0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/4/2015
It is one of the constant points of contention in the global tennis community: When is a player “faking discomfort” on the court, and when is pain real? There’s a double-meaning in the act of mentioning “discomfort,” because taking on the topic is supremely uncomfortable. Choosing to talk about player discomfort — real, false, or […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/3/2015
The toughest thing to do in tennis is to win the calendar Grand Slam, of course, so if you wanted to be really nitpicky about this conversation, fine — what’s about to be said is not 100 percent accurate. However, for all intents and purposes, the toughest thing to do in men’s tennis over the […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/1/2015
Every tournament takes on a life of its own, in any sport. Some tournaments become interesting from the very start and stay that way. Others start brightly but then slow down and descend into dullsville, with a predictable forced-march of a denouement giving fans and pundits very little to chew on. Still other tournaments gain […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/22/2015
The men’s draw for the 2015 French Open has been announced. A one-word summary of the draw: KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! The doomsday scenario arrived for legions of Spaniards and Serbs on Friday in Paris. Rafael Nadal, seeded sixth at this tournament due to his struggles over the past few months, was slotted to play Novak Djokovic, the […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/21/2015
In the Southwestern United States, Cox Communications has been running a series of commercials for a number of years. The point is rather simple: Cox guarantees its products in ways that competitors are prohibited from making certain statements: This is what a lot of tennis journalists and commentators (though not all of them) are doing […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/17/2015
There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. Then again, numbers — while often telling falsehoods and being eternally subject to manipulation — can also reveal powerful truths. As the Roman road becomes the path to Paris, and the clay Masters 1000 series gives way to the year’s second major tournament, the numbers tell the story […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/11/2015
Every year (since 2011), the chatter builds before the French Open: This is Novak Djokovic’s year. This is the year Rafael Nadal fails to win Roland Garros. Every year, Nadal gathers himself and his resources — no matter how many setbacks he suffers in the month of May — and conquers Paris in early June. […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 4/19/2015
Every tournament matters. Every non-exhibition competition in sports possesses value. Every time professionals take the court — in tennis or any other endeavor — they enhance their levels of integrity to the extent that they take pride in their work, putting in an honest day’s effort for an honest day’s pay. If one dares to […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/24/2015
Everyone has his or her own dividing line for when to start — or stop — measuring anything under the sun. In terms of measuring the extent to which the Big Four have dominated the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, two dividing lines come to mind after Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer — again — in […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 2/3/2015
The Australian Open is done, and so is daily coverage of tennis at Attacking The Net… for now. This is still a major-tournament-focused blog. We hope to branch out in the coming months, but at the present time, our resources only enable us to cover the majors in full. We will provide Sunday or Monday […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/29/2015
It’s how major titles are won. It’s how high-level success is built and sustained. It’s how a lofty place in a sport’s pantheon is established. Backing up results — not just being good on one day, but the next day, and the day after that — separates the hot player on a feel-good run from […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/27/2015
It is one of the most famous quotes in tennis history. After beating Jimmy Connors in 1980, Vitas Gerulaitis — who had lost his previous 16 matches to Jimbo — said, “Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row!” Never mind the fact that Bjorn Borg had won 20 matches against Gerulaitis without a […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/21/2015
If a single theme can be gleaned from the first three days of the 2015 Australian Open, it is this: For anyone who has played professional tennis for an appreciable length of time, the cauldron of major-tournament pressure reveals the essence of that player — not always in a career-long context, but often enough to […]
The two ATP hardcourt major champions in 2014 were Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nad———
Hey, wait a minute!
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/16/2015
When a major-tournament draw is announced, the attention of the tennis world usually gravitates to the quarters and beyond: Which player seeded 5 through 8 ended up in Novak Djokovic’s quarter? Rafael Nadal’s? Roger Federer’s? Oh, and what about Stan Wawrinka? This was unavoidably going to be a point of interest, but in light of […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/15/2015
What is true for women’s tennis is also true for men’s tennis. Through 1987, the Australian Open was not so much a fourth major as a major in lighter clothing. Without a full 128-player draw, seeds received byes into the second round. On plenty of occasions, top pros didn’t make the trip Down Under to […]
