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Quadruped Alternating Toe Mobility Stretches Tennis Beyond the Headlines: February 24, 2025 For the Love of Competition Rankings Point-Chasers The Importance of Why Game, Set and Match: Secret Weapons of the World’s Top Tennis Players Checking the Quota Allocation for the NTRP National Championships

Wheelchair Tennis: Fasten Your Seatbelt

On By Teresa Merklin

Since early January of this year, the Fiend at Court has covered the wheelchair section of ITF Rules of Tennis in a segment that runs each Wednesday. That march through the Rules of Wheelchair Tennis has been mostly sequential, though there has been a little jumping around to group related topics for a single post. Today I am covering a couple of topics that are loosely related only in the sense that we have largely already touched on both topics.

Fun Fact: USTA Director of Digital Application Development is “TBD”

On By Teresa Merklin

don’t want to pile on. Issues with the deployment of the USTA’s new digital application development platform continue to roll in. “Harsh Realities Revealed in the USTA Digital Platform Update” which went live on March 8, detailed some to the issues including the fact that players entering doubles events in USTA tournaments under the new platform have no way to indicate who their partner will be. Issues with the new system continue to roll in.

Tennis Racquets in a Carry-On Bag

On By Teresa Merklin

When I originally conceived of the topic of how to best take commercial flights with tennis racquets, I was thinking that it would be a quick “one and done” easy writing session. I even spent some time thinking about what two additional topics for rounding out the rest of the weekend should be. Flying with tennis racquets turned out to be a three part series. This final installment focuses on how to best handle racquets as a carry on item.

Checking Tennis Racquets on a Commercial Flight

On By Teresa Merklin

Today we are examining the pros and cons of checking tennis racquets in your luggage when taking commercial airline flights. There are some players in my orbit who have strong opinions that racquets should never be checked. That feeling is based on the fact that it can get pretty cold in the cargo hold of a passenger airplane. Most sources place the temperature lows somewhere in the 40 degree Fahrenheit range. We have a word for that in Texas. It is called “January.” I think the word for that in the Northern USTA section is “July.”

Racquets are Flying: TSA and Airline Regulations

On By Teresa Merklin

A couple of nights ago, the Fiend at Court Spousal Unit and I played a recreational husband-wife mixed doubles match. As we were engaging in the pre-match banter I realized that I was the only person on the court who was not about to travel to the USTA NTRP National Championships later this month. As they were discussing their travel arrangements, the topic of dealing with racquets on commercial flights arose. I have a lot of experience flying with my tennis racquets in tow. Everybody get your shocked face ready. This is yet another topic where my overthinking tendencies prevail.

Billie Jean King’s Secrets of Winning Tennis

On By Teresa Merklin

It’s April 1, which means that the exclusive coverage of books on Women’s tennis during March has concluded. Somehow that month came and went without coverage of a book specifically about Billie Jean King. One reason for that glaring omission is because there are simply so many books and so little time. The other reason for the deferral of the exclusive focus on Billie Jean King is because All In, a new forthcoming autobiography, isn’t scheduled to be released until later this year. I have already pre-ordered my copy.

Wheelchair Tennis: Motoring On

On By Teresa Merklin

Every Wednesday the focus of this site returns to its foundational roots, the ITF Rules of Tennis as published in the USTA Friend at Court. We are currently in the midst of an exhaustive and sequential examination of the Rules of Wheelchair Tennis. Today we are exploring rules that require the player to power and operate the wheelchair without mechanical assistance. However, there are some pretty obvious exceptions to that rule.

The Best of Bag Check: Caroline Wozniacki and Resistance Bands

On By Teresa Merklin

Since the moment they first appeared, I have been a huge fan of the Bag Check short segments that run as commercial fillers on the Tennis Channel. Once you cut through the blatant product placement, some genuinely useful objects are frequently revealed in the series. This presents is the perfect opportunity to take a closer look at some of the gems that have emerged from the professional player’s bag over they years.

Sustaining Pandemic Momentum in Tennis

On By Teresa Merklin

I am growing weary of media sources blithely quoting the 22% surge in tennis participation during the COVID-19 pandemic. That claim is based on a USTA press release which cited that fact from the most recent PAC Report. I have no doubt that tennis participation was up in 2020. With gyms and health clubs facilities shut down, people were naturally funneled into tennis. It is inherently well spaced and commonly played outdoors. The self congratulatory nature of the USTA’s press release and the mindless parroting of the same claim in various media articles in the intervening time… is repetitive and annoying.