Category Archives: Tennis Around the Net

Tweet, Tweet – March 7, 2013

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Taylor Townsend

 

WTA WTA 7 hrs
16yr old wildcard @Taylor_Townsen records her 1st career #WTA win with a 36 76(1) 63 win over Lucie Hradecka. pic.twitter.com/HKWuao2LvK
From Parenting Aces (Twitter posting referring back to their Facebook page – HERE):
Posted by Coach Craig Cignarelli: Since no one seems to have any research to determine which one is better, over the last few years, I’ve done the following. I’ve trained a group from age 7 to 9 with ROG and another group from age 7 to 9 with yellow balls. Here’s what I’ve found: The kids who trained with ROG are consistently beating the yellow ball kids when they play with the green ball. The kids who trained with the yellow ball are consistently beating the ROG kids when they play with the yellow ball. Tactically, the ROG kids have a better sense of angles and coming forward. The yellow ball kids hit with better depth and can adapt to different ball heights much better. The ROG kids have much better drop shots. The yellow ball kids have more power. After almost three years of doing both, I’m sticking with yellow balls. If you are going to master a saxophone, it’s probably better to just start playing the sax than to start on a kazoo.

Some Comments:

Yvonne Gallop Great work Craig. Here is what I discovered. For the 5 to 8 year olds when we are working on stroke mechanics we train with the ROG balls. Once the stroke is fluid or the shot is smooth and fluid we then work part of the time with the regular yellow balls. Some of the smaller kids find the yellow ball very heavy on the racket and they have to fight off the ball. Point is we use both depending on the lesson plan! However, I agree with you. GREAT analogy with the kazoo. Unfortunately if the kids play tournaments they are being forced to use ROG balls.
Patrick Barbanes Good stuff, but note he also added, “As to your question, (of which group will grow into better players) ,I cant answer it yet. I wish someone could but no one did a proper study to find out. Talk to me in three years.” And I don’t necessarily agree with the kazoo thing. Give a regular sax to an 8-year-old? A regular size bass? etc.. Scale up seems to work (smaller guitars, learning music with a Recorder – do they still use those? LOL).
Follow the discussion – HERE
Follow the Facebook page – HERE
(always lots of interesting new stuff)
Read about the Latest proposals for the National Junior Schedule – HERE  and  HERE
Posted in: Junior Tennis / 10 & Under Tennis, Tennis Around the Net

Oddities

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"The Tennis Space" had it's "Oddities & Oddballs" Post today.  Here are a few things from it.  There is lots more - HERE.  Be sure to click on the embedded links for more.

For that special tennis players with a special birthday, here’s a Kei Nishikori, Special Edition Watch:

Air Kei

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Tweet, Tweet – Week of February 1

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Lots of links to click but the content is worth it.

TPPTennis Parent Probs ‏@10SParentProbs

Wouldn’t it be lovely if everyone’s ranking reflected how good they think they are? Or how good their mother thinks they are?

@EuroToDollar That’s so last yr. I did make a gif of it tho… so you can relive the moment http://twitpic.com/88wqth/full

Twitpic

Serve and volley – Hank Pfister: Here are some tips from USPTA Professional and former ATP play… http://bit.ly/10XhxGJ  #tennis #fitness

SHOT PATTERNS – MORE RETURN PATTERNS – Rick Vetter: Learn which return-of-serve patterns yield t… http://bit.ly/SFLGLr  #tennis #health

Wasted Tennis Strings Go to Good Use: The Stringlet! http://wp.me/p1YSMk-72  via

New Tumblr Post rafaelnadalfans: REBLOG /LIKE this photo if you are counting… http://ow.ly/2uvcPj

What an awesome article…Roger Federer and the Case of the Wounded Tiger: http://tinyurl.com/9cbuext  #tennis #federer

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Tennis Photography

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Maicamera Photography has some amazing photography on it.  Photographer Mai Duong does great work and here is a postings on tennis.  There is other great photography on his site (CLICK HERE for the homepage, click the headline for the tennis article).

