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    Here Comes Padel, the Newest Racket Sport Taking Up Game Courts

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    I first learned about padel last summer, when my partner sent me a photo from a small court during a visit to Germany.What is that? I wondered.“Padel. A childish version of tennis,” he texted, anticipating my question.As an enthusiastic tennis player, I was not very interested.A few months later, while biking in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I noticed a large building with a sign that read “Padel Haus,” which billed itself as the first padel club in New York City. This sport wanted my attention, so I invited Victor Mather, a veteran sports reporter, to join me for a lesson.Victor was willing to try. “I am a reasonably fit guy,” he said. But he was turning 60, he said, and added: “My eyesight isn’t what it used to be, I haven’t played tennis since prep school, and I have never played squash or racquetball.”I was just happy to be on a court with a racket in hand because it isn’t easy to book a tennis court in the city.Here’s what we learned.First, what is padel?Padel is a racket sport that has been growing in popularity in parts of the United States and other countries. Christian Rodriguez for The New York Times

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:nth-child(4){grid-column:2;grid-row:3 / 5;}.css-5h54w2 > :nth-child(5){grid-column:2;grid-row:5 / 7;-webkit-align-self:end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:end;}.css-rrq38y{margin:1rem auto;max-width:945px;}.css-1wsofa1{margin-top:10px;color:var(–color-content-quaternary,#727272);font-family:nyt-imperial,georgia,’times new roman’,times,Songti TC,simsun,serif;font-weight:400;font-size:0.875rem;line-height:1.125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1wsofa1{font-size:0.9375rem;line-height:1.25rem;}}@media (max-width:600px){.css-1wsofa1{margin-left:20px;margin-right:20px;}}Martin Sweeney, the president of the U.S.P.A. said that “Padel is very much in its infancy in the U.S.A. in comparison to most, certainly Europe and South America.”

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      A Big Year for Women’s College Basketball in New York

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      Both the Columbia and N.Y.U. women’s teams made it to postseason tournaments.Good morning. It’s Friday. We’ll look at why this season was a first for women’s college basketball in New York City. We’ll also find out how LaGuardia Community College will spend a $116.2 million grant from a foundation run by Alexandra Cohen, whose billionaire husband bought the New York Mets in 2020.Ryan Hunt/Getty ImagesThis was the first season that Columbia University’s women’s basketball team made it to the N.C.A.A. Division I tournament.New York University’s women’s team, undefeated in 31 games, also made it to the postseason, making this the first year that the two colleges have done so at the same time — Columbia in Division I, with an at-large place in the Big Dance, and N.Y.U. in Division III. N.Y.U. won the national title in Division III by ending Smith College’s 16-game winning streak, 51-41.“We kind of pulled away in the end, and one of the officials congratulated me on winning,” said Meg Barber, the coach of the N.Y.U. team. “This was probably with about 45 seconds left. I said, ‘Not yet.’ I was like, ‘It’s not over yet,’ and he was like, ‘Yes it is.’”And next season?“I’ve barely processed that we won the national championship,” Barber told me on Thursday, “so I haven’t really thought about next year.”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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      in Tennis

      Ecuavoley, Anyone? Sport of Ecuador Thrives in Shadow of US Open.

