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Founder & Editor in Chief: Mark Scoop Malinowski

Photography: Henk Abbink, Andy Kentla, Scoop Malinowski

111 comments

  • Kelsey · August 21, 2013 at 10:25 pm

    Hi Mark,
    It was nice talking to you about Xavier Malisse. Hope to hear from you soon.
    Love,
    Kelsey

  • John Otis · September 6, 2013 at 5:22 pm

    I want to know why there is not a concerted effort to make Serena Williams submit to a steroids test. It is obvious that no female has this kind of body without steroid use.

    Is there a cover up in women’s tennis? I am very serious about this because something is very fishy about her.

    I want to know what guideline there are for steroid testing on an ongoing basis.

  • Tray Caladan aka Doug Yurchey · October 29, 2013 at 11:34 pm

    It was well over a year ago, maybe 2, where I contacted Richard Pagliaro and told him of my invention of a lineless singles court; smaller court that curves and is NEEDED in the fast-paced game of today (published in Tennis Week). Also, an Instant Out-Buzzer that is possible and again NEEDED in tennis, which eliminates errors & LINES-PEOPLE!!!!
    Richard never wrote back although there’s a web-page posted saying that he will get back to me…and never did. Nick Bollettieri liked my new court design.
    I simply would like to get an email address from you to show you my New Tennis and Instant Out-Buzzer – this is a big revolution in Tennis – it’s FUTURISTIC and a lot of fun. Tennis will be perfect in the future and will not have lines-people! We should change tennis or create an XFL or XTL or Tennis-alternative that stands next to Singles like Doubles. This is not a betrayal of classic, monolithic tennis – Hmm, maybe it is…but why not create a better model? And this is what I’d like to show you.
    I was Doug Yurchey – but now going by my new pen-name.
    Call me Tray. thanks (818) 407-5588

  • Tray Caladan aka Doug Yurchey · October 29, 2013 at 11:37 pm

    OH! It was THIS website that Richard said he’d look it over tomorrow. Hope I hear from you guys – you should see what I have!

    dugx@sbcglobal.net

  • Rob · December 22, 2013 at 2:29 pm

    Great work here boys. I am a fan.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 23, 2013 at 7:31 pm

    Rob, thank you very much for the kind sentiments, and thank you for supporting our unique site. Welcome to the tennis-prose.com home.

  • John Carpenter aka The Unknown Tennis Coach · February 10, 2014 at 4:29 pm

    Hi Scoop, got ten years research behind The Real History of USA Tennis Instruction-Who was Teaching What, when, and where and is USA instruction still plagued by false premises? (long version of title, lol) scheduled for this summer publication. I like your site. Would you like to be interviewed for the book. I’ll let you preview excerpts as some of my research I published for free back in 2009 was pretty eye opening. I want to recommend certain tennis writers like your gang. You guys think outside the box. Mark Carruthers, if you haven’t read him, is simply hilarious. Feel free to call me at 805-200-6106. This in the contact us page so I hope you get this. Didn’t expect to see an article above. Your links to your email might not be working properly. My website is down while I move everything over to wordpress. Text me if you prefer that.

  • Coach mark J Dolan · February 10, 2014 at 8:56 pm

    Guys
    you should take a closer look at the Luke Jenson resignation. Smells of NCAA violations. Highest paid college coach in the country leaves out of nowhere?
    Most college coaches think he was the biggest phoney to ever coach.
    Have the guts to take a close look even if you do not like what you find. It will be covered up deeply but if you are truly in to reporting true tennis news you will take this on

  • Roxana Soltani · February 15, 2014 at 10:42 pm

    There sure appears to be a correlation between your editor-in-chief Malinowski’s obvious admiration for Federer — i.e. authorship of book about Federer, and this site’s obvious dislike of Nadal, and the inflammatory remarks about doping written in a Feb. 2012 article.

    You write about some unknown player who supposedly played Rafa at Madrid, when he took a 20-minute bathroom break, and you correlate that to Rafa doping!! Talk about biased reporting.

