play along with a meme that the WTA Tour and Tennis Channel had deployed on social media last week. The tour and broadcaster used “kinda chic to …”, the online phrase of the summer, to celebrate women’s players, including Coco Gauff’s two Grand Slam titles and Aryna Sabalenka’s world No. 1 ranking.

In the case of six-time Grand Slam champion Świątek, who has more weeks at world No. 1 and more titles than either player, Tennis Channel wrote: “Kinda chic to be a Swiftie”, in relevance to Taylor Swift. The WTA chose to highlight Świątek’s use of “jazda”, the Polish version of “allez”, “vamos” and “let’s go.”

Świątek’s version was a little different:

Świątek, who is one of those players with so many weapons at her disposal and an ability to play so many different ways that she can have hard time figuring out the best way to win, has been trying to bring back the controlled aggressiveness that defined her early domination on the WTA Tour since late 2024, when she hired Wim Fissette as her coach.

They spent their time together trying to get her to play with more spin, shape and patience. Grind a little more, open up the court, and go for the high-margin targets. The strategy peaked last year at Wimbledon. Then, too, Świątek was open to a different approach because she had had so little success on the grass before.

She listened. It worked. But she and Fissette also went through the hardest part of changing style — trying to override ingrained habits and instincts under pressure — and it resulted in some difficult losses. Roig came in early in 2026, and has built on the work between Fissette and Świątek even further.

— Matt Futterman

What makes Ben Shelton a force to be reckoned with in Canada?

Brandon Nakashima earned himself some major brownie points with the Canadian Open crowd in Montreal Thursday, by saying in his runner-up speech that he prefers the French-speaking city to Toronto.

Ben Shelton has no such partiality. As the back-to-back champion, he’s perfectly happy to beat up on his competition in either city.

Shelton said Canada suits his game because as far as hard courts go, they’re fairly slow in both Toronto and Montreal (the cities alternate hosting the men and women’s events of the tournament every year) which makes his lefty serve particularly troublesome way for his opponents. They also give him more time from the baseline, but Shelton said after defeating Nakashima that during his win last year in Toronto, he didn’t feel like he had that time.

This year in Montreal felt much more like a step toward where he wants to be.

“I think last year I definitely won the tournament the hard way. I wasn’t focused the whole time. I had ups and downs throughout the week, throughout different matches. Had my back against the wall a lot of times. I found a way to scrap it out. I was doing a lot of running back at the back fence,” he said in a news conference Thursday.

“This win is a lot more satisfying. Obviously last year, to fight the way I did was pretty crazy to end that tournament with a title. I’m not exactly sure how it ended up that way. But to do it the way I did it this year, without a shadow of a doubt, feels a lot better.”

The cornerstone of Shelton’s game is his cracking serve, but he knows that in order to one day win Grand Slam titles, he has to become a better returner. In Montreal, he returned better than he has all year thanks in part to a more aggressive baseline position and, according to Shelton, better focus.

He won 33 percent of his return games in Montreal according to analytics compiled by Courtside Advantage, a whopping improvement compared to 14 percent over the last 52 weeks (the ATP tour average is 19 percent). He won 41 percent of his return points, up from 35 percent on the rest of the year and 34 percent of return points against his opponents’ first serves, up from 23 percent.

That was in large part because he was taking a bigger cut at his opponents’ serves and hitting more returns deeper into the court than usual. That helped him in another category — he won 51 percent of break points compared to 37 percent on the year, which is also the tour average.

As for his groundstrokes, Shelton did more damage from the back of the court while staying true to his all-court game, winning 56 percent of points where both players were standing on the baseline at the end compared to his 48 percent average for the year.

The field in Montreal was softer than what he’ll face at a Grand Slam — the highest-ranked player Shelton played was then-No. 17 Jakub Menšík — but in a situation where conditions were perfect for Shelton to dominate, he did, and he did so playing exactly the game he wanted.

Shelton hadn’t been able to do that all year, despite the three trophies he’d won before arriving in Canada. That should be a big boost of confidence with the U.S. Open looming.

— Ava Wallace

And how will Novak Djokovic arrive at this year’s U.S. Open?

Novak Djokovic knows opportunities when he sees them.

