Fiend at Court Unplugged
I was sitting at a computer in my local public library when realized that this project had transformed from a casual hobby into borderline obsession. For the first time I was compelled to step up the research beyond materials that I either owned or could access directly on the internet. “Best of Five” set matches for women was the topic that precipitated that transformation.
I was astonished to learn that the Australian Open announced that the Women’s final would be Best of Five in 1994. The tournament was forced to back off that plan when the WTA came out in strong opposition. That flies in the face of conventional wisdom that the women have always been willing to play Best of Five but that tournament organizers have never offered. They have.
That journey of discovery was chronicled across four posts which were published in early March last year:
- When Women Played Best of Five, March 4, 2020.
- A Fact Checking Pause, March 5, 2020.
- Best-of-five, a Major, and the WTA (Oh my!), March 6, 2020
- An Inconvenient Truth, March 7, 2020
There is a stratification of tennis news and information. It is easy to find clips and news articles about tennis matches that occurred in the internet era. Those events are usually no further than a search engine query or two away. The layer right behind that is news and events that occurred during a time when there is a lot of recorded history that exists but isn’t readily available on the public internet.
I was also completely unaware that the Best of Five format was used for the WTA Tour Finals in 1984. In fact, that practice continued until 1999. Almost no one in my orbit seems to be aware of that chapter of professional tennis history. I take it as a testament to general disinterest in the WTA Tour Finals rather than a reflection of antipathy toward the Best of Five for women.
As I continue my walk down memory late of the content shared on this site in 2020, this series of posts has emerged as a personal favorite. It was a time when I learned something significant about the recent history of professional tennis. It was also a “Leveling Up” moment for this site.