    You speak about Novak and Rafa playing a long point in fourth set of 2012 AO, at 4 all, after which Novak collapsed but, Rafa was hardly breathing. Let’s dissect that: 1) it was Rafa’s serve, and he had to show he was ready to serve in 25 seconds; 2) he did breath hard following that long rally but, just wasn’t as overdramatic with his behavior as we have all known Novak to be; 3) You failed to point out the fact that Novak played a five-hour match against Murray the day before the final; then, played a six-hour final against Nadal, and won.

    What about some impartial reporting on doping suspicions surrounding Novak. After all, this is the same guy that up until 2010, was known for his lack of fitness and asthma/wheezing condition, which caused him to retire from at least five grand slam tournaments between 2005-2008, and countless number of other tournament matches. We all saw Roddick press conference and countless comments by Roger, regarding Novak’s melodrama on court and various injury claims. Suddenly, at the end of 2010, he became Hercules and began winning everything. For the next 12-18 months, he became unstoppable, outplaying and outlasting everyone on court. Yet, we don’t read any remarks by your so called reporters about that.

    Or, let’s discuss Andy Murray, who went from a puny, scrawny 16-year-old looking kid, to buffed biceps and six-packs abs, outplaying even Novak in 100-degree weather at 2013 Wimbledon.

    Or, let’s talk about your precious Roger, who played what I recall, four five-set matches against Rafa — 2005 Miami, 2006-2008 Wimbledon. Yet, we never saw him with a drop of sweat, out of breath, or a hair out of place, while Rafa was soaked through. Rafa did not play any matches alone. He had Roger, Novak, Andy, or others, as his opponents in all these matches, who did manage to outplay, outrun, and beat him in some of these four, five, or six-hour matches. Yet, we don’t hear anything about how these other players manage to muster up enough energy and power to outplay, outrun and outlast Rafa.

    One thing is for certain, Rafa has always had more enthusiasm, more passion, more hunger, more drive, and more mental focus, than all of the above named players. This most likely is the motivation behind your very biased article.

  • Jonathon · February 19, 2014 at 10:59 pm

    Hi scoop have some friends that suggested I speak to u regarding some tennis business my name is jonathan goldfarb and I live in delray. I played all levels of tennis and have some books and other ideas id like to talk to u about. Whats the best way to contact u?

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 20, 2014 at 2:00 pm

    Hi Jon, I’m here, text me on my cell at 20l 2l8 08ll, thanks, S

  • Mark Ozer · March 30, 2014 at 10:20 pm

    Not quite sure what I have stumbled upon here. My wife happened to google me today and landed on one of Dan’s articles.

    Having been there in Bagnerre De Bigoree in 1987 (and at least a few Septembers after that) I can confidently say that 80% of what Dan reported is accurate and the other 20% is only half wrong. A noble effort.

    Will learn more about this noble effort and do have a few stories of my own from back in the day with a few of them having found the light of day long ago. Perhaps this site can be like Nick at Nite for a certain ilk of aging tennis warriors with prose ambitions.

  • Guillermo Morales-Rubert · May 20, 2014 at 11:03 am

    I have an opinion piece for your review. Please let me know what is the proper format.
    Thanks.

  • Scoop Malinowski · May 20, 2014 at 1:45 pm

    Hello Guillermo, Yes we do accept opinion, feature, article and essays. Please email to mrbiofile@aol.com. Thank you for thinking of us, Scoop Malinowski

  • Tuition-Free Schools · May 23, 2014 at 4:28 pm

    It’s a shamе you don’t have a donate button!
    I’d without a doubt donate to this brilliant blog! I guess for now
    i’ll settle for bookmarking and аdding your RSS feed to my Google account.
    I look forward to brand new Õ½pdates aand will talk about his website Ñ¡ith
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  • Vicky · May 27, 2014 at 8:46 am

    Why is it necessary for commentators to talk during a tennis match. I have had to stop watching the french open as a french woman is dribbling on right the the gasquet/tomic match.

  • Gary McKinney · July 25, 2014 at 12:37 pm

    Is there any way I could communicate / write to Richard Pagliaro?

  • Scoop Malinowski · July 25, 2014 at 5:40 pm

    I can fwd a message to him Gary.

