A player with a more shots and a more complicated game usually takes longer to develop than someone who is say, mostly a backcourter. The final guys’ match today in Madrid was a perfect example of this. Del Potro vs Murray. Delpo has a pretty simple game – big groundies, big serve – and [...]

Safina and Mauresmo having a culinary adventure last year during the Kremlin Cup. I think they actually prepared the veggies under some direction. Don’t they look happy? This isn’t usually how tennis players look during a match – only if they win.
Mauresmo’s results haven’t been too good of late; Dinara’s been struggling this week in [...]

I’m trying out something new – a little foodstuff with the tennis, why not. We can all relate to our favorite and even not-so-favorite players looking for good things to eat.
In October 2006, Roger Federer posted some lighthearted blogs from his first tournament in Japan.

To become a top tennis player these days, you pretty much have to excel on ALL surfaces – hard, grass, clay, indoor. Gone are the days you could just win on one surface and get street cred. The Europeans, especially the Spanish guys, admitted this sooner than the Yanks and Aussies. They were tired of [...]

This week we have some smaller clay tournaments. There is a green clay tournament being held in Houston. Why do players use green clay as a warmup for the European clay court season? They are NOT the same surface. The only reason I can come up with is maybe they don’t want or can’t afford [...]

True, the Chinese girls mostly play the same game, but last year I developed a liking for Zheng Jie, the smallest of their players. She makes the most of her height and she’s also the fiercest, of them all, which is why I like her. She has a great talent for taking the ball early, [...]

The tense little break after IW is over; most players leave each tournament licking their wounds, hoping to do better the next time.

Should tennis players develop large muscles? It’s a trade-off, like most things. Bigger muscles allow you to hit and serve harder. It can mean more explosive power. But how you time your strokes has a lot to do with power. Hitting the ball early & hitting a serve at the height of the toss means [...]

There are some players who really put their fans through a grinder. Safin is one, but apparently he’ll be gone after this year. Nalbandian. Kind of like a cranky cobra, is Bandy Boy. For the first set and a half against Nadal, he was certainly deadly. He was cruising, and I bet his fans were [...]

I don’t think Roger planned on having a baby this year, although who knows what Mirka was thinking? Did our girl forget her birth control or did she put it away once or twice without telling Rogi? With the due date this summer, I wonder when she told him the news (and I betcha his [...]

Davis Cup is supposedly a team sport, but there are always teams whose fate depends on a single player, such as Rogi or Andy Murray – if they don’t play, their team loses. Switzerland and the UK went down in flames, though Stannie got 1 rubber against Blake.
Let’s talk about the UK’s woes.

It’s Rogi and Darren, player and coach, together at last!!! Time to celebrate – I demanded it, and it’s happened!!! It’s about time. I am going to stick a feather in my own cap. The guys getting to know each other while the other guys are Davis Cupping. I bet they’ll work out [...]

A brief respite before Davis Cup and Indian Wells – let’s discuss some old warhorses, John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova. Mac is still playing the senior tour; he’s made noises about quitting, just as Martina used to. Also Cher. These are people who have trouble staying away, because nothing else in their lives give them [...]

Remember the fiasco re Fox Sports Not-exactly-a-Network ‘broadcasting’ Indian Wells & Miami last year? Despite that disaster, they picked up the option to do an ENCORE this year!!! UNBELIEVABLE. FSN + Tennis Channel. Boy, am I hoping for decent other live stream. “Exactly how much live tennis you’ll see depends upon where you live and [...]

After my previous post about one-handers, whom should I see playing Dubai Monday but the Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky, who sprained an ankle taking an out-of-form Murray to a 3rd, and the Romanian Victor Hanescu. Both are stylish European all-courters with traditional backhands. I’ve seen them play before, but it’s been a while. There were many [...]

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After a few decades of doubled backhands, it seems the single is becoming more fashionable again – it’s the Rogi effect. Among the veteran holdouts in the past decade have been Federer, Hass, Ljubicic, Fernando Gonzalez, Feliciano Lopez. A good singlet backhand is a thing of beauty. The full follow-through opens [...]

“Another error. She’s given away 5 1/2 games!…It’s been a bad day at the office for Safina…tut, tut. We all have them, but not so publicly.” (One of the Eurosport Brit commentators in Dubai, of course)

Already many network and cable TV shows can be viewed by computer, so there’s more competition – some of it’s even free – for the cable companies, a big yay. The inaugural week for TennisTV.com – not a free subscription, but be glad it’s there. What was once just ATPTV has now been expanded [...]

When Jana Novotna had her famous breakdown against Steffi Graf playing the final at Wimbledon, it was one of the most overt and prolonged demonstrations of choking I’ve ever seen. 6-7, 6-1, 6-4. Jana was up 4-1, 40-15 in the 3rd. Jana then proceeded to systematically fall apart before the eyes of the world. [...]

There was a time when the girls did try playing 3 out of 5 sets, at the WTA year-end tournament from 1984-1998. That reportedly had to do with some of the girls, like Seles, demanding equal treatment/pay as the boys. So the WTA tried the 3 of 5, but few of even the top players [...]