Does Tennis Need a Shot Clock?: Novak Djovokic and Rafael Nadal played a 5-hour, 53-minute final at the Australian Open in January. Both players averaged more than 30 seconds between points, above the 20 seconds allowed in Grand Slam play, and still took too long after an umpire's warning. According to USA Today, the match "would have run roughly an hour shorter had they stayed within the rule." Andy Roddick and some other pros would like to see a shot clock. "I think that would be a good idea," said Robby Ginepri. "You have the radar gun there. Why not have it right above that?"

posted by rcade to tennis at 02:29 PM - 9 comments

Djokovic Over Federer in Epic U.S. Open Comeback: Novak Djovokic fell down by two sets to Roger Federer in the U.S. Open semifinals Saturday but came back to win 6-7, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5. Down 5-3 in the final set, Djokovic survived two match points and won over a loud pro-Federer crowd, then celebrated with a post-match victory dance.

posted by rcade to tennis at 10:53 AM - 2 comments

Novak Djokovic is a Pod Person: Current men's No. 1 Novak Djokovic improves his fitness by climbing into a $75,000 egg-shaped, bobsled-sized pressure chamber. The CVAC Pod, one of only 20 in the world, uses a computer-controlled valve and a vacuum pump to simulate high altitude and compress the muscles at rhythmic intervals. "The company claims that spending up to 20 minutes in the pod three times a week can boost athletic performance by improving circulation, boosting oxygen-rich red-blood cells, removing lactic acid and possibly even stimulating mitochondrial biogenesis and stem-cell production," reports the Wall Street Journal.

posted by rcade to tennis at 12:39 PM - 11 comments

Tennis Hall of Famer Accused of Molesting Girls: Tennis Hall of Fame doubles player Bob Hewitt, who won all four Grand Slam doubles titles during his career, sexually abused or harassed underage girls he trained as young as 10, according to a six-month Boston Globe investigation. "When I was 9, he started asking me if the other girls were virgins, when I didn't even know what a virgin was," said Suellen Sheehan, one of four women to come forward with allegations of sex abuse. "When I was 10, it escalated to him taking it into his own hands that he needed to teach me about what he called the birds and the bees. And that's what he did."

posted by rcade to tennis at 06:44 PM - 4 comments

NBC Losing Rights to Wimbledon: After 43 years, the Wimbledon tennis tournament will no longer be broadcast by NBC -- and is likely to end up on ESPN. "While we would have liked to have continued our relationship, we were simply outbid," NBC said in a statement. The network had to outbid ESPN and Fox last month to keep the Olympics.

posted by rcade to tennis at 10:31 AM - 9 comments

The Long Autumn of Roger Federer: Now, in 2011, in his endless middle-sunset as a player, [Roger] Federer has become something mysterious, an all-time great whose career feels increasingly fragile. Brian Phillips on Federer's long autumn. DFW, five years ago, on Federer as a religious experience (previously). Riffing on DFW, Phillips on Pele as comedian (via MetaFilter).

posted by rcade to tennis at 12:28 PM - 1 comment

Isner Will Play Mahut at Wimbledon: A year after they played the longest match in tennis history at Wimbledon, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut have drawn each other again as first-round opponents in the tournament. They play Tuesday. Isner is ranked 46 and Mahut 99. The two became friends after their epic 11-hour match. "Before Wimbledon, we'd never said one word to each other," Isner said. "Now we text each other quite often and I've got to know that he's a really class act and a really good guy."

posted by rcade to tennis at 11:09 AM - 1 comment

Tennis in San Quentin: "...it was a group of convicted felons who were perhaps the best-behaved and most ethical group of competitors I have ever witnessed."

posted by Uncle Toby to tennis at 09:43 AM - 1 comment

Man Bet Federer Would Win Wimbledon 7 Times: The good news? If Roger Federer wins a seventh Wimbledon title, the $2,336 bet you made in 2003 will pay you $156,000. The bad news? You died in 2009. Nick Newlife of Oxford, arranged in his will for the bet to be paid to the charity Oxfam.

