When you try to picture what a place is going to look like, it’s hard to accept that the reality is inevitably different, isn’t it? It takes a while for your mind to get rid of the image it had created and replace it with the real thing in front

In certain quarters, it has long been a given that Roger Federer could solve all of his problems—such as they are—if he joined the modern world and switched to a bigger racquet. As Federer himself mentioned this week, it’s been on his mind as well. He’s practiced with various prototypes

Some of the world's most famous tennis players, distraught by the disappearance of colleague Peng Shuai, are challenging China's Communist Party to get answers. So far it's a standoff with little visible impact as tennis greats like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal — joined by tennis governing bodies, human rights

by Pete Bodo If you watched Matthew Ebden play Andy Murray this morning (see my Racquet Reaction post for match details), you'll know what I mean when I say Ebden is a "throwback." Although he doesn't crush the big first serve and thunder to the net, you can tell that

PARIS—It was well past the beloved lunch hour of the corporate crowd, and this was the penultimate match scheduled for Court Philippe Chatrier. But this venerable old rectangle with red-clay floor was still more than half empty as the French Open’s No. 4 seed, Simona Halep, and Sloane Stephens met

NEW YORK—It was just the third point of what would be a two-hour and 10-minute match, but when Ana Ivanovic won it with a forehand winner, she celebrated with a familiar fist pump and gazed at her clenched hand, saying a few indecipherable words. She might have been Hamlet, holding

103223841 Howdy. Most of the news today came out of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic (Washington), where they've experienced a severe tropical storm and tsumani that last night washed away nearly an entire generation of U.S. players. If you want to check out my thoughts on that, go over to

1. One-Handed Backhand Most professional and many recreational players today have a two-handed backhand. But you'll be making a mistake if you don't learn a one-handed backhand. Every two-hander needs a one-hander, whether it's for a drop shot, a chip, a change of pace or -- and this is essential

There was no blueprint left behind for Mark Booras to follow when he accepted the job as head coach of the Tulane University men’s tennis team in 2008. Following the catastrophic destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which displaced more than a million people in the Gulf Coast region,

Less than a year after his retirement from tennis, John Isner is back on the scene–as a member of the media, that is. On the latest episode of Served with Andy Roddick, the former Top 10 player admits that transitioning to broadcasting so closely on the heels of his competitive

Iga Swiatek has completely dominated women’s tennis over the last three months, winning 28 matches in a row to sweep five straight WTA titles at Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart and Rome. ~ Her 28-match winning streak is the longest WTA winning streak since Serena Williams won 34 matches in

Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova will meet in a highly-anticipated fourth-round meeting at the French Open, but the verbal jousting has begun already. Williams, who leads the lopsided rivalry 19-2, was asked by press about her dominance against Sharapova. In her recent autobiography, the Russian attributes it partly to Williams'

WATCH: Sabalenka's second-round titanic win over Britain's Katie Boulter kickstarted her SW19 campaign.

TC Live: So close to history...

Steve Tignor will return from vacation next Monday. In the meantime, we'll be running some past articles from Steve, including this one, a look at Roger Federer "in decline" in Canada, five summers ago:

NEW YORK—“I don’t know how I had the power to win this match,” Simona Halep said a few seconds after her 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory in a mesmerizing tug of war with Victoria Azarenka on Wednesday. Halep’s most famous catchphrase is “fighter girl,” which is how likes to describe herself.

The Rally returns. Today and tomorrow I’m discussing the psychology of tennis with Alexandra Guhde, Psyd., a clinical psychologist in Oakland and San Francisco who also finds time to write the (always interesting) tennis blog Extreme Western Grip. Follow her @extremegrip.

PARIS—It’s never struck me as a particularly good sign when a player who is losing a match takes his baseball cap off, turns it around, and puts its on backward. It sends a sort of white flag message—with one quick move, you’ve gone from all business to getting on the

Around this time last year, my friend and colleague at TENNIS.com, Pete Bodo, wrote an article entitled “Rafatigue.” Its theme, in case you can’t guess, was about how dully predictable it can be to spend a large part of every spring watching Rafael Nadal win match after match and tournament

Each August, news pundits in the U.S. remind us that, no matter how important their words and stories may be, no one is actually paying attention to them. According to most columnists and talking heads, the Great American Unwashed apparently spend too much time on the miniature golf course over