Imagine this … you just turned pro. You play a few tournaments, and in your first year, your record is 2-3. Okay, fair enough as you’re just getting into things. In your second year, your record is 12-14. You play two Davis Cup matches and lose both and then lose in the first round of…
Eight years ago, Alona Bondarenko paired up with her sister, Kateryna, and won the 2008 Australian Open Women’s Doubles Championship, defeating the team of Victoria Azarenka & Shahar Peer in the finals. The sisters from the Ukraine battled back from a set down to beat the Belarusian/Israeli duo to become the first players from Ukraine…
I often sit in meetings with other head coaches from a variety of sports at the college where I lead the men’s and women’s tennis programs. I attend forums and seminars, spending time trying to learn new ways to improve within the coaching profession. I share coaching stories with other instructors, and invariably, there is…
Hey fans of Roger Federer … this installment of “The Jensen Zone” is for you! Even if you do not have Federer as your favorite player, it is easy to respect the Swiss champion and his approach to sportsmanship, competition and appreciation for the game he plays. One thing that makes me sad is that…
A friend of mine just returned from a three-week trip to Japan and told me a story I found impossible to believe. This same story also brought tears to my eyes. It occurred at the end of a long day of shopping in Kyoto. She was in a very high-end department store and it was…
The 2015 Grand Slam season has concluded and on the men’s side, Novak Djokovic walked away with the U.S. Open trophy, defeating Roger Federer in four sets. Both Novak and Roger have had consistently solid years. They are both poster boys for the thread which I have woven into my articles during the previous year:…
Thank you, Roberta Vinci. Finally, someone has opened our eyes and made a clear statement: Tennis is not all about hitting the cover off the ball. Somehow, we all bought into the idea that the only way to play is to stay on the baseline and slug it out. Vinci showed us that simply changing…
The USTA has announced that its Player Development Division will host a series of coaching education symposiums geared to engage under-represented coaching communities. The overall goal of these symposiums is to continue USTA Player Development’s ongoing efforts to create a collaborative partnership with a full spectrum of its American tennis stakeholders. At the symposiums, USTA Player Development…
Instructional group clinics and private tennis lessons these days seem to be primarily populated by and marketed toward juniors. That’s fine in the respect that once children begin playing tennis and training at a young age, they will no doubt become competitive players. But where is the adult population these days, and why aren’t they…
The New York tennis landscape is always growing and evolving. There are a myriad of options both indoors and outdoors for a local tennis player to choose from. So how does a successful tennis entity separate themselves? How does a successful club increase their player base and continue to grow? New York Tennis Magazine sat…