From Ashe to Williams, Rackets of U.S. Open Champions
By BEDEL SAGET and JACKY MYINT
The evolution of the tennis racket from wood to graphite has helped transform the sport into a game of power and spin.
While there used to be a month or more of indoor tournaments leading into the year-end finals, the tours’ detours into Asia after the U.S. Open have created a more abbreviated season.
The evolution of the tennis racket from wood to graphite has helped transform the sport into a game of power and spin.
Players are increasingly toweling off in between points, which Roger Federer likened to “a security blanket” but which some have criticized as a time-wasting tactic.
In a poll of leading coaches, players and analysts on the best strokes in men's tennis, the usual suspects were all there, but so were some outsiders.
In a survey of the best strokes in contemporary women's tennis, Serena Williams remains in a class of her own.
After years grinding on the junior circuit, the 20-year-old is poised to be one of the sport’s next big stars. Now she just needs that breakthrough win.
But the Swiss winner of the Australian Open, Stan Wawrinka, may be the man to save it.
The primal screams of the players at the United States Open have become an inescapable part of the tournament’s soundtrack.
All eyes will be on Serena Williams and Roger Federer at this year’s United States Open.
The United States has an estimated 250,000 tennis courts, and in such a big and sprawling country, a few of those courts are going to end up in unusual places. We highlight a few of them here.