Winners of the week
Tomas Machac became the first Czech man to break into the Top 20 since Tomas Berdych in 2018 when he captured the first ATP title of his career after defeating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, 7-6 (6), 6-2, in the final of the ATP 500 tournament in Acapulco on Saturday night.
Coming into the tournament, he otherwise had the dubious honor of being the highest ranked player on the ATP Tour never to have won a title but that questionable honor now belongs to No. 33-ranked Matteo Arnaldi.
Machac wasn't the only player looking for his first ATP title in Mexico, as Davidovich Fokina was in the same category. But while the Spaniard managed to book his ticket to just one final in the first 117 tour-level events, he played in his career (at Monte Carlo in 2022), Davidovich Fokina will now look to make an impact at Indian Wells and Miami on the back of having reached his second and third career ATP final at back-to-back tournaments, at Delray Beach (where he lost to Miomir Kecmanovic) and now Acapulco.
After a troubled start to the new season where he lost in the first round of the Australian Open (to Alex Michelsen), Stefanos Tsitsipas returned to the Top 10 for the first time since Roland Garros last year when he defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3, 6-3 in Dubai to claim the first ATP 500 title of his career. It was a bit of a milestone for the Greek contender after he had previous reached no less than 11 ATP finals at that same level, and lost them all!
With two major U.S. events just around the corner, at least two American women will be bursting with confidence after Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro triumphed in Austin and Merida in the past week. Pegula will head into Indian Wells on a five-match unbeaten run on home soil after she captured her seventh career WTA Tour singles title at the ATX Open in Austin on Sunday by defeating McCartney Kessler 7-5, 6-2 in an all-American final.
Elsewhere World No. 10 Navarro was nearly flawless all week as she won her second and biggest title without dropping a set when she won the WTA 500 Merida Open Akron with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Colombian qualifier Emiliana Arango in Sunday's final.
Strugglers of the week
Always confident Holger Rune said at the beginning of the year that he was aiming to finish the year as No 1 in the rankings but if that is going to come true he will surely have to speed up as illness has so far totally derailed his 2025 season.
After getting the year off to a poor start with a first round loss to Jiri Lehecka in Brisbane, Rune showed signs of improvement when he reached the fourth round of the Australian Open where he failed to take advantage of a shaky performance from Jannik Sinner and lost in four sets.
He then looked completely out of sorts when he, despite having the luxury of playing in front of a passionate Danish crowd in the Davis Cup event against Serbia in Copenhagen, lost very surprisingly to Hamad Medjedovic. But that was only the start of his problems in a season that could see him tumbling down the rankings if he is unable to defend his points from last year in Indian Wells where he reached the quarter-final against Danill Medvedev.
He struggled with a case of the flu when he lost to the Spaniard Pedro Martinez in the last 16 in Rotterdam and had according to his own team not recovered sufficiently from his illness, when he lost in the first round in Buenos Aires to Mariano Navone who later reached the final.
He then decided to withdraw from the ATP tournament in Rio de Janeiro to get ready for Acapulco in the past week where he in the same fashion as Casper Ruud and Tommy Paul was struck down by food poisoning and had to abandon his match against old nemesis, Brandon Nakajima.
Moment of the Week
Felix Auger-Aliassime and Alexander Bublik were involved in a bizarre VAR review incident at the Dubai Championships involving a ball-kid which highlighted a strange sequence of play.
The two became embroiled in a heated argument after Auger-Aliassime attempted to reach a smash from Bublik at the back of the court in the first-set tiebreak and called for a replay when he tried to get to the ball, but felt he was hindered by a ball kid.
The umpire then asked for a review much to the disappointment of Bublik who felt that the Canadian world No.6 collided with the back wall and not the ball kid.
Bublik seemed unhappy with the decision, questioning why Auger-Aliassime should be permitted to try and replay the point.
When Auger-Aliassime gave his reasoning, Bublik hit back that the player had instead 'hit the fence' rather than the ball kid, adding: "Is it a review if you hit the fence?"
Auger-Aliassime pointed out that the ball kid had 'moved into it' before he had a chance to attempt the return.
'The fence is not moving, he moves into my way,' Auger-Aliassime argued.
The video review confirmed Auger-Aliassime's assessment, and forced a replay of the point but Bublik, frustrated by the whole process then quickly recovered the lost point as he wrong-footed Auger-Aliassime with an underarm serve ace. Auger-Aliassime, however, had the last laugh as he won the match 7-6(7), 6-7(4), 6-3.
Rallies of the week
Despite losing the final at the Dubai Championships to Tsitsipas, Auger-Aliassime produced arguably the shot of the day when he finished off a gruelling baseline duel with a brilliant cross-court forehand winner.
At the same tournament, Luca Nardi showed his incredibly touch when he after a poor dropshot produced a wonderful lob-winner when he was under significant pressure from Quentin Halys.
Upcoming events
Tennis returns to the American desert with the first combined WTA and ATP 1000 event of the year which takes place at the BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells.
Qualifying matches began on 2 March, with the main draw action commencing on Wednesday March 5. The tournament reaches its peak on Sunday March 16 when both the men's and women's singles finals will take place.
The 48th tour-level edition of the tournament will be headlined by Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek.