Tennis and the Meaning of Life

Let’s get one thing straight. It’s just a game, no big deal. Tennis is as simple as pie. Yellow ball and nifty racket: hit it over that net and into the rectangle and you’re home free. Win two or three sets, and you’re a hero. Gotta love it.

“If you really think about it,” says Maria Sharapova, “it’s so dumb — you have a grip in your hand, strings in the racket, there’s a yellow fuzzy ball and you’re hitting it and you’ve been doing it since you were four. It’s ridiculous. It’s really dumb, but it’s what we do.” More »

Fernandez: ‘CoCo Needs Better Focus, Conditioning’

Gambill-Coached American Has Dropped to No. 122

U.S. Fed Cup captain Mary Joe Fernandez, who will lead her troops into action against Belarus Feb. 4-5 in Worcester, Mass., says CoCo Vandeweghe‘s recent drop in the rankings (from No. 89 to No. 122) might be due to a lack of focus and conditioning.

“For her, I think it’s a concentration issue,” said Fernandez, who recently saw Vandeweghe in action alongside Billie Jean King and Elton John at a World TeamTennis fundraiser in Cleveland. More »

Of Armed Hippies and Wild Animals

The Buzz

AUTO (NOT) CORRECT: Andy Roddick tweeted, “I just texted the word ‘badass’ and it autocorrected it to Nagasaki.” Bob Bryan wrote, “I meant to send ‘xoxoxo’ to my wife and it autocorrected it to Codfish!” More »

Are We Penn State?

In the Wake of the Penn State Scandal, Longtime Gadfly and Tennis Critic Michael Mewshaw Examines a Troubling Secret Few Want to Address

The sex abuse scandal at Penn State has not just horrified the U.S.  It has gone viral, the sordid details of the story spreading around the globe.  Not that people overseas know or care much about American football, not that they have opinions, pro or con, about coach Joe Paterno, not that they could ever hope to understand how a publicly supported, Federally funded state university could grant almost absolute independence, not to mention a multi-million dollar budget, to a putatively amateur athletic program.  No, what has riveted foreign observers are the facts of the case. More »

James At 31

The James Blake Interview: ‘You Don't Know What's Going to Happen Tomorrow’

In the lead-up to James Blake’s Nov. 28 Serving For A Cure fundraiser at NYC’s Lincoln Center, which benefits the Thomas Blake Sr. Memorial Research Fund, established to support cancer research, the former world No. 4 chatted with Inside Tennis about the power of giving back, his through-thick-and-thin journey in tennis, and playing smart at 31.

Blake, who opted to sit out the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris after a successful USTA Pro Circuit swing through California, is back inside the top 60 after having fallen to a six-year low of No. 173 in March. More »

They Did Their Best Work In Sneakers

Steve Jobs, Roger Federer and the Zen of Genius

It was said that he looked “like some kind of aging vegan long-distance runner.” But truth be told, Steve Jobs was not much of an athlete. But so what. His mindset and inventions impacted sports. Then again, they affected everything. More »

Wozniacki Secures Year-End No.1 Ranking

Dane Becomes Eighth Player to Grab Top Spot In Consecutive Years

Only moments after a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 loss to Vera Zvonareva at the WTA Championships, Caroline Wozniacki learned that she had clinched No.1 for the second year in a row. After ascending to the pinnacle of the WTA Tour rankings for the first time in her career in October 2010, Wozniacki has held the No.1 spot for all but one week (Kim Clijsters, February 14, 2011), and will extend her reign to a total of 64 weeks through the week of January 2, 2012. More »

Sins of the Celebrity Father

Roscoe Tanner's Missteps Help the Author Connect With Her Past

One day in the mid 1990s when I was living in New York City, I walked into one of the city’s serpentine subway stations that connect the downtown and crosstown lines. As I entered the first stairway I could hear the faint strains of a violin playing the theme from “The Godfather.” With each new stairway down I heard the music a little clearer, and with each step my stomach tightened a little more. By the time I reached the street musician and his violin in the middle of a busy connecting corridor, my stomach was cramping so badly I could barely stand up. More »

Blake Time

A Q&A With James Blake: 'Critics Deserve Criticism, Too'

Working his way back into rankings relevance, 31-year-old James Blake insists the fire still burns. Following his second-round exit at the U.S. Open, the former No. 4 spoke with a small group of reporters about unfinished business. More »

Twin Peaking

The Bryan Bros. On Doubles, Djokovic and Davis Cup

MILL VALLEY, CALIF. — Inside Tennis caught up with the No. 1-ranked Bryan Bros. at the Esurance Classic, held Sept. 24-25 at The Club at Harbor Point in Mill Valley, Calif.  Their upset loss in the opening round of the U.S. Open behind them, Bob and Mike reflected on an otherwise standout year and looked ahead to the Feb. 10-12, 2012 first-round tie against Switzerland. More »