Carlos Alcaraz hasn’t played since April because of an injured wrist. Jannik Sinner’s knee forced him to pull out of the Cincinnati Open. This could be a wide-open U.S. Open.

So there was Djokovic in southern Ohio last week for the first time in three years. The last time he played Cincinnati, he won it — and also won the U.S. Open — defeating Carlos Alcaraz in a sweat-soaked endurance test for the ages in the former final.

 “As far as my preparation goes for New York, this is great. Being able to participate at least in one tournament — a strong tournament — play one or more matches, hopefully more than one, get myself going,” a tanned and rested Djokovic said in a roundtable Thursday afternoon. 

Well, that didn’t go so well.

Djokovic started strong Saturday, but world No. 50 Thiago Tirante of Agrentina came back and got the better of him, winning 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Djokovic appeared to vomit twice, with a service hold that took nearly 18 minutes early in the second set sapping much of his energy,

After the match, Djokovic, 39, said that an unspecified “health condition”has been exacerbating the impact of heat stress on his body and on his tennis in recent years.

Now what? It’s doubtful Djokovic will rush into a spot at the ATP 250 Winston-Salem Open in North Carolina next week. He’s scheduled to play mixed doubles with Sabalenka in the U.S. Open competition, which starts on Aug. 25. That might just be the best place to get going.

— Matt Futterman

Shot of the week

The revving forehand that defines Iga Świątek’s best tennis was on full display at the Canadian Open, including during the final against Elena Rybakina. This looping winner caught the world No. 2 by surprise …

But for sheer artistry, Mattia Bellucci’s no-look underarm serve against Jakub Menšík is the winner. The Italian did it with such sprezzatura that his Czech opponent didn’t even move:

🏆 The winners of the week

🎾 ATP: 

🏆 Ben Shelton (5) def. Brandon Nakashima (28) 6-3, 7-6(4) to win the Canadian Open (1,000) in Place. It is Shelton’s fourth title of 2026.

🎾 WTA:

🏆 Iga Świątek (7) def. Elena Rybakina (2) 6-2, 6-3 to win the Canadian Open (1,000) in Place. It is Świątek’s 26th tour title.

📅 Coming up

🎾 ATP 

📍Mason, Ohio: Cincinnati Open (1,000) featuring Alexander Zverev, Félix Auger-Aliassime, Rafael Jódar, Arthur Fils.

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

🎾 WTA

📍Mason, Ohio: Cincinnati Open (1,000) featuring Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Iga Świątek, Coco Gauff.

📺 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.

Tommy John was on the phone to deliver the kind of heat at age 72 that he did not throw decades earlier from the mound. This was October 2015, after agent Scott Boras had tried and failed to compel the New York Mets to limit their ace, Matt Harvey, to 180 innings that year.

On the eve of Harvey’s Game 3 start against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Division Series, I asked the left-hander with 288 big-league victories over 26 years what he thought Harvey, a graduate of Tommy John surgery, should have done when Boras prioritized his client’s right elbow over the Mets’ championship aims.

“I would have called Scott and said, ‘Sit down and shut your f—ing mouth. You work for me, and I’ll tell you what to do,’” John shot back before simmering down, temporarily, and conceding that he knew the agent was only trying to protect Harvey’s future earnings and that he, too, would have wanted Boras to represent him in his prime.

“But he can’t see the future …” John continued. “In the 13 years after I had the surgery, I never missed a start. Never had any arm pain. None.”

Over this lengthy conversation with a man I had never covered, a remarkable pitcher who died Saturday at 83, John opened a window on his competitive soul that helped explain how he had claimed 164 of his victories after the landmark 1974 surgery — performed by Dr. Frank Jobe — that quite literally changed the game.

John was a 13-3 starter for the Dodgers in the summer of 1974 when he threw a pitch to Hal Breeden of the Montreal Expos that, he said, left him feeling as if his left arm had detached from his body and gone sailing off into the outfield. John responded to that uniquely painful sensation by actually throwing another pitch before realizing something was terribly wrong.

