An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
Last Friday I described how Brad Gilbert was once ejected by a court official for attempting to coach with hand signals during one of his son’s tournament matches. That story prompted me to take a look at exactly what the Rules in the USTA Friend at Court have to say about the matter. Gilbert did not disclose the year that his ejection occurred, so I will use the current version of the rules as a basis for discussion.
One of the most unusual items from a Tennis Channel “Bag Check” video emerged without comment during last week’s post. The jump rope was originally highlighted from the video featuring Edina Gallovits. On subsequent consideration, I should have focused on the bag of oatmeal she whipped out with the description “best thing ever.” That is… not typically how I personally describe oatmeal.
News from the BNP Paribas, Stefanos Tsitsipas gets his own shoe, and a tennis “Florida Man” story.
A few weeks ago I competed at the USTA Level 1 National Clay Court Women’s Championships in Houston. My adult daughter that played junior tennis currently lives in Houston. She came out to watch some of my matches on her off days from work. After missing my third swinging volley during one of my singles matches, I loudly exclaimed “Can someone please write down that I need to work on that?!?!?!” She was on the spot to record that fact for me. Additionally, that statement was interpreted as an open invitation for additional observations regarding my play.
During one of my daughter’s junior tournaments another parent treated me to a diatribe on how the opponent’s parents were using hand signals to provide coaching during her daughter’s match. Watching the events unfold on the adjacent court, I was unconvinced that hand signals were in play. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there.
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Brad Gilbert was once ejected from a junior tournament during one of his son’s matches. Zack’s opponent that day was one of those unusual players with a relatively weak forehand. Somehow his son failed to notice that tactical opportunity. Gilbert couldn’t control his impulse to signal his son to hit more balls to that side of the court. Failing to convey the message, Gilbert resorted to an increasingly intense series of gestures. He was busted by the roving umpire and ejected from the match.
Brad Gilbert is arguably of one of the best tour level coaches ever to work in professional tennis. Under his leadership, Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick rose to #1 on the ATP rankings list. Their success was in large part to Gilbert’s philosophy on winning. As it turns out, those ideas on performance are also applicable in a corporate setting. In 2005, Gilbert distilled his coaching wisdom into a very good book targeted at business leaders.
The idea to eliminate service lets in tennis is gaining momentum. There are currently two high profile places where the no let rule can be observed in action. The first of these is World Team Tennis where the no-let rule was implemented to speed up play and create drama. It was also implemented in NCAA men’s tennis where the motivation was to eliminate cheating.
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I… couldn’t have picked Edina Gallovits out of a lineup before recently reviewing her Tennis Channel “Bag Check” video from 2010. I knew even less about her. She is a former WTA professional player who achieved a career high ranking #54 in 2008. She represented both Romania and the United States in international play. Her most important distinction is that she was the first player to whip out a jump rope on a “Bag Check” video.
Tennis News You Can Use Andy Murray was prominent in the news this week, first by playing “lost and found” with his wedding ring andRead More