 

Nike’s Clash of Champions

To promote the new Matthew Knight Arena at University of Oregon, Nike hosted a “Clash of the Champions” exhibition match between Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, and Victoria Aznarenka.  Serena Williams was supposed to attend, but had to pull out due to medical reasons.  Crazy thing, this was a basketball court that had been converted to a tennis court by laying the hardcourt surface on top.  I was worried that people were going to get hit by stray balls, since there was no walls around the court, but only a few stray balls made it to the spectators.

Here is a sample photo:

Rafa mai

 

 

Another great photographer who features athletes from the University of Oregon is Zach Ancell.  His web site is – HERE and Here is one of his works:

U of O

Seth Casteel is making a splash with his underwater HD photography of dogs as they dive in after tennis balls. The results of his experiment have created an Internet sensation, with ball to ball coverage on blogs of all stripes, from ABC News to the Discovery Channel and throughout social media, primarily Facebook.

“I was photographing a little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Buster. We were meant to do an ‘on-land’ shoot in his backyard, but he decided he would play in the pool the entire time. Watching him jump in time after time after a sinking tennis ball, it occurred to me that I needed to see what that looked like,” explains Casteel. “I had no idea what to expect, but I just thought the results were so fascinating and fun.”

As the name of his business, Little Friends Photo, implies, Casteel specializes in pet photography. To say Casteel loves man’s best friend would be an understatement. Like photographers who specialize in human portraits, Casteel seeks to bring out the unique personality of each pet. Casteel’s experiment yields personality plus as determined dogs paddle their way to their play prey.

Here is a sample of his work:

sethcasteel_underwater4-350x241

 

This is from “trendytennis.com” and the article was titled:

Amazing Examples of Tennis Photography

roger-federer-ball-stringbed-shot-john-nguyen

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Supporting Tennis Projects

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Want to support a Tennis Project? One way is to go to Indiegogo.com where you will find the Tennis Youth Project.

Youth Tennis Project

“Youth Tennis Project provides custom tennis rackets to kids to use for free in our public courts. Our goal is to get 250,000 tennis rackets to kids. Every accumulation of $100.00 we will give a custom tennis racket to the kids. We will work alongside the USTA partners to distribute these rackets.

Over the past three decades, childhood obeseity rates in America have tripled and today, nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese. The numbers are even higher in African American and Hispanic communities, where nearly 40% of childeren are overweight or obese.

Even though these numbers are grim, we can start making a change.

I’ve been involved in tennis for years and it frustrated me that we’re not doing more to make tennis fun and attractive for kids.

So I developed a process to custom wrap tennis racket frames using liquid printing. It took trial and error, but when we got it right it was amazing. It looked so cool that I thought this is a chance for all kids to belong to a tennis club… the youth tennis project club!”

Read More or make a contribution – HERE

Contributions of $25 get a custom designed T-Shirt; $100 gets a T-Shirt and a Visor; $250 gets a custom Metal Tennis Racquet; $500 gets a custom Composite Tennis Racquet and $1,000 gets a custom, top of the line Graphite Racquet.


Another project at indiegogo is buildOn‘s Lower Merion High School chapter and Legacy Tennis Education teaming up to travel to Haiti to build another school!

Lower Merion High School’s buildOn Chapter is teaming up with Legacy Tennis and Education Center this school year in the attempt to build another school in a deserving Haitian Community. Last year, 18 Lower Merion High School students successfully raised over $70,000 to finance the construction of a school in Taverne, Haiti. They then traveled to Taverne last May and spent two weeks living with host families, working side by side with the community to physically construct the school.

This was a life-changing event for the 18 Lower Merion High School students that participated. There wasn’t a dry eye between our Trekkies and the community members of Taverne when we left and the bonds and connections remain strong today. We would like to offer this experience to a second group of students from Lower Merion High School and heighten the experience even further by teaming up with our friends from Legacy Tennis and Education Center.

Our goal is to raise the money necessary to finance a new school and once again travel back to Haiti to build it. This experience will not only provide a Haitian community with the educational opportunities they deserve, but it will continue to change the lives of our students here at both Lower Merion and Legacy, guiding them to further service and commitment to important causes in the future.

