An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
My home gym is equipped with a 10 pound slam ball. A slam ball is distinguished from normal weighted medicine balls because they have thicker and softer surfaces which make them great for high impact throwing exercises. You can wing a slam ball at a training partner or static surface that would be prohibitively dangerous with the harder medicine ball.
This week’s tennis news roundup includes a venue change for the Billie Jean King Cup, an impromptu tennis clinic staged by Venus Williams, and a little tournament called the US Open where fans have to provide proof of vaccination, but the players do not. Additionally, any debate over the active player with the best mullet in tennis is put to rest.
Throughout the history of the US Open tennis championships, the tournament was traditionally conducted on grass courts. That all changed in 1975 when the court surface was switched over to clay. Three years later, the event changed once again to a hard court surface. The original transition from grass to clay was prompted by player complaints about uneven and soft grass courts previously used for the tournament. The subsequent change to hard court was most likely driven by economics.
In anticipation of the start of the 2021 US Open on Monday, I am continuing to explore trivia related to the court surfaces historically used by the tournament. Yesterday we identified the only man to win the singles championship on all three US Open surfaces: grass, clay, and hard. Today’s question is to name the only woman who won the US Open during the three years when the tournament was played on clay.
Throughout the years, the US Open has been played on grass, clay, and hard court surfaces. Only one player has won the title on all three. It is a record that will never be tied or beaten. It is doubtful that the US Open will ever be contested in the future on any surface other than hardcourt. Even if the USTA decided to make a change, it is doubtful that they would do it twice and on short order.
“All In: An Autobiography” of Billie Jean King was the most anticipated tennis book of 2021 for me. As the most impactful female in the history of athletics, there are already several biographies previously published on her life. It might be tempting to assume that the story of Billie Jean King has already been exhaustively told. However, even when revisiting events documented in previous sources, All In brings a fresh perspective and additional color to all that transpired. With All In, we finally have the definitive book about the life of Billie Jean King.
Last Wednesday’s “The Rules of Tennis” post drew a couple of comments that compel me to follow-up. In case you missed it, an umpire called hindrance call against Daniil Medvedev for apologizing to Alexander Bublik during a point in Toronto. This site’s (somewhat) sequential march through the rules of tennis has yet to reach the section of the USTA Friend at Court about talking during a point. Because it is current and relevant, we will jump ahead. It is a case where the written rule diverges significantly from how it is normally carried out in USTA sanctioned matches.
Strong forearm muscles are essential for tennis racquet head control. That translates very directly into shot consistency. A player without adequate forearm strength will be unable to effectively move the racquet through the proper contact point.
This week’s news includes a Billie Jean King interview, World Team Tennis 2021 logistics, tennis travel hacks, and more.
The USTA frequently heralds the fact that they were the first Grand Slam tennis tournament to offer equal prize money for the men and the women. Fun fact: That claim isn’t exactly true. While the US Open was undeniably the first major to award equal prize money, it really wasn’t the initiative of the USLTA that caused it to happen. Instead, it was an object lesson in organizational leadership from Billie Jean King and Gladys Heldman.
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