posted by rcade to tennis at 12:08 PM - 8 comments

US Tennis Players Completely Absent from Top 10: Monday is a historic day for United States tennis. For the first time since computer rankings begain almost 40 years ago, no man or woman from the United States is ranked in the top 10 in the world in singles. "Europe has done a remarkable job; they are producing virtually all of the top players," said Doug MacCurdy, the former director of player development for the United States Tennis Association.

posted by rcade to tennis at 08:28 AM - 13 comments

Tennis Player Lobs Ball at Crying Baby: After a baby in the crowd was heard wailing during his serve at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami on Wednesday, Spanish tennis player David Ferrer lost the point and then lobbed a ball into the crowd in the direction of the child (who was not hit). Ferrer went on to lose the match to Mardy Fish.

posted by rcade to tennis at 08:09 AM - 7 comments

Clijsters Withdraws from September Japan Event: Kim Clijsters has withdrawn from the Pan Pacific Open to be held in Tokyo over nuclear radiation concerns -- even though it doesn't take place until September. "I wish everybody a lot of courage," she said.

posted by rcade to tennis at 05:51 PM - 7 comments

Karlovic Hits Fastest Serve Ever: Croatian tennis player Ivo Karlovic has set a new world record with a 155.96-mph serve during a Davis Cup World Group doubles match against Germany, passing Andy Roddick's 154.96-mph serve in 2004. Video of the shot.

posted by rcade to tennis at 11:55 AM - 2 comments

Serena Williams Suffers Blood Clot in Lungs: Serena Williams suffered a blood clot in one of her lungs last week and needed emergency treatment Monday for a hematoma. "What if we have seen the last of the career of the great Serena Williams?" Injuries have kept the 29-year-old out of tennis since she won last year's Wimbledon. asks Christine Brennan.

posted by rcade to tennis at 02:53 PM - 1 comment

Roddick Takes a Dive, Wins Tournament: Finishing with the "best shot I've ever hit in my life," Andy Roddick defeated rising Canadian star Milos Raonic 7-6 (9-7) 6-7 (11-13) 7-5 in the finals of the ATP Tour tournament in Memphis. Roddick is third among active players with 30 career titles, trailing only Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

posted by rcade to tennis at 12:08 PM - 10 comments

Letters Reveal J.D. Salinger Had Henmania: The reclusive author J.D. Salinger, who died in January 2010 at age 91, was a fan of British tennis player Tim Henman, private letters sent to a friend reveal. "Salinger remarked that he liked the look of Henman's parents, who were appearing on TV a lot at the time, mentioning that they didn't look like your average pushy sports stars' parents," said Professor Chris Bigsby of University of East Anglia, which received the letters and is prohibited from quoting them directly by Salinger's estate. In one letter Salinger hoped that when Henman played Germans at Wimbledon he "knocked 'em all down," according to BBC Sport.

posted by rcade to tennis at 02:14 PM - 2 comments

Ferrer Ends Nadal's Grand Slam Bid: World number one Rafael Nadal was dumped from the Australian Open quarter-finals 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 by fellow Spaniard David Ferrer Wednesday, ending Nadal's bid to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time. Ferrer has beaten Nadal four times in 15 encounters.

posted by rcade to tennis at 01:48 PM - 2 comments

Kim Clijsters Gives TV Commentator a Tennis Lesson: After a match at the Australian Open, Kim Clijsters taught TV commentator and former pro Todd Woodbridge why men should never ask if a woman is pregnant. Particularly if she's going to be talking to you later on live television at center court.

posted by rcade to tennis at 11:41 AM - 29 comments

Andre Agassi Joins Tennis Hall of Fame: American tennis great Andre Agassi will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I. Agassi, who was No. 1 for 101 weeks over his career, was playing outside the top 100 in 1999 when he won the French Open and became the fifth player to complete a career Grand Slam.

posted by rcade to tennis at 07:55 PM - 2 comments

Tennis Player Makes Comeback Bid at 43: After 11 years away from the ATP men's tour, Thomas Muster is making a comeback attempt at the age of 43 and will play the upcoming tournament in Vienna. The Austrian won 44 singles titles from 1986 to 1997 and has played at least two tournaments this year. "He's slightly nuts," said former player Mats Wilander, 46.

