0 comments by Matt Zemek on 7/11/2015
Purely in a chronological sense, Serena Williams stands in the autumn of her career. If her career could be likened to a 12-month calendar year, she’s in late September as opposed to early April. More years are behind her than in front of her as a transcendent tennis player. Her first major title came 16 […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 7/9/2015
As a Spanish woman, Garbine Muguruza, prepares for a Wimbledon singles final on Saturday, the pages of tennis history turn. Back in 1974, 39-year-old Ken Rosewall contested the Wimbledon men’s final against 21-year-old Jimmy Connors. That’s a college freshman’s lifespan between the two competitors. In the annals of Wimbledon women’s finals with large age disparities […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 7/8/2015
A timeless lesson is something which exists in any point of human history. However, when talking about tennis or baseball or a few other sports, the idea of “timelessness” is more specific, since those sports aren’t played against the backdrop of a clock. Baseball players and solo-sport athletes — and any other athletes in sports […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 7/7/2015
For some fans of tennis and some fans of various sports, dominance is boring. What’s so special about seeing the same winner over and over again, the same movie over and over again? It’s not inherently right or wrong to look at sports this way — it’s simply a matter of taste and preference. The […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 7/6/2015
Manic Monday, as the second Monday of Wimbledon is referred to, claims a special place on the tennis calendar, mostly for good reasons. However, some of the effects of this day are unavoidably unwelcome. You can call it a “first-world tennis problem,” a consequence of the All-England Club’s annual decision (due to the politics of […]
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 6/26/2015
The women’s draw for Wimbledon was announced Friday morning. Here it is: The first thing which stands out about the women’s draw is that the bottom half is a vast green field (word choice intentional, since this is lawn tennis) of opportunity for everyone in it. Petra Kvitova has to be very happy with the […]
Photo courtesy of the Associated Press
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/23/2015
The month of July honors America’s independence from Great Britain, and this July, American dreams of calendar Grand Slam glory will either reach a crescendo or die a fiery death across the pond. Later in July, Jordan Spieth will head to the British Open trying to do the unthinkable. He’ll attempt to capture the third […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/8/2015
The 2015 French Open figured to be crazy… and it was. Let’s review the past two weeks, shall we? * 10 – WOZNIACKI’S WOES — NOT TO BE OVERSTATED, BUT NOT TO BE IGNORED, EITHER The (lack of) fortunes of Caroline Wozniacki in 2015 should not be given too much play after Roland Garros — […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/6/2015
It’s not as though Serena Jameka Williams has cruised through most of the 20 — yes, twenty — major tournaments she has now conquered. Winning a major is almost always a hard thing to do. (Rafael Nadal at the 2008 French Open and a few other select individuals could offer exceptions to the rule.) Serena, […]
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 6/1/2015
For the men at Roland Garros, the end of play on Monday evening marks the calm before the storm of four blockbuster quarterfinals. For the women competing for a major championship in Paris, everything is possible… despite what you might think about the hollowed-out nature of the bracket. In 2013, Serena Williams fended off Maria […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 5/30/2015
Saturday’s third-round match at the French Open between Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka began as a ho-hum affair. It became a match worthy of a major semifinal or final… and of the legacies of two major champions. It then gave way to two of the best post-match press conferences of 2015 (in any sport, not […]
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 […]
