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.
News from the BNP Paribas, Stefanos Tsitsipas gets his own shoe, and a tennis “Florida Man” story.
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
In 2018, former professional tennis player John-Laffnie de Jager challenged every sportsman and sportswomen around the world to shake their opponent’s hand both before and after every competition. His theory is that the physical act conveys a sense of mutual respect. That, in turn, should bring out the best of the athletes from both a performance and sportsmanship perspective. I love the idea.
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Alternate scoring methods were covered in great detail during this site’s initial march through the ITF Rules of Tennis in early 2020. However, there are a couple of nuances to the format in one of the appendices that deserve additional attention. I am guessing that both situations are relatively unknown to recreational tennis players.
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The BNP Paribas Open kicks off this week and is the only tournament in the main ATP and WTA calendars. Proof of vaccination is required for all attendees, which means that children 12 and under will not be permitted to attend.
During the US Open this year, I received numerous daily emails from the USTA reminding me to tune into the broadcast of the tournament. Other messaging that hit my inbox promoted purchase of tickets for the event. There were also frequent reminders to engage with the “virtual grounds” of Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The messaging repeatedly hawked US Open merchandise. Following the conclusion of the tournament, I received notifications from the USTA inviting me to participate in an auction of the art that was displayed on the tournament grounds this year. It was a lot of direct email marketing.
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