tennis raze this and boxing have gradually become my two favourite sports. as different as they are, i think it's the one thing they have in common that appeals to me on a level most other sports don't; the shared solitude. it's about two people facing off against each other with nothing but their skills, their bodies, and their minds at their disposal — one man or woman attempting to out-think the other while they do battle, alone together. the psychology involved is often more important than sheer athletic ability. adjusting. adapting. believing. 130228 ... raze it also occurs to me that this is the only sport in which you can literally lose to love. 130317 ... raze "it's no accident, i think, that tennis uses the language of life. advantage, service, fault, break, love, the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday existence, because every match is a life in miniature. even the structure of tennis, the way the pieces fit inside one another like russian nesting dolls, mimics the structure of our days. points become games become sets become tournaments, and it's all so tightly connected that any point can become the turning point. it reminds me of the way seconds become minutes become hours, and any hour can be our finest. or darkest. it's our choice." — andre agassi 130519 ... raze sometimes i wonder what would happen if maria sharapova lost her voice. if she couldn't scream at the top of her lungs every time the ball made contact with her racket, would she still win matches? 140118 ... raze things are heating up at the australian open, oh yes they is. roger's looking like he's finally got his groove back, rafa's such a beast even a nasty blister can't slow him down, and i think this eugenie bouchard is going to make some waves. her apparent fondness for justin bieber gives me pause, but she's young yet. give her time. 140120 ... raze i had this vision of the future. in it i was watching tennis on television with someone who didn't follow the sport. roger federer walked onto the court to present a trophy or perform the pre-match coin toss or something, maybe with a little grey in his hair, but looking as elegant as ever. i tried to explain to the person i was watching with that he was an artist on the tennis court. watching him play at his best was like watching ballet performed at the highest level. there was a beauty and a hypnotic grace to what he did, unmatched in the modern game. they just looked at me funny like, "dudes run around and hit balls over a net. what of it?" of course, roger's still playing, and may be on the cusp of a late-career resurgence after a demoralizing season last year. he'll play on for at least a few more years, health permitting. but he won't be here forever, and it'll be strange when he's gone. there won't be another like him. in some ways, borrowed time is the sweetest time there is. i think it's got cane sugar in it. that would explain some things. 140321 ... raze i was kind of pulling for eugenie to win wimbledon. would have been nice to see. but i'm not disappointed kvitova won it. she deserves that trophy. if she keeps playing like that, she's going to be scary for the rest of the year. now roger just needs to knock off the djoker tomorrow, and all will be well in the world. 140705 ... raze every time a commentator says, "he's serving with new balls," i half expect the player in question to start playing out of their mind if they're down in the match. but no. it's only fresh yellow fibrous felt. 140812 ... raze gasquet didn't blow a gasket. wimbledon just exploded. 150708 ... past you can feel the press to the courts when comparing the tube before and after the start. 150708 ... epitome of incomprehensibility I don't know much about the game myself, but I saw the name Pospisil in the paper twice and both times I thought it was a kind of medication. 150709 ... raze ha! "got heartburn? on your windshield? try pospisil!" 150709 ... raze come on roger. win it all one more time. show those young pretenders how it's done. 150711 ... raze jesus christ, commentators. stop making six million excuses for serena and taking credit away from her opponent. she lost. she got outplayed and out-psyched. it's that simple. 150911 ... raze and there goes roger, throwing it away again. how many more clear shots at grand slam gory to do you think you're gonna get, man? it wouldn't be so bad if raonic was going to make it count, but he'll choke in the final, because that's what he tends to do once he gets there. might as well hand the trophy to andy right now and save everyone the trouble. 160708 ... raze GORY. GORY GLORY. 160708 ... raze juan martin del potro, one of the nicest people to ever hold a tennis racket, who's spent the last few years barely able to play because of debilitating wrist injuries, spent almost an hour trapped in an elevator this morning because of a power outage. then he knocked the world #1 out of the olympics in the first round. talk about a turnaround. 160807 ... raze DJOKOVIC: i'm cramping. you're not allowed to take a medical timeout for cramps. so i'm going to invent a toe issue, and pretend that's my problem, and take my medical break right before you're about to serve in the fourth set, in an effort to get in your head and disrupt your momentum now that you're in firm control of this match and only a few games away from winning the US open. WAWRINKA: that's cool. i'll still beat you anyway. have fun dealing with a bunch of tennis fans calling you a cheater. DJOKOVIC: shit. 160912 ... G. Ha! Astute translation... 160913 ... raze nice to see rafa and roger back. tennis just wasn't the same without those guys. 170119 ... raze this year's australian open has somehow turned into the revenge of the veterans. we're very close to getting a federer-nadal throwback final on the men's side, and a venus-serena final on the women's side. i haven't seen roger or rafa look this good in a while (though roger was playing some great tennis early last year before the knee injury). they're both still hungry. still vital. it's a beautiful thing. 170125 ... raze i do believe we've stepped back in time. it's 2009 again. 