World Tennis League's first season wraps up in Dubai

On Christmas Eve in Dubai, the World Tennis League’s debut season came to an end. The mixed duo of Dominic Thiem and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of the Hawks clinched their team’s 32-25 victory with a 7-6 (4), 6-3 win over Sania Mirza and Holger Rune, representing the Kites.

How best to describe this kind of event? View it as a blend of World Team Tennis and the Hopman Cup: a fast-paced, co-ed team competition, offering such departures from convention as no-ad scoring and an eye-straining goldenrod court. It added up to a co-ed all-star game—a chance for a flock of world-class players to enjoy themselves, showcase their skills, compete in a way that carries zero consequence, and savor the rare opportunity to join forces with various peers who usually perform as solo acts. It made for quite a relaxing time. After all, where else would you see the usually laser-focused Iga Swiatek, following a singles loss, don a Santa Claus hat to cheer on her teammates for the remaining two matches?

Swiatek’s defeat had come at the hands of Elena Rybakina. This was an intriguing matchup between two superb practitioners of contemporary power tennis. While Swiatek had shown wire-to-wire brilliance all year, most notably by winning at Roland Garros and the US Open, Rybakina’s bright shining moment had come on tennis' biggest stage, when she’d taken the title at Wimbledon. Long-term performance favored Swiatek. But on this occasion, Rybakina was the one thoroughly in control. After taking a 3-0 lead to start, Rybakina lost the next three games, but then snapped back into from, closing out the set with an ace, sliced wide in the deuce court. The second set went even faster. One minute past the hour mark, Rybakina had fought off eight of nine break points, earned a 6-3, 6-1 victory, and put her Hawks team ahead of Swiatek’s Kites, 12-4.

Then came the men’s singles, Felix Auger-Aliassime from the Kites versus Alexander Zverev of the Hawks. Wins earlier in this week over Novak Djokovic and Andreas Seppi demonstrated how far Zverev has come since tearing ligaments in his ankle this past June. But the challenge of an in-form Auger-Aliassime revealed how far he still needs to go. The match began with several crackling rallies, each player smooth, powerful and able to dictate off both sides. As matters progressed, Auger-Aliassime’s movement and precision—particularly off the forehand—was putting him in charge of more rallies. With Zverev serving at 4-4, 40-30, Auger-Aliassime played a great drop shot to level the game and then, on the no-ad point, broke serve with a superb volley. Auger-Aliassime then played a solid game to finish the set and remained in control throughout the second. The Canadian’s 6-4, 6-3 victory made the team score far closer, the Hawks now narrowly ahead, 19-16.

The presence of mixed doubles as the decider was a reminder of one of tennis’ most distinct assets: No other sport features men and women competing alongside one another. The quartet in action for this match covered a wide range of skills and stories. For the Hawks, seeking to extend their lead and celebrate Christmas as champions, there was solid veteran Pavlyuchenkova, partnered alongside Thiem, the sizzling shot-maker who over the last two years has grappled with everything from the emotional fallout of his 2020 US Open win to a wrist injury. The Kites featured a mix of old and new—longstanding excellent doubles player Mirza and rapidly rising teen, Rune.

As expected, this match featured one sparkling shot after another. Pavlyuchenkova revealed some touch and variety not frequently seen in her singles matches. Rune, smiling constantly, showed off everything from his superb footspeed to slick volley skills. Mirza’s forehand and volleys had their moments. But for the Kites to make a competitive go of it, Rune and Mirza needed to grab the first set. And no one kept that from happening more emphatically than a highly energized Thiem. Serving in the first set at 4-5, 15-30, the Austrian chased down a lob and then whipped a forehand crosscourt passing shot by Mirza. Soon the set went to a tiebreaker, where Thiem was also the commanding figure, he and Pavlyunchenkova capturing it, 7-4. The two broke early in the second and stayed in charge. Serving at 5-3, 40-15, Thiem struck a service winner down the T to wrap up the match.

Seeing Thiem in charge this way was a reminder of the kind of magnetic, attentive tennis he can play. One hopes that continues in 2023.

Events like the World Tennis League also work as laboratories, testing grounds for ideas worth considering at other events. For example, why not more mixed at such dual-gender tournaments as Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, and others? On the other hand, we’ll likely only see Swiatek wear a Santa Claus hat once a year. Then again, never say never.