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      Not All Tennis Balls Are the Same

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      Players must adjust to the differences, and that has led to complaints about consistency. The ATP is trying to solve the problem.Yellow felt and a rubber core. A tennis ball seems so simple. But reality is more complicated, at least on the pro tours where manufacturers can make balls that fit into a range of specifications. And in recent years, with players forced to adjust to different balls at so many tournaments, they have begun complaining about the consistency and the quality of the balls as never before.Novak Djokovic spoke out. So did Rafael Nadal. And Taylor Fritz, Daniil Medvedev, Stan Wawrinka and Andrey Rublev. The varying balls not only harmed the quality of play, according to players and coaches, but the athletes blamed them for the increase in shoulder, elbow and, especially, wrist injuries.“The quality of even the best balls has come down in the last few years,” said Craig Boynton, who coached Hubert Hurkacz. “They should not just be picking the ball that will pay the most money to be associated with a tournament, but what is the actual best ball.”Lower-quality balls can feel like rocks early in a game then “get fluffed-up like little kittens” after a few games, Boynton said. When that happens, “players trying to muscle the ball more” by swinging with more force to make up for what the ball is lacking can get injured.But that’s only half the story, Boynton said. Wayne Ferreira, Frances Tiafoe’s former coach, said that even when the balls were high quality, there were too many different ones in play. Players often saw different brands each week.“Some are heavier and some are lighter, and making that adjustment all the time is difficult,” he said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Robert Lansdorp, Prominent Coach of Tennis Champions, Dies at 85

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      His students, including Tracy Austin, Maria Sharapova, Pete Sampras and Lindsay Davenport, developed their ground strokes through his regimen of intense repetition.Robert Lansdorp, an influential tennis coach whose intense focus on developing ground strokes through ceaseless repetition helped turn four of his students — Tracy Austin, Pete Sampras, Lindsay Davenport and Maria Sharapova — into No. 1-ranked players in the world, died on Monday in West Carson, Calif. He was 85.Stephanie Lansdorp, his daughter, said his death, in a nursing facility, was caused by cardiopulmonary arrest.Lansdorp, who was based in Southern California, worked one on one, mostly with young players — Austin started lessons with him at 7, Sampras at 10 — to build their muscle memory by relentlessly drilling them on their forehands, backhands and other strokes and on their footwork.“He wanted to do it over and over and over again, and he had methods to get there — he had a knack,” Austin said in an interview. “You knew if Robert was pushing you, it meant that he knew there was more to you. He was tough, but there was a soft side to him. He thrived on making people better.”When Austin won the women’s singles title at the U.S. Open at age 16 in 1979, she became the youngest women’s champion in tournament history and the first Grand Slam champion tutored by Lansdorp.“We made our names together,” she said.After Austin’s victory over Chris Evert, Lansdorp told reporters: “There’s room for improvement. There’s only one way to go — up.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Laver Cup and Its Growing Tradition

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      Roger Federer, who helped create the team event in 2017, said “the first year was definitely a highlight.” The cup is now in its seventh year.Roger Federer was in a bit of a panic. He knew how high the stakes were as he took the court at Prague’s O2 Arena in September 2017 for a Sunday afternoon match against Nick Kyrgios.Not only was Federer a founder of the Laver Cup team competition that made its much-ballyhooed debut that year, but he and Tony Godsick, his longtime manager, had worked to design rules that would likely result in a down-to-the wire finish between the team from Europe and the one representing the rest of the world. Federer got what he wanted, but now he had to deliver.“I knew that if I lost against Kyrgios — and I was down match point — it would come down to a one-set super tiebreaker in doubles for the whole Laver Cup, and it would have been Rafa [Nadal] and me against Kyrgios and [Jack] Sock,” Federer said by phone last week. “It would have been insane. I was so happy that by beating Kyrgios I didn’t have to go through that.”Federer spoke last week as he prepared to leave for Berlin and this year’s Laver Cup. Earlier in the day he played tennis for half an hour, a luxury these days, but one he still described as “so much fun.” As he reminisced about his favorite Laver Cup memories his voice rose with enthusiasm.“That first year was definitely a highlight,” said Federer, who won 20 major singles titles, including eight at Wimbledon and five at the U.S. Open. “And, of course, walking out to play doubles with Rafa, there was such high expectation that had never happened before. That was magical.”Federer, seated left, and Rafael Nadal after their 2022 doubles match in the Laver Cup in London against Frances Tiafoe and Jack Sock. It was Federer’s final tournament before his retirement.Tom Jenkins/Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Laver Cup: A Busy Taylor Fritz Embraces Team Competition

