An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
In a significant Fiend at Court departure, today I am writing about a movie. I would characterize it as “a cute little show.” Until fairly recently, I would have lamented that there are no truly great movies about tennis. In 2017, Battle of the Sexes and Borg vs McEnroe changed that. Even with those titles anchoring the top two spots, I would be hard pressed to find ten movies to even construct a “Top Ten Tennis Movies” list.
With the US Open in full swing, I have been wondering what the iconic traditional concession is for that event. After lengthy thought and consideration, it is clearly the Honey Deuce cocktail.
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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This week’s training exercise comes from the Netflix docuseries “Break Point.” Aryna Sabalenka is seen performing a footwork drill immediately before a match against MagdaRead More
After the 2024 French Open wildcards were announced, the French Tennis Federation was sharply criticized by the media for awarding most of the slots toRead More
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The January book selections reflect a strong Australian influence as the professional tours compete in the “land down under.” First up is ‘Back to theRead More
Last Wednesday’s post focused on the tennis ball that the fledgling United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) selected for the first official National Championship tournament.Read More
In July of 1881, the recently formed United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) announced what is now regarded as the first official National Championship tournamentRead More
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To wrap up this weekend’s series of posts about “Looking Beyond the Net,” I am sharing a curious phenomenon I have noticed in recreational leagueRead More
2023 is the 50th anniversary of equal prize money at the US Open. Consequently, we will likely be regaled throughout the next two weeks withRead More