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Thiem (is no longer a) Player
In August, I watched Dominic Thiem play the last Grand Slam match of his career, courtside in Arthur Ashe stadium. Thiem’s family and team were in his box, including former coach Nicolás Massú, their faces solemn in the midday sun. American Ben Shelton, whose star power and biceps have only increased in size since his breakout season last year, was Thiem’s opponent. Thiem played with occasional moments of beauty—the ghost of his US Open-winning self dancing in the shadows of a one-handed winner—but Shelton devoured him. It was heartbreaking, and perversely compelling.
Full-Tilt Tennis at the SEASE Cup
Imagine you’re designing your fantasy tennis weekend. There’s the exotic travel, of course: you’d obviously pick one of the world’s most stunning enclaves, say, Portofino, on the Ligurian Coast; design a program of intense days of play on some of the world’s most beautiful tennis courts—there’s a reason the Belmond Splendido’s cliffside court makes every player’s bucket list—tournament play with real stakes; and then there’s the après. Take your pick—beaches, boats, maybe even some tabletop dancing to end the very long evenings before waking up to sweat it out on court the next day. Now give it a name: the SEASE Cup.
Court Cuts
Hidden away at the back of the US Open’s presidential suite, the tournament’s unsung hero remains hard at work, scissors in hand. For 15 years, hairstylist Julien Farel has hosted a pop-up salon for all players participating in the Open. Tresses of top-seeded players fall to the ground as Farel carefully styles each coif.
Tennis Heaven Among the Dunes
I’ve been to Wisconsin exactly two times. The first visit was during graduate school, when a fellow journalism student who, like me, was missing skiing something fierce, planned a trip for the two of us up to Wisconsin. There’s good skiing up there, we were told by Chicagoans who didn’t know any better. So we of the Cascades and the Rockies drove two hours north from Evanston, IL to ski a “mountain” with a 200-foot elevation.
Clervie Ngounoue Recalibrates
Watching Clervie Ngounoue play tennis, it’s easy to experience a kind of cognitive dissonance. The teen’s demeanor is calm and introspective. Her movement is smooth and deliberate. But when she’s ready to strike, what comes off her racquet is nothing but seismic.
郑钦文的天选决定论
上周六，继李娜在墨尔本捧起澳网冠军奖杯十年之后，郑钦文成为历史上 第二位进入大满贯单打决赛的中国网球选手。虽然郑钦文在决赛中不敌实力强 劲的阿依娜·萨巴伦卡（Aryna Sabalenka），但一年多前我与她交谈时，我认为 郑钦文就是天选之女，甚至她的到来都是命中注定的。当然，她不会这么认为。
A European Tennis Experience
In this feature from our latest Issue No. 24, Paramore's Zac Farro gives us a preview of his upcoming zine, Souvenir: A European Summer.
