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On Court

Interesting Tennis, Winning Tennis

12:13 PM EDT on March 24, 2023

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By Giri Nathan

[vc_empty_space height="15px"]I don’t have many thoughts while in Florida. Perhaps this is why tennis champions are honed here—too hot to get too in your head. But I have been thinking about popularity, watching the crowds flock at the Miami Open. Some players win a lot while not playing interesting tennis. Many players play interesting tennis while not winning a lot. When these two qualities happen to coincide—interesting, winning—people latch on and seem to never let go. That’s also why there are far too many of these newsletters written about a select few players. I believe that any topic, and so any tennis player, can be made interesting with enough curiosity and patience. (Please accept this testimony from someone who has composed a blog post focused on Kevin Anderson’s backhand.) But surely some players make that task way easier than others. Bianca Andreescu hit the WTA playing immediately interesting tennis, and she immediately won a lot. Even though she has not won as much in the years since, I keep wondering if it’s going to happen again. I don’t need any inbox archivists informing me that this exact check-in comes around once a year. (And yes, once it was even during Miami.) Like Charlie Brown, admiring the stippling on the familiar old football lying before him, here I am, typing it out: I think it’s happening again for Bianca!