The U.S. holds the distinction as having the most fat kids in the world, but India is catching up, so doubles whiz Leander Paes in leaping into action — as a super hero.

If the powers-that-be are trying to raise the popularity of tennis in the U.S., they’re not getting a lot of help from the ATP.

There’s a method to the seeming madness in the WTA Tour announcing a second season-ending tournament to start in 2009 in Bali, Indonesia.

The names conjure up the biggest championships in sports: The Super Bowl, The World Cup, The World Series, The Stanley Cup, golf’s The Masters.
In tennis, the year-end championship is more like a quiz show even hardcore fans struggle to keep up with.
The man-on-the-street quiz:
Q: What is men’s tennis’ year-end championship called?
A: “Ummm…wha?”
ADHEREL
You see, every few […]

After complaints by world No. 1 Roger Federer and other top players regarding back-to-back weeks of Masters Series events on the ATP calendar, there was a peculiar vote by player representatives to uphold the event’s calendar positions on the planned 2009 schedule.
ADHEREL
At the ATP Player Council meeting this week during the French Open, ATP Chairman […]

Alright Euro-punters and U.S. off-shore tennis betters, you know who you are and probably so does your government — Friday’s picks for quarterfinal play at the Masters Series event in Monte Carlo, where you know a tournament is bringing serious entertainment when they feature Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, AND are in the process of […]

Yesterday the ATP’s U.S. media maven, Greg “The Remorseless Eating Machine” Sharko told me that the news that came from a spokesman out of the ATP’s international office in regard to the Masters Series events receiving the same number of ranking points as the Grand Slams under the tour’s new 2009 calendar was incorrect.
Shark(o), who […]

If the ATP, which governs the men’s tour, and the International Tennis Federation (ITF), which governs the four Grand Slam events, had become buddy-buddy over the last few years — even joint-sponsoring the year-ending Masters Cup — that love was lost this week when the ATP announced it would elevate its Masters Series events on […]

The difficult-to-follow experimental round robin format on the ATP circuit took a bizarre turn at the Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas when ATP Chairman Etienne de Villiers stepped in to reverse a rule, putting James Blake into the quarterfinals, then the next day before the beginning of play reversed his decision, sidelining Blake and […]

2007 Aussie Open Preview
The list of players injured before the Aussie Open even starts is long, and the list of possible withdrawals from Melbourne, even longer (Rafael Nadal? David Nalbandian? Nikolay Davydenko? Nadia Petrova?), but it’s summer in Australia and the Aussie Open starts Monday (event if Roger Federer says it should be pushed back […]