  • miho goto · November 15, 2014 at 5:31 pm

    Nice to meet you at Fort Lee court with Julia last month. It’s been too cold hitting outdoor… I am sticking to indoor at Concordia College of Bronxville, and Columbia Univ court of Riverdale. 🙂
    Happy hitting !
    Miho

  • Scoop Malinowski · November 16, 2014 at 6:44 pm

    Hi Miho, Hope to hit with you in future. Nice to meet you also. I like your singles game,

  • Illuminatus · January 14, 2015 at 11:55 am

    Hi TP! Great site – would like to comment on some articles, thx!

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 14, 2015 at 2:26 pm

    Hi Illuminatus, thank you very much and welcome to the site.

  • Bill Chandler · February 2, 2015 at 11:40 pm

    Greetings, I had a few comments to make on the Mary Pierce article from 2013, but comments are closed, so thought I might make them here. I played tennis on some public courts next to a baseball field in Treasure Island, FL in the mid-80’s. Played there 3-4 times a week, there were 2 courts, and almost every we played there was a father and daughter practicing next to us. She was maybe 10 years old, with pigtails and glasses. Her father was pretty rough on her and I would tell him how good she was, she could really hit the ball! I don’t remember all the details, but about that time our local paper had an article about a family who had sold their house and were living in hotels and looking for places for their daughter to play tennis. It was the Pierces.

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 3, 2015 at 7:50 am

    Interesting insights Bill, thanks for sharing. Your memory shows how much these great players must sacrifice to become champions. They truly do lay it all on the line.

  • Bill Chandler · February 8, 2015 at 9:12 pm

    Thank you Scoop. He was tough on her in those very early hitting sessions, but apparently not as difficult as he was years later. Amazing for me to think that that little girl won the Australian Open within ten years, blows me away! I just read the other article you wrote on Mary 3 weeks ago, didn’t see that one last time here. I read in that article that she’s still in the Tampa Bay area helping out some young players for free, a class lady! I doubt if she remembers those early times, but if you ever talk to her I got a little more info. Besides the baseball field next to the courts in treasure Island there was a water tower. Also, back in ‘those days’ I could really run and her father remarked to her a few times ‘Look at him run!’

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 9, 2015 at 8:09 am

    Nice insights Bill. It’s good to see Mary and her dad are pretty close, Jim Pierce is a super nice friendly funny guy, spent some time with him at Eddie Herr, really a good guy, lots of stories, he was cracking one liners with Petr Korda too. Mary was also there coaching her player. They all live in Bradenton area, brother David does too.

  • Bill Chandler · February 9, 2015 at 10:12 pm

    That’s great to hear Scoop. I know that a number of years ago there was an estrangement with Mr. Pierce and his whole family due to his behavior. It’s always good when a family mends it’s fences and becomes a family again. He was friendly with me the 2-3 dozen times I played tennis a few feet from where he was training Mary. Just out of curiosity, if you cross paths with either he or Mary again mention to them about the ‘guy’ who wrote you on your blog about the many times he played tennis next to them on the tennis courts next to the water tower on Treasure Island when Mary was around 10. Interested if they remember those times, I SURE DO!!

  • Scoop Malinowski · February 10, 2015 at 8:43 am

    Will do Bill, I do keep communication lines open with Jim. Mary is pretty busy working with her junior players every day, at no charge. So generous.

  • Bill Chandler · February 10, 2015 at 10:43 am

    Yes she is, class act! I believe that many years ago I did send an email to Jim/Mary of congratulations for Mary winning a slam and my ‘connection.’ They were in AZ at a tournament and I saw online that there was a way to send a message. I didn’t get a response, might not have ever gotten it, or was lost in the shuffle of many messages, etc. I did a little research on the family last night, and there was something I read a few times. That Mary’s relationship with God came first, etc. That’s where I’m coming from, got a little ‘ministry’ on Facebook.

  • Greg Smith · April 1, 2015 at 2:30 pm

    You are doing a wonderful job in your coverage and commitment to sports journalism. This is such a refreshing site. Well done.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 1, 2015 at 9:08 pm

    Greg, thank you very much for your kind words, we work hard at this site and really really appreciate to read that readers enjoy the fruits of our labor and love for this great sport. Welcome to the site and please spread the word if you can. Cheers,

  • Don Leclair · June 24, 2015 at 7:18 pm

    Love the article about Chase Buchanan…did you know that my photo of him from Delray Beach was in the article? I have greatly enjoyed seeing many of my photos on numerous sites & have finally asked for a media pass @ this years Winston Salem Open & they said yes!!! Very excited…any chance you are going?

