One of my latest articles was titled “The Case for only One Serve.” I believe the pros should adopt only one serve to make the points longer. Today so many of the points are just a serve and a return.

Delray Beach ITC
The independently-owned ATP event ramps up the promotions with the VolleyGirls, fans sitting in a Porsche on the court and more, and the brains behind the PR.
BY RICHARD VACH

“I had cramping and soreness in the whole body,” Djokovic told reporters. “I think the people could see that I was struggling with movement. I couldn’t serve the way I served in the first two sets. That third set I just started dropping 20, 30 kilometers per hour first serve. Obviously it was much easier for him to return. He saw that longer rallies are not comfortable for me at that point, so he was using it wisely. Really unfortunate way to end my Australian Open 2009. I really tried my best, but sometimes you can’t fight against your own body.”

Rafael Nadal is blogging for the Melbourne Herald-Sun newspaper, taking questions on topics from motivations to whether he has sex during a tournament. “Every player should know the best way to be ready to play next day. So it is up to the player,” Nadal writes…

Here’s a potential bell-ringer for your next executive meeting — tennis fans are changing the way they view the sport (on the internet) because YOU GUYS AREN’T SUCCESSFULLY GETTING TENNIS ON TV. We have a Tennis Channel, but it is mostly reruns and canned shows.

If the Williams sisters were to retire with Davenport as of this writing, the U.S. would have no women in the Top 40, and three players in the Top 100 (including the 30+ Jill Craybas, and Ashley Harkleroad who is pregnant). In other words, by the time the Williams retire, U.S. women’s tennis will virtually retire with them.

WTA officials should add a tab to their website that explains patronymics in Eastern European languages. It might help fans understand why so many top players last names end with “ova” or some such variation.

“The ATP, as ever, bumbles on in its own fashion, assuring everyone who is bothered to listen that all will be well, while producing publicity material, posters and the like, that appear to have been formulated by someone devoid of the least understanding of what the game is about.”

“This completes a five-year process of reinventing the television and digital landscape for the sport of tennis in North America,” said Arlen Kantarian, CEO Pro Tennis, USTA. “Tennis will now be prominently featured for eight straight weeks on ESPN — the premiere destination in sports; Tennis Channel — our sport’s namesake network; and CBS — our longtime network partner. This new partnership will provide more tennis, to more people, in more ways than ever before.”

Now be honest, who would really have believed that after four days of tennis in Rome that Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Nikolay Davydenko and David Nalbandian would out and Andy Roddick and James Blake would still be in? There’s no one on the planet who would have thought that four days ago. No one.