An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
Yesterday’s installment in the Fiend at Court “Unplugged” series lamented the fact that there isn’t a universal standard or etiquette for drying courts when it rains at tennis tournaments. Today I shift my attention to rain during regular season USTA league play. This is an entirely different dynamic.
Extolling the virtues of “The EGO Leaf Blower” earlier this week, brought back a wave of memories of my times spent leaning over a squeegee. A significant part of my junior tennis career was spent drying courts… for my baby brother’s impending tournament match. I don’t recall him ever returning the favor for me, but to be fair, I also can’t recall a time when I went further in a tournament than he did that would have precipitated (see what I did there?) that opportunity.
Since the COVID-19 shutdown, I have scrutinized the bookshelves appearing on video for countless executives and leaders in my industry. My assumption is that the books and accent pieces that appear on those videos were carefully curated to project an image or to send a message. Consequently, from the first moments that Pam Shriver appeared on screen working remotely on coverage of the US Open, I have been attempting to decipher what books appear behind her.
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Every Wednesday this site considers a rule from the ITF Rules of Tennis as published by the USTA Friend at Court. We are currently in the midst of a sequential march through the rules. Currently we are in Section 29, “Continuous Play.” Today’s topic is the Set Break.
On the day of opening play in the US Open this year, the USTA announced a plan to use the tournament as a platform to promote awareness of key initiatives to promote and develop the growth of tennis in the United States. In addition to raising the visibility and awareness of social issues, “Rally to Rebuild,” “Net Generation,” and “Tennis Industry United,” were featured.
I own more all-white tennis clothes than might reasonably be anticipated. Given my druthers, I rarely wear white. It is a simple matter of economics. My natural ability to get food and ink stains on white things makes it prohibitively expensive to be constantly replacing those items. At the same time, I revere the all white dress code as an indelible part of the history of the tennis.
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I rarely sit down when I play tennis. I have found that for me, any benefits of rest from sitting are negated by the fact that if I stop moving I tend to stiffen up. Besides, it it embarrassing when I have to ask my opponent for help getting back up.
This is the final installment examining a question that was surfaced in the Facebook group for USTA tournament players in Texas. A rule was proposed to the Capital Area Tennis Association (CATA) in Austin that would restrict players from captaining multiple teams within the same league.
A couple of weeks ago a player posted a question to the Facebook group of the active USTA tennis tournament players in Texas. The fundamental question is whether it is fair for a single person to captain multiple teams within the same league that play in the same flight. The hallmark of this site is using these types of situations to dissect and analyze the individual and organizational dynamics involved. This is a terrific case study to examine the rules and incentives in the USTA League framework.
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We are in the middle of a multipart examination on strategies and tactics for competitive tennis play. The first three weeks we have been focused on our own side of the court. All tennis players must have a deep understanding and awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses in order to develop strategies and tactics that work for them. Today we are shifting our attention to the other side of the net.