0 comments by Attacking the Net on 8/22/2016
To the very end of her illustrious career as a professional tennis player, Maria Sharapova remained a pleasing and positive puzzle, one the sports world had a hard time solving. Sharapova’s retirement on Monday, announced before her 29th birthday in April, offered one last revealing glimpse into an athlete who was easy to judge from […]
NY 29Aug2015 Roof scaffolding Ashe Stadium wide angle view from top on Art Ashe Day with shadows.
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 9/14/2015
BLOGUIN NOTE Before we begin, a reminder for readers: Attacking The Net is a major-tournament tennis blog, not (yet) a full-service year-round tennis blog. You’ll get coverage of the Davis Cup semifinals and finals; the WTA Finals; and the ATP World Tour Finals, with perhaps a wrap-up of the Masters 1000 events in Shanghai and […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 8/17/2015
When tennis fans and pundits sat down to preview the tennis season’s big week in Canada — with the WTA in Toronto and the ATP in Montreal — they couldn’t possibly have known what was about to unfold in the great North. Try to go back to the morning of Sunday, August 9, when 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 6/26/2014
To the uneducated observer, tennis is a simple sport — just whack the ball and keep it within the painted white lines. Thock! Thock! Thock! Thock! The sport is easily pigeonholed as a genteel pursuit in which fans seated on the sides of a stadium turn their heads — left, right, left, right — as […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/31/2014
It’s inside baseball for the tennis diehard, but for the casual American sports fan, the reference needs explaining: There are two “Vic-es” (or “vitches,” take your pick) in women’s tennis. Who (or what) are they? They’re the two best WTA players from Serbia: Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic. One of them is still alive at […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/19/2014
This is a pre-draw assessment of the uncertainties that will greet the 2014 Roland Garros women’s tournament. When the draw is announced this Friday morning in Paris, the process of “tennis bracketology” can begin. For now, though, one can only look at a few players irrespective of the draw and ask questions about what they’ll […]
