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☆ Ben Shelton, the American With the Blinding Serve, Returns to the Open
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-12 | by ( Cindy Shmerler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It all started with a simple text message that, if Bryan Shelton’s memory serves him, went something like this:“That coulda got really interesting,” wrote his then-20-year-old son, Ben, moments after he won a fifth-set tiebreaker against Zhizhen Zhang at last year’s Australian Open, clinching that first-round match. Shelton did, however, recall the unreturnable serve he hit at 4-5, 30-40 down in the fifth set. Shelton left last year’s Australian Open, his first trip abroad, as a quarterfinalist after succumbing to his friend and fellow American Tommy Paul. By season’s end, Shelton had reached the semifinals at the United States Open alongside the world’s top three players — Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev — and cracked the ATP’s top 15. The young American had begun 2023, his first full year on tour, ranked barely inside the top 100.

Persons: Bryan Shelton’s, coulda, ”, Ben, Zhizhen Zhang, Shelton, “, Tommy Paul, — Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev — Organizations: United States Locations: Brisbane, Australia, Florida

☆ The Power and Speed of Jannik Sinner
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Cindy Shmerler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

After making his ATP Finals debut in 2021 as an alternate, Sinner has qualified on his own this year. Sinner has a winning record against Alcaraz, including victories at the Miami Open and China Open this year. After losing his first six matches against Medvedev, including in the finals in Rotterdam and Miami this year, Sinner has beaten him twice in the last month. In the 2022 match, Sinner led by two sets to love before falling in five sets. Against Rune, Sinner lost in Monte Carlo this year and retired because of injury in a match in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2022.

Persons: Sinner, de, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev, Holger Rune, Medvedev, flummoxed Medvedev, Djokovic, Rune Organizations: Canadian, Paris, ATP, Djokovic, Pala, Sinner’s Northern, Alcaraz, Miami Open, Wimbledon Locations: Beijing, Vienna, Italy, Turin, Sinner’s, Sinner’s Northern Italy, China, Rotterdam, Miami, Monte Carlo, Sofia, Bulgaria

☆ 15 Years After Novak Djokovic Won His First ATP Finals, He’s Still Dominant
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Cindy Shmerler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

For Novak Djokovic, his 2008 season, just a few years after he turned pro, was great by any measure. He not only won his first of six ATP Finals, but he began 2008 taking the Australian Open, the first of his 10 titles there and what would become 24 major championships overall. In the semifinals he upset the top seed, Roger Federer, and beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final. By season’s end, Djokovic had won two other tournaments, including Masters 1000s in Indian Wells and Rome. That year solidified Djokovic as a bona fide member of what was to become known as the Big Three, alongside Federer and Nadal.

Persons: Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Jo, Wilfried Tsonga, Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Federer, Nadal Organizations: United States, Federer Locations: Indian Wells, Rome

☆ Overlooked No More: Ángela Ruiz Robles, Inventor of an Early E-Reader
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Cindy Shmerler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times. More than 60 years before Kindles, Nooks, iPads and other electronic devices revolutionized reading, there was a gadget invented in a village in Spain that had the potential to do the same. The Enciclopedia Mecanica, or Mechanical Encyclopedia, as it was known, was not the brainchild of a multinational corporation like Apple or Amazon; it was invented in 1948 by Ángela Ruiz Robles, a widowed teacher who wanted to make learning easier for her students and her three daughters. Her invention, a pale green box about the size of a textbook with an intricate interior, allowed a user to read words in any language and on any topic, and was intended to lighten a student’s book load. Today it is seen by many as an analog ancestor of the e-reader.

Persons: Ángela Ruiz Robles Organizations: Enciclopedia, Apple Locations: Times, Spain

☆ In Tennis, It’s the Haves and the Have-Nots
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Cindy Shmerler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Eric Butorac played in the doubles main draw at the United States Open from 2007 to 2016. “We were lucky when we got to practice on those courts for any length of time,” said Butorac, now the director of player relations at the United States Tennis Association. “I came from a small town in Minnesota and was just happy to be there,” Butorac said. “For me, it was more about gratitude than about feeling that others had been given more.”There has long been a hierarchy among tennis players, a distinction between the sport’s top players and everyone else. Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, he is given that privilege.

Persons: Eric Butorac, Arthur Ashe, “, ”, Butorac, ” Butorac, Novak Djokovic, Billie Jean King, Iga Swiatek, Carlos Alcaraz Organizations: United States, United States Tennis Association, Billie Jean King National Tennis Center Locations: Queens, Long, Minnesota

☆ Jessica Pegula Is Learning to Use Her Claws
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Cindy Shmerler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jessica Pegula strode into Wimbledon’s cavernous interview room, bucket hat perched on her head, and stared at the empty room. When she realized that there were no media members there to ask her about her second-round win over Cristina Bucsa, Pegula chuckled, got up and walked out. At 5-foot-7, Pegula doesn’t have a thunderous serve, like Aryna Sabalenka. Pegula can also flutter emotionally, as when she let a 4-1 lead slip in the third set against the eventual Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova. “Her ball-striking is really, really good,” said David Witt, her coach since 2019.

Persons: Jessica Pegula strode, Cristina Bucsa, Pegula chuckled, Pegula, Marketa Vondrousova, ”, David Witt, Lindsay Davenport Organizations: Canadian, Wimbledon, United States, eventual Wimbledon Locations: Iga

☆ Cameron Norrie is Going to Wimbledon. Great Expectations Follow Him.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Cindy Shmerler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Cameron Norrie has had two mystical moments at Wimbledon. Both took place on Centre Court, the most revered venue in the sport. The first occurred in 2021 when Norrie faced Roger Federer in what turned out to be the eight-time champion’s last Wimbledon and the final singles tournament of his career. “Playing Roger on Centre Court at Wimbledon with my home fans there was surreal,” said Norrie of Britain, who had chances to break serve and send the match into a fifth set before losing 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. I think they supported him more than they supported me that day.”The second moment happened last year, when Norrie reached his first major semifinal at Wimbledon.

Persons: Cameron Norrie, Norrie, Roger Federer, “, Roger, ”, Britain, Roger Taylor, Tim Henman, Andy Murray — Organizations: Wimbledon, Court Locations: British

☆ Fifty Years Ago the Men Boycotted Wimbledon. That Changed Everything.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Cindy Shmerler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Stan Smith’s 1972 Wimbledon cup sits alongside his 1971 United States Open winner’s prize in a trophy case inside his Hilton Head Island, S.C., home. “Once you’ve won it you always want to win it again.”But in 1973, Smith decided not to play. Instead, he and 80 other players voted to boycott the tournament just before the first matches in support of the player Nikola Pilic. It was when its members banded together, flexed their muscles and walked out on the most prestigious tournament in tennis, with ramifications that are still being felt today. Among them: greater communication between the players and the tournaments, and wider distribution of prize money at all levels of the pro game.

Persons: Stan Smith’s, Smith, “, ”, John Newcombe, Ilie Nastase, you’ve, Nikola Pilic, Pilic, Billie Jean King Organizations: United, Wimbledon, International Lawn Tennis Federation, Davis, Women’s Tennis Association, Association of Tennis Professionals Locations: Yugoslavia

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