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Rennae and Petko are back in effect down under, coming through live from the Australian Open with behind-the-scenes takes on the first two rounds of play.

The best part about having. A sport is that it can be pastime and workout and outlet. A reason to travel and a welcome distraction at home.

The thing about archetypes is that—though they are of course shallow caricatures—they somehow tend to ring true. We hesitate to admit that this goes even for us fiercely independent, uncategorizable tennis aficionados. The fact is: We all know the following types, and we need to buy them presents. So we here at Racquet have amassed a guide to make your holiday gift-giving look effortlessly apropos and thoughtful. If this helps avert "tennis-scented candles" and other misguided purchases, so much the better. Happy Holidays from Racquet to you and yours.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.