Jannik Sinner, of Italy, executing a picture-perfect backhand volley against Holger Rune, of Denmark, at the 2022 ATP Sofia Open tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria
“Tennis should be at the top of the list for sports with the greatest athletes. I’m in awe of what great athletes they are.”
– Retired baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez
Recently, Tennis Channel analyst Jimmy Arias, while calling a match, said, “I think baseball is the least relatable [sport] to tennis outside of the throwing motion making for a very good serve.”
I have long admired Jimmy as one of our sport’s smartest analysts on technique and tactics as well as for complicated, off-court tennis issues and controversies.
“When you are a young man, you are looking for your own identity, and winning is a way of expressing yourself. When I lost, I wanted to die. And because I thought in victory I became somebody, in defeat, it followed, I was nobody.” – Boris Becker, who won his first Grand Slam title at the 1985 Wimbledon, at age 17.
One of the most interesting and challenging aspects of tennis if you’re a fervent tennis fan or a tennis writer and teaching pro like me is to try to predict which young players will become future champions. Sometimes it’s fairly easy. For example, Serena Williams, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, and Jennifer Capriati were all considered “can’t miss” kids at 11 or 12.
“Now that I’m losing some, I can see how tough I was—the killer instinct, the single-mindedness, playing like a machine. Boy, that’s what made me a champion.” – Chris Evert, near the end of her illustrious career, in TIME magazine (1989)
Several tennis friends asked me if I was surprised Rafael Nadal came back from such a huge deficit to win the Australian Open final. Rafa was down 2-6, 6-7, 2-3, 0-40, facing three break points.
I replied “Yes and no.” Yes, because Nadal was so far behind, and he faced world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev. Also, the redoubtable Russian excelled on hard courts, winning the 2021 US Open, and defeated Nadal in their last match at the 2020 ATP Finals.
“Don't forget about practicing service returns. This is one stroke that hardly anybody in tennis practices enough, and yet you hit it almost as often as you hit a serve.” — Roy Emerson, from the 1976 instruction book, Tennis for the Bloody Fun of It
More singles matches are played in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament, 64, than in the combined six remaining rounds. So there was a lot to watch and learn from—both from the winners and losers.
“Never allow a player to play the game he prefers if you can possibly force him to play any other. Never give a player a shot he likes to play.”
— Bill Tilden’s authoritative and time-tested advice. From his 1925 classic, Match Play and the Spin of the BallLet the tennis season begin! For the men, 2022 began with a big event, the ATP Cup; and for the women, smaller tune-up tournaments for the Australian Open.One of the most intriguing ATP Cup matches pitted 5’7” Argentine Diego Schwartzman against 6’4” Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. Three years ago, Tsitsipas, then 20, enjoyed a breakthrough tournament at the Aussie Open when he out-volleyed defending champion and superstar Roger Federer to make the semis.
Other Books by Paul Fein
