Topic: Tennis

May 11, 2012

The Madrid Open’s blue clay is perceived to be more of a stunt than a genuine attempt to better the sport. One need look no further than the mounting headlines or the spike in search volume for the words “blue clay” to understand: Madrid is enjoying massive amounts of publicity as a result of the controversy, fueling the implicit belief that the peculiar surface exists for the sake of the tournament, not the players.

May 10, 2012

An event brought together the game of tennis with the cultural study of cool earlier this month. It happened on a court situated at the foot of the Santa Rosa Mountains during an Indian Wells match contested by two obscure players that was watched live by perhaps fifty people.

April 16, 2012

A conversation with the man behind the brilliant Capybaras That Look Like Rafael Nadal about larger-than-usual rodents, tennis sex symbols, aggressive merchandising and the power of frankly ridiculous things.

March 21, 2012

Last weekend in Indian Wells, the number one women’s tennis player, Victoria Azarenka, claimed her fourth straight tournament for 2012 and put her win/loss records at 23-0 for the year. For a while now, there has been concern that the women’s tour is fundamentally broken. Could Azarenka's streak be a step in the right direction? 

January 30, 2012

A Novak Djokovic victory is almost always impressive but rarely inspirational, akin to watching someone recreate a Jackson Pollock painting drop by drop from the world’s longest instruction manual. As a physical accomplishment, it’s amazing. As a piece of drama, or really just athletic narrative, it’s a little dull. For full appreciation as an athlete in a state of continual self-improvement, he requires the right context.

January 19, 2012

Marcos Baghdatis could have been a star on the men's tennis tour. Instead, after a recent racket-smashing spree in an Australian Open loss, he's a star on YouTube. How did it come to this?

January 13, 2012

Hit Points is a humble tribute to the nonfiction comic strips in the Sunday newspapers of yore. Today: the battle between new and old in the next big tennis tournament.

December 8, 2011

There is a general consensus that the USTA has not done enough to adequately develop top young American talent. Exactly what it should be doing is less clear.