Prelude: A few years ago I played chess with my brother, I lost the match when his sole surviving pawn and king marched down the board to doom my lonely king. On multiple occasions, I was one move from winning if he overlooked a trap. After the match, I noted, “That was a close match.”…
Category: Tennis
Infinite Jest: Hal Incandenza and Masking
As Tennis Abides heads into 2025, I expect to write a great deal more about tennis and tennis coaching that lies outside of tennis played on professional tours. I am ducking into Infinite Jest again as part of this shift. Warning Spoilers Infinite Jest opens with Hal Incandenza’s interrogation by university officials regarding discrepancies between…
Tennis Abides on Jerry Eaves Sports Radio
I talked tennis with a Louisville Legend on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. The whole show is worth a listen. Tennis and I are on with Jerry Eaves from 14:55-24:10. Give Jerry Eaves a follow on the platform formerly known as Twitter: @JerryEaves5 Jerry Eaves grew up in Louisville and played basketball for the great Denny…
The Spanish Armada’s Domination of the Men’s French Open
Spanish French Open Men’s Champions since 1993: Spanish French Open Men’s Runner-Up since 1994:
Roland Garros 2024: Andy Roddick’s Insights on the Men’s Final
Not that Andy Roddick needs my support or publicity, but his insights on the match give any tennis player and any tennis fan an idea of all that is happening on the court. His granular analysis is an education. My retrospective on the women’s and men’s finals will be up later tonight.
2024 KHSAA Boys Team State Championship Day 2 – Dealing with Defeat
We entered this season knowing we were among the better high school teams in Kentucky and that the defending champions were the strongest team in the state on paper. We and they love that sports are not played on paper. We lost two spirited dual matches to them in the regular season (including one singles…
2024 KHSAA Kentucky Boys Team State Championship Day 1 in the Books
The Newish Format For the first time in several years, Kentucky has separated its high school singles and doubles state tournaments from the team championship. I’ve been fortunate enough to be an assistant coach at a school that has won its past 4 regional titles. In recent previous seasons, regional and state titles were awarded…
Quick Hits: Kentucky State High School Championships
I made the picturesque* drive from Louisville to Lexington to help coach my school’s entrants in the KHSAA state singles and doubles tournaments hosted by the University of Kentucky. UK has enjoyed a lot of success recently in NCAA tennis losing to the eventual NCAA champions each of the past 3 seasons in the 2022…
Roland Garros 2024: Roddick on Rafa
This video gives a lot of insight into what facing Rafael Nadal is like and how Rafa developed his game over the years. The 3-minute point in the video begins a multiple-minute discussion of what trading groundstrokes with Rafa feels like if you wish to skip ahead. I want to add that Novak Djokovic having…
Tennis Abides: Dan Martin on Tennis and Life 