Novak Djokovic poised to return Emil Ruusuvuori’s serve during practice on Media Day, Friday, Aug. 25, ahead of the US Open, which runs Monday, Aug. 28, through Sunday, Sept. 10, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens. *Photograph by Georgette Gouveia.*

Media Day 2023: On the job at the US Open

August 27, 2023

What was Media Day (Friday, Aug. 25) like for me at the US Open, having not attended for the past three years?

The same thing only different. Everything at the Media Center is digital now. And there seem to be a few new tournament sponsors, including now LVMH-owned Tiffany & Co., maker of the U.S. Men’s and Women’s Singles Championship trophies, and Mount Sinai Health System -- which also has a booth at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, where the US Open runs Monday, Aug. 28, through Sunday, Sept. 10.

The remains of his day

January 13, 2019

When somebody – or something – dies, the reaction is usually as much if not more about those reacting than the person or thing itself. And so it’s been with Andy Murray’s announcement that he will retire no later than Wimbledon this summer due to a right hip injury.

Read here…

Andy Murray winning his second Wimbledon in 2016. Photograph by Daniel J. Cooper.

Andy Murray: An appreciation

January 11, 2019

When an athlete retires, it is a little death. People start speaking about him in the past tense, as if he were truly gone instead of just moving on to another chapter of his life.

But in a way, athletic retirement is a kind of death. Few occasions remind us so much of our mortality as the thought of a seemingly invincible body now broken down or past its prime. Few engender so many memories and what-ifs, particularly if you identify with the athlete.

Few sports offer that identification the way tennis does. A team like the New York Yankees has a host of players to adore (and, on occasion, vilify). But a tennis match has only four players at a moment at best. And, if you’re a singles player, then it’s just you — and all those people out there who see you in themselves and themselves in you.

Perhaps that’s why the reaction to the retirement of Andy Murray — whom I’ve written much about on this blog and in my other life as an editor at WAG — has been so poignant.

An inspiring event with Billie Jean King

April 5, 2018

Here I am with (left to right) judge and journalist Lisa Wexler, tennis legend Billie Jean King and WAG society editor Robin Costello at a benefit for Fairfield County’s Community Foundation: The Fund for Women & Girls at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich earlier today. The Foundation, which empowers underserved girls and women to do everything from leaving abusive relationships to starting businesses, raised a projected $110,000 — $10,000 from King herself. She is like that ...

The good girl and the bad boy: King vs. Riggs in ‘Battle of the Sexes’

September 19, 2017

There are few more individualistic activities than tennis and few more fiercely individualistic people than tennis players.

“Battle of the Sexes,” which opens Friday, Sept. 22, gives us the iconic clash between two such individuals – tennis star Billie Jean King and former champ Bobby Riggs – in a 1973 match that was both a media event and a cause célèbre in the then-rising women’s movement. (King would win 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.)

At that time, there was no LGBTQ movement, and tennis players did not make the lavish livings they do today. The men were still something of barnstormers earning little more than beer money, and the women – whom they did not necessarily treat well – made squat. ...

Courage and grace in the time of Trump

September 5, 2017

I had hoped to be writing more about tennis with the US Open underway. I had hoped to be resting from my labors on Labor Day.

But as Eleanor Roosevelt said of World War II, “This is no ordinary time.” With challenges and crisis on the home front and abroad, the time demands we go within to reach out, that we roll up our sleeves intellectually, physically and spiritually and use pleasure as it was always meant to be used – as a dessert rather than a meal.

Perhaps, however, it is still possible for me to write about tennis while also writing about character. Both are subjects of a new book by James Blake...

Tennis, everyone

August 24, 2017

The qualifying rounds of the US Open are underway at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens. The actual tournament – the last of the four Slams – begins with first-round play Monday, Aug. 28. In the meantime, enjoy the game’s stars in a lighter mood at Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day on Saturday, Aug. 26.

On the tournament’s infrastructure front, the big news is the temporary Louie (as in Louis Armstrong Stadium) while the United States Tennis Association readies the new Louie for its Big Apple Bow next year. On the personnel front, a number of big names will be missing this year. ...