The sportsmen’s lives read as a conversation on what it means to be American.
Tennis
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
A Black Woman’s Body on the Tennis Court: Claudia Rankine on Serena Williams
What does a victorious or defeated black woman’s body in a historically white space look like? Serena and her big sister Venus Williams brought to mind Zora Neale Hurston’s “I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.” This appropriated line, stenciled on canvas by Glenn Ligon, who used plastic letter […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Meet the Team That Tennis Pros Pay $40K a Year to String Their Racquets
During matches, Federer changes racquets each time the balls are changed, which happens after the first seven games and then every nine games thereafter. Nine racquets would be more than sufficient to see him through his opening match. The already strung rackets were arranged in a row against a dresser. Each had a small piece […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
David Foster Wallace on the Costs of Becoming a Professional Tennis Player
It’s better for us not to know the kinds of sacrifices the professional-grade athlete has made to get so very good at one particular thing. Oh, we’ll invoke lush clichés about the lonely heroism of Olympic athletes, the pain and analgesia of football, the early rising and hours of practice and restricted diets, the preflight […]
Posted inFeature, Member Pick, Nonfiction, Story
David Foster Wallace and the Nature of Fact
David Foster Wallace saw clear lines between journalists and novelists who write nonfiction, and he wrestled throughout his career with whether a different set of rules applied to the latter category.
Posted inNonfiction
Longreads Best of 2013 Postscript: New Questions About a Legendary Tennis Match
The Match Maker Don Van Natta Jr. | ESPN | August 2013 | 34 minutes (8,461 words) Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) is a senior writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. My story, The Match Maker, was online at ESPN.com only a few hours on Aug. 25 when I heard from a California man […]
Posted inUncategorized
The Great Heights of Venus and Serena Williams
Venus and Serena Williams, living as adults, free of their parents, and still America’s biggest tennis superstars.
Posted inUncategorized
Two of the world’s best tennis players meet for a match 1912, just weeks after they both survived the Titanic disaster: Now consider a scenario in which two of the survivors were dashing, world-class athletes in the same sport, destined to face off against each other many times. The hype surrounding those matches would be […]