Tennis amid chaos- ATP Dubai Open + Mexican Open

Welcome to The Service Game , where serves start the story. In this week’s First Serve, the Middle East Swing delivers chaos and drama, with The Hit taking center stage: Daniil Medvedev captures a milestone title in Dubai amid flight cancellations and geopolitical tension that could disrupt the road to Indian Wells, Felix Auger-Aliassime continues his surge, and Acapulco brings its own intensity as Alexander Zverev falls to Miomir Kecmanovic in a result that raises real questions ahead of the slow hard courts, alongside injury defaults, net-cord swings, and matches where the scoreline didn’t tell the full story. We also touch on Emma Raducanu’s reported $3.5M move from Nike to Uniqlo and what it means for tennis fashion, all building toward Indian Wells on March 4 Matches/Links mentioned: Emma Raducanu Deal: https://justwomenssports.com/reads/nike-emma-raducanu-uniqlo-tennis-sponsorship-2026/ Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Jiri Lehecka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mImpl1Vxzs Dubai Open Semifinal Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk-2c6GigwA Alexander Zverev vs. Miomir Kecmanovic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XWFsEMHi8M&t=65s Mexican Open Semifinal Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G84WUUqsSNs Mexican Open Final Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EEZ8hRlZVg Subscribe to ⁠ The Service Game ⁠ on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. For extended analysis and written Second Serve content, check out Ivy’s ⁠Substack⁠ . 🎾 Thanks for listening—and let the serves begin! Produced with assistance from Radio CKUT CKUT Radio: https://ckut.ca/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theservicegame.substack.com