An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
The Wightman Cup was first contested in 1923. The occasion also marked the official dedication and first time use of the new concrete stadium at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills. Four trumpets heralded the start of the dedication ceremony which featured hoisting of flags and erection of the net posts and nets on the court. The West Side Tennis Club president threw in the balls for the first match.
The 1986 Wightman Cup left the world with some iconic artifacts that still grace the internet. The team photo of the victorious United States team drips with “The eighties called and they want their hair back” awesomeness. Additionally the competition was held at the Royal Albert Hall. Fitting for the venue, the Opening Ceremony featured trumpet fanfares and live vocal music from the choir loft.
The opening line from her biography page at the International Tennis Hall of Fame sums it up nicely: “Few in women’s tennis history had a more distinguished and productive career than Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman.” She was an outstanding player who also made significant off-court contributions. Her leadership ultimately led to an international women’s team competition, modeled after the Davis Cup.
Christopher Clarey is a well established and highly regarded tennis correspondent for the New York Times. As such, he was a witness to Roger Federer’s first ever match at a major, a loss to to Patrick Rafter in the first round of 1999 French Open qualifiers. The following year, he again saw Federer play in person at the Sydney Olympics. Clarey enjoyed frequent and unparalleled access to Federer throughout his career.
My friend Will Boucek produces a terrific tennis podcast “Doubles Only,” which — follow me closely here — focuses exclusively on tennis doubles tactics and strategy. In a recent episode, he shared a doubles practice drill that he observed on the practice courts at Indian Wells this year while watching Elise Mertens and Hsieh Su-Wei work out. This post shares my own diagram of the drill he verbally described.
The Tennis Industry Forum is an annual meeting that publicly shares information from the Tennis Industry Association, the USTA, the National Golf Foundation (!), and Tennis Industry United. The target audience includes tennis service providers and tennis equipment manufacturers. The data disclosed at that meeting is positioned as key industry research that can help a tennis business grow. The 2021 presentations included location details on where new tennis players are engaging with the sport. That data illustrates the fundamental challenge the USTA has with retaining those new players in the tennis ecosystem.
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Earlier this year, the post “Geeking Out over Tennis Participation Data in the Physical Activity Council Report” broke down the data revealed in the public version of the 2021 Physical Activity Council (PAC) Report. At the time, the USTA was falling all over themselves to issue press releases announcing a “surge” in tennis participation in 2020. The thing is, the data in the public PAC report didn’t exactly support that assertion.
Alice Marble is one of the most enigmatic figures in the history of tennis. She was a tennis superstar whose dominance on the court put her in a position to hobnob with some of the biggest names in Hollywood and society. Her private life is the subject of legend and sometimes venture well past the mark of “too good to be true.” The mystery only increases her allure.
Yesterday I wrote about how the USTA foists regular duty tennis balls on female tournament players. The next obvious question is when and why the policy started in the first place. It is a sordid tale of how tennis is a victim of the forces of technology and marketing. It is also a testament that complaining about the balls is an indelible part of the culture of tennis.
On the hard courts of Texas, bringing a can of regular duty tennis balls to a match is the epitome of poor taste. It simply isn’t done. The felt used for regular duty tennis balls doesn’t hold up to the wear and tear of play on an outdoor hard court. Consequently, I was surprised that regular duty balls were in use when I played the National Senior Women’s Hard Court Championships in Mission Hills, California earlier this month. I assumed that the selection was driven by necessity due to the the ongoing tennis ball shortage. As it turns out, the culprit is USTA policy.
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