Rune defeated Acre to win the 500th championship, Ao Fat and Saba competed for Porsche, and Zheng Qinwen drew the bitter master again

Three minutes a day, knowing about tennis in the world. Hello fans, today is Monday, April 21, 2025, and welcome to the afternoon newsletter brought to you by Home of Tennis.

Last night, Beijing time, the two ATP 500 tournaments ended one after another, and the champions belonged to each other. Barcelona: Sixth seed and Danish rising star Rune was in red-hot form, beating top seed and homegrown Spanish star Alcaraz 7-6(6) 6-2 to end his 14-match winning streak and his recent nine-bout winning streak to claim his first career ATP 500 title.

In this tournament, Rune defeated two TOP10 in a row, breaking a two-year title drought, and the world ranking will return to the top 10 this week. The defeated Arca revealed after the match that he had a problem with the adductor muscle in his right leg in the second set of the match, and today he will have an MRI to clarify the injury and determine whether to play in the Madrid Masters, which starts this Wednesday.

Munich: Top seed Zverev Jr. of Germany put in a brilliant 6-2 6-4 win over second seed and rising American Shelton to be crowned treble winner on his 28th birthday. This is the 24th overall tour title of Xiao Ziwei's career and her ninth on clay.

Women's Field: In the WTA 500 Stuttgart singles semi-finals, Latvian star Ostapenko continued her hot streak, defeating Russian Alexandrova 6-4 6-4 to reach her second tour final of the year and 18th career overall, and will challenge for her ninth singles title.

In the other match, top seed and world No.1 Sabalenka defeated fifth seed and Italian tinker Paulini 7-5 6-4 to win eight straight matches to reach her fifth tournament title match this year and 36th career overall. Ao Fat and Saba, who can drive the beautiful Porsche sports car in the end? The answer will be revealed tonight.

In the Women's Doubles final, the Chinese and Russian pair Zhang Shuai/Alexandrova lost 3-6 3-6 to top seeds Dabrowski/Lutliff.

WTA 250 Rouen: Top seed Svitolina saved two set points in the second set to defeat third seed Serbian Danilovic 6-4 7-6(8) to lift the trophy for the first time in two years. This is the 7th crown of Ukrainian cabbage on clay, and it continues to hold the perfect record of 100% win rate in clay finals.

Let's focus on this week's events. Last night, Beijing time, WTA1000 Madrid announced the singles main draw table. Zheng Qinwen, the No. 8 seed and China's No. 1 sister, was once again drawn in the same quarter as world No. 1 Sabalenka. The specific alignment of the top eight seeds is: in the upper half, Sabalenka - Zheng Qinwen, Pegula - Bolini; In the bottom half, Milla Andreeva - Gauff, Keith - Swiatek.

In the specific draw table, Zheng Qinwen has a bye in the first round, and will face the winner between Russian Potapova and American Kruger in the second round. Another Chinese player, Wang Xinyu, has been drawn to the top two-quarters of the bracket and is expected to win in the first round against Greek sister Sakkari, who has been in a slump of form recently.

Finally, let's guess and recognize. The image below is a player taking a selfie in front of the camera. Can you recognize who she is without prompting?

In the last guess, some golfers gave the correct answer. That's right, the person in the picture is the famous Kazakhstani player Rybakina.

(Source: Tennis Home Author: Maverick)