Ball Boy's Quick Catch steals attention from Nadal-Federer Aussie Open semifinal match. ''I didn't have much time to think about it. I just stuck my hand out and the ball just stayed there. I couldn't believe it myself but then I just had to get straight on with the match." Dylan Colaci's catching skills were compared to those of Australia's master of close fielding Ricky Ponting. Rafael Nadal went on to beat Roger Federer in four sets and will meet Novak Djokovic in tonight's men's final.
posted by sweetkid on Jan 28, 2012 - 21 comments

Fun While It Lasted is a blog that details the histories of long-dead sports franchises, including the Hawaii Leis/Sea-Port Cascades/Seattle Cascades, the Portland Lumberjax, the Columbus Minks, the Denver Comets, and the Phoenix Fire -- a professional soccer team that never actually played a game. [more inside]
posted by mudpuppie on Aug 10, 2011 - 21 comments

Tennis at San Quentin [more inside]
posted by Ideefixe on Jul 9, 2011 - 20 comments

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.
posted by AceRock on Jun 21, 2011 - 27 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 on Sep 24, 2010 - 14 comments

Newsfilter: Members of Iraq's tennis team shot "for wearing shorts." Being an Iraqi athlete is no easier than before. Just ask members of the Iraqi Taekwondo squad. More.
posted by bardic on May 28, 2006 - 48 comments

Par 5 site on the science of golf balls. Service on the newly sized tennis ball. Return on the flight of tennis balls: Part 1; Rally with Part 2. Back and forth again with Ball/Court Interaction 1 and 2, and the aerodynamics of tennis ball coverings puts it away for the point. (And apparently, the weight inside a bowling ball isn't spherical and so modeling the movement of bowling balls takes university papers and presentations.[PDF])
posted by OmieWise on Jun 15, 2005 - 7 comments

Happy 18th Birthday Maria Sharapova! A music video by ESPN's Bristol Bob and the Page 2 Crue, made in honor of Maria Sharapova's 18th birthday. Make sure you crank the volume knob up to 11, because now you, too, can sing along to the tune of The Knack's "My Sharona."
posted by MmmKlunk on Apr 20, 2005 - 25 comments

If you are a prominent sports organization suffering under budget cuts and dwindling crowds, not to mention if some of your main players are threatening to form a breakaway group, what could possibly be your next move? How about alienating your fans? That's exactly what the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), the governing body of men's professional tennis, did. More inside . . .
posted by somethingotherthan on Mar 9, 2003 - 3 comments

Anyone agree that the Wimbledon Men's final that just finished was just about the best sporting event ever on TV? If you're waiting to watch this later, don't click here.
posted by davehat on Jul 9, 2001 - 33 comments

Okay, so the tabloids take the eroticization of female tennis players to the extreme, including The Mirror, which has paid Barbara "Babsi" Schett 50,000 pounds to promote her as the next Anna Kournikova. Last fall we talked about women sports players being on beauty, not talent; while the beauty judging goes on, they forget to even mention player records. There's Babsi, Anna, Jelena Dokic, and the supposedly beautiful Krasnoroutskaya who says of Kournikova what everyone keeps saying about good-looking female players in general: "She makes the beauty of tennis. She started it. Now tennis is very popular. People come to watch her. That helps everybody."
posted by Mo Nickels on Jul 6, 2001 - 48 comments

Step aside MacEnroe, tennis has finally found a new crybaby
posted by ookamaka on Nov 26, 2000 - 1 comment