An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
I knew I would be writing about former WTA professional Anne White as soon as she was mentioned in Zina Garrison’s autobiography. She came up in passing due to her tangential involvement when the sportswear company Pony decided to not renew Garrison’s clothing sponsorship contract. Before coming across that story, I couldn’t have told you anything at all about Anne White.
Before I delve too deeply into this topic, I first have to make it perfectly clear that my personal policy is to never accept fashion advice from an engineer. If the relevancy of that statement is not immediately obvious, let me provide a reminder the tag line of this blog here: “An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily tennis journal.” Based on a lifetime of experience, engineers and fashion don’t normally play well together.
At first glance, the selection of Venus Envy by Jon Wertheim might seem strange. My ambivalence toward biographies of players who are still competing is well documented on this site, and the story of Venus Williams and her professional tennis career has yet to conclude. Additionally, based solely on the title, it might be easy to assume that this book might be more appropriate in February during Black History Month. Ultimately, Venus Envy is the perfect selection to kick off Women’s History Month in March.
As we continue to work through the Rules of Wheelchair tennis, the final adaptation for delivery of the service presents a perplexing conundrum. While some wheelchair players can execute a conventional tennis serve, sometimes physical limitations make that action an impossibility. There is a rule adaptation that accommodates that situation.
I am living in fear that at some point in the near future the management at my new tennis club will wake up to the fact that giving me 24×7 access to indoor courts and unlimited ball machine usage is a bad idea. Until then, I will continue to haunt the facility in the wee hours of the morning working on my technique and consistency. This brings us to the topic of Billie Jean King’s Eye Coach.
Tennis players who pay any attention to current news are inundated with frequent articles touting the health benefits of playing the sport. The fact that tennis players have more positive health measures is backed up by reputable independent research data. A couple of weeks ago, the USTA issued a press release that illustrates that point. It pointed to “one of the largest tennis-specific studies performed to date.” Today we are taking a look at the report summarizing that research.
The story of the Fiend at Court Spousal Unit chipping ice off courts in order to get a league match played last weekend inadvertently set off a cavalcade of similarly themed photos. As it turns out, there are a lot of players in our orbit who essentially did the same thing. Many went out to their local courts armed with lawn tools last weekend.
Yesterday I shared a photo that illustrated that some players in the DFW area chipped ice off a court at Hurst Tennis Center in order to get some USTA League matches played as scheduled. Today I am sharing another photo from earlier in the week that shows that the courts a couple of miles away at Richland Tennis Center were fully playable. This photo was provided courtesy of Bobby Reeves who is the Head Tennis Pro at that facility.
Many years ago I once chipped ice off a tennis court before playing a junior match in the Cotton Bowl tennis tournament. That event is an indelible part of our family lore. To add insult to injury, I lost the ensuing match. The Umpire who Gave Birth To Me watched me play from the cozy confines of the pro shop. She was less than impressed with my level of energy during the match as evidenced by the fact that I never took my sweats off. It was c-c-c-c-old.
When mapping out books to cover during Black History month this year, Zina: My Life in Women’s Tennis was an immediate selection. Zina Garrison emerged from a public park’s program in Houston, which makes her book an obvious choice for a tennis blog sourced from Texas. Additionally, she was my Dad’s favorite player. It was a foregone conclusion that this book would come up pretty quickly in the rotation.