  • Bobby Hurley · September 30, 2015 at 11:54 am

    I promoted Scoop’s book in my newest article on Rios’s 1998 Miami win over Agassi. Just bought the book. I am asking if Scoop would be kind enough to list his top 5 Rios matches to search for / watch. Thanks again.

  • Rob · October 10, 2015 at 6:06 pm

    Are we going to chat about Donaldson v Fritz final? I’m sure you’ve seen the result.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 10, 2015 at 7:54 pm

    Rob, it’s another All American final, we’re seeing that pattern a lot more recently, US Open boys final, French Open boys final, now two American teenagers in a ATP Challenger is fantastic for American tennis, maybe Patrick McEnroe deserves a heap of credit — both Fritz and JD are showing signs of being better suited for the professional level than junior level —

  • Rob · October 10, 2015 at 9:50 pm

    Thanks Scoop. The hype around the new group of American boys is quite interesting. I’m holding my breath really (see Donald Young for ref). I do think that Fritz has great poise. The Dustin Brown match was very entertaining.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 11, 2015 at 10:10 am

    Hype is hype and projections can be inaccurate but anybody who holds a cynical stance about the professional futures of Fritz Paul, Opelka, Kozlov, Donaldson, Tiafoe, Rubin, McDonald, must be a pretty negative observer of American tennis — I see a lot of ATP titles being won by Americans in the next decade Rob —

  • Rob · October 11, 2015 at 10:08 pm

    Agreed. Solid bunch. Fritz won today. I’m from Montreal and would like to see Felix Auger top them all but that’s just me.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 12, 2015 at 9:24 am

    Felix Auger Aliassime has to be the best prospect to come along since Nadal or Federer, he has the best upside but also now he has a big target on his back and he will be scrutinized closely by every player and coach, it will only get tougher and tougher, let’s hope the kid has the talent and the fight to keep being great —

  • Rob · October 13, 2015 at 8:59 am

    There was an interview with Jo Tsonga and Louis Borfiga (who coached Tsonga when he was a kid and now heads the National Tennis Centre in Montreal). The two were being asked about Felix and what would be best for him – Louis responded ‘I would hide him from the world’ and Tsonga agreed vehemently.

  • Scoop Malinowski · October 13, 2015 at 9:31 am

    Good idea — too much attention too soon could deform him — he’s too young to become a public figure (ie Capriati, Woods, Tyson, michael Jackson, etc) —

  • Rob · November 14, 2015 at 12:41 pm

    Don’t know where to stick this so – just watched Tiafoe v Novikov, does Francis have that pigeon toe walk that Agassi had? He has a kind of waddle.

  • Rob · December 22, 2015 at 8:22 am

    I’m sure this is in the works but I’d love to have your thoughts on tennis predictions for 2016. After collecting Wimbly and Rio Fed retires after Basel blah blah blah

  • Ashoke Ganguli · December 23, 2015 at 7:57 am

    Hello Scoop,
    Nice picture of you winning Longboat Key Tournament.Congratulations!.Hope you are playing a ton of tennis.Be Well.

  • Bill Chandler · December 31, 2015 at 9:54 pm

    Hey Scoop, I was trying to Google the St. Pete Times article an the Pierce family I mentioned in my first comment here and my internet search brought me back here due to the comments I made here about the article HAHA! Since I’m here I’ll check things out, you guys do great stuff! BTW I ran across Mary’s profile on Twitter and have sent some tweets to her about those ‘early’ days and she ‘Liked’ one of them, COOL! Think I mentioned to you on FB that I had exchanged messages with Jim Pierce on FB and he remembered those early days! Oh, I also looked you up on Twitter when I ran across Mary and started following you! Happy New Year and thanks for the article you sent me earlier this year!

