BEYOND THE BASELINE
Essays, stories and reflections on tennis, community, competition, and the people and experiences I encounter through the game.
What begins as a dispute over a porta potty at an Atlanta tennis match spirals into an unforgettable afternoon that exposes stubborn stereotypes that still divide life inside and outside the perimeter.
Full essay available upon request.
What happens when the gender confidence gap steps onto a tennis court? Mixed doubles play reveal some surprisingly familiar gender patterns. A behavioral scientist asks what women and men might learn by occasionally playing a little more like each other.
Full essay available upon request.
A beer, a gummy, a prescription, and sometimes just an encouraging partner: recreational tennis players have surprisingly different ways of taking the edge off when a supposedly low-stakes match suddenly feels anything but.
Full essay available upon request.
An away match at a country club introduces a public-court tennis team to clay courts, luxury cars, spa-like restrooms, and the not so subtle exploration of class, race, belonging, and the social worlds that meet across a tennis net. Sometimes an away match takes you much farther from home than the mileage suggests.
Full essay available upon request.
At my daughter’s soccer games, everyone seems to have something to say except the children: coaches shout instructions, and parents call from the sidelines. At a junior tennis tournament, most adults suddenly go quiet, leaving the children to call their own lines, handle disputes, and solve problems for themselves—even when that means watching them make mistakes we are not allowed to fix. These sports don’t just teach children how to play; they teach adults how to parent.
Full essay available upon request.
Tennis and pickleball should be natural allies: they share courts, coaches, racquets (or paddles), and plenty of players who happily cross between the two. Instead, their relationship can feel more like a family feud, complete with territorial disputes, complaints about noise, arguments over technique and footwork, and plenty players who quietly confess their crossing over to the enemy. When a new sport moves into an old sport’s territory, do they learn to share—or start drawing battle lines?.
Full essay available upon request.
My realtor once told me that if you want to test a marriage, renovate a house together. But perhaps there is a cheaper experiment: enter a mixed-doubles tennis league. For couples willing to spend an entire season sharing a court, every missed volley, questionable strategy, and unsolicited suggestion with a badly timed “You should have…” becomes a small test of whether love can survive competitive sports.
Full essay available upon request.
INTERESTED IN READING MORE?
Full copies of selected essays are available upon request.
CONTACT THE AUTHOR →