I find this so fascinating! I did some tennis camps as a kid and played a bit in high school but I was truly just goofing off, I never knew it could get so complicated! Sounds fun!
How does your arm feel from switching racquets so much? I'm curious. I have played the same Babalot Pure Aero Rafa for a few years. And I love it. It's definitely the best racquet for me. But reading about all of your racquet tinkering has got me second guessing myself!!
Arm feels fine. But also...I am pretty happy with my main stick, the TFight 305.
The Pure Aero experiment...is not one I will be repeating, lol. I was switching a lot back in the summer and spring and now I have too many racquets, but I do believe my journey is...for the most part over.
Brandon—your tennis diaries have me more hooked than half the novels I’ve read this year. You bring such vivid narrative clarity to every shot, session, and sore arm. There’s this quiet intimacy to how you track improvement—not as triumph but as lived experience. The racquet-swapping reads like time travel, yes, but also like character work. A writer trying on different identities through gear, surfaces, and pace.
Also: the line “You have to be faster than you are scared”? That’s going in my notebook under rules for writing and living.
Appreciate the honesty, the rigor, the pettiness, the grace. Ball in.
Somehow missed this post but love it! I am a big tennis fan and actually just returned to New York after spending three weeks in Indian Wells working Player Check-in. wheew. I'm dying for a post from you doing some tennis-watching analysis. For example, I *need* to hear your thoughts on the up and coming players vying to compete with (and overcome?) the Alcarazes and Sinners and Sabalenkas and Swiateks. Not to mention Djokovic may be officially a flop? devastating personally. Anyway, this is me begging for an essay or diary about the professional tennis circuit, the characters and dynamics, the intensity and hilarity that ensues etc.
So glad I found this substack! Right now all I want to do is play tennis, watch tennis, or read about tennis. Curious if you have any favorite tennis writing to recommend! (books, essays, whatever)
I find this so fascinating! I did some tennis camps as a kid and played a bit in high school but I was truly just goofing off, I never knew it could get so complicated! Sounds fun!
How does your arm feel from switching racquets so much? I'm curious. I have played the same Babalot Pure Aero Rafa for a few years. And I love it. It's definitely the best racquet for me. But reading about all of your racquet tinkering has got me second guessing myself!!
Arm feels fine. But also...I am pretty happy with my main stick, the TFight 305.
The Pure Aero experiment...is not one I will be repeating, lol. I was switching a lot back in the summer and spring and now I have too many racquets, but I do believe my journey is...for the most part over.
(for the most part) ha!
Brandon—your tennis diaries have me more hooked than half the novels I’ve read this year. You bring such vivid narrative clarity to every shot, session, and sore arm. There’s this quiet intimacy to how you track improvement—not as triumph but as lived experience. The racquet-swapping reads like time travel, yes, but also like character work. A writer trying on different identities through gear, surfaces, and pace.
Also: the line “You have to be faster than you are scared”? That’s going in my notebook under rules for writing and living.
Appreciate the honesty, the rigor, the pettiness, the grace. Ball in.
—Anton
Somehow missed this post but love it! I am a big tennis fan and actually just returned to New York after spending three weeks in Indian Wells working Player Check-in. wheew. I'm dying for a post from you doing some tennis-watching analysis. For example, I *need* to hear your thoughts on the up and coming players vying to compete with (and overcome?) the Alcarazes and Sinners and Sabalenkas and Swiateks. Not to mention Djokovic may be officially a flop? devastating personally. Anyway, this is me begging for an essay or diary about the professional tennis circuit, the characters and dynamics, the intensity and hilarity that ensues etc.
So glad I found this substack! Right now all I want to do is play tennis, watch tennis, or read about tennis. Curious if you have any favorite tennis writing to recommend! (books, essays, whatever)