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      Each summer, Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens hosts one of the most distinct, continually functioning sporting events in New York City. It features hundreds of players hitting balls, delicious food on offer and spectators sipping drinks while soaking in the entertainment. And on the other side of a fence, there is also a tennis tournament.For virtually as long as the U.S. Open has been held at its current site, families, mostly immigrants from Ecuador, have made the surrounding parkland and parking lots home to their own kind of championships.Their game is known to many as ecuavoley, a brand of three-a-side volleyball believed to have originated in Ecuador, where many consider it a national sport alongside soccer. It is also one of the primary activities in this corner of New York.“This is my game,” Miguel Tenecela, 41, an electrician from Corona, Queens, said between games. “It is in my blood.”Ecuavoley, anyone? An Ecuadorean game that resembles volleyball, ecuavoley is played in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, near the site of the U.S. Open. The games are lively, and sometimes bets are wagered.Because of its diversity, Queens is sometimes called the world’s borough, but some areas enjoy a pronounced Ecuadorean flavor. Some estimate the number of people in Queens originally from the Andean country at well over 100,000, with many concentrated in Corona, the neighborhood just west of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. And as it is with the U.S. Open, the park is where they showcase their favored sport.Last weekend, Tenecela and many of his friends and family members gathered, as they often do, for hours of ecuavoley, also called voley or boley, a game with Andean roots dating to the 19th century. On Friday, Yarina’s “Rosalia-Ecuador” pumped from a speaker as barbecue grills billowed savory smoke from under the many red and blue canopies surrounding the playing courts.People laughed, children darted around on bicycles and scooters, young parents — including some women in traditional Andean clothing — pushed baby carriages, and players hustled and perspired as spectators cheered. At night, portable lights were hoisted into tree branches, powered by batteries and generators, and money changed hands, the wagering adding some sizzle to the heated competition.Watermelon, mango and grilled chicken are among the foods on offer in the park.Mostly on weekends in the summer, dozens of courts are lined out by thin ropes anchored into the dirt by metal spikes. The courts are carefully placed alongside the New York Hall of Science, near where many tennis fans park their cars before entering the U.S. Open. Some of the tennis enthusiasts glance at the festivities on their walk to the stadiums and see scores of players, many wearing the jerseys of Ecuador’s national soccer team or their favorite club teams, pushing large, highly inflated soccer balls over thin nets.Metal spikes keep the court lines in place, and scores are kept on homemade devices.The ecuavoley games form a parallel universe to the professional tennis being played nearby.At least twice as many canopies, courts and people — ecuavoley and soccer players, spectators and picnickers — were spread across other areas of the park on Sunday, at least a few thousand in all, a parallel sporting universe to the trendier tennis championships on the other side of the tall fences.At night, the ecuavoley courts are lit by portable lights affixed to branches and run by batteries or generators.Years ago, the game was played almost entirely by immigrants from Ecuador. But as people with backgrounds from other countries, like Peru, Mexico and Colombia, saw their Ecuadorean neighbors play the game, some joined. On Sunday, a large Mexican flag was draped over one of the tents. But the vast majority of players last weekend were from places like Cuenca and Chimborazo in Ecuador.