Winners of the week
Jannik Sinner can surely laugh all the way to the bank after he defeated Carlos Alcaraz in the Six Kings Slam final for the second successive year, winning $6 million in the process.
The two players have split the four Grand Slam titles between them this season, but on Sunday, Sinner dominated proceedings from the start against Alcaraz who admitted that the Italian was just "too good" on the day.
Six of the world's top men's players competed at the somewhat controversial three-day exhibition event in Riyadh that did not count towards the ATP rankings, and all players at the event earned at least $1.5 million just for their participation.
In Ningbo, Elena Rybakina secured her milestone 10th career WTA title and her second of the season, when she won nine consecutive games between the second and the third set to claim the title, by defeating Ekaterina Alexandrova 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 in just under two hours.
The main reason for Rybakina's win was the fact that she landed no less than 61% of her first serves and won 88% of those. Alexandrova was only able to generate just three break points during the match as Rybakina fired 11 aces, many of them during key moments.
976 miles east of Ningbo, Leylah Fernandez earned her fifth WTA title on Sunday in Osaka by winning the Japan Open, defeating 18-year-old Tereza Valentova 6-0, 5-7, 6-3 in 2 hours and 11 minutes.
It was Valentova's first-ever WTA final after she came through qualifying, earning six wins on the week. Three of those were against top 50 opponents, including a straight-sets victory over No. 3 seed and world No. 21 Elise Mertens in the second round.
Former World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev won his first ATP title since May 2023 on Sunday when he defeated France's Corentin Moutet 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 at the Almaty Open final in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The second-seeded Medvedev, 29, now has 21 tour titles to his name, and the triumph allowed Medvedev to move up three spots to No. 12 in ATP Live Race To Turin, as he trails Lorenzo Musetti by 875 points.
In Stockholm, Casper Ruud became the first Norwegian to triumph at the BNP Paribas Nordic Open, when he got the better of Ugo Humbert 6-2, 6-3 in the final.
"I am really happy to win here in Stockholm, and it is a little bit of a childhood dream as it is close to Norway, and all the legends have played here in the past. Federer, Nadal, Borg, McEnroe, you name it. So it is an honour to get a title here", said Ruud after the match.
Finally, in Brussels, the 25-year-old Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime celebrated just getting married when he topped Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic 7-6(2), 6-7(7), 6-2 to win the hard-court ATP 250 tournament.
Struggler of the week
Emma Raducanu was forced to bring an early end to her season following physical struggles in China, as the British No. 1 still can't seem to recover the level that won her the US Open in 2021.
Raducanu retired during the second set of her match against Ann Li in Wuhan last week when she suffered from dizziness in the hot and humid temperatures. Raducanu later recovered and opted to play the Ningbo Open this week, but was clearly not 100% and again lost in her opening match.
Since August, Raducanu has linked up with Francisco Roig, the long-time former coach of Rafael Nadal. Incredibly, Roig is her 10th coach since her impressive US Open triumph, as she repeatedly continues to switch between a mix of top WTA Tour coaches and familiar childhood mentors.
Raducanu has previously conceded that her "challenging" questions are likely one significant factor in her mentors' departures. "It's something that I've always done. I keep provoking and asking questions to coaches and challenging their thinking as well.
"I'm not someone that you can just tell me what to do and I'll do it, I need to understand why and then I'll do it."
Moment of the week
Coach Lars Christensen and mother Anneke Rune looked on in disbelief when Holger Rune on Saturday suffered a complete rupture of his Achilles tendon during his semi-final at the Nordic Open against the Frenchman Ugo Humbert.
At 2-2 in the second set, after Rune had won the first, Rune scrambled to retrieve the ball, but as he went to hit it, he made a curious jump, and immediately clutched at his lower left leg before signaling to his box that he was unable to continue.
A devastated Rune limped to the side of the court and elevated his leg on his racket bag. During the medical assessment, Rune told the physio that he heard a pop near his Achilles tendon and, of course, retired from the match.
On Sunday, Rune confirmed that he had ruptured his Achilles tendon in a social media post and that he is forced to have surgery. It was the latest twist to a faltering season for the charismatic Dane, who has been forced to withdraw from matches and tournaments more than any other player on the ATP Tour due to physical problems.
Rallies of the week
Ruud underlined that you should never count him down and out when he chased down a strong volley from Humbert in the Nordic Open final to surprise the Frenchman with an incredible forehand winner.
The Belgian Raphael Collignon brought the local crowd to their feet in Brussels when he refused to surrender during this point against tournament winner Auger-Aliassime and eventually won the point despite being put under tremendous pressure.
Upcoming events
Sinner, Medvedev, Karen Khachanov, Lorenzo Musetti, Andrey Rublev, and Alexander Bublik will feature in the lineup at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna, which is usually among the strongest ATP 500 draws of the year.
Not far from there in Basel, Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz, and Ruud, among others, will aim to make the most of the missing presence of Sinner and Alcaraz to boost their confidence ahead of the season finals in Turin.
With the WTA finals just 11 days away, Mirra Andreeva will look to the Japan Open as her final chance to book a ticket for Riyadh. The WTA calendar also features a 250 tournament this week, taking place in Guangzhou.
Check out the full schedule for tournaments in Vienna, Basel, Tokyo, and Guangzhou via the links.