An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
I highly recommend tennis as a sport to parents who are looking to raise independent and assertive children. Tennis is the perfect environment for developing and growing problem solving abilities in kids. Due to the unique rules of tennis, players learn to stand up for themselves. It is a valuable life skill.
One key difference between USTA league and tournament match play is that in a tournament you generally have some amount of advance notice of who your opponent will be. In league play, players generally do not know who they are playing until the rosters are exchanged. The net result of that is that the scouting report culture is very different between leagues and tournaments.
Television viewership for the recently concluded US Open tennis tournament was down sharply when compared to 2019. A lot of the decline in viewership can be chalked up to the COVID-19 sports bubbles that created a glut of major sporting events taking place at the same time. The overall average tournament viewership was down 45% compared to 2019.
Casual tennis fans are probably unaware of the business organizations that underpin tennis. It is important to understand that the Womens Tennis Association (WTA) and the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) are separate business organizations. Each organization sets prize money and other compensation standards for their own tour events.
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In a recent interview on the No Challenges Remaining Podcast, one of the “Original Nine” players, Kristy Pigeon, indicated that she thought that the “Battle of the Sexes” movie accurately depicted the events of 1970. Despite that, it is important to remember that “Battle of the Sexes” was not a documentary. Creative license was exercised to weave complex events into a narrative structure to fit within a reasonable movie run length.
The tennis world very recently marked the 50 year anniversary of the “Original Nine” that signed $1 contracts that formed the basis of the women’s professional tennis tour. That seismic event does not occur without the visionary leadership and organizational savvy of Gladys Heldman. In the words of Billie Jean King, “Without Gladys Heldman, there wouldn’t be women’s professional tennis.”
I eagerly anticipated the recent release of Steve Flink’s biography of Pete Sampras. It is not exactly a “hot take” to say that Sampras is the greatest male American player of all time. It is not even close. His fourteen grand slam championships tower above the 8 won by both Jimmy Connors and Andre Agassi. He was ranked #1 in the world for an astonishing six consecutive years.
Every Wednesday this site contemplates a rule taken sequentially from the ITF Rules of Tennis as contained in the USTA’s Friend at Court. Today’s rule is from the “Continuous Play” section. The general principal underpinning all the rules in this section is that play should be continuous from the moment that the first serve is put into play until the match is completed.
It will probably not surprise anyone that I love the “Bag Check” feature that runs on the Tennis Channel. I actually used to like it even more before it started to be dominated by product placement trope. Still, that segment occasionally turns up some genuine gems. I am very interested in what players at all levels carry in their bags.
A couple of weeks ago the USTA sent an email addressed to all league and tournament players announcing that there will be no NTRP ratings updates published at the end of 2020. I believe that the majority of the regular readers of this site compete in adult tournaments or leagues, thus also received the email. Consequently, I am assuming that most are already aware that the “bump” will not occur this year.