About Legacy Tennis:

About Us

Mission Statement

Our mission is to prepare young people, especially those from under-resourced families and communities, for success as individuals and as active, responsible citizens through innovative tennis, education, life skills, and leadership development programming.

History

In 1952, William J. Clothier, II founded the Philadelphia Tennis Patrons Association which was merged with the Philadelphia National Junior Tennis League 44 years later to become Philadelphia Youth Tennis. In 2003, Philadelphia Youth Tennis became Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education; a leader 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Three years later, the Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education Center located in East Falls was constructed as a premiere facility dedicated to innovative youth tennis and education programming.  In 2012, the organization became Legacy Youth Tennis and Education.

Today we provide high quality tennis instruction by experienced instructors, educational programming, and positive opportunities to more than 4,500 children annually, most of whom participate at little or no cost through our indoor after-school and community programs and the National Junior Tennis and Learning’s outdoor summer program. Using tennis as the primary motivator, the programs teach positive, rewarding lessons, build confidence, and provide a framework of personal discipline

Legacy Youth Tennis and Education Programming

Our organization has a deep rooted history and tradition in neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia and Camden.  We stand on the shoulders of so many devoted individuals and families who comprise the multi-textured fabric of who we are and what we do.  These people provide us with inspiration and guidance for empowering young people, especially those who come from families and communities lacking in resources and opportunities.  One of these individuals is the great Arthur Ashe.  Arthur Ashe’s legacy is a rich one and includes extraordinary tennis achievements, breaking racial barriers in an overwhelmingly white tennis community and serving as an active, engaged citizen deeply involved in the issues of the day. This remarkable man has served as a model and beacon around which we have been actively building out programming for helping young people grow as individuals and as caring, responsible, and active citizens. We are building and expanding on our programming to reflect Arthur’s life and legacy, as well as many local pioneers who have helped us blaze a trail with and for the young people we serve.

Legacy Youth Tennis and Education currently operates various programs both in communities in and around greater Philadelphia, and at our campus center in East Falls.

Youth Leadership

The Goodstein Junior Leadership initiative is a vital part of our organization and the wider community. The young leaders in this program are actively involved in homelessness and hunger relief, literacy and tennis instruction with young Legacy participants, recycling and environmental awareness. The young participants are fully involved in key aspects of the organization, including low-dollar fundraising and many facets of program-planning and design, and low-dollar fundraising support. In many ways, they have become the standard-bearers for what Arthur Ashe himself saw as the fundamental mission of our organization – providing opportunities for young people to become active, engaged citizens in the broader community.

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Tennis Junior Aces – iPad App

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Tennis Junior Aces is a FREE digital magazine for competitive junior tennis players.

Available on the Apple iPad, Tennis Junior Aces magazine is filled with great articles and instructional videos to help junior tennis players up their game. Plus, you can enter raffles to win free tennis gear!

To get the App – CLICK HERE

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Beyond the Baseline this week

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One of the best tennis blogs is Sports Illustrated’s “Beyond the Baseline ” blog by Courtney Nguyen.  Here are some of this weeks highlights and links to the blog.

Aussie Open crowd serenades Kerber

Angelique Kerber @AngeliqueKerber

Thats my birthday cakes !!!🎂pic.twitter.com/MgOcbhbII

There’s more – HERE

Sharapova vs. Venus headlines Day 5; Keys faces test at Australian Open

• Rivalries revisited: In intriguing third-round matches, Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams headline the night session on Rod Laver Arena, while Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic turn back the clock (hopefully) to resurrect the rivalry that once determined the No. 1 ranking. “You certainly know what she’s capable of,” Sharapova said of Williams. “But when you’re out on the court, you’re not thinking how many titles she’s won or how experienced she is. You’re thinking about what you need to do to step it up in a certain situation and win as many points as you can.”

Lots More – HERE

Then there is the “Daily Bagel” posts which feature links and briefs descriptions of tennis from all over the web.

