On Monday I was back and forth between the Grandstand and Armstrong courts, looking for the Rocky of tennis.  But something occurred to me as I watched the underdogs go down:  In boxing, you always hear about a puncher’s chance.  But in tennis, one great punch is only one point, and to win a best-of-five [...]

First there was the prime-time feature on 60 Minutes last month, and this week a full-length profile by L. Jon Wertheim in Sports Illustrated.  It’s great to see the soon-to-be-best doubles team in the history of tennis getting some recognition.  It has been long overdue, as the media’s attention to doubles has been relatively non-existent.

Compelling dynamics for the American men at this year’s U.S. Open, with Andy Roddick losing to Janko Tipsarevic (a match I thought would be tough for him when I first saw the draw) and qualifier 18-year-old Ryan Harrison upsetting No. 15 Ivan Ljubicic, a wily veteran and no easy win for Harrison.  After a strong [...]

I’ve been updating this blog more infrequently than I’d like over the past few months, in part because of a new job but also due to the distraction of a major renovation of our row house in Philadelphia.  I didn’t think this project — tearing down and rebuilding the brick three-story front of a 103-year-old row [...]