The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article on Rafael Nadal’s training regimen and the philosophy of Team Nadal, which consists of his doctor Angel Ruiz Cortorro, Manacor based gym teacher (and Rafa’s fitness guru), Joan Forcades, and his physio Rafael Maymo. Click here to read more about Rafa’s stretches, hydrotherapy sessions, bosu balls, etc. [...]

2009 was a golden year for the tennis book, giving us three fantastic reads: Jon Wertheim’s Fedal tribute,  Strokes of Genius; Marshall Jon Fisher’s illuminating tennis history A Terrible Splendor; and Andre Agassi’s blockbuster autobiography, Open. I read and loved all three, gave them as gifts and yakked about them until my friends’ eyes glazed [...]

American tennis player turned Human Growth Hormone smuggler, Wayne Odesnik, released a statement during last week’s U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston denying that he ever used the banned drug. Just a few weeks earlier, he pleaded guilty to the Brisbane Magistrates Court, admitting that he had illegally brought the banned substance into Australia [...]

Last year’s Miami tournament was a lowlight for Federer fans. Still smarting from that tough five set loss to Rafael Nadal in the 2009 Australian Open finals, we’d sat through Roger’s back injury layoff just to watch him flame out against rising nemesis, Andy Murray, at Indian Wells. Things couldn’t get worse, right? Wrong: “Thank [...]

We’ve often chatted here at GTT about Mirka – her cardigans, her stamina in the players’ box, her addiction to chewing gum. Today it was The Oregonian‘s Douglas Perry, author of quite a few recent pieces on Roger Federer, who decided to take up the GOAT’s better half.  He correctly points out that she’s a [...]

Tennis.com’s Peter Bodo wrote a piece this week about the Federer vs. Nadal rivalry called “Homeless Rafa.” To summarize, Bodo thinks that Rafael Nadal’s ongoing injury issues have allowed Roger Federer to loosen up to his current dominating form, proving just how much the Spaniard was in Fed’s head before his knees gave out last [...]

Today is Martina Hingis’s 29th birthday and the last day of her two-year drug suspension. Jon Wertheim has an interesting interview with her posted on the Sports Illustrated website. Click here to read it if you haven’t already (yes, she answers the comeback question.) Here’s what really got to me: The amount (of cocaine metabolite [...]

Steve Tignor wrote an interesting viewpoint piece at tennis.com with the title “Excessive civility muting the men’s game?” Have you read it already? If not, click here. If you have, can you please explain it to me? Here’s what I’ve figured so far. . . Tignor begins by comparing two US Open semifinal handshakes – [...]

Photo by Dewey Nicks for The New York Times The Bryan Brothers got the Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer treatment in the latest New York Times Magazine. The lengthy article by Eric Konigsberg is called Unseparated Since Birth and is filled with the kind of freaky/sweet identical twin anecdotes that will make this required reading [...]

An amazing article in the New York Times reveals a number of intimate details about the newly formed Federer family. Obviously, click here and read the whole thing. This post is just an excuse to marvel, gush and worry (just a little bit.) Factoid #1: Myla and Charlene are identical. Random thought #1: Here’s hoping [...]

Roger & Mirka and Steffi & Andre may have formed the ultimate tennis love-matches, but there are many more tumultuous examples: Kim Clijsters & Lleyton Hewitt, Jimmy Connors & Chris Evert and Radek Stepanek & Martina Hingis broke off their engagements, for example, while Verdasco & Ivanovic, Pennetta & Moya and Stepanek & Vaidisova experienced [...]

Winner of Wimbledon’s triple crown in 1939, American Alice Marble was the tennis world’s original Glamazon. Living a life as big as her game, the 18-time Grand Slam champ shagged balls with Joe DiMaggio, survived a Nazi bullet, and fought racism on tour. Writer Margaret McArthur (a.k.a. “Alice Marble” at GTT) tells her extraordinary story. [...]