Outside the Lines Bob Schewior

Players on the Tour typically have one coach. Sometimes, a second coach is added, but they always work as a team. We explore the possible loss of efficiency of having multiple coaches. In particular, having many voices may cause uncertainty.

Who is the Most Important Person on the court? The standard answer is: I am. We explore the often neglected ability to dissect an opponent.

Tournament results, Osaka, Gauff, Sabalenka, Sinner and Djokovic. Also a new metric for analyzing your own game: "conversions" and "steals."

Food has Texture; shots have Feel. We talk about this significant but often overlooked part of playing good tennis.

Playing with Freedom. We systematically deconstruct the rewards to playing either Scared or Confidently under the umbrella of a player's role as Underdog or Favorite. It ends up that playing Scared is ok if Winning is the only thing that matters to you. However, if you'd like to improve your game or have the chance of defeating better players, playing with Confidence is the only way to go.

We dissect several of the most notable matches with a focus on adaptability. Surprisingly, the top players frequently don't display this quality. The match-fixing scandal revealed in the Washington Post on 9/7 is also discussed.