Ben Johnson has built @thetennis101 into a deliberate, cinematic entry point to modern tennis culture. To his 375,000 followers the feed offers training clips, equipment tutorials, behind-the-scenes glimpses and polished lifestyle reels that bridge sport and fashion. “You’ve got tennis, and it can be quite insular,” says Ben Johnson. “But then you’ve got the fashion side, which is huge. The gear, the racquets, the courts, the travel. That is where I see myself.”

Johnson launched the account on January 10, 2023 with a photo in Dubai alongside Holger Rune. His second post, eight days later, featured Novak Djokovic. He credits a return to playing during lockdown and a creative background—video and music from his youth, plus a career in social media and marketing—for the account’s direction. “I didn’t play for years,” says Johnson. “I just started playing again in lockdown.”

Two years ago he left his job to focus full time on the project. “This wasn’t meant to be my job, by the way,” Johnson says. “I left my job and I was like, ‘What the hell am I gonna do?’” Early viral clips on fundamentals — changing an overgrip, lead tape, forehand grip — grew his audience and opened doors to larger productions and brand work. “You have to sort of go down the funny viral route first,” Johnson says, “and then you can start introducing the sort of super niche, kind of luxury lifestyle tennis content that I do now—which is what I love to do, bigger productions with the music, the grading, the cinematic-esque filming.”

He has modeled for Lacoste and Ralph Lauren, worked on a campaign tied to the Rolex Paris Masters move, and has collaborations with other global brands. “Every job I take, I treat it as if it’s my own company,” says Johnson. I didn’t want to be one-dimensional. Ben Johnson

Johnson describes his work as both an introduction and a lookbook for tennis: approachable, curated and aimed at growing interest in the sport through a wider culture.

A good hitting partner remains the gold standard for practice: live feedback, varied ball response and match-like point construction. The Pongbot Pace S Pro tries to replicate those advantages with a ball machine that tracks your position and adapts feeds in real time.

The unit has a compact footprint (roughly 19x17x13 inches) and weighs just over 45 pounds. Metal grab handles aid lifting, and a telescopic pull handle with luggage wheels eases transport. A detachable 150-ball hopper covers capacity needs and a portable rechargeable battery supplies up to eight hours of power. A small side control panel includes an on/off switch, quick start/stop button and a USB port to charge a phone or other device. The robot remote syncs with an accompanying app and both the remote and three smart trackers recharge with the included 4-in-1 cable.

The Pace S Pro links to a smartphone via Bluetooth or can be run from the remote; the app offers a larger interface and proved less finicky in connectivity, though it requires a learning curve. There are 564 programmed drills ranging from simple repeating ground strokes to complex full-court multi-shot combinations. The machine can be placed at six court locations and will deliver feeds up to 80 MPH and 3600 RPMs. Feeds are highly consistent; jams are scarce and the reviewer’s single jam was a false alarm.

Custom drills permit sequences up to 46 balls with control over speed, spin, height and placement. A nine-ball sequence combining groundstrokes, an approach, volleys and overheads was used as an example. Custom drills can be uploaded to the expanding Pongbot app library for others to download or adapt.

The defining feature is the AI. Clipping three trackers—one on the net over each doubles alley and one to the player—enables Smart Pace modes. In adaptive rally the robot feeds where the user stands. Recovery triggers require return to a recovery zone before the next feed. Match challenge mode mimics point play, emits a beep when shot type changes and a double-beep when a point ends, and keeps a running score of “combos.” The AI adds genuine value, though position detection and shot sequencing sometimes proved spotty, and a pouch for the trackers would be practical.

Jannik Sinner has revisited the mountains that shaped his early athletic life as the face of Gucci Altitude, the fashion house’s first winter sportswear collection. The campaign pairs Gucci’s signature styling with performance equipment from Head, arriving ahead of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February 2026.

For the shoot, Sinner wore a snow jacket printed with Gucci’s monogram and used a helmet and ski set accented by the brand’s Web stripe, gear developed in collaboration with Head. The partnership between the two companies is familiar territory for the athlete; Gucci and Head previously worked together on Sinner’s signature white duffel bag.

“It was a very special and unique shoot in the heart of the mountains. I have always loved the mountains and this shoot took place in an incredible setting,” the Italian tells GQ. “Gucci comes up with amazing ideas every time, but in this case it was something really magical, an experience I will never forget.”

No stunt double was required. Sinner has skied since age 3 and was raised in South Tyrol in the Dolomites, where his parents worked at a ski resort. He showed early promise on snow, winning a Junior National Championship in Giant Slalom at age 7 and finishing runner-up nationally at 11. He gave up skiing for tennis at 13 and went on to reach the summit of his sport.

“I was winning a lot when I was young in skiing, and in tennis I never won,” he told Vogue in 2024. “And then slowly I started to lose in skiing, because physically I was not ready to compete. I was always quite skinny and everything.

“The reason why I chose tennis was, in tennis you can make mistakes. You can lose points, but you can still win the match. In skiing, if you make one mistake, one big mistake, you cannot win.”

A global ambassador for Gucci since 2022, Sinner has appeared in several of the brand’s campaigns, including “Gucci is a feeling” and last year’s holiday campaign. On the court he has become one of the game’s leading figures: a four-time Grand Slam champion and two-time Davis Cup winner.

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