0 comments by Matt Zemek on 8/27/2015
The U.S. Open women’s draw is out. Here is the bracket for the year’s final major. We all know who the main story is in Flushing Meadows, New York: Serena Jameka Williams, whose initials — “SJW” — could just as easily refer to the reality of life on the WTA Tour: Serena Just Wins. It […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 7/4/2015
Twice in a span of 24 hours at Wimbledon, the same basic drama unfolded… and cut in different directions. On Friday, Serena Williams — one of the two players expected to make the women’s final — found herself at 4-4 in the third set on Centre Court. She lost serve at 4-4 and watched Heather […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/30/2015
In tennis, it’s important to emphasize the following point, lest this discussion veer in an unwanted direction: Much as duration of match and quality of match have little to do with each other, qualities such as parity and depth are value-neutral. They require circumstances in order to be seen as positive or negative. A division […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/22/2015
The women’s singles draw for the 2015 French Open has been announced. What stands out about a bracket that features so many delicious (or perilous, depending on your viewpoint) uncertainties? You can debate which item is the second most important one on your list, but there should be no discussion about the top story to […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/22/2015
The Australian Open isn’t just the first major tournament (the first important event) of the tennis calendar. It is the one major tournament which exists far removed from the other three. The Australian Open really does exist on an island, an appropriate reality for a country which is in fact geographically isolated from other continents. […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/15/2015
The draws are out for the 2015 Australian Open. In both the women’s and men’s events, the first few days of the tournament offer the promise of a few main-event matches, which is not always something you get at a major. It can take time to stumble upon the kind of centerpiece which pushes other […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 10/26/2014
The Women’s Tennis Association moved its end-of-the-year showcase event from Istanbul to Singapore this year. The time difference put a lot of matches on American television in the middle of the night. The sport is bigger than one country or continent, and Li Na — who retired before the 2014 WTA Finals began — had […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 10/5/2014
The just-concluded China Open in Beijing is not quite a crown jewel on the Women’s Tennis Association’s annual calendar. Yet, it owns the distinction of being the last main-stage event before the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore, which begin on Oct. 20. You can identify this event as part of the “Asian swing” on the […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 9/12/2014
American television’s coverage of major-tournament tennis is never less complicated than at the Australian Open each January. ESPN2 has to work around its college basketball programming at times, but Tennis Channel picks up the early window of coverage on most if not all days, and deep into the night, ESPN2 and ESPN are all too […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 9/9/2014
The last major tennis tournament of the year is over. The Davis Cup semifinals begin this Friday, and there are a lot of points to be won (or defended, depending on the player) in the Asian swing and the fall indoor portions of the tennis calendar. Both the WTA and ATP will unfurl their year-ending […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 9/7/2014
The U.S. Open’s trophy presentation ceremonies are usually the tackiest in tennis, even worse than the Australian Open’s prolonged affairs. The U.S. Open ceremony becomes something of a game show, with the CBS emcee rattling off the prizes and money totals for the champion and runner-up. This time, though, the U.S. Open ended with an […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 9/5/2014
One match didn’t even last two whole sets. The other match felt over well before two whole sets had been completed, and although it tightened up, it ended without an abundance of suspense. Yet, the U.S. Open women’s semifinals on Friday afternoon at the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., […]
When you beat Maria Sharapova in three sets, you’ve done something significant and rare in women’s tennis. When you do so at the U.S. Open and in nasty, punishing weather conditions, you’ve done something far more impressive. Wozniacki enjoyed a favorable draw in the quarterfinals and semifinals before running into Serena Williams in the final. However, Wozniacki’s win over Sharapova was the trial the Danish star had to endure, the hurdle she had to clear on the way to her second major final.
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 9/1/2014
When an athlete drinks in one of the great moments of her career, it’s natural to want the perfect setting for such an occasion. However, at the very moment Caroline Wozniacki defeated Maria Sharapova on Sunday at the U.S. Open, dark storm clouds loomed not too far away. Those very clouds soon poured down rain, […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 8/31/2014
Sometimes, it’s hard to tell whether the women or the men are carrying the run of play at a major tennis tournament. Not this time. Not in New York. Not at the 2014 United States Open. The women have ruled the Big Apple in the first of the two weeks at the Billie Jean King […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 8/18/2014
We’ve seen two utterly fascinating weeks of North American hardcourt tennis since the world’s best (minus Rafael Nadal, Juan Martin del Potro, and Li Na, among others) came to Canada in early August. Tour action continues this week in New Haven (Connecticut) and Winston-Salem (North Carolina). Moreover, a few of the big names on the WTA […]
