Tennis Abides: Players of the Year

2018 WTA Player of the Year – Naomi Osaka The 2018 WTA Player of the Year is a topic that could be debated without any clear verdict.  Still, I think Naomi Osaka’s virtuoso performance at the US Open firmly established her as a player who can become the dominant force on the WTA Tour.  She…

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Tennis Stories: The Sub

There are moments that stand out for the wrong reasons.  The strangest and most cringe-worthy moment of my 33-year tennis career happened when I was subbing.   Tennis can be an expensive sport.  Lessons cost money, court time can cost money, tennis equipment is not cheap, tournaments cost money, leagues are not free … Subbing is…

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Tennis Twitter Highlights 10/27/2018

Down 6-0, 2-0, @SloaneStephens battles back to defeat Pliskova, 0-6, 6-4, 6-1! Will face Svitolina in @WTAFinalsSG championship! pic.twitter.com/ULwFJqGIV7 — WTA (@WTA) October 27, 2018 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Milestones All Over the Place Federer extends his own record for most finals at a single tournament on the @ATPWorldTour Federer: 14(Basel)Nadal: 12( Monte Carlo)Federer: 12 ( Halle)Federer: 11(…

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What Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka Need to Do to Win

Serena Willams vs Naomi Osaka: This Could be a Classic Serena Williams has won 23 majors and played in hundreds of big matches because she does something better than nearly anyone else.  Serena’s transitions from offense to defense and from defense to offense trouble her opponents. Serena has the best serve on the WTA Tour…

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Tennis Abides – 7th Anniversary: State of the Site Address

Changes as Tennis Abides Turns 7 Dear Readers, I started writing about tennis for various websites in part due to being taken with the high level of play I saw at Masters Cincinnati 2002.  I recall watching Carlos Moya up close on day 1 and thinking he would have a nice run.  Little did I…

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Nick Kyrgios and Tennis Excellence

I am not a huge fan of The Color of Money as it is nowhere near as good as The Hustler.  Still, the film has a lot of good moments.  I especially like Eddie Felson’s line “pool excellence is not about excellent pool.”  Nick Kyrgios still lacks tennis excellence.  I am not sure how doggedly he…

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Another Conversation with Tim Mayotte: The Kinetic Chain

This past June I was fortunate enough to have a second interview with Tim Mayotte.  Mayotte is an incredibly nice person with a lot of well-rounded interests.  In that conversation, we discussed multiple things, but when it came to tennis Mayotte explained that the Big 3 in men’s tennis all share certain commonalities in how…

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The Complex Case of Rick Pitino and Basketball in Kentucky

Complete with hyperlinks and endnotes News of dueling books about Rick Pitino as well as stories surrounding the lawsuit between Rick Pitino and the University of Louisville regarding the recruiting scandal that led to his firing in 2017 have me reflecting on Rick Pitino’s time in my beloved home state of Kentucky.  Kentucky cannot make…

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