“It is very important for our community,” said Arnold Saquipulla, a welder who is from near Cuenca and has been playing ecuavoley in the park for 20 years. “People work hard. This is what we love to do to relax. It keeps us connected.”Food vendors set up shop on weekends to cater to the large crowds.The sport has been especially important for the community after the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 ravaged Corona, Elmhurst and other parts of Queens. One in every two people in the neighborhood was diagnosed with Covid-19, according to the city health department, and one in every 160 residents died from it in that area. Many were friends of Teresa Benitez and her family, longtime ecuavoley participants from Corona.“We lost maybe 200 people we knew from here, people who came here to play volleyball with us,” said Benitez, a retail worker. “There was a time I was afraid to look at my phone. I did not want to see another text about someone who was gone. It was terrible.”“Now,” she added, spreading her arms to indicate the entire area of play, “we make sure we enjoy all of this.”During the U.S. Open each year, some minor restrictions are imposed, Benitez said. Some areas are lost to temporary parking lots, and a heightened police and security presence can sometimes limit movement. Still, the games go on.“It’s only a couple of weeks,” Benitez said. “You have to share. It’s the fair thing.”Benitez came to New York from Cuenca in 1982 at age 11 with her family, including her younger sister, Blanca. Back then, people played their special brand of volleyball close to the Willets Point-Shea Stadium subway station on the No. 7 line. Gradually it has grown and moved to other locations nearby.Most of the players are men, but Benitez said her father encouraged her and Blanca to play sports, too, and she passed that on to her children. She loves playing soccer the most, as does her daughter Adriana Tito, a nursing student. Tito won her league championship game in soccer on Sunday morning, then went to the park to play ecuavoley with her mother, father, aunt and family friends. Her knees were scarred and bloodied from both games.“I hate losing,” Tito said with a laugh. “I’ll do whatever it takes to win.”With three players per side, each team is allowed to touch the ball only three times before sending it over the net, which is higher and thinner (more like a banner) than an ordinary volleyball net. Players may carry the ball in their hands a bit longer than in traditional volleyball. The large, hard ball takes its toll on arms and wrists.“When you start playing in the spring, after a long winter with no playing, it can hurt a lot,” said Segundo Roque, 42, a construction worker, who is also originally from near Cuenca. “Now I can only play about six games, then it is too much on the arms.”Games are usually divided into sets of 10 or 12 points, and the first team to win two sets takes the match. On rare occasions, teams stop after one or two sets, which is called medio pollo, or half chicken — a dodgy tactic employed to avoid losing a bet. Tenecela, the electrician, was noticeably sour after an opposing team pulled a medio pollo at one set apiece.“I don’t like playing against people like that,” he sneered. “It’s not the right spirit.”Of course, not everyone shares that passion for ecuavoley. Soccer is fiercely contested across the park, and that is the game that Luis Cueva, 51, prefers.“For me, the volleyball is boring,” said Cueva, a construction worker. “But so many people love it.” More