170127 ... raze talk about a tale of two finals. venus vs. serena was pretty much what you'd expect. the first set was tense for a while, but in the end serena won without dropping a set. not a lot of drama there. roger vs. rafa was the kind of match that'll knock a year off your life if you love the sport and you're a fan of both players. i lost count of the momentum shifts after a while. rafa's been in roger's head for years, and hasn't lost to him at a grand slam in a decade. you could see the gradual erosion of roger's belief that he could win a big match against a guy who would keep pounding his backhand until it broke down, fighting tooth and nail for every point, getting stronger the longer the match went. this time roger flipped the script. i don't think i've ever seen him hit his backhand with more purpose. it looked like he was going to win in four sets. then his level dipped and rafa did what rafa does. he dug in and refused to go away. in the fifth, roger went down an early break and missed a few chances to get back on serve. and then HE dug in and fought. after coming up just short so many times, he willed himself to win from a losing position. that has to be one of the sweetest victories of his long, storied career. and in terms of shot-making and excitement, you couldn't ask for a better end to a tournament full of surprises. as del potro said after it was all over, directed at both men: don't you ever quit tennis. 170129 ... gja i wanted it to end quickly so it could start again and end quickly so it could start again and end quickly so it could start again and end quickly so it could be.... 170130 ... raze i've been catching every replay they're showing on television, just to relive a bit of it again. even on a french station where i have no idea what the commentators are saying. ha! 170130 ... gja I'm so not racquet and ball person. But she said she is. Scholarship? And despite myself; and to Spite her memory I’ll hit it hard Tomorrow With Vern Because He still Wants To know Who wins. 170308 ... raze well, it's official: we've stepped backward in time ten years. roger owned the first third of the season. then rafa dominated the clay court swing, winning three separate tournaments for the tenth time in his career. the grass court season has belonged to roger again, winning his ninth halle title and his eighth wimbledon. and now the two of them will duke it out for the number one spot for the rest of the year. just like old times. 170717 ... raze man, this shapovalov kid is fun to watch. first he came roaring out of nowhere to make a big run at the rogers cup. now he looks primed to make a run at the US open too. it's nice to have another canadian player to root for (eugenie lost me with a few instances of awful sportsmanship and the slow reveal of a pretty rotten attitude, i don't think pospisil will ever put it all together, and while raonic has improved, he doesn't seem to have much of a plan b when his serve isn't working and he has a habit of choking on the big stage). 170830 ... raze jesus, roger. you sure like to make a fan sweat, don't you? 180128 ... unhinged (one of my favorite managers at macys is in australia for the open right now) 180128 ... raze lucky manager! i think i'd lose my mind if i got the chance to see one of my favourite players in a live match. 180128 ... raze two words: rafael. nadal. (three more: don't ever retire.) 220531 ... raze rafa just won the french open for the fourteenth time, with one of his feet anesthetized to allow him to play through the pain caused by a necrotic bone, beating a man almost young enough to be his son. his lifetime record at the tournament now stands at 112-3. insanity. that's what that is. i can't wait to hear what muriel has to say about it. 220605 ... raze dominic thiem has a very distinctive, animalistic grunt. but even he was probably a little surprised when the cops showed up at the facility he was practicing at after a few concerned citizens heard the noises he was making divorced from the context of the sport he's made his life's work and feared someone was shooting a very public porn flick in their neighbourhood. 220617 ... raze even if rafa loses today, he should hold his head high. he's clearly compromised, with a pretty serious abdominal injury that's hampered his movement and his serve. and he just forced a fifth set against taylor fritz in the wimbledon quarterfinals. the man doesn't know how to give up. 220706 ... raze his own father was telling him to quit in the second set. he didn't listen. he won. 220706 ... raze up until this week, i don't think i'd seen more than one match dan evans has been a part of — and that was a close loss to roger federer last year in qatar. i've been watching him will himself to one improbable victory after another at the rogers cup. i might be watching him do it again right now against pablo carreno busta. goddamn. consider me a fan, dan. i dig your fighting spirit and your wicked backhand slice. 220813 ... raze "still no_rain," chris fowler said from inside the booth at the us open. "play has been able to continue on the uncovered courts here." maybe i'm weird, but something about that struck me as being musical, even if he was only reporting the facts. 220830 ... raze it's pretty bad when a respectful us open crowd is a shock to everyone who isn't in the stands. and here's how casper ruud, who just lost a hard-fought final to carlos alcaraz, started his runner_up speech tonight: "i send my prayers to everyone who lost their lives on this tragic day. my heart and thoughts go out to everyone who lost someone close — a relative or someone they loved so. something we never forget." that's class right there. 220911 ... raze martina navratilova on rafael nadal's facial expressions: "his eyebrows deserve to have their own instagram account." 220923 ... raze if i'm jack draper's coach, i've got six words for him after this match: "never hit a drop shot again." 230115 ... raze with roger gone and rafa out for the rest of the year, i don't have any great desire to follow the sport anymore. nothing interests me about novak chasing history against a field of young pretenders who shit their pants on the biggest stages. talk now turns to him being the greatest of all time. funny how people forget the sins of the successful, trading willful ignorance for an opportunity be a part of the meaningless collective conversation swirling around them. he might finish his career with more major titles than rafa. he might set insurmountable records by virtue of outlasting everyone else. but he'll never be the best in my eyes. greatness is measured by more than just numbers. 230611 ... raze a few hours ago, three protestors sat together in the stands wearing t-shirts that said, "end fossil fuels," and interrupted a women's semifinal match at the us open. it took an incompetent security team and fifteen police officers fifty minutes to remove the last of the environmental activists, who glued his bare feet to the concrete. because of him, the massive lights that brighten arthur ashe stadium are working overtime tonight. there's staging an effective protest, and then there's that. 230907 what's it to you? who go blather from