An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
It will probably not surprise anyone that I love the “Bag Check” feature that runs on the Tennis Channel. I actually used to like it even more before it started to be dominated by product placement trope. Still, that segment occasionally turns up some genuine gems. I am very interested in what players at all levels carry in their bags.
It rained during the early rounds of the US Open this year. I was completely disinterested in the two matches in progress on the courts in the covered stadiums at that time. Rather than switching over, I left the stream rolling on the rainy court. It was peaceful. For inexplicable reasons, I enjoy watching rain fall on a tennis court — as long as I am not the one actually waiting to play.
When watching the Western and Southern Open and the US Open over the past three weeks, I could not help but to notice the blue ice chests that were placed adjacent to the player seating area on each court. It took a little internet sleuthing, but I am reasonably certain that the device in question is an IcyBreeze portable air conditioner.
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If you have ever seen a dude carrying a jar of pickles around at a tennis tournament and wondered what that was all about, there is a two word explanation: Muscle Cramps. Pickle juice is widely regarded as a magical cure for muscle cramping within tennis circles for a very simple reason. It works.
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In March of this year, the USTA announced a new court surface for the US Open and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Since the Cincinnati Open was also played at that facility as a part of the COVID-19 “Double Bubble,” we have already experienced a preview of play on the surface. By all reports, the surface is playing extremely “fast” especially on the outer courts.
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One of the recommendations from the classic tennis book “The Inner Game of Tennis,” is is for the player to imagine that they are observing their own match from an external perspective. It is a valuable technique for alleviating tension and stress while a match is in progress. It is also a valuable perspective to take for understanding what is happening strategically and tactically during the course of a match.
There is a new digital platform forthcoming for USTA tennis engagement. This was announced as one of the strategic priorities of the USTA ongoing restructuring initiative. There is also evidence of the forthcoming underlying infrastructure on the USTA web page. At least part of the new initiative will be known as Serve Tennis.
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Yesterday I wrote about the results of an internet search for “learn to play tennis.” I intentionally did not mention the first paid advertisement that came up as a result of that query. The ad I was served was for the PlayYourCourt tennis community. This is a perfect segue to return to the topic of TennisLink.
When I played junior tennis there were two ways to enter a tennis tournament. One was to visit the host facility of the event to register and pay the entry fee. The other was to fill out a physical entry form and mail it into the host organization with a check. This is the point in the story where the umpire I gave birth to usually interjects to ask about the stone tablet postage rates for those entry forms.
Shortly after last week’s “Hawk-Eye Live” post was issued, I realized that I failed to mention my favorite feature of the system. Hawk-Eye Live includes a multitude of voices that annunciate the actual line calls. The system includes male, female, and multiple accents. The diversity delights me.