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…
Category: Tennis
Roland Garros 2024: How to Coach Rafa ahead of His Final French Open?
How to Prepare the Ultimate Overdog on Clay for One Last Stand as an Underdog? This was not an easy topic even before Nadal drew the 2024 Masters Rome champion and #4 seed Alexander “Sascha” Zverev. Rafa appeared likely to hit a unique 15-Love in Paris when he won his 14th French Open title in…
Upsets in Tennis are Easier with No-Ad Scoring & Match Tiebreaks
March Madness in the United States is a beloved sporting event crowning the end of the NCAA basketball season. It is marked by upsets. Tennis upsets are harder to come by due to the sheer number of points needed to win a single game let alone a set or match in tennis. For good or…
Lexington Challenger 2023: Part 2
I love the Masters Cincinnati event. I have been actively lobbying to keep it in Cincinnati despite its new owners being located in Charlotte. I do think challenger events are also worth our ticket purchases. I had never attended a Challenger event before 2023. The closest I came was attending qualifying rounds for Masters Cincinnati….
Lexington Challenger 2023: Part 1 – Excellent Players Find Ways to Stay Close
This is the first of at least two posts on my experiences as a spectator at the 2023 Lexington Challenger. Listen to my thoughts on how both finalists stayed in sets despite being outplayed for the first 8 games. Steve Johnson defeated Arthur Cazaux 7-6(5), 6-4 to take the 2023 Lexington Challenger. Both men weathered…
Quick Hit: Tennis Cannot Be a Prisoner to Its Past
The above response from Jon Wertheim to the notion that basketball has suffered due to constantly comparing the current NBA to the NBA of the 1990s is spot on. For how many years have we heard the tennis media and many tennis fans lament that someone is NOT Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Andre…
My Most Complicated Match in Tennis Coaching: 2022 Kentucky High School Doubles State Championship
Listen to my Podcast About the Most Complicated Match I’ve been a part of as a Coach
French Open 2023: June 6th Predictions
Predicted Winners in BOLD Karolina Muchova vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova My thoughts: Muchova has been playing much better over the past 52 weeks resulting in a huge difference in their computer rankings. They are in the same place in the draw, but I have to believe the ranking system has enough validity to predict Muchova advancing. …
AI Seems to Like Tennis Abides
I am not sure what HAL 9000 or Lt. Cmdr. Data thinks of my website, but maybe a little artificial encouragement will get me to post more frequently. Some of the information is a little exaggerated, but I can use binary-generated hyperbole. ChatGPT said: Tennis Abides is a tennis blog and online platform that covers…
22 Parting Shots from the 2023 Australian Open
Why 22? Well …
Tennis Abides: Dan Martin on Tennis and Life 