Week 17, 2024

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Gill Gross & Ben Ornstein
May 01, 2024

Can Alcaraz 3-peat in Madrid? Here’s what we found interesting this week:

  • How Realistic is Challengers, The Movie?

    Why It’s Interesting: We’re tennis hardos here! Of course we’re going to notice that Art has a one-handed backhand. And yes, we are going to dissect what the means. This is a highly entertaining piece.

How Authentic Is the Tennis in ‘Challengers’? A Breakdown.

‘Challengers’ may center on a steamy love triangle, but fundamentally, it’s a tennis movie. And just how authentic is the depiction of tennis? We have thoughts.

www.theringer.com/movies/2024/4/29/24141711/challengers-movie-review-tennis-scenes-breakdown-zendaya

  • Tennis Australia Lawyers Up

    Why It’s Interesting: We thought something major would go down in Madrid. Instead, the jockeying between the ATP Plan and the Premiere Tour Plan continues. Craig Tiley and Tennis Australia are warning the ATP that axing the United Cup and Australian Open lead-in would be breach of contract. And, more interestingly, have laid out all the reasons why a January Masters would be bad for players and fans.

Exclusive: Australian Open chiefs send ATP Tour warning letter over Saudi Masters event

Tennis Australia has warned the ATP Tour of its serious opposition to a January event in Saudi Arabia, in a letter seen by The Athletic

theathletic.com/5460730/2024/04/30/tennis-australia-letter-atp-tour-saudi-arabia-masters

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  • Aryna Sabalenka - The Streak Crusher

  • Sascha Bublik Interview is Pure Comedy As Usual

  • The Octopus on Dirt

    Why It’s Interesting: Jeff Sackman has some great thoughts on rally length stats and how to analyze them. The arguments are filtered through a clay theme, but frankly I think this piece gets to the bottom of what makes Daniil Medvedev a great returner on all surfaces. Hint: It’s not about how many long rallies he wins, it’s about how many he generates.

Daniil Medvedev's Instinct For Survival - Heavy Topspin

Clay-court tennis is known for its slow bounces, defensive court positions, and long rallies. Still, a whole lot of points are determined by the bang-bang, plus-one tactics that define the modern game. The first week of this year’s European clay season was a wake-up call. The champions in Estoril, Houston, and Marrakech were Hubert Hurkacz, … Continue reading Daniil Medvedev’s Instinct For Survival

www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2024/04/30/daniil-medvedevs-instinct-for-survival

  • Frontrunner For Most Chaotic Match Of The Year

    What Happened: Moutet demanded coffee and was denied by chair umpire. Fan delivered Moutet Coffee. Fan told Moutet to “shut up.” Moutet demanded fan removal. Moutet got injured and then was fine. Moutet mistakenly flung his racquet on the serve follow-through on the biggest point of the match. Moutet saved a match point on a dead net cord winner. Match finished at 1am.

  • Why String Different Tensions for Mains and Crosses?

    Why It’s Interesting: A lot of pros like doing this.

Gear Q&A: The impact of fine-tuning a racquet’s string tension | Tennis.com

What’s the benefit of using different tensions on the main and cross strings? 

www.tennis.com/baseline/articles/gear-q-a-the-impact-of-fine-tuning-a-racquet-s-string-tension

On last week’s Mailbag, Gill featured Thread of Order author Hugh Clarke for a coaches mailbag. Gill and Hugh answered questions about professional technique and various tennis topics. They also discussed Tsitsipas’ backhand, Ruud’s big match struggles, Carlos Vs. Jannik, and much more.

Hey everyone, Gill Gross here. While I’m grateful for any amount of success I’ve had talking tennis on the internet for the past half decade, I believe we should all be doing better in this sport as creators and as fans. The tennis content economy is far behind other sports by metrics of engagement and popularity. This newsletter is our effort to DRAW the great things we find in tennis every week- we search for content that teaches us, makes us think, makes us laugh and ultimately makes loving this sport the best possible experience. Our vision is to speed up the growth of a robust content economy in tennis, for the benefit of fans, players and creators alike.

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