An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
The September challenge for the USTA “Tennis Champions” program was to hang a large banner that promotes tennis play. I hung my banner on a fence that borders a highly trafficked running and biking trail. It is highly visible to active people in the area who are currently outside the tennis ecosystem.
I have never seen anyone actively charting matches during high school or collegiate team tennis. It astonishes me that match charting isn’t a compulsory duty of players who are on the roster but not in the lineup on match day. It is an opportunity loss on an epic scale.
During the fourth round of the 2021 US Open between Bianca Andreescu and Maria Sakkari, one of the player’s coaches was observed to be charting the match. It is the first time in my recent memory when that activity was highlighted during a broadcast. It probably occurs more frequently than the television commentators notice and mention. More notably, he was using old school paper and pen, which is a throwback to an earlier era.
Since I have been writing this weekend about culinary traditions associated with the Grand Slam tennis tournaments, I decided to share a tennis associated food tradition in the Fiend at Court household. Labor Day weekend signals the unofficial start of our favorite season, which of course is “Football.” It is also signals the start of the Tennis Competitors of Dallas (TCD) Adult Mixed league.
The Honey Deuce cocktail traditionally served at the US Open is one of those topics that I initially thought would be a “one and done” post. As it turns out, I had a lot more to say about the beverage than originally anticipated.
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.
Throughout the history of the US Open tennis championships, the tournament was traditionally conducted on grass courts. That all changed in 1975 when the court surface was switched over to clay. Three years later, the event changed once again to a hard court surface. The original transition from grass to clay was prompted by player complaints about uneven and soft grass courts previously used for the tournament. The subsequent change to hard court was most likely driven by economics.
In anticipation of the start of the 2021 US Open on Monday, I am continuing to explore trivia related to the court surfaces historically used by the tournament. Yesterday we identified the only man to win the singles championship on all three US Open surfaces: grass, clay, and hard. Today’s question is to name the only woman who won the US Open during the three years when the tournament was played on clay.
Throughout the years, the US Open has been played on grass, clay, and hard court surfaces. Only one player has won the title on all three. It is a record that will never be tied or beaten. It is doubtful that the US Open will ever be contested in the future on any surface other than hardcourt. Even if the USTA decided to make a change, it is doubtful that they would do it twice and on short order.
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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