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      “It’s amazing I’m going to get to go play just a really fun event that I enjoy with all of my friends,” he said.After playing at home and hearing the roars as he reached his first Grand Slam final at the U.S. Open, Taylor Fritz is back on the road after a trans-Atlantic journey.The tennis world moves on very quickly.“I mean it’s one week off and then right after it again,” said Michael Russell, one of Fritz’s coaches. “There’s just not a lot of time off.”The risk of a letdown is real, but this is a road trip to Berlin that Fritz has been looking forward to. He fell hard for the Laver Cup when he made his debut in 2019, and the team event, dreamed up by Roger Federer and his agent, Tony Godsick, remains one of Fritz’s favorite events, even in an overstuffed Olympic season like 2024.“Being so mentally locked in for these two weeks, it would be really tough to go play an individual tournament that’s not going to have the same, like, just energy,” Fritz said at the U.S. Open earlier this month. “So it’s amazing I’m going to get to go play a really fun event that I enjoy with all of my friends. Because it’s pretty impossible for me to not be fired up playing a match when I have all these guys on the bench kind of going crazy for me.”The Laver Cup, running Friday through Sunday, is an annual men’s competition between six-player all-star teams, inspired by golf’s Ryder Cup. In that tournament, it is Europe against the United States. In the Laver Cup, it is Team Europe against Team World. It is not the most natural rivalry. Who instinctively roots for “the world minus Europe?”Fritz, center, and Tiafoe, left, and their fellow players on Team World celebrating a victory over Team Europe during the Laver Cup in September 2022 in London.Julian Finney/Getty Images for Laver CupWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Laver Cup: Tennis Players Love the Team Spirit

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      The Laver Cup pits Europe against the rest of the world, and players love being picked for one of its teams.There is an adage that says there is no “I” in “team.” It implies that those who compete in group sports are expected to forsake their independence for the greater good.In tennis, the “I” means individual, as in “individual sport,” which tennis surely is. There is only one singles winner at every tournament or, in the case of the recent U.S. Open, one man and one woman out of an original field of nearly 500 competitors in the qualifying and main draws.But in many ways, tennis has also become a team sport. Team competitions, like this week’s Laver Cup in Berlin, take solo performers and thrust them together for a week, enabling them to become practice compatriots, doubles partners and, most important, cheerleaders.“I think it’s special having the best players on the planet on the same team or competing against each other, especially when you don’t want to let each other down,” said Alexander Zverev in an interview on the eve of the U.S. Open. “That’s what makes Laver Cup unique and that’s why you see everybody compete so hard.”John McEnroe, far right, and other members of Team World celebrate the victory of their player Frances Tiafoe over Team Europe’s Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2022 Laver Cup.Julian Finney/Getty Images for Laver CupZverev is the lone German on Team Europe alongside Carlos Alcaraz from Spain, the Russian Daniil Medvedev, the Norwegian Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece and Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, who takes the place of Rafael Nadal who withdrew last week because he is still rehabilitating from injuries. Team World comprises the Americans Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton, as well as the Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis, Alejandro Tabilo from Chile and Francisco Cerúndolo from Argentina. Kokkinakis and Cerúndolo are late replacements for two injured players, Tommy Paul and Alex de Minaur. The captains, former rivals Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, are in their final year leading Team Europe and Team World.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Queens Is Abuzz Over Two Americans in the U.S. Open Finals

