Craig Cignarelli’s Court News
Backhandsome (def) those beautiful one-handers. (See Justine Henin
and Stan Wawrinka)
Ballchemy (def) what top players perform
Ball-buoy (def) the kid who just sits there spinning his head around instead of getting the damn ball
The WTA Ladies Tennis tour is in Colombia and Switzerland this week and I’ve decided to get a look at some challenger players in the Indian Harbour Beach Florida 60K event.
Madison Keys is currently in the top ten of the world’s most exceptional tennis players. Coached by former world champion, Lindsay Davenport, Keys has a massive forehand, a big serve, decent movement, good hands, an acceptable backhand and a growing confidence in her game.
Recently, I spoke with a coaching friend who claimed one of the most important aspects of working with top ten players is the ability to help the athlete manage their energy.
When professional players compete in high level tournaments, one of the goals is to leave their mark on the event. At the Charleston 800K this week, as they seek to make their marks, many women are sliding, skidding and slipping on the green clay.
I headed over to the stadium tonite to catch the second set of Madison Keys against Lara Arruabarrena. The twenty-six year-old Spaniard has good ball control, an average serve and is coming off her best year on tour.
The stadium court at the Charleston WTA event holds about six-thousand tennis enthusiasts. Most of them are slathered in sunscreen and wearing white hats which hide the icees and ice creams they purchased on the way inside.
The strange thing about Charleston’s WTA event’s sponsor booth selection is the synergy of it all. The white tents and sanitized smells merge with various food trucks and pop-up booths to bring a circus-like atmosphere to the site.
After thirty years of coaching, today I learned something new. I am...
Charleston, SC. is an 800k event on the WTA calendar. Around the players lounge, towering figures like Kvitova and Pliskova make shade for Sara Errani and Lauren Davis.
The city of Charleston has history in every nook and cranny. Military forts, civil rights battles, plantation homes, and a proximity to Savannah which hosts ghost haunts.
Went for a swim in the Atlantic today. There’s something to be said for depth in these situations. When you hit the point where your feet no longer touch, the things beneath you suddenly matter.
There are billions of moves in chess. However, a couple of strategies tend to dominate high level competition. There is the positional game, playing with whatever pieces exist and trying to find the best move therein, and the tactical game, which is intended to set up attacks to place the opponent in jeopardy.
Kyrgios-Fognini is like 8:45 P.M. on July 4th in America - as darkness descends, the fireworks are inevitable. I caught the second set of this match.
The Phoenix dactylifera, commonly known as the date palm, is a flowering plant species cultivated for its fruit. About the size of a shot glass, (maybe thumb) a the date is a sweet, mushy oval with a slightly harder edible exterior and an inner seed.
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