We are starting one-day popup tournaments at clubs around greater Richmond, Virginia. A draw, mixed formats, food on a long table, and a cup that never leaves the club it was won at.
The best thing about tennis isn't the match. It's everything that happens around it.
Tennis apparel had split in two: technical kit that looked like nothing else you own, and heritage pieces that can't survive three sets.
Clay, grass and hard inside one fortnight, at roughly the same standard, producing three completely different games. Notes on what each one asks for.
Ann Cottrell has been the professional at the same six-court club since 1985. She took the job for one summer. We spoke in the mower shed.
There is no dignified way to be worse at something than you were last year, in front of people who remember. You keep turning up, because it's the only move available.
Nineteen years, four players, half past six, one court booked in the name of a man who moved to Portugal. Nobody organises it and nobody has to.
Most tennis clothing fails in the same four places, in the same order. Here is what to check before you buy, and what to do afterwards.
