Literary fiction that mentions tennis can raise our appreciation of the game, including the play of figures like Naomi Osaka. Nabokov, Roth, and Wallace have all written about tennis.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged David Foster Wallace, Goodbye Columbus, Infinite Jest, Lolita, Naomi Osaka, Philip Roth, Vladimir Nabokov | Comments closed

Using Tennis and Roth to Assess Character

By Robin Bates | Published: September 9, 2020

Tennis professional Petkovic uses Roth’s “Goodbye, Columbus” to arrive at an important insight: to assess someone’s character, play tennis with him or her.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Goodbye Columbus, Novak Djokovic, Philip Roth | Comments closed

Flowers for Algernon, Parable on Aging

By Robin Bates | Published: July 6, 2020

With regard to my improving tennis game, I see my present–and my future–in the Daniel Keyes novel “Flowers for Algernon.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aging, Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon | Comments closed

Farewell to Serena’s Dominance?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 25, 2019

Friday It was only a quarterfinal match at the Australian Open, but when Serena Williams lost a match in which she was serving at 5-1, 40-30 in the deciding third set, we had a second pillar teetering amongst those that have been supporting the tennis universe.. To borrow from A. E Housman, it felt like […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "to my last period", Lucille Clifton, Serena Williams | Comments closed