An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
Elizabeth Wilson is a cultural historian who turned her attention to the game of tennis in ‘Love Game: A History of Tennis from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon.’ The book is a sweeping history of the sport viewed through the lens of the world around it. The result is a brilliant and densely packed intellectual examination of tennis. It is a “must-read” for true tennis enthusiasts.
The Rules of Tennis Revenues from advertising is an essential part of the tennis ecosystem. It is conventional wisdom that tennis players are likely toRead More
Last Tuesday we discussed “Wall Sits” which was a cardo fitness station I stumbled across scrawled onto a tennis court with chalk. Today I am exploring another station labeled simply “Squats.” There are a lot of good variations of squats that are good for tennis. Today we will assume that the this station was for the simple body weight version.
Davis Cup wraps up the first weekend of World Group Play and the Laver Cup will be contested for the first time this weekend without the presence of the Big Three. Also, there are barbarians at the gate…
Television ratings are a leading indicator for the future financial prospects of professional sports. While tournaments also earn money from from sponsorship and ticket sales, television broadcast ratings arguably have the strongest influence on the future revenue across all other categories. Television ratings drive future broadcast contracts which directly translates into media exposure of the sport. That, in turn, is how the majority of fans experience tennis. The number of people who watch an event is factored in when corporations make sponsorship decisions.
Emma Raducanu’s professional tennis ranking has risen meteorically this year. That should not be much of a surprise as breakout performances at Wimbledon and the US Open earned her two fairly significant chunks of WTA rankings points. Additionally, her US Open performance was both a rankings point record and anomaly. Raducanu is guaranteed to lose ranking points at the 2022 US Open, even if she successfully defends her title. The situation is unprecedented.
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Late in the 2021 US Open Women’s Finals, Emma Raducanu skidded for a ball in the deep corner of the court. She was so low to the court that her knee dragged the court leaving a skid mark of the skin that was formerly on her knee on the surface. The match had to be paused while the wound was bandaged.
William Skidelsky is a literary editor for the Observer who stepped away from junior tennis before returning to the sport as an adult. “Federer and Me: A Story of Obsession” is a memoir of his life framed out against his super fandom of Roger Federer. It is a brilliant literary tactic that makes his own story relatable while simultaneously drawing in Federer super-fans who similarly obsess over the player.
Reilly Opelka was fined $10,000 for carrying a pink bag onto the court before his second round US Open match against Lorezo Musetti. The problem wasn’t the color, but rather a logo which was determined to be too large. Opelka joked about the fine on Twitter on Friday, writing “US Open ticket sales must be strugglin this year.”
A couple of weekends ago I played a practice match at a DFW area high school on a court that had obviously been in recent use as a tennis cardio circuit station. The description of the exercises to be performed were scrawled on the court with chalk. The station for 30 seconds of wall sits was nestled in the corner next to a cinderblock backboard.
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