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The road to the US Open begins at the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington, DC. After several weeks of sliding on clay and adjusting to the low bounces of grass, professional tennis returns to the American hard courts. The change happens quickly. There is no long adjustment period or time to work your way into different playing conditions. Players arrive at Rock Creek Park knowing that the final Grand Slam of the year is only a few weeks away. Washington is the first hard c

Tennis players are stubborn. We spend years learning how to serve, move, construct points, and control a tennis ball. Then someone invites us to play pickleball, badminton, , or ping-pong, and our first reaction is “this isn’t tennis.” No, it’s not. The court is smaller. The racquet looks different. The ball bounces lower or not at all, but once you start playing, you quickly discover that many of the same skills needed to compete are the same. These same skills can impro

Starting tennis is exciting, but choosing your first racquet can feel overwhelming. Walk into any sporting goods store, and you’ll see dozens of options. The truth is, beginners don’t need anything complicated or expensive to get started. Your first racquet should feel comfortable in your hand and help you enjoy learning the game. As a new player, your goal is simple: make contact with the ball and build confidence when hitting it. The right racquet will make this process eas

It’s Wimbledon week two. The business end of a Grand Slam and all the matches are now on a bigger stage. How do the players stand up to a new pressure? If you are a top player, this is where you want to be, playing for a chance to add to your legacy. If you are an underdog, this is where immortality in a career begins. Either way, players begin to write new chapters in the story of their careers. How players handle the progress of week two is more than just prize mone

Every summer, tennis gives us one tournament that is different from all others. For two weeks the sport moves to the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, where tradition, pressure, history, and grass meet. At Wimbledon, the first story is simple: can the defending champions defend their titles? Jannik Sinner, the #1 seed and defending champion, has not had the best leadup after an early exit from this year’s French Open. He enters as the clear favorite, b

Every summer, tennis fans around the world turn their attention to the green lawns of Wimbledon. The television cameras showcase pristine grass courts with players dressed in white, and points that seem to unfold at a faster pace than the rest of the season. For many fans, it is a beautiful tradition. For most players, however, grass remains a surface they have never experienced firsthand. That raises an interesting question: Have you ever played on grass? If your answer is n

Every year, the tennis calendar delivers one of the most dramatic shifts in all of sports. One day, players are grinding through long rallies on the red clay of Roland Garros. A week later, they are sprinting across slick green grass, reacting to points that can be over in just a few strokes. No transition in tennis happens faster. Clay and grass may both be outdoor surfaces, but they ask players to solve completely different problems. On clay, patience is rewarded. Slow,

Today we celebrate the newest French Open champions as they conquered the clay at one of the most talked-about French Open tournaments in recent memory. The men's and women's winners were not the outright favorites, but both were good bets to go deep in the tournament. That is one of the things that makes Roland Garros so special. Unlike the other Grand Slam tournaments, the French Open has a way of rewarding players who are willing to suffer through difficult moments with

By the second week in Paris, the real pressure starts coming from expectation. The draw gets smaller, matches get tighter. Players are no longer just trying to survive rounds—they’re carrying expectation. And sometimes, that becomes harder than the match itself. Most people assume the toughest matches in tennis are against the best players in the world. Sometimes this is true but ask enough players and you’ll hear something different. The hardest matches to play are the ones

There’s a reason why American players have historically struggled on clay courts. It has less to do with talent and more to do with the American approach to the sport. Most American players grow up learning about quick-strike tennis: big serves, big forehands, and short points. We show little patience when it comes to learning how to construct points, focusing on hitting winners rather than being consistent. From the juniors to the pros, it seems to be about finishing wit

The road to Roland Garros is an annual trek fraught with transitions and tough clay court battles. But every spring, all roads eventually lead to Paris. The French Open is considered to be the toughest of all the Grand Slam tournaments due to its slow red clay, demanding patience to win points. Iconic and festive, the French Open, like Wimbledon, has its own traditions and style that are like none other. Each year we fans follow the tournament knowing that when a new champion

On clay, a good shot doesn't mean much if you can't back it up with another one. That's the adjustment players run into this time of year. The ball comes back more often, rallies stretch out, and points don't end where you expect them to. What feels like control early in the rally can disappear in one shot, and if you aren't prepared, you've lost the point. That's where patience shows up. Not in how a point begins, but in how long a player is willing to stay in it. Clay has

You’ve been playing league or tournaments for a few weeks now, and the season is starting to tell the truth about your game. Not the kind of truth you hear in a lesson or practice, but the kind that shows up in a match. Your legs get tight and heavy, and your go-to patterns of play start breaking down. It shows in the match score. May is the month when players quietly say it to themselves: “I thought I was better than this.” Not out loud. Not to anyone else. Just intern

There’s a reason why players don’t just show up to the French Open and figure it out as they go. Clay doesn’t allow that. You don’t find your game in Paris—you bring it there already built. That’s what this stretch is really about. Monte Carlo, Madrid, Rome… these aren’t warm-ups. They’re where players stretch their games out until something either breaks or holds. You see who can extend rallies without panicking, who can defend without overhitting, who can stay out there two

There’s something about clay that tells the truth. It slows everything down just enough where you can’t hide. You can’t rush points. You can’t fake patience. You can’t blast your way through points in every match and expect it to hold up over the course of a tournament. Clay makes you build. Clay makes you suffer. Clay makes you stay out there longer than you want to. It makes you uncomfortable. And right now, American tennis on clay is telling two very different stories. A

Hard courts reward power, clay rewards patience. The best players master both. As the tour leaves the sun and fun of the US hard courts, our attention turns to the grind of the clay. Hard courts reward first-strike tennis: big serves and big forehands. Clay courts reward point construction, spin, and stamina. Points are longer, margins are smaller, and fitness and patience become weapons. Clay courts don't just test your game; they expose your flaws. The tour's first sto

Every now and then, something comes along in tennis that makes you pause and say, " Okay… this is different ." That's exactly what the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) League is. The first tournament of the season was recently played in Nîmes, France, at a historic double-tiered amphitheater known for bullfights and concerts. The Bastide UTS Nîmes event is part of a series of UTS tournaments that make the Ultimate Tennis Showdown so exciting. Now let me be clear—this isn't

Every tennis fan should experience the Miami Open at least once . Television shows you the matches—but being there in person reveals something completely different. The access, the atmosphere, the culture, and the energy make this one of the most unique tournaments in the sport. If you love tennis, this event belongs on your bucket list. The Miami Open is a mandatory stop on both the ATP Tour and the WTA Tour. That means the top players in the world are required to play , so

2025 BNP Paribas Open Champions Every March, the tennis world shifts its focus to the US for two events: the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells and the Miami Open in Miami. These tournaments, together known as the Sunshine Double , have a history of making their combined victory a rare and highly coveted achievement. Winning both isn't just rare; they require the ultimate test of consistency, endurance, and adaptability. Here are some key reasons for its importance: Elite Pres

By now, everyone knows the history: It was April 15, 1947, and first baseman Jackie Roosevelt Robinson makes his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball club at Ebbets Field. As the first African American to play professional sports with white players, in the modern era, he would end 50 years of racial segregation in sports, end of story! But what many people don’t know is that it was the sport of Tennis, not Baseball that first allowed integrated play. I know that many tenn