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      For the first time in more than two decades, an American man and an American woman will play in the U.S. Open singles finals.Outside Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday night, dozens of tennis fans gathered, looking up at a screen broadcasting the match inside, the all-American men’s semifinal between Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz.Many didn’t have tickets to be inside Arthur Ashe, but they were content just to be nearby and part of the atmosphere. Fans at the U.S. Open have been abuzz this week, excited that for the first time in more than two decades both an American man and an American woman will play in the U.S. Open singles finals.Jessica Pegula will play Aryna Sabalenka in the women’s final on Saturday afternoon, and Taylor Fritz will take on Jannik Sinner for the men’s title on Sunday.With Americans’ presence guaranteed in the finals, the grounds at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens have felt almost like the Fourth of July. Fans have been cheering more loudly than usual for American players, flocking to practices to catch a glimpse of their favorites and draping themselves in red, white and blue.The last time the United States was represented in the men’s and women’s finals at the U.S. Open was in 2002. That year, the finals were an all-American affair with Pete Sampras defeating Andre Agassi in the men’s final, and Serena Williams taking the women’s title in a match against her sister, Venus Williams.Houston Bigelow of Washington, D.C., wore his support on Friday.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesGinny DeHart, left, and Jen Otto traveled from Mississippi for the Open.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      After Beating Carlos Alcaraz, Botic van de Zandschulp Keeps His ‘Lucky Charms’ Close

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      Botic van de Zandschulp’s career has had its ups and downs. But a pair of Manhattan financiers he knew as a boy in the Netherlands have become part of his “team.”Botic van de Zandschulp, a Dutch tennis player, scored one of the biggest upsets of the United States Open when he stunned the four-time grand slam champion Carlos Alcaraz in the second round on Thursday. Coming from a player ranked No. 74 in the world, it may have seemed shocking, but Mr. van de Zandschulp has enjoyed the greatest successes of his career at the Open.In 2021 he went from qualifying all the way to the quarterfinal stage, and then he turned the men’s singles draw upside down this week.Watching from the player’s box were Mr. van de Zandschulp’s two secret weapons in New York: the Pham brothers, a pair of American former players who speak Dutch and help their childhood pal from a Dutch youth tennis program to feel at home. And they are cheering him on again Saturday, as Mr. van de Zandschulp plays the 25th-seeded Jack Draper of Britain in the third round.But Richard and Victor Pham, both Manhattan financiers, had not been in contact with their boyhood friend for 15 years until they reunited during his first trip to the United States in 2021, when Mr. van de Zandschulp made his electrifying run to the quarterfinals. It started a tradition the three men carry on today.“Every time I’m coming here, I have dinner with them and they come to all my matches,” Mr. van Der Zandschulp said on Friday. “And every time it is working out pretty well.”The Phams met first Mr. van de Zandschulp, now 28, when they were boys in the Netherlands. The Pham brothers, born in Denmark to Vietnamese immigrants, began playing tennis, and played it well. Richard, now 29, hit alongside Mr. van de Zandschulp at one of the Dutch tennis federation’s training facilities when he was about 8, and eventually they were joined by his Victor, who is three years younger.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The NYC Restaurant Where Italian U.S. Open Players Go Between Matches

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      A Manhattan trattoria has become the de facto lounge for Italians at the U.S. Open.The Wimbledon semifinalist from Carrara sat in the bar area with his family. The 69th ranked women’s player, a hard-charging right-hander from Rimini, ate in the main dining room with friends. Out in the back garden, the 31st best men’s player in the world, a rising star from Rome, chowed down with his team.It was Saturday night before the start of the U.S. Open, and Via Della Pace, an East Village trattoria, was buzzing. Three of Italy’s best tennis players — Lorenzo Musetti, Lucia Bronzetti and Flavio Cobolli — were dotted around the space, enjoying a relaxing evening at what has become the Italian players’ cafeteria and lounge each year during the U.S. Open.“It’s beautiful place for us to come,” said Mr. Cobolli, decked out in a crisp blue dinner jacket with a bright white polo shirt underneath. “We always have a table and we eat well, with real Italian pasta.”Players from other countries also find their spots in New York during the Open. Some French players frequent Le Baratin in the West Village, while others visit Tao’s various locations or the Odeon. But for the Italians, it’s Via Della Pace, where Italian films are shown in silence on the TV behind the bar and memorabilia of calcio (soccer) and tennis adorn the walls.Flavio Cobolli, far left, chats with one of Via Della Pace’s owners, Giovanni Bartocci, standing, during dinner with his team and family.Adrienne Grunwald for The New York TimesOn any given night during the three weeks of the Open — including a week of practice — there could be as many as five Italian players in the joint, sometimes more, in addition to coaches, agents, friends and family. Matteo Berrettini, who reached the Open semifinal in 2019, fueled up on Via Della Pace’s pasta, is a regular. He sometimes goes several nights in a row.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More