Tennis and comic books commanded much of my attention from 7th through 9th grade. Comics faded in my life but tennis persisted.* I was a Marvel fan collecting Silver Surfer and Thor comics for the most part with a few Dark Horse Godzilla comics thrown in for good measure. Comic books stoked the imagination of…
Category: Tennis History
Strokes of Genius Documentary Airs on July 1st
While I consider Novak Djokovic’s 5 set 2012 Australian Open final victory over Rafael Nadal to be the greatest match ever played (to this point?), this should be an interesting documentary.
Is Tennis Dying in the US? Part 1
A couple of weeks ago, a strong junior player asked me, “Don’t you think tennis is a dying sport in the US?” My first reaction was to think no followed by I hope not. I didn’t vocalize either of those views though. I tried to think about things as this is a complicated question. …
Food for Thought on Nadal’s Grand Slam Haul
Howard Bryant of ESPN pointed out after the 2017 US Open that those dismissing Nadal as only a threat on clay are wrong due to Rafa having as many non-clay majors as Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg. 11 Roland Garros Titles = Borg + Wilander + Courier’s Haul or 11 Roland Garros Titles = Borg…
French Open Memories: 1991
I already wrote about the 4-year Courier-Agassi Wars of 1989-1992. There was another memorable clash of US players in 1991. Jimmy Connors took on 1989 Roland Garros champion Michael Chang. On paper, this didn’t look like much of a match. Jimmy Connors did win the 1976 US Open on Har-Tru/green clay, but it was 1991…
2018 and the ATP Tour – 2003 Redux?
2017 – The Echo Year? 2018 – The Realigning Year? Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal neatly divided most of the biggest prizes in tennis in 2017. It looked a lot like 2005-2010 in which the two won all but 3 majors. I called 2017 “the Echo Year” to my friends. Yet, something odd happened at…
My History of Favorable Treatment from Tournaments toward Stars
Roger Federer’s frequent night play on Rod Laver Arena sparked some controversy at this year’s Australian Open. I will start with 1991 because I recall the write-up of Jimmy Connors 1991 US Open run mentioning him asking for and receiving extra night matches. Could Connors have run like this during the day and recovered as…
Pancho Segura’s Wise Words on Tennis
I came across this piece from Peter Bodo regarding the late, great, Pancho Segura. This quote from Segura stood out to me as a great outlook for anyone playing tennis at any level: “It doesn’t take more than a racket and a heart to play this game,” he told ESPN in 2009. “It’s a great…
A Lifetime of Bad Tennis Computer/Video Games
Pong had a tennis quality to it. Pong was simple yet fun. Sadly, my experience with tennis based computer and video games generally topped out with Pong. It has been a hard balance for programmers to come up with a tennis game with the right level of difficulty that also actually resembles the sport of…
Forgotten Classic – Becker v Leconte 1993
I loved seeing the sort of shots they could generate given that the strings were not nearly as advanced as they are today. Also, the serve and volley positioning is nice to see.
