Who's Next After Sinner and Alcaraz? A Stuttgart Classic, and a Madrid Without Its Headliners
S3:E19 recap. Shelton and Fils make a play for the third spot, Rybakina collects another Porsche, and Madrid arrives without Alcaraz or Djokovic.
I was away this week, so Nick took the mini pod solo. What he walked into was one of the loudest weeks of the clay swing: four tournaments, a second Porsche in Elena Rybakina's garage, a match that nearly ended her run in Stuttgart, a Shelton title on European clay, and a Madrid draw that lost both Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic before a ball was hit. Running underneath all of it is the question that will follow this whole clay season: who is next in line behind Sinner and Alcaraz?
Stuttgart, as always, delivered
The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix has quietly become one of the best weeks on the WTA calendar. Indoors, top-heavy, glossy, and almost every match means something. This year did not break the streak. Elena Rybakina won her second title in Stuttgart and her second Porsche, beating Karolina Muchova in the final after controlling most of it.
The match everyone will remember is the quarterfinal. Leylah Fernandez at her best is one of the most fun players on tour, and she played to that level against Rybakina. She served for the match at 5-4 in the decider, held a match point in the deciding tiebreak at 6-5, and still lost. Rybakina played some of the returns of her season to stay alive, and the whole thing rolled into the night. If that one ends up in the women's match of the year conversation in December, no one should be surprised.
The other big storyline was Karolina Muchova finally beating Coco Gauff. Muchova dropped the second set, reset, and closed out 6-4 in the third. It snaps a head-to-head that had been one-way traffic and confirms what the Ground Pass instinct has been saying for a while: when Muchova is healthy, she is a top-five level player on shot-making alone. She has now collected wins over Sabalenka, Swiatek, Rybakina and Gauff in recent memory. Confidence ranking right now: third in the world, maybe higher.
Mirra Andreeva kept her clay run going too. She beat Iga Swiatek in a three-setter where every service game seemed to go to deuce, then pushed Rybakina for a set in the semifinal. Andreeva loves clay, and she loves Madrid. Nick has her as a player to back for the next month.
Rouen, and a name worth writing down
Marta Kostyuk won the WTA 250 in Rouen and picked up the first Player of the Fortnight honor of the year. The final was the first all-Ukrainian WTA final, and her opponent is the name to learn: Veronika Podrez, 19, just broken into the top 200, and a fighter in the way most Ukrainian players seem to be. Katie Boulter had a solid run before losing to Podrez. File Podrez next to our ongoing bets on talent coming through early: like Jodar, like Fonseca, like Lilli Tagger. Sometimes we will be right. Sometimes we will be early. That's the job.
Barcelona, without Carlos
Carlos Alcaraz pulled out of Barcelona mid-tournament with a wrist issue after winning his first round against Otto Virtanen, and he has now withdrawn from Madrid as well. Hard to argue with the call when Roland Garros is the priority, but it does take a real layer of heat out of the Madrid draw and pushes the world number one question further away from him for now.
The winner in Barcelona was Arthur Fils, who beat Andrey Rublev in a straight-sets final. This might be the piece of the clay season we pay the most attention to. If Fils avoids a Sinner or Alcaraz quarter at Roland Garros, a deep run is very much on the table. French crowd, rising form, big personality, big athletic game. He is the person to slot in right behind Sinner and Alcaraz for Paris.
Rafael Jodar also kept building. He took out Cameron Norrie, pushed Fils to a competitive match, and he already has the Marrakech title in his pocket. This is the kind of quiet, stacking clay résumé that turns into a top 50 ranking by summer.
And Ethan Quinn broke the top 50. The OFF SEASON effect keeps showing up on the leaderboard.
Munich, and a clay dog
Ben Shelton won Munich. On clay. On European clay. He beat Flavio Cobolli in the final, and Cobolli had taken out Alexander Zverev on the way through. Shelton is not someone we usually associate with the surface, but what he showed this week was pure athletic ability applied to a game that normally runs through his serve. He is only 24, which is the single biggest reason to believe he has more longevity inside the big American group than Fritz, Tiafoe or Paul. Clay dog Shelton feels like a real thing now.
Joao Fonseca made the quarters in Munich before losing to Shelton. He is also in line to like Madrid: altitude clay, South American upbringing, a game made for conditions that reward the bigger hit.
The off-court story
Marketa Vondrusova is under a doping investigation, not because of a positive test, but because she failed to provide a sample. In her own words, she is dealing with anxiety and did not realize the person at the door was from the testing authority. The rules around missed tests exist for good reasons. So does sensitivity for the person in front of you. A reduced consequence feels like the fair outcome here, both for her and for the sport.
What we are watching in Madrid
Madrid is a full two-week 1000 with a mini-slam feel. Women start Tuesday, men start Wednesday. Defending champions are Aryna Sabalenka and Casper Ruud. Sabalenka has won three of the last five editions. If she is feeling it, this tournament could run through her. Muchova is out. Alcaraz and Djokovic are out. Which leaves the door open for Fonseca, Fils, Shelton and Jodar on the ATP side, and for a Sabalenka-Rybakina conversation on the WTA side that has slowly become the conversation of 2026.
I'm back for the main episode next Sunday, about halfway through Madrid. Until then, send me your Player of the Fortnight by Sunday on any of our socials.
