An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
A fun thought exercise for the week is to rank the first three stories in order of credibility: A) That IOC president Thomas Bach is an unbiased source of the well being of Peng Shuai, B) any future Novak Djokovic vaccination claim without independent verification, or C) that the Serbian legal system legitimately investigated the irregularities in Djokovic’s positive Covid test at the center of the Australian Open kerfuffle.
Today marks the 770th consecutive daily post to appear on Fiend at Court. This site was launched on New Year’s Eve in 2019 as a personal goal accountability mechanism to write a page a day about tennis the following year. At the end of the first year, it was an easy decision to keep on going. The people who read this blog on a regular basis were a significant factor. Thank you for joining me on this journey of discovery.
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Heading into New Year’s Eve in 2021, I shared twelve “Gifts” that people can give to themselves to jumpstart their tennis life. Each item on that list is essentially a tennis related life hack shamelessly adapted from a cybersecurity career development webinar that I gave back in 2019. I am taking a more in depth look at each one of those items first Friday of each month this year. In February we are focusing on the “Gift” of Gratitude.
Data integrity issues surface over Novak Djokovic’s positive Covid test, the “Barty Party” fuels a participation spike in Australia, and Danielle Collins plays the AO finals without a clothing or shoe contract.
One of the unexpected benefits of writing this blog has been my discovery of the greatness of wheelchair tennis. When Dylan Alcott announced that the 2022 Australian Open will mark his retirement from competition, I knew that I would be reviewing his recently updated autobiography as “Australian Summer of Tennis” draws to a close. This compulsory read turned out to be a compulsory read: I finished the book in a single sitting.
In the second round of the Australian Open, Pablo Carreno Busta hit an unusual “around the net post” winner against Tallon Griekspoor. It is a perfect example that highlights one of the more obscure rules of tennis. In fact, it is a rules interpretation that the ESPN announcer didn’t get exactly right.
I played a tournament last October at the Mission Hills Country Club. The COVID postponed BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells was going on at the same time. One morning WTA player Desirae Krawczyk and her doubles partner Alexa Guarachi strolled into the club for a practice session. Naturally, I watched their workout with rapt attention. They played the classic doubles practice game “Dingles!” against their coaches.
For years the USTA has obsessed about low participation of players between 20-40 years old. There is a “bathtub” shaped curve as participation plummets when players age out of Juniors tennis. The numbers don’t recover until after people turn 40. From a marketing perspective, it is a disaster because that demographic is where disposable income lives. It is also bad for overall participation because many people don’t ever return to the tennis ecosystem.
John Newcombe is a striking figure from the golden era of Australian tennis. The Aussies were also well known for on court achievement and even better known for having a great time off the court. It was an era of sportsmanship and camaraderie that may never exist again. Newcombe’s autobiography, Newk: Life On and Off the Court was published in 2002, but still feels current and relevant to this day.
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Chris Evert announces a cancer diagnosis and Netflix is filming a documentary series with behind-the-scenes look at life on the ATP and WTA tours. Australia makes a final decision on the immigration status of Novak Djokovic who continues to be one of the most divisive figures in tennis. Australian Open play is underway!