Still Going Strong After 11 Years

This site was created in early 2010 by myself and three other tennis reporters after promises and plans at another tennis site start up fell apart because of dishonesty.

www.Tennis-prose went live on April 29, 2010. My first post was about the Joy of Tennis.

Now I’m the only one left running the show and this week a realization occurred: it’s been eleven years of a labor of love and a lot of unforgettable moments covering tennis and also a few unexpected, incredible occurences happened.

A few years ago, I received a donation specifically for me, from a man named Al G. Hill, who turned