Fiend At Court is a daily public tennis journal, that has captivated the interest of true tennis enthusiasts with its eclectic weekly rotation of topics. The blog’s title is an obvious riff derived from the USTA’s official rule publication “Friend At Court.” Fiend At Court has been in continuous daily publication since December 31, 2019.

Teresa Merklin is a Senior Adult tennis player from the United States. Her passion for the sport developed at a young age as her mother frequently used court #5 of the local tennis center as daycare. She played Junior tennis in Texas before “permanently” hanging up her racquets to pursue a career in engineering. After a 28-year hiatus from the sport, Teresa returned to competitive tournament play. She currently competes in Senior Adult tournaments in the 55+ age division where she is nationally ranked. She also enjoys a variety of team and league format play.

Teresa holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as a Masters of Software Engineering, and a Masters of Business Administration. Currently, she is a Cyber Technical Fellow at a major defense contractor. She works on military aviation systems in a cyber testing range. Consequently, her tennis writings are frequently highly analytical.

A friend is a person with a shared bond of mutual affection, trust, and support. Friends often provide companionship, encouragement, and a sense of belonging in one’s life. On the other hand, a fiend is extremely enthusiastic or passionate about something, often to an excessive or obsessive degree. It can also imply addiction or fanaticism. Every once in a while, the word fiend can also take on a devilish connotation.

Fiend at Court is all of those things.

Financial Disclosure

Fiend At Court participates in the following affiliate programs and earns commissions and discounts from the following retailers:

  • Amazon associates program through links to products mentioned on this site.
  • SwingVision for referring new paid subscribers.
  • Teneral Cellars through product links and referrals.
  • OnCourt Offcourt through links to products mentioned on this site.
  • Tennis Point through links to products mentioned on this site.

As of this time all money earned via sponsored links has been donated. Following is a summary of the recipients of those funds:

Fiend At Court reserves the right to use future paid commissions and other monetary gains to defray operating costs associated with running this site. Should that come to pass, it will be first disclosed on this page. For now, Fiend At Court operates as an inexpensive (but very time-consuming) personal hobby.

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