Abraham Verghese uses the tightly strung rackets of Swedish tennis great Bjorn Borg as a metaphor for the state of his marriage, pushed to the breaking point by his workaholism.
Tag Archives: tennis
High Strung, Ready to Explode
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Abraham Verghese, Bjorn Borg, Sports, Tennis Partner Comments closed
Spain’s Tiger Burning Less Bright
Did the god that made the elegant strokes of Roger Federer also make the bruising style of Nadal? Like William Blake gazing at the lamb and the tiger in “Tyger, Tyger,” we can only shake our heads bemused.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Tyger, Homer, Novak Djokovic, Odyssey, Rafael Nadal, Sports, William Blake, Wimbledon Comments closed
In Life as in Poker, Trust What You Know
Novelist Rachel Kranz talks about trust, both in poker and novel writing. Once you have the knowledge and the skill, she says, what remains is trusting yourself.
2010 Sports, Seen through Literature
Sports Saturday – 2010 in Review Since New Year’s Day falls on a “Sports Saturday” this year, I’ll take the occasion to review the year in sports through the vantage point of renewal. The first year of the new decade had a number of joyous firsts. It was a year when the city of New […]
Poetry at Wimbledon
Sports Saturday I’m still trying to process the Ghana and Brazil defeats and will write about the World Cup in the next two Friday posts. For the moment, I’ll take a breather and turn to tennis. Trust Wimbledon, the classiest of the tennis tournaments, to work poetry into the occasion. I wrote last year about […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "more than a lawn", Matt Harvey, Sports, Wimbledon Comments closed
Soccer Highs and Lows and a Tennis Epic
John Isner Sports Saturday – “It’s incredible! You could not write a script like this!” So proclaimed the announcer in the U. S. – Algeria World Cup match when Landon Donovan netted a stoppage time goal to avoid elimination and send the Americans forward to the next round. In other words, a sports announcer’s ultimate […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bernard Malamud, Bruce Cohen, France, Iowa Baseball Confederacy, Isner-Malmut match, Jean Paul Sartre, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Nausea, Soccer, Sports, Sports film, the Natural, Voyage to the End of the Night, W. P. Kinsella, Wimbledon, World Cup Comments closed
The Prizefighter vs. the Yokel
Sports Saturday So my tennis idol, Roger Federer, is out of the French Open. Before the semi-finals. Federer’s astounding streak of 23 straight appearances in Grand Slam semi-final matches is one of the great streaks in sports and will never be approached. (To get a sense of its magnitude, consider that Rod Laver and Ivan […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Invisible Man, Rafael Nadal, Ralph Ellison, Roger Federer, Sports Comments closed
Applying Kipling’s “If” to Wimbledon
An exhilarating and exhausting week at Wimbledon has come to an end with an exhilarating and exhausting match between Swiss player Roger Federer and American Andy Roddick. Roddick was once my favorite player and Federer is my current favorite so I felt torn as I watched the longest match in grand slam history. It came […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Andy Roddick, If, Roger Federer, Rudyard Kipling Comments closed
Roger Federer and the Cavalier Poets
I’m going to put off my follow-up post to Twelfth Night until Monday because I just came across an interesting article that invites a timely response. As a tennis player and fan of Roger Federer, I am still vibrating over his having won at the French Open this past Sunday. After his archrival Rafa Nadal […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Cavalier poets, Sir John Suckling, Sports, To Althea from Prison, To Lucasta Going to the Wars Comments closed