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      Not All Tennis Balls Are Equal

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      In tournaments, the old balls are swapped for new ones after several games. Those livelier new ones can change a player’s strategy.Keep your eye on the ball. That’s the mantra for tennis players, from beginners to whoever lands in the finals at this year’s United States Open.But each ball will be seen only briefly because in tournament play, six balls are used to start a match, then ditched after seven games; for the rest of that match, the balls will be replaced after every nine games. (The Open generally stocks about 100,000 new balls and goes through about 70,000 each year.)“I change my racket at every ball change,” said the 18th-ranked Lorenzo Musetti of Italy.Adam Vaughan/EPA, via ShutterstockThose life spans, punctuated by the chair umpire’s call for “new balls, please,” are necessarily brief because the balls take a beating. In the course of a ball’s court time, the pummeling causes them to get fluffier as their hairs shake loose. This slows them as they travel through the air, making it easier to control placement but more difficult to blast a winner.The balls are changed regularly to maintain consistency of play, but also used balls feel heavier on the racket, requiring more wrist, elbow and shoulder torque to generate power. Changing them reduces the risk of injury.Players are acutely aware of the way the balls degrade.“When the balls are getting old, it gets tougher to hit winners and make easy points, especially on slower courts,” said the eighth-ranked Andrey Rublev of Russia.Anders Bjuro/Agence France-Presse, via Tt News Agency/Afp Via Getty Images“When the balls are getting old, it gets tougher to hit winners and make easy points, especially on slower courts,” said the eighth-ranked Andrey Rublev of Russia.The aging process leads players to seek smoother, less-worn balls for a first serve to gain more speed. They look for fluffier balls for the second serve to attain more control and to slow their opponent’s return.Then the players need to adjust again when the new balls arrive.Francisco Cerundolo said players used more topspin on serve returns and ground strokes in the first game or two after the change.Emmanuel Dunand/Agence France-Presse /Getty Images“I’m conscious of the ways the balls change, and I have the count in my head until the new balls,” Francisco Cerundolo, the world No. 20 from Argentina, said.Jessica Pegula, an American ranked No. 3, added that while the fans might not be aware of the shift, the players were thinking “very strategically” about the change.The most common maneuver is switching rackets when new balls are introduced.“I change my racket at every ball change,” said the 18th-ranked Lorenzo Musetti, of Italy, explaining that the strings lose some tension over the course of nine games and the new racket will enable a player to capitalize on the smoother, slimmer ball to hit them hard while still maintaining control. (Roger Federer used to switch rackets one game early so he’d be comfortable with the new racket when the fresh balls arrived.)Changing rackets has become more common in the past 20 years, said Patrick McEnroe, an ESPN analyst and a former pro, although he noted that Ivan Lendl was the pioneer in making it a consistent practice timed to the new balls. In earlier eras, players used gut strings and had to change rackets more frequently, McEnroe said, but modern players are more meticulous about every detail in their game.Also, modern synthetic strings last longer, but they may be past their peak well before they break. So while some players change rackets for new balls because they feel it’s advantageous, others simply use the balls as an automatic reminder to grab a fresh stick.“With more explosive frames, rackets and strings that can grab the ball more to create spin, players can now feel the slightest change in tension,” McEnroe said. “There’s definitely more awareness of adapting when the new balls come in, and I think some players tinker more with their tactics as a ball goes through its life span.”In addition to switching rackets, many players change their game plan when the new balls arrive.The faster balls give the biggest advantage to the server, who can pound first serves or skid them out wide to win quick points, McEnroe said.Musetti serving.Vaughn Ridley/Getty ImagesMusetti said it was important to serve well with the new balls: “I try to be more aggressive.”Not only are the serves coming in faster, but the returns are also tougher to control, said Giuliana Olmos of Mexico, who’s ranked 18th in doubles. “When they first put new balls in, they tend to fly a lot. The other balls are old and heavy, so it’s a drastic difference and can be hard to adjust. I just remind myself and my partner and try not to go for too much, then you can start hitting normally again after a little bit.”Echoing complaints other players (including Rafael Nadal) have made about the recent quality of the balls, Rublev said this year many new balls “are super tough to control in the first game. It feels like they’re breaking your wrist, and the balls feel like stones and fly without control.”But even if the balls are not problematic, Cerundolo said players used more topspin on serve returns and ground strokes in the first game or two after the change. “If you hit the ball too flat, it may fly out.”McEnroe said that while the differences in the balls and in the string tension of the new rackets were real, they were fairly small concerns for players skilled enough to be at or near the top of the pro game. Still, the issue is in players’ minds.“Anything that gives you a little edge helps, and whether it’s a reality or not almost doesn’t matter,” McEnroe said, adding that if players barely miss a shot after the introduction of the new balls, they may blame it on the change and next time may switch rackets to enable them to control their shots better.“Players may be overthinking the differences with the new balls a little bit,” he said, “but just because a lot of it is likely psychological doesn’t mean it’s not important.” More

