Daily Dose of Social Media: WTA Stars shine at Ningbo Open Party, Genie Bouchard new chapter at the PPA Tour

Today in our Daily Dose of Social Media, we review the most significant activities and entertainment from ATP and WTA players. The WTA stars continue with the Asian Swing and had a special players' party featuring players like Mirra Andreeva, Daria Kasatkina, Jasmine Paolini and Barbora Krejcikova, among others.

On the other hand, some ATP stars visited an iconic museum in Antwerp, while Eugenie Bouchard reflected on her recent appearance in the PPA Tour in Las Vegas.

With the start of the WTA 500 Ningbo Open, the WTA stars took part in the tournament’s opening party. Players like Daria Kasatkina, Mirra Andreeva, and Beatriz Haddad Maia attended, all dressed in traditional Chinese attire.

The tournament began on Monday, October 14, with the first round and will run until Sunday, October 20. This year, the Ningbo Open debuts as a WTA 500 event after being a WTA 250 in 2023, and the champion will take home $142,000 in prize money.

Featuring a stellar draw of 28 players in singles, the tournament includes seven top-10 players, with stars like Zheng Qinwen, Anna Kalinskaya, Barbora Krejcikova, and Paula Badosa among the favourites.

The 2024 ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals will be held this week, from October 16 to 20, featuring the best junior female and male players competing in Chengdu on hard courts. With the tournament kicking off, the ITF has compiled a collection of photos showcasing players who previously participated in the event and are now stars of the ATP and WTA.

Some of the players who previously shone in the tournament include Casper Ruud, Zheng Qinwen, Elena Rybakina, and Taylor Fritz. Notable figures who have won the title before starting their professional careers include Marta Kostyuk, Andrey Rublev, Diane Parry, and Holger Rune, among others.

Eugenie Bouchard has traveled to Las Vegas to continue her career in pickleball on the PPA Tour. The 2014 Wimbledon runner-up has partially retired from tennis, participating in only a handful of tournaments but not full-time.

At the end of 2023, Bouchard announced that she would join the PPA Tour, and throughout 2024, she has seen good results. In her latest event last week, she reached the semifinals, including a notable victory against Lea Jansen (No. 3) at the Rate Championships in Las Vegas, marking her best performance in a pickleball tournament. "I don’t feel like I’m masterful at pickleball yet,” the 30-year-old player recently mentioned to Tennis.com.

Bouchard also shone recently at the Canadian Open, though from outside the court as a commentator and conducting some on-court interviews: “Now I'm able to spend a week doing Tennis Channel broadcasting. I'm able to attend events or do things that I normally wouldn't be able to do," Bouchard says. "...Since I’ve had more of a (pickleball) specific schedule planned out, I’ve just added more things into it.”

Following the Asian swing, ATP players return to Europe to compete in the final tournaments of the season as they prepare for the last major challenge at the Paris Masters in two weeks. At the ATP 500 European Open, some of the top players visited the Diva Museum Antwerp, known for its diamonds, jewelry, and silver.

With the participation of Stefanos Tsitsipas, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Alex De Minaur, and local star Zizou Bergs, the players explored one of the main attractions in the Belgian city while preparing for their respective debuts between Tuesday and Wednesday. Bergs will face Facundo Diaz Acosta in the Round of 32, while De Minaur, Auger-Aliassime, and Tsitsipas received first-round byes as the top seeds and await their debut opponents.

A short documentary showcases the behind-the-scenes action at the 2023 Riyadh Tennis Cup. The exhibition, held in December last year, featured Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur as the top female stars, while Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz faced off as the male stars.

The video shows Jabeur and Sabalenka strolling through the streets of Riyadh, with Jabeur trying to teach some Arabic words. The short documentary also includes training sessions, footage of the matches played, and the award ceremony after the tournament concluded.

In the prestigious tournament held in Saudi Arabia, Sabalenka and Alcaraz emerged as winners, both in straight sets. Riyadh aims to become one of the tennis capitals, and this year it will host the WTA Finals, while the Next Gen Finals took place in the same city in 2023 and will do so again starting December 18 this year.

Coco Gauff received a special message from American basketball player Cam Brink, who congratulated her on her recent qualification for the WTA Finals. The 2023 US Open champion qualified for the third consecutive year and will aim to improve on her performance from last year, where she reached the semifinals and lost to fellow American Jessica Pegula.

“Hi Coco, it’s Cam Brink. I am so proud of you, congrats on making the Finals. I’m sending you so much love; you know how much I love you already. I hope we meet soon and sending you all the best vibes,” said the player from the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women’s National Basketball Association.

Gauff will have a couple of weeks off before the WTA Finals in Riyadh, which will be her last tournament of the season. The 20-year-old American joins players like Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina, and Iga Swiatek as the tournament lineup appears almost set, with seven of the eight participants already qualified. The last spot will likely go to either Zheng Qinwen or Emma Navarro, currently 7th and 8th in the Race, considering that Barbora Krejcikova secured her qualification as the Wimbledon champion, despite being ranked 12th in the WTA Race.