ATP Tour veteran Pablo Andujar is the first to confess his place in the third round of this year’s Australian Open comes as a surprise. His smile brightens up my monitor after I start our chat by saying, “in your first 10 main draws at Melbourne Park, we couldn’t have

If you talk about Caroline Garcia for more than a few minutes, the conversation will eventually come around to the moment when you, and the rest of the tennis world, first heard her name. At the 2011 French Open, as a 17-year-old wild card, Garcia took a seemingly insurmountable lead

This year marks the 50th anniversary of TENNIS Magazine's founding in 1965. To commemorate the occasion, we'll look back each Thursday at one of the 50 moments that have defined the last half-century in our sport.

You might remember that during the Australian Open I wrote a bit about the young U.S. player, Kimberly Couts ("Junior Update"). I was intrigued by how and why this 16-year-old kid would travel to Australia on her own (never mind how she ended up playing so well), without having a

by Pete Bodo I want Fat Mardy back. There, I said it. That's it for one of the dominant narratives of this summer of tennis, the last word on a subject that, at least in American tennis circles, has been as inescapable as talking about the weather, the oil spill,

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Erin Whiteside, University of Tennessee(THE CONVERSATION) Of the many outstanding components of her game, Serena Williams may best be known for her commanding serve. Those serves, unleashed over the course of a 27-year professional

As we’ve been reminded this week, 1997 was not a good year for Andre Agassi. This isn’t normally the case when someone gets married, as Agassi did to Brooke Shields that April. But looking back, it doesn’t seem to have been a relationship built on a rock-solid foundation. Or much

NEW YORK—For a 17-year old tennis player with a career-high ranking of No. 380, Alexandra Kiick has been living large. She flew first-class up to New York to play in the qualifying tournament, and had a private car pick her up at the airport and deposit her at the ritzy

Thirteen. Thirteen times the champion at Roland Garros, the Grand Slam many players and critics view as the most demanding to win. “It’s out of this world,” says Emilio Sanchez, the former Spanish No 1. “No one could imagine something like this.” Scratching its collective head, the tennis world agrees.

• 201205061655609001986-p2@stats_comby Pete Bodo* **NEW YORK—Melanie Oudin has a flight to Paris this evening, but on this humid, rainy, Wednesday afternoon, she's just finishing up a final practice session on green Har-Tru clay, one of four courts under the giant white bubble that stands like a tethered cloud in the

Ki by Pete Bodo One of the more encouraging developments for U.S. tennis in recent weeks was the American sweep of the girls 18- and 16-and-under titles at the Orange Bowl, a junior event that ranks right up there with the Grand Slam youth tournaments as an indicator for future

Howdy, everyone. Now that the smoke and din of the US Open have cleared, I want to say a few words about the player about whom I wrote next to nothing during the last Grand Slam of the year - Justine Henin. The odd thing is that I don't feel

Roger Federer isn’t the only surefire Hall of Famer who has extra incentive to win the ATP World Tour Finals. Can you name the other two? If you didn’t automatically roll your eyes and say, “Bob and Mike Bryan,” you can’t say you’re all-in when it comes to tennis. You

Peter Graf, father of icon Steffi Graf and a headline maker in his own right—if not for the best of reasons—died last Saturday in his native Germany, halfway around the world from where Steffi has lived for many years with her husband Andre Agassi and their two children. If the

For most tennis players, beating the top seed at a Grand Slam tournament is a pretty big deal. Pulling off a major upset usually brings out a mix of shock, relief, elation, joy, thankfulness—and a little more shock. By the time a player has fallen over, stood up, put her

WATCH: The final point of Federer's last Wimbledon final appearance Editor's Note: On Tuesday, Serena Williams posted that she will "relish these next few weeks" before officially calling in a career in professional tennis. Click here for the latest updates.

Howdy, Tribe. It's the morning of the final day of the Australian Open, and although the much-anticipated Men's Final is hours away, I'm off to a fine start. I had a leisurely brunch with Roger and Evonne Goolagong Cawley at the hotel, and just a little while ago I went

Peter Bodo continues his year-end awards—12 in all, for 2012—with the year's Most Improved Players. You can see rest of his selections as well as the upcoming awards at the end of this article.

* Php9NltggPM * by Pete Bodo Well, I learned yesterday that trying to account for 37 bodies, temperature ranging from stone-cold to warm, isn't as easy as it looks, hence I cut off my death watch of French players with the men. And while some posters noted that a survival

This has been an extraordinary two weeks for the WTA. The organization lost one of its most important and influential players, Li Na, who retired due to knee injuries. It also lost one of its top young stars, recent No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, who pulled the plug on a year