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      At the U.S. Open, Data Analysts Are Just as Busy as the Players

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      A new era of data analysis has given players deeper insights into their opponents’ games and a strategic advantage.For the data analysts working with the top tier of American tennis players, the busiest time of year begins with United States Open qualifying. They will spend 15-hour days creating and curating a trove of quantitative data and video clips.They will churn out match statistics and about 200 scouting reports for nearly 70 players over the three-week competition. The ultimate goal: provide players and coaches with more granular insights into each point and, in the process, give them a strategic advantage.“Players will always get their match tagged, broken up into how a point starts and how a point ends, and back to them within 24 hours,” said Geoffrey Russell, who works for the United States Tennis Association as senior manager for Team U.S.A.’s professional players. “We’ll also do bespoke projects for coaches who ask us to break down certain things even further.”During this year’s Open, Russell will collaborate with a team of eight data analysts. Their efforts speak to growing interest and investment in tennis analytics, and represent one of many ways the sport is employing the in-depth data analysis long used by professional teams in baseball and basketball.In tennis, it’s been more a data evolution than revolution, a gradual search for new, objective performance measures. That’s largely resulted in a combination of statistics and video highlights that build a more sophisticated picture of how individual players compete and, as a result, guide some match strategy and development.Tennis lags behind other sports in analytics, but it has gained significant momentum over the last several years. Better technology means more opportunities to capture and analyze more data points efficiently.National governing bodies like the United States Tennis Association collect shot-level data. New metrics in the tennis lexicon include steals (when players fall behind in a point yet manage to win it) and balance of power (how much time players spend on attack versus how much time opponents spend there). And there’s more attention paid to how points develop.The strategy coach Craig O’Shannessy said that from 1991 to 2012 tennis analytics “was very primitive.” Then, in 2015, rally length appeared in tournament data. Analysis of that data revealed much shorter rally lengths than expected, driving curiosity and greater respect for analytics.Andy Murray and his coach, Ivan Lendl, during a practice in June. Toby Melville/Reuters“There has been a gradual acceptance of new data points in our sport that matter most to winning and losing matches,” he said. “So, we’re definitely going down a road where we’re improving.”Still, even with new metrics and keen interest in analytics from top players like Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, tennis has not fully embraced analytics, especially since the data requires time-consuming analysis and sometimes calls into question conventional thinking about how to compete and train.“The challenge at the moment is that coaches are looking at the numbers, but not always looking at them in the right way,” said Warren Pretorius, founder of Tennis Analytics, which provides players and coaches with match analytics. “They’re taking bits and pieces of match stats to support their theories.”So which new data points provide the most meaningful insights? It depends on the player. That speaks to another big tennis analytics challenge: What translates to more wins varies widely based on a player’s strengths, weaknesses and tendencies under pressure.“What we try to do is help athletes gain clarity about what their identity is,” said David Ramos, the U.S.T.A.’s director of coaching education and performance analytics. “How do they want to be playing in the most important points? How do they define a good performance if they don’t win a match? It’s definitely about the game style and personalizing the K.P.I. [key performance indicators] for a particular player.”To provide new insights and help process all the information, there are data-oriented companies eager to service players, coaches, broadcasters and fans. The U.S.T.A. works with companies like TennisViz, SwingVision, Hawk-Eye, Dartfish, Kinexon and IBM to generate meaningful data.The player Mackenzie McDonald of the United States calls himself a “big numbers guy” and finds the scouting reports provided by the U.S.T.A. helpful. At a recent U.S. Open tuneup tournament, he used data about his opponent’s preferred placement for first and second serves to his advantage. He also looks at the hot and cold plays metric (patterns that increase or decrease players’ chances of winning points).“You have to build a story for your opponent,” said McDonald, 27, who is ranked No. 77 in the world and will be playing in the Open. “It’s not x’s and o’s. It’s more like this is what can happen. This is what this guy likes. And these are the tools you can use.”Some top players add strategy coaches to their team for data analysis. O’Shannessy worked with Djokovic’s team from 2017-19, helping the former No. 1 player in the world understand his game better through analytics.O’Shannessy said that sometimes Djokovic asked simple questions, like whether he should hit a backhand or move around for a forehand when the ball landed in a specific spot. O’Shannessy then presented data for winners and forcing errors that came from the right side of the court versus the left side.“He was so good at absorbing all of this information and not rejecting it,” said O’Shannessy, who is also director of Brain Game Tennis, a strategy and analytics website. “His openness and willingness to just ask questions, anything to find an advantage, was key. His talking about it in the tennis world gave it a lot of legitimacy.”When the U.S. Open starts, McDonald will review the scouting reports provided by the U.S.T.A.“I think you’ve got to keep things as simple as possible,” he said. “You’ve got to keep some human element and instinct. Bottom line for me is I only look at a couple different areas.”Mat Cloer, who coached McDonald and is associate head coach for the University of Florida men’s tennis team, added: “It comes back to understanding the player you’re working with and how they absorb information. What information do you need to provide? That’s where the art of coaching comes into play.“If used properly, analytics can be game changing and eye opening.” More

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      John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg: A Rivalry That Ended Too Soon