• Video: The Australian Open asks the top players which qualities they would like to have from other players. Among the answers: Novak Djokovic wants Rafa’s Rafter’s volleys, and Agnieszka Radwanska wants Sam Stosur’s serve.

• Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic have buried the hatchet. Time heals all wounds.

• From CNN: How women cracked the tennis glass ceiling.

CLICK HERE for lots more great tennis from this post

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Resultina – A Tennis Score App

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ResultinaResultina – Tennis Results

By Lukas Brezina

Resultina brings up to date tennis scores to your I-Phone.  Results come from a variety of sources including users.  Resultina confirms scores before sending them and Resultina is not limited to Professional Tennis scores.  They even have scores from juniors.

For more on this APP – CLICK HERE

Thanks to @BenRothenberg from the New York Times “Straight Set” blog

http://straightsets.blogs.nytimes.com/

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The Best Tennis Writing of 2012

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“The Changeover” tennis blog has compiled a list of what they think is the 20 top written tennis stories of 2012 plus a list of 10 tennis blogs they can’t live without.  It’s a pair of great lists and a lot of great reading for any tennis fan.

CLICK HERE for the two lists.

and the Top Story:

The Nouvelle Vague of French Tennis

Why a dazzling generation of French players can’t win at Roland Garros

By Reeves Wiedeman on June 7, 2012

Philippe Bouin was 27 years old in 1979, when he left his job as an engineer to work as a rewrite man on the tennis desk of L’Équipe, a daily sports newspaper in Paris. Four years later, he sat in the press box at Roland Garros and watched Yannick Noah become the first Frenchman in 37 years to win the nation’s tennis championship. “I was doing statistics and had to take notes on each point,” Bouin said last week, smoking a cigarette in a café in the French Open press center. “It was very exciting, and if you look at the picture in L’Équipe, I’m the only one at match point who is not jumping out of his seat. I was still putting my little tick on the paper.” That photo ran the following day along with a front-page ad, paid for by FILA, that read, “Bravo Yannick, et Merci!”

It’s been almost 30 years since that day, and Bouin is now retired and still waiting for another chance to leap from his chair. France has not produced another men’s champion at its Grand Slam championship, let alone at any of the other three. Only two French women, Amélie Mauresmo and Mary Pierce (who was born in Canada and raised in the United States, but has a French father), have since won Grand Slams. Women’s tennis also matters significantly less in France. (“Maybe because we’re all chauvinists,” one French tennis fan suggested to me.) The tournament media guide has a page listing “Best Years for French Tennis,” and only one of them, Noah’s 1983 victory, occurred after 1950.

Through this, France has managed, however, to produce some of the more entertaining players in the game. Bouin recalled one player who, for no apparent reason, occasionally hit volleys with the side of his racket. Noah looked nothing like an average Frenchman, or the average tennis player, with his caramel skin and dreadlocks, and he has since become more famous as a singer than an athlete. The current generation has produced a particularly strong cast of characters. One of them has said, of his persistent mental fluctuations, “I want to keep my craziness.” Another never misses an opportunity to turn an easy shot into a difficult, acrobatic one. A third, considered the most gifted, was once suspended for testing positive for cocaine, which he said must have gotten into his system through kissing.

Read the rest of the story – HERE

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2012 On The Baseline – Best in Women’s Tennis Awards

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Voting has begun and continues until January 2nd so vote on your favorites now – CLICK HERE

Categories are:

Player of the Year, Doubles Team of the Year, Most Improved Player, Comeback Player, Newcomer, Fan Favorite, Humanitarian, Twitterer, Facebook Fan Page, Match of the Year, Coach of the Year, Commentator of the Year, Tennis Writer, Player Website, Best Gear, Best Fashion, Best Tournament

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Misc Tweets from the Tennis World – December 28, 2012

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I have had some funny tweets and retweets from Ryan Harrison in the past, it’s time for one from Christian (retweeted from Shervin Pishevar):

Christian TweetFarmer denied permit to build horse shelter. So he builds giant table & chairs which don’t need permit. I love this.