posted by rcade to tennis at 12:10 PM - 2 comments

Women's Pro Tennis Turns 40: Women's professional tennis was launched by World Tennis magazine publisher Gladys Heldman 40 years ago on September 23, 1970, with a tournament that had nine entrants and $7,500 in prizes. The original nine were Billy Jean King and Rosemary Casals along with the lesser known Peaches Bartkowicz, Judy Dalton, Julie Heldman, Kerry Melville, Kristy Pigeon, Nancy Richey and Valerie Ziegenfuss. A year later, King became the first female athlete to earn six figures in her sport. In the '80s, Martina Navratilova became the first to earn $1 million. Today the WTA Tour is an $85 million-a-year sport. "We wanted to make sure that any young girl, if she was good enough and if she wanted to, would have the opportunity to make a living playing tennis," King said.

posted by rcade to tennis at 10:41 AM - 7 comments

Fans Brawl at US Open Match: A fight in the stands between a young man and a middle-aged woman and her father interrupted a second-round U.S. Open match between Novak Djokovic and Philipp Petzschner. "I hope it was no Serbian up there," Djokovic said.

posted by rcade to tennis at 08:54 AM - 34 comments

McEnroe: Women Should Play Fewer Tournaments: John McEnroe said women aren't cut out to play as many tournaments as they're being asked to play. "There should be less events for women," McEnroe said in a conference call before the U.S. Open, which starts Monday. "You need an actual meltdown on court or someone to quit the game altogether before they realize you need to change the schedule."

posted by rcade to tennis at 05:32 PM - 5 comments

Lil Wayne Hearts Tennis: Sports Illustrated asked Lil Wayne to give his taken on the upcoming U.S. Open. The hand-written response shows that Wayne is seriously geeked about the sport. "One of the main reasons I fell in love with the sport was because it is unbelievably hard to do," he wrote. "So since then I have been drawn to it because of the skill it takes to actually play."

posted by rcade to tennis at 03:56 PM - 3 comments

I really should workout more: Slow-mo captures of WTA pros hitting different shots. Soundtrack by Philip Glass' disappointing nephew.

posted by WeedyMcSmokey to tennis at 08:06 PM - 18 comments

Roger Federer's William Tell Shot Goes Viral: After shooting a commercial for Gillette, tennis star Roger Federer twice knocked a bottle off a man's head with a tennis serve, a video that's been shared on YouTube by the company. The video could be phony viral marketing like the water slide stunt, but Federer's web site says it's legit.

posted by rcade to tennis at 05:21 PM - 9 comments

Federer Slips to Lowest Rank Since 2003: Fresh off his early exit from Wimbledon, Roger Federer fell to No. 3 in the ATP rankings Monday behind Rafael Nadal and new No. 2 Novak Djokovic. It's the first time since November 2003 Federer been that low. "[T]he Swiss maestro's best days are now behind him," writes William Johnson for The National in Abu Dhabi.

posted by rcade to tennis at 06:59 PM - 8 comments

Men's Tennis at Point of No Returns: The record breaking John Isner-Nicolas Mahut first round match and last year's Roger Federer-Andy Roddick Wimbledon final show that advances in racket technology have taken some of the beauty and skill out of men's tennis, argues Leonard Cassuto. "Not only did the two play more than 175 consecutive games without a break of serve, they also played 45 consecutive games without reaching a break point," he writes of Isner and Mahut. "Even when they could barely stand, they proved capable of blasting aces past each other.Such gunslinging servers’ spectacles invoke the former Wimbledon champion John McEnroe’s oft-stated wish for a return to wood rackets."

posted by rcade to tennis at 01:12 PM - 12 comments

Isner Defeats Mahut in Longest Match in Tennis History: In the longest pro tennis match in history, American John Isner defeated Nicholas Mahut 70-68 at Wimbledon in the fifth set of their first-round match after eleven hours and five minutes of tennis. The match, suspended twice for darkness, began Tuesday. Wimbledon officials awarded the players and umpire a special honor after it ended and posed the players next to the scoreboard, a bit of extended pageantry that a crushed Mahut was kind to indulge.

posted by rcade to tennis at 12:31 PM - 49 comments

Federer almost Fall(a)s in Wimbledon first round.: Top-seeded Roger Federer fought his way back from a two-set deficit to top Colombian Alejandro Falla 5-7, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1), 6-0 on Centre Court in Wimbledon's opening round. "I've lost many matches this year that I should have won," Federer said afterward, "but this match is one I should have lost but I came through."

