Contributor 108 examinations

Calliope Martinez.

Page 11 of 12

001
Dampeners ·5 min · June 2026

Vibration Dampeners: What They Actually Do, and Where That Belief Came From

Vibration dampeners are the cheapest thing in the bag and the most over-explained. Players who have spent a season fine-tuning string tension and swingweight will drop a five-dollar rubber button…

002
Grips ·11 min · June 2026

Continental Grip Technique Is a Historical Accident You Now Have to Master

The grip that feels most unnatural in your hand is the one tennis started with. Everything else came later. That is the part most lesson plans skip.

003
Entertainment ·5 min · May 2026

The Most Entertaining Tennis Shots, Ranked by What Actually Makes a Crowd Lose It

The between-the-legs shot gets the highlight reel and the slow-motion replay and the commentator who forgets words for a second. It is the tennis shot everyone clips.

004
Terminology ·6 min · May 2026

Tennis Terminology, One Number at a Time: What "Ace" Actually Counts

In the first round at Wimbledon in 2010, John Isner hit 113 aces in a single match. Mahut hit 103. The match ran 11 hours and 5 minutes across three days and finished 70-68 in the fifth set.

005
History ·5 min · May 2026

American Tennis History: Did the Pipeline Really Run Dry After the 1990s?

There is a sentence you will hear in nearly every conversation about American tennis history: that the United States produced an unbroken line of champions until the 1990s, and then the well went dry.…

006
Tennis Shoes ·9 min · May 2026

adidas Barricade 14 Review: The Stability Tax, Renegotiated

For roughly two decades, buying a Barricade meant accepting a deal. You got a fortress around your foot — the kind of lateral stability that lets you load a wide forehand and trust the shoe not to…

007
Rules ·6 min · May 2026

Tennis Court Dimensions: The Myth That a Court Is "Just a Rectangle"

There is a tidy idea that gets repeated on coaching blogs and in pub conversation: a tennis court is just a rectangle, 78 feet by 36, with a net down the middle.

008
Forehand ·5 min · May 2026

Western Forehand Grip Test: Does the "Extreme" Grip Actually Produce More Topspin?

The short version: a full western forehand grip produced roughly 12–18% more measured topspin than a semi-western in our hitting sessions, but cost the same testers about one in five low balls they…

009
Wilson ·5 min · May 2026

Wilson Pro Staff 97 v13 Review: A Three-Lens Test of the Post-Countervail Frame

The Wilson Pro Staff 97 v13 is the first iteration in three generations that we'd hand to a control player without an apology — the removal of Countervail restores the frame's signature feedback, but…