Congratulations Taylor Townsend! 1st US Woman in 30 years to finish as #1 ranked world junior

Taylor Townsend top junior, first U.S. girl in 30 years

Read Story – HERE

Sad indictment of the state of US tennis. #Farmers #Kramer @US_Tennis http://www.scpr.org/news/2012/11/26/35003/after-86-years-la-tennis-tournament-headed-bogota/ …

Adios Farmers Classic: After 86 years, Los Angeles tennis tournament heads to Bogota

Read Story – HERE

On the road again, can’t wait to get on the road again!

Posted in: Tennis Around the Net

Out With Tennis Injury, Tolkien Wrote ‘Hobbit’

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Great Stuff from Ben Rothenberg at the New York Times’ “Straight Sets” Tennis Blog

Tennis has been a passion of writers since long before the birth of the professional game, with scribes ranging from Russian Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) to American David Foster Wallace (1962-2008) wielding rackets with as much intensity as their pens, and even incorporating the sport in their work occasionally.

But for the South Africa-born Englishman J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), author of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, it was being forced to stop playing tennis that set him on the path to literary success.

In “J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship And Critical Assessment,” Michael D.C. Drout lists tennis as one of many activities that occupied Tolkien during his studies at Oxford.

After injuring his ankle in a match against Angus McIntosh, some 22 years his junior, Tolkien was immobilized, and his idleness beget the fantasy series that would bring him worldwide acclaim.

It read: “He is said one day to have thrashed J.R.R. Tolkien at tennis, confining him to his rooms with an ankle injury. Thus marooned, with nothing better to do, Tolkien started sketching out ideas for ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ works for which Angus would cheerfully accept blame.”

This is just excerpts from a very interesting article – Read the whole article – HERE

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Tennis Statistics

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For a different take on tennis I visited tennisinsight.com.

Since the next major – the Australian Open – is a hard court tournament I compared their hard court ratings with the ATP ratings (sorry, they don’t do hard court ratings for WTA, at least not yet).  Okay one, two three and four are Djokovic, Federer, Murray and Nadal any way you look at it.  Hard court ratings have Berdych next instead of Ferrer but Ferrer is 6th.  Both have del Potro 7th.  Here is where it gets interesting.  On the hard court ratings we have Tommy Haas 8th (21st), Mardy Fish 9th (27th) and Jo Wilfried Tsonga 10th (8th). If we seeded 16 players – and if they all entered – the next 6 players are Gasquet 11th (10th), Raonic 12th (13th), Tipsarevic 13th (9th), Querrey 14th (22nd), Baghdatis 15th (36th) and Wawrinka 16th (17th).  Actual rankings are in parenthesis.  It will be interesting to see which numbers are more accurate at the Brisbane International tournament January 1-8.  Murray, Raonic and Baghdatis are entered.  They also ranked Kei Nishikori 17th, Dolgopolov 19th and Cilic 20th and they are playing too.  It will be a good tournament to see which seedings are more accurate predictors in the end.

Next up was tennisstat.blogspot.com where I found an artcile on Kim Clijsters that compared her pre-marriage career to her post marriage career (Kim Clijsters – Final Farewell).  Althought his is not a stat filled article, it was a well written account of her career in brief.  The next articles ( Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka – Who is World no.1 (2012) ? – Part 1 , and Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka – Who is World no.1 (2012) ? – Part 2 ) are filled with statistics including a summary chart for the first half of the year.  Azarenka’s record against top 10 players was 12-3, Sharapova’s record was 8-4 and Serena’s was 5-1.  For the year, Azarenka was 19-8, Sharapova was 14-9 and Srena was 18-2.  Serena won 7 titles, Azarenka won 6 and Sharapova won 3.  The second article looks at the second half of the season and shows how each player got their points.

Posted in: Tennis Around the Net

Zoo Tennis Blog Christmas Wishes

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Zoo Tennis Christmas

Read the Christmas Eve posting – HERE

 

This is the sixth article on Christmas wishes from the tennis world. Watch for more soon.

Posted in: Tennis Around the Net | Tagged: , ,
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