Features

The soundtrack at a modern club has changed from a single note to a full symphony. You still hear the familiar ping of the strings on a tennis ball, but now it's mixed with the rhythmic thwack of pickleball and the bouncy thud of padel on the glass walls. This didn't happen because someone influential decided it should; it happened organically, driven by a new breed of athlete who refuses to be fenced in by tradition.

Back in September, Woolmark announced that Venus Williams was making her return to the US Open in a “groundbreaking Merino wool performance kit designed by LUAR.” Recently, Naomi Osaka won the Australian Open in a collaboration with couturier Robert Wun and Nike. What made that possible? The short answer is a strategic mix of design and technological advancements, but that connective tissue is textile innovation.

Our intrepid correspondent spends a weekend in Texas Hill Country with tennis' most controversial coach—and budding empire builder, with 18 global locations (and counting) of his namesake academy ready to take over the world. They talk life, changing the rules on coaching and (of course) Serena Williams.

We contemplate an ATP tour without Stan Wawrinka, who lifted trophies and bared it all in a memorable Body Issue spread: In a room full of Pat Rafters, our See You in Court columnist Mel Kenny would still stan Stan.

The Open Era, an upcoming novel by debut author Edward Schmit, follows Austin Hardy, an openly gay tennis player, as he navigates two weeks playing in the US Open. We sat down with Schmit to talk tennis, books, and… the gay sports genre that is suddenly everywhere.

They just don’t make tennis merch like they used to, so we asked our favorite indie brands, resellers and stylish tennis friends (and fiends) where they find the best tennis apparel.

Melissa and Daniel—the authors of Hard Hitting and Sportsverse, two of the best newsletters around—are friends, neighbors, hitting partners, and for one magical afternoon at our new Clubhouse location, muses of style.

Maurice de Mauriac and Racquet complete a Grand Slam with the Rallymaster IV, the last iteration of their celebrated tennis & timepiece collab.

Now that tennis represents a broader purview, it churns out the same cheap tricks as the overstimulated ecosystem it dwells in: shock jockery, cash grabs, frenzied efforts for “engagement” that materialize as gauche emblems of brodernity. So I turn your attention, instead, to the real battle of the sexes: that women’s tennis is amply more exciting than men’s.

Just in time for the holidays, we are so thrilled to be opening our doors to the Racquet Clubhouse. In our hometown of New York City, there's only one club that offers best-in-class tennis, padel and squash—alongside a spa, juice and coffee bar: CityView Racquet Club. That's where we've launched our first IRL pro shop.

In this postcard from Morocco, local player and commentator Mamoune Hazmoune explains the meaning of high-level tennis up close and personal.