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The Hidden Mathematics of Sport The 2026 USTA’s Friend at Court is Out… and a Foot Fault! The Racquet Bag Leaf Blower: A Small Tennis Tech Upgrade Tennis Beyond the Headlines: March 2, 2026 Beyond the Bell Curve: Why Competitive Tennis Ecosystems Need Edges The Participation Pyramid and the Cost of Lopping Off the Top Winter Is No Longer Coming: The LTA’s County Cup Decision

Nothing is as Important as it Seems

On By Teresa Merklin

I am suddenly and unexpectedly spending a lot of time in the house of the Umpire Who Gave Birth to me. She took a tumble shortly before Thanksgiving and has been in the hospital until yesterday. There is a whole lot more to the story. The trivial side effect of that development relevant to this blog is that I am finding all sorts of tennis artifacts in her house. In fact, I am probably going to be writing a lot in the future about some of these found objects.

Making a List: Coaching in Tennis

On By Teresa Merklin

Perhaps it is a sign of the season. As I write this final installment on the “Coaching” section of the ITF Rules of Tennis published in the USTA Friend at Court, I have a Christmas carol stuck in my head. More specifically it is the lyric “He’s making a list, and checking it twice…” from Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Take Two: Captaining Multiple Teams

On By Teresa Merklin

A couple of months ago, I posted a series on “The Ethics of Captaining Multiple USTA League Teams.” That topic was prompted by a spirited discussion in the Facebook group of the Texas Tournament players about a proposed rule change in the Austin CTA to limit people from captaining two teams in the same league. That proposal had already been voted down twice.