My last blog focused on the strange and sad attempt to make college tennis more fan-friendly, and by doing so, making the sport less player-friendly. As a junior coach, I see the importance of this issue firsthand because the desire to one day play college tennis is a cornerstone motivation of many juniors’ tennis experience….
The Mutua Madrid Open is always one of the biggest and most important tune-ups for the French Open, and with four American men into the second round of the clay-court tournament, could this be a sign of things to come in the next few weeks? The Madrid draw began with five Americans in the main…
Tennis parents, be aware that while athletic scholarships help your child play college sports, get into their dream school, and prevent you from taking out a bank loan, your child could be receiving even more assistance. During the four-plus years that your child will be attending college, your son or daughter will often be “shouldering…
The Big 12 Athletic Conference is permitting spectators to engage in "non-abusive disruptions" during its tennis matches in a effort to be more fan-friendly. The Conference is encouraging spectators to become loud and boisterous during points, and supporters of this initiative say that tennis needs to break with tradition and encourage more spectator involvement to…
Sania Mirza is now the world's number one ranked doubles player, and that is a remarkable achievement. To put this accomplishment in perspective, consider that Mirza is the first female from India ranked number one in the world in any professional sport and no Indian woman had been ranked in the top 100 before Sania Mirza (she reached…
Arthur Ashe once called Martin Blackman "The next great American champion." Things did not work out as expected for Blackman, as his top junior career did not translate to success on the ATP Tour. Blackman had a short stint on the Tour and was ranked as high as 158th in the world at one point….
The PowerShares series—a senior circuit which includes Grand Slam Champions Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, Jim Courier, Andy Roddick and Michael Chang—will be playing matches without linesman aided by a chair umpire, Hawk Eye instant replay and unlimited challenges. Currently, when Hawk Eye is used, players are permitted three incorrect challenges per set prior…
Remember the tantrums of the "Tennis Brats" of the 1980s? A new study coming out of Ultrech University in the Netherlands (as well as previous studies done at the University of Southampton in England and Ohio State University) suggests that their bad behavior may have resulted from overindulgent parenting that became popular in the 1960s….
From the files of "I thought I have heard it all," comes the story that former world number one Marcelo Rios has received the backing of the Chilean Tennis Federation to request that the ITF investigate Petr Korda for doping during the 1998 Australian Open. While it's almost comical that Rios believes somehow an investigation will…
I got an e-mail last week from Nate Gross, assistant men's tennis coach at Idaho State University. Nate authored several concise books on charting tennis matches and they are the best of this genre that I have ever read. While these books are user-friendly, accessible and elegant, I have to no intention of using them…