posted by wfrazerjr to tennis at 12:20 PM - 3 comments

The human equivalent to Zippy Chippy: Robert Dee knows he's not the world's best pro tennis player, but when a London newspaper wrote that he's the worst, he wanted the world to know it wasn't true.

posted by Demophon to tennis at 02:04 PM - 2 comments

Bjorn Borg Returns to Competitive Tennis: Bjorn Borg will play competitive tennis in the United States for the first time in a decade at the Staples Champions Cup this week in Boston. If he beats Mikael Pernfors in the opening round Thursday, he'll meet the winner of a match between John McEnroe and Mats Wilander. "[McEnroe] has been trying to convince me to come for the last two or three years," Borg said.

posted by rcade to tennis at 04:20 PM - 3 comments

Navratilova Being Treated for Breast Cancer: Tennis great Martina Navratilova is being treated for breast cancer and her prognosis is good, she said Wednesday on Good Morning America. The 53-year-old, who played competitively until three years ago, said that a ductal carcinoma in situ (DICS) was first detected during a mammogram in early January. "The bad news is it's cancer," she said. "The good news is that it hasn't spread."

posted by rcade to tennis at 10:54 AM - 2 comments

'Tennis Girl' Photographer Dies: Martin Elliott, the photographer whose bare-bottomed "Tennis Girl" photo of his 18-year-old girlfriend Fiona Butler in 1976 became an iconic poster that sold two million copies, has died at age 63. Over the years, Tennis Girl has been recreated by Kylie Minogue, Amanda Holden, Raving Rabbids and other celebrities; has appeared in LEGO bricks; and was recently featured in a tennis stars of yesteryear ad campaign.

posted by rcade to tennis at 02:46 PM - 2 comments

Bode Knows....Tennis?: After the Olympics, world champion skier Bode Miller plans on scaling a different kind of mountain: He wants to try and play in the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

posted by BoKnows to tennis at 01:00 PM - 11 comments

Federer loses it [SLYT]: The curse of the Gillette advert strikes again. First Henry, then Woods, and now Roger has lost control of himself too.

posted by JJ to tennis at 06:59 AM - 1 comment

Agassi: My Mullet Almost Fell Off at 1990 French Open: During the 1990 French Open finals, Andre Agassi's first trip to a Grand Slam final, the "Image is Everything" pitchman was paranoid about his hairweave mullet falling off during the match. "The evening before the match, I stood under the shower and felt my wig suddenly fall apart," he writes in his autobiography. "Probably I used the wrong hair rinse. ... During the warming-up training before play I prayed. Not for victory, but that my hairpiece would not fall off." Agassi lost the match to Andres Gomez -- the only Grand Slam title of the Ecuadorian's career.

posted by rcade to tennis at 11:18 AM - 6 comments

Agassi Admits Crystal Meth Use in New Book: Andre Agassi admits in his upcoming autobiography to using crystal meth in 1997, which -- probably not coincidentally -- was the year he fell to 141st in the world rankings.

posted by TheQatarian to tennis at 09:46 PM - 13 comments

Nadal and Roddick speak out against the 11 month tennis season.: After injuries force Nadal, Roddick, Federer and Andy Murray out this season, some of the top players are outwardly expressing their distaste for a lack of offseason. "It's ridiculous to think that you have a professional sport that doesn't have a legitimate off-season to rest, get healthy, and then train," Roddick said. "I just feel sooner or later that common sense has to prevail."

posted by dfleming to tennis at 10:58 AM - 10 comments

American Tennis Legend Jack Kramer Dies: Jack Kramer, the No. 1 men's tennis player in the world during most of the '40s and the 1947 Wimbledon champ, has died at age 88 in Los Angeles. The first executive director of the Association of Tennis Professionals, Kramer led the 1973 Wimbledon boycott, had his name on the best-selling wooden racket for decades and helped create women's tennis by giving them such miserly prizes on his tour. "The single most significant figure in the history of his game," writes Frank Deford. "Now, with Kramer's death, the only other significant athlete from the pre-war era who is still living is Bob Feller, the baseball pitcher."

posted by rcade to tennis at 01:45 PM - 5 comments