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      The two played each other just 14 times but created one of the greatest and still-talked-about rivalries in the history of tennis.Over the last 17 years, Roger Federer has played Rafael Nadal 40 times, including nine times in Grand Slam finals. He has played Novak Djokovic 50 times since 2006, twice in five-set Wimbledon championship matches, both won by Djokovic. And Nadal and Djokovic have played a staggering 58 times, including nine times at the French Open.By comparison, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe played 14 matches from 1978 to 1981. And yet they produced one of the greatest and still-talked-about rivalries in the history of the sport.Forty years ago, as the setting sun cast shadows across Louis Armstrong Stadium, more than 18,000 spectators saw a bizarre ending to a too-short era that involved two of the game’s all-time best. First, they watched in awe as McEnroe, a native New Yorker, won his third consecutive United States Open by beating Borg 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 in 2 hours 40 minutes. But what happened next caused bewilderment, followed by concern, at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens.As McEnroe was hugging his parents, Kay and John Sr., and holding the champion’s trophy aloft, Borg was nowhere to be found. He had skipped the post-match ceremony and obligatory news conference. He had left the stadium with Lennart Bergelin, his longtime coach and confidant, hastily grabbed a shower and hopped in a waiting station wagon, never again to be seen competing at the U.S. Open, or any other major.McEnroe with Borg during the Laver Cup in 2019. McEnroe was the captain of Team World and Bjorg the captain of Team Europe.Julian Finney/Getty ImagesBorg, barely 25 at the time, was a six-time French Open champion and had also won five consecutive Wimbledon titles from 1976 to 1980 before McEnroe beat him in the 1981 final. Through much of the U.S. Open final he remained close with McEnroe, even leading 4-2 after they had split the first two sets. But when McEnroe broke back and evened the third set, Borg seemed to vanish mentally. He lost the fourth set meekly, shook hands and disappeared.“To me, it was bittersweet,” McEnroe said during a phone interview in August from his home in Malibu, Calif. “The way it ended, with a whimper, with him walking out of the court before the ceremony to never play again. So even though it was a tremendous moment for me, winning Wimbledon and the Open back-to-back and taking over the No. 1 ranking, looking back I wish we could have kept playing.“For years, I would see him and say: ‘When are you coming back? This is ridiculous, let’s go,’” McEnroe, who has long been a tennis commentator for ESPN, added. “It just felt like there was a void and it took me a couple of years to accept that. I think it was too bad for the sport as well.”Borg’s manager, Per Hjertquist, did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.What many did not know at the time was that Borg had received two death threats during the Open, both called in to the switchboard at the Tennis Center, though no one has ever said why. One was before his semifinal win over Jimmy Connors. The other was at 4:45 p.m. on Sunday, in the middle of the first set against McEnroe. Borg was not told about that threat until Bergelin alerted him after the match.Many of the fans that day were pulling for Borg, the suave Swede who wore a red, white and blue headband stretched across his forehead to control his shoulder-length mane of dirty-blond hair. Borg was playing in his 10th U.S. Open and fourth final without a championship. He had lost to Jimmy Connors in 1976 and 1978 and to McEnroe in 1980, just two months after beating McEnroe in a five-set Wimbledon final that featured a 34-point fourth-set tiebreaker, and an 8-6 fifth set.Their stark differences were part of the Borg-McEnroe allure. While Borg preferred to quietly stalk the baseline, swinging his two-handed backhand as if it were a pendulum, the left-handed McEnroe was all about disruption, in his game and in his behavior.“We were the perfect yin and yang,” McEnroe said. “You had someone who was naturally aggressive against someone who was a counterpuncher. Everything about us was totally different, the way we looked and the way we played.”Even their fellow competitors saw the value in the matchup.“Bjorn had a certain aloofness to him,” said Rick Meyer, who grew up playing with McEnroe and lost to him in the third round of the 1980 U.S. Open. “He never played doubles, never practiced on site, was basically perfect for the quiet atmosphere of Wimbledon. John, on the other hand, was all about the electricity of New York where people behaved as if it was a boxing match. In the end, that hurt Bjorn.”During the late ’70s and early ’80s, tennis in the United States was exploding. Everyone wanted to play and viewership, in person and on television, was at never-before-seen levels. The day before the 1981 U.S. Open men’s final, 18-year-old Tracy Austin won her second women’s title with a 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1) win over Martina Navratilova. Navratilova, who had beaten Chris Evert in the semifinals, sobbed, not because she lost but because the New York crowd had finally embraced her six years after she had defected from Czechoslovakia.In March 1981, World Tennis magazine ran a cover photo of Borg and McEnroe, standing back-to-back, revolutionary-style guns pointed up, with the headline “McEnroe-Borg: Will Their Duels Become Legend?”In the months and years after the 1981 U.S. Open, Borg made a few attempts to return to the pro tour. He never played another major, but he captained Team Europe to victory in the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Laver Cup competitions (versus Team World, captained by McEnroe). His son, Leo, has followed in his footsteps and reached the third round of the French Open junior tournament in May and the second round at Junior Wimbledon in July. Borg also started a successful fashion line.“There are a lot of reasons that Borg may have stopped playing, whether it was because he lost the No. 1 ranking, or had been doing it a long time and was a little burned out or that he was the first athlete to make enough money to be able to walk away,” McEnroe said. “But I just wanted to know if he was OK, living a happy life, feeling content and not second-guessing himself and wishing 30 years later that he had done things differently. That’s one of those things that we may never know the answer to.” More