Features

Wherein Randi Stern attempts her best performance as Calm Person while internally panicking that she's forgotten how to hit the ball and facing questions like “What if your partner’s on fire and you’re spinning in circles like the Roomba when it gets stuck in cords?”

Every fall, the professional tennis tours descend on China. And every fall, the same Western headlines surface: empty seats, muted atmospheres, and the inevitable question, “Does China really care about tennis?”

Lifelong table-tennis player E.Y. Zhao's new book, Underspin (Astra House, 2025), is a coming-of-age story that explores the adolescent pursuit of greatness against the backdrop of a sport that—as with all racquet sports these days—is having a major moment.

Every September, Korea's one and only international tennis tournament, the Korea Open, takes place—and owing to the global influence of K-culture between entertainment like BTS, K-pop Demon Hunters, and the global culinary contribution of Buldak spicy noodles, Seoul has become a city that many players want to visit.

“Great athletes usually turn out to be stunningly inarticulate about just those qualities and experiences that constitute their fascination,” David Foster Wallace wrote in 1992 after finding himself disappointed by Tracy Austin’s autobiography. Thirty-three years later and little has changed about the sports memoir genre, as evidenced by Heartbeats, Björn Borg’s new autobiography, which hits stores in the U.S. next week.

Aman Hotels Serves Up Luxury with Launch of Aman Tennis Club and Aman Essentials Collection

The venue was the Thompson Central Park, the glass and stone tower just off Sixth Avenue, and the game was ping pong, played to a soundtrack of cocktail chatter and the clink of glasses filled with tequila. Parker’s, the hotel’s moody bar, had been reimagined as the LALO Clubhouse for the tournament: cocktails and caviar for the invite-only crowd, live Open coverage flickering on screens, and a photo wall waiting for Instagram.

Thank you all for joining us at our inaugural Seaport Racquet Club coinciding with the last slam of the year. You made our Seaport Racquet Clubhouse New York City’s HQ for all things tennis—from on-court raves to player parties, live podcast tapings and plenty to watch, toast and shop.

At the latest screening of a documentary about his life, the tennis legend talks about his eponymous shoe and the new business book he's co-authored that aims to create and capture moments that matter.

Twenty years in, wheelchair tennis is bigger than ever—and the US Open is leading the way