Welcome to this week's edition of "Hot Shots," a USOpen.org-curated look at what you may have missed on social media over the past seven days.
This week on tennis Twitter, we were treated to photos from Rafael Nadal's wedding, a throwback from Roger Federer's time as a ball boy and some funny moments at the WTA year-end tournaments in Zhuhai and Shenzhen, China.
At the age of 33, Rafael Nadal married his longtime girlfriend, Xisca Perello, in his hometown of Mallorca, Spain. The happy couple released two official photographs of the wedding, while some other shots surfaced on social media. Among the guests were Carlos Moya, David Ferrer and Uncle Tony.
The pair has been together since 2005, with Perello a fixture in Nadal's player box during many of his 19 Grand Slam victories, including at the US Open this summer.
Roger Federer was not in attendance, though he said he wished Nadal well on his wedding day. The Swiss was busy in Basel, prepping for his hometown tournament, where he is into the semifinals after countryman Stan Wawrinka pulled out ahead of their Friday quarterfinal match. Born in Basel in 1981, Federer was a ball boy at the event for two years as a kid. He spoke with Tennis TV about his memories from those days.
One week before the Shiseido WTA Finals, where the tour's Top 8 women will battle it out in Shenzhen, the WTA Elite Trophy brings the best of the rest to Zhuhai. The knockout rounds begin on Saturday, with Aryna Sabalenka taking on Karolina Muchova and Kiki Bertens facing Saisai Zheng in the semifinals.
Elise Mertens fell to doubles partner Sabalenka in a do-or-die round-robin match on Friday, as the Belarusian booked her place in the last four. The "perfect pair," who previously teamed up to win the 2019 US Open women's doubles championship, will reunite as the top seeds in the Shenzhen doubles event next week.
Though Mertens fell short in the group stage, she did find success on the soccer field in Zhuhai.
The Shenzhen event gets started on Monday, but many of the world's best are already in town for their preparations. World No. 2 Karolina Pliskova took some time out from training to fire some serves at a fan—much to the amusement of an onlooking Ashleigh Barty, the current world No. 1.
The full field for the event is below:
The player field is also set for the 2019 Davis Cup Finals, after each of the 18 participating nations named their four- or five-man squads. The first edition with the new-look format will begin on Nov. 18, after the Nitto ATP Finals.
A collection of international sports stars, including hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and World Cup winners Antoine Griezmann (for France) and Andres Iniesta (for Spain) got behind the Davis Cup, coming together for a promo piece highlighting the joy of playing at the highest level for—and with—your country.
Check back next Friday for more US Open Hot Shots.