  • john Shirey · January 5, 2016 at 5:46 pm

    richard pagliaro or “dick pags” should stay off tv!!!!!

    once you see and hear – honestly, which is worse because they’re both horrifyingly longstanding in a person’s “minds eye and ear”

    please stay home!!!!!!!! JUST WRITE YOUR STUFF

  • Leif Wellington Haase · January 9, 2016 at 3:49 am

    Dan:

    Thanks so much for your generous comments on a late December post…I’ve been snowed under by work and late to check the thread. Wanted to respond to a couple of items:

    Reilly Opelka’s connection to basketball is real. Unlike some tall athletes, he loves the sport– he met with then Florida coach Billy Donavan during his (tennis) recruiting visit and plays basketball frequently. His USTA coaches appear to have incorporated basketball into his training routine and I’ve witnessed his exceptional outside shooting skills for a big man. (And to the apparent chagrin of his coaches he has been known to shout “basketball” when he loses his serve or forces a shot in tennis.) He’d be a solid D1 recruit in basketball and, as in tennis, I think the sky would be the limit.

    On height and tennis…here is a link to the 1977 year-end rankings…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Grand_Prix_(tennis). As it shows, only Mottram, Alexander, and Stockton are what one might consider taller players, and a couple of others (Tanner, Gerulaitis) whom we may remember as big might barely have snuck over 6 feet in lifts. The average height of the top 20 or 30 men is between 5′ 10″ and 5′ 11″.

    By contrast the average height of todays’s top 20 or 25 seems to be between 6′ 1″ and 6′ 2″ and one could field a basketball team from the 7 or 8 tallest players (Isner, Anderson, Karlovic, Raonic, Berdych, for starters). There is only one truly short player (Ferrer) who will likely be out of the top ten this year and retired soon after. 5′ 11″ is the new “short” (Nishikori, Goffin, etc.) Part of this is attributable to the steady growth in height of populations as a whole but professional athletes in tennis and golf and other sports have gotten taller faster. There will always be a niche for the extraordinary short player, but like the serve and volley and the one handed backhand he/it will become a novelty rather than the norm.

  • Scoop Malinowski · January 9, 2016 at 6:28 pm

    Leif – perhaps that’s why Opelka flows around the court better than Isner as he is a better and more complete athlete – I’ve seen several ATP players shoot and play hoops – marc Rosset at hamlet cup in the 90s and he had no skills in fact it looked like his first day trying to play 🙂 – I saw Roddick playing horse with his trainer Doug Spreen at Delray and Spreen was too good he could really swish em from 3 pt land – Roddick’s didn’t have the touch or the wrist to put the spin on the ball on his shots and there were a lot of clanks and bricks – he had a humble expectations while Spreen is a ringer who has the touch – Sharko said they all played a game once with Bill mcatee the TV guy and Bill wanted to cover Spreen but Spreen lit him up – Dr Ivo has a nice shot from the outside – I saw him shooting in Delray too- height and power are key elements now in the new physical game we call tennis – you have to wonder if we will ever see another guy reach a major SF of F – Hewitt in this upcoming Aussie Open could be the last realistic chance for an under six footer – 🙂

  • Richard · January 18, 2016 at 8:56 pm

    Can someone contact me about possible use of a photograph that has appeared in a tennis-prose article from a couple of years back.

  • Craig Berg · April 26, 2016 at 9:51 am

    Hey Scoop,

    It’s been almost five years since you wrote that you were having a hard time getting your brain around the notion that tennis players were deriving great benefit from their practice of Transcendental Meditation, as described in my article (which appeared in Tennis Magazine’s Brazilian edition), “Transcendental Tennis” http://cb108.blogspot.com/2011/02/transcendental-tennis.html. I’m sorry I couldn’t connect with you on the concept, but maybe some of these other writers can accomplish what I failed to do:
    http://tmhome.com/tag/sports-and-meditation/

    You can also read the article in the British newspaper, “The Telegraph” stating that Novak Djokovic practices Transcendental Meditation. http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/projects/novak-djokovic/

    And see the video of a top-ranked collegiate girls squash team that excelled with Transcendental Meditation: http://www.tinyurl.com/tmampm.

    Qs? PLMK.

    Best,

    Craig

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