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A Case Against NTRP Ratings Expiration Putting It All Together: My Daily Plantar Fasciitis Prevention Routine Tennis Beyond the Headlines: March 31, 2025 A Mother’s Day and Father’s Day Gift Idea A Great Gift for Grads… and Tennis Players Basket Case: The Gift of Tennis for Easter Improve Your Tennis IQ: The off-court workout for on-court skills

Desperately Seeking Beginning Tennis Lessons in #NationalTennisMonth

On By Teresa Merklin

The USTA Strategic Initiatives unveiled in 2020 includes the imperative of providing positive experiences to new players who are experiencing tennis for the first time. As a sport with a steep learning curve, it is essential to get new players engaged with quality information and instruction on how to play the sport. It shouldn’t be hard for a player new to tennis to discover opportunities to engage with professional instruction, but it is. Tennis needs to rethink how it presents itself in the modern era.

Getting Started in Tennis #NationalTennisMonth

On By Teresa Merklin

It is intuitively obvious that every single person who actively plays tennis had that moment when someone pressed a racquet into their hands and they took their first swing at a ball. In other words, everybody was a beginner once upon a time. Even Roger Federer didn’t emerge from the womb with his elegant one-handed backhand. Additionally, it is highly likely that Federer missed the first time he took a cut at the ball. In observance of #NationalTennisMonth, today’s topic is how beginners can get started in tennis.

Reality TV Pitch: Cash Cab – Tennis Edition

On By Teresa Merklin

This weekend I have been pitching ideas for tennis themed reality shows into the ether. To round out weekend, I have one more proposal. The idea is pretty simple. Bring back the Reality TV quiz show “Cash Cab” picking up passengers from tennis tournaments and asking questions relating exclusively about tennis. It might not inspire anyone to pick up a racquet, but it would certainly be entertaining.

Reality TV Pitch: Venus and Serena’s Play Tennis Challenge

On By Teresa Merklin

This weekend the Fiend at Court is proposing ideas for Reality TV shows that would be entertaining while promoting the sport of tennis. Today’s pitch is for a reality show that features a head to head competition between Venus and Serena Williams. Each sister would have a team of players who have never played tennis before. The challenge for the two sisters is to teach each player to play the game of tennis. Each week would feature wacky tennis skill related challenges that would culminate in something resembling a “World Team Tennis” showdown.

Reality TV Pitch: Billie Jean King coaches Nick Kyrgios

On By Teresa Merklin

This weekend the Fiend at Court is even more unplugged that usual for the weekend series. Stick with me. I have been brainstorming potential solutions to the most pressing problems in tennis. First, there is an urgent need to expand public spectator interest in the sport. Second, Nick Kyrgios needs a coach. For me, it is a short trip from the juxtaposition of those two problems and a genuinely inspired (and, well… crazy) idea.

Who in the Heck was Perry T Jones?

On By Teresa Merklin

Perry T. Jones was known as the czar of tennis in Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. He is widely credited for the Southern California tennis factory that produced the likes of Ellsworth Vines, Don Budge, Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonzales, and Tony Trabert. He is enshrined in the International Tennis Hall of Fame for his contributions to tennis. His early encounters with both Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs presents an unlikely common linkage between the two players who went on to meet in the “Battle of the Sexes” match. In fact, Jones discouraged both players in the early stages of their playing careers.

First Racquets: Bobby Riggs

On By Teresa Merklin

The moment a tennis racquet is placed into a player’s hand is a potential inflection point. It could be that moment that sparks a lifetime love of the sport. I have a reverential curiosity about how dedicated and accomplished tennis players came into their first racquets. Bobby Riggs relayed the story of how he obtained his first racquets in both of his autobiographies. The story of just how Riggs did that is… not exactly reverential. However, it does reflect the quintessential hustle of Bobby Riggs.

Renee Richards and Bobby Riggs

On By Teresa Merklin

Renee Richards was an American tennis player who participated on the women’s professional tour from 1997 until 1981. She is most commonly remembered as the only transgender person to compete successfully in professional tennis. Shortly after her gender reassignment surgery, and subsequent relocation to California to start a new life, Richards crossed paths with Bobby Riggs. Naturally Riggs roped her into his escapades. It is one of my favorite stories about the character that was Bobby Riggs.

Sharing the Spotlight: Caty McNally

On By Teresa Merklin

Arguably no player has benefitted more from the Coco Gauff effect than Caty McNally. Though she is currently ranked 110, she gets more tennis broadcast screen time than many other American women currently in the WTA top 100. The reason for that attention is quite simple. She is Coco Gauff’s doubles partner. One very positive side effect of Coco mania is that the tennis broadcasting industry has suddenly rediscovered that doubles is a thing.

A Flash in the Pan: Melanie Oudin

On By Teresa Merklin

Melanie Oudin reached the quarterfinals of the US Open in 2009 when she was only 17. She defeated Maria Sharapova in Arthur Ashe Stadium along the way. If you freeze Oudin’s career at that precise moment in time there are some striking similarities to CoCo Gauff’s magical run at Wimbledon in 2019. Both captured the hearts and minds of American tennis fans. As she won the match that propelled her into the US Open Quarterfinals the announcer confidently exclaimed that it would be her “her first US Open Quarterfinal appearance.” In fact, she never made it past the second round in a grand slam singles draw ever again. Her promising start turned out to be the pinnacle of her career.