Jobe famously rebuilt his ulnar collateral ligament with a wrist tendon, and John famously handled the rest. He had made his major-league debut as a 20-year-old with Cleveland in 1963, during the final months of President John F. Kennedy’s life, and yet was still pitching as a New York Yankee in the first months of President George H.W. Bush’s administration in 1989, becoming the oldest winning Opening Day starter ever as he approached his 46th birthday. In the game’s modern era, only Nolan Ryan played more seasons (27) than John did.

But his durability wasn’t defined by Ryan-like velocity or anything remotely close to it. To watch John pitch was to wonder how it was possible he could be so good for so long. He didn’t strike out many hitters, and he didn’t move with the easy athleticism you might expect from a basketball prospect out of the Hoosier state, Indiana, who fielded numerous Division I offers.

The sinkerballer instead beat people with his willpower and guile. He became what the Yankees called Sunday “a bedrock of our rotation” and, despite failing to win a World Series ring, finished his career with a record of 6-3 and an ERA of 2.65 in 14 postseason games.

STATEMENT FROM THE NEW YORK YANKEES:

“The New York Yankees mourn the passing of Tommy John, who was a bedrock of our rotation during his time in pinstripes and a longtime favorite of Yankees fans. While his incredible longevity and post-surgery achievements changed the fortunes… pic.twitter.com/p6ndlBxUTb

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 16, 2026

Most impressively, after the surgery cost him all of 1975, John pitched 1,182 innings over the next five seasons, including 207 in ’76. This was why, in our 2015 interview, he said he couldn’t accept Boras’ push for the Harvey limit (the Mets’ ace ultimately pitched a combined 216 regular-season and postseason innings that year before losing much of the following season to surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome) or the Nationals’ choice in 2012 to bench another client returning from Tommy John surgery, Stephen Strasburg, after 159.1 innings logged for a playoff-bound team.

“Dr. Jobe told everyone that the longer you go without any post-op setbacks, the less chance you have of getting injured,” John said. “That doesn’t mean Matt Harvey won’t get hurt; nobody can guarantee that. But I would’ve been so pissed off if I were busting my butt on that Nationals ballclub when Strasburg was shut down.

“If Matt’s not hurting, he needs to pitch as hard as he can for as long as he can. Don’t abuse him, but pitch him. It’s the playoffs. His team hasn’t been to the World Series in 15 years, and this is what he’s been wanting to do his entire life. We’re all actors, and right now he’s on center stage. He’s got all winter to rest his arm. It’s time to perform.”

After Harvey successfully lobbied manager Terry Collins to let him carry a 2-0 lead over Kansas City into the ninth inning of Game 5 of the World Series, the Royals tied it and eventually eliminated the Mets in the 12th. Harvey was never the same ace again.

But this isn’t about whether Tommy John was right or wrong about Harvey and Strasburg or any other pitcher whose career was rescued by the surgery bearing his name. It’s about John’s inner fire. He was a flamethrower without the radar-gun readings to show for it.

He spoke that day about what Harvey should do in his Division Series start if he faced the Dodgers’ Chase Utley, whose dirty Game 2 slide into the Mets’ Ruben Tejada had broken the second baseman’s leg. John said Harvey should publicly threaten “to get that SOB and get him good” to rattle Utley and then to avoid hitting him — to help the Mets’ chances of winning. (Utley didn’t end up playing in Game 3.)

John’s reasoning? In 1968, after the Tigers’ Dick McAuliffe charged the White Sox lefty and separated his shoulder, John went on the record with a promise to seek retribution ASAP.

“And I never threw at him, ever,” John said. “All I wanted to do was put doubt in his mind, to have him thinking, ‘Is he going to get me this at-bat or the next at-bat?’ McAuliffe never did much against me after that.”

In his goodbye letter that the Yankees shared on Aug. 8, Old Timers’ Day, John wrote that on the day he left home to start his career as a pro, his father told him, “Whether you make it in the big leagues or you don’t, you’ll always just be Tommy John from Terre Haute, Indiana.”

But he made it in the biggest markets in the sport — Chicago, Los Angeles, New York — and finished with more victories than any modern pitcher not in the Hall of Fame other than Roger Clemens. John was also tough enough to forever own a career-saving operation that has allowed so many injured baseball stars to continue playing the game at the highest level.

So in his dying days, when Tommy John told his fans, “I will never forget you,” here’s hoping he understood that sentiment works both ways.