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 9/9/2014
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., […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 9/2/2014
On Labor Day at the 2014 United States Open, the men finally decided to join the women in producing compelling tennis. Without any weather delays, the night session at Arthur Ashe Stadium lasted until 2:26 a.m., tying the mark for the latest night-session close in tournament history and making Todd Martin jealous. This night session started […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 8/27/2014
Who knew that the big story of day two at the United States Open — which was not as boisterous and complicated as day one, but still provided some teasing, twisting matches such as Victoria Azarenka’s three-set escape against Misaki Doi — would come from a player who would refuse prize money in order to […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 8/20/2014
Attacking The Net did it for Roland Garros. ATN did it for Wimbledon. Now, ATN offers a list of the 10 most significant U.S. Open women’s matches of all time. Reminder number one: This is not a list of the best matches, only the most significant. Reminder number two: See reminder number one. Reminder number […]
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 […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 8/11/2014
A weekend in Canada, a change of sceneWas the most I bargained forAnd then I discovered you, and in your eyesI found the love that I couldn’t ignore. — Canadian Sunset, 1956 * Norman Gimbel, the lyricist for a song that’s almost 60 years old, knew what a weekend in Canada could do for the […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 7/6/2014
The story of ESPN’s performance in week one at Wimbledon is archived here. Why was this account so lengthy? Very simply, ESPN (and at times, ESPNEWS) covered Wimbledon with only one television channel at one time. ESPN covered tennis until the early World Cup match came on, and ESPNEWS then filled in. However, the WorldWide Leader […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/29/2014
The day was a wet one at Wimbledon, with rain persisting long enough to force all non-Centre Court matches to early-evening or nighttime conclusions. Some matches didn’t even finish, creating a backlog that will disrupt the second-week schedule at the All-England Club. (More will be said on that subset of problems in a separate piece […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/27/2014
Look at the photo of Petra Kvitova. Notice the background of shade, contrasting with the ribbon of golden light on the top of Kvitova’s head. That’s the kind of camera shot that can be found at Centre Court Wimbledon during the five o’clock hour on a sunny summer afternoon. During that particular part of a […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/20/2014
The Wimbledon ladies’ singles draw was announced Friday morning. Click on each quarter of the draw to see the full 128-player bracket, with 32 players in each quarter. What stands out in the WTA portion of the 2014 Wimbledon bracket? As is the case with Novak Djokovic’s quarter in the men’s draw, it is as […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/16/2014
The All-England Club is where history lives and breathes more fully in tennis. So many of the sport’s important dramas and contentious rivalries have come alive in its most tradition-soaked setting. Keeping in mind that this list is not a measurement of pure quality or drama, here are the 10 most significant women’s matches of […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 6/9/2014
The four major tournaments do a lot to redefine the sport of tennis. Yes, these two-week events affirm many of pre-existing truths — Rafael Nadal’s a tolerably good tennis player on clay; Maria Sharapova is no longer a cow on ice when it comes to crushed red brick — but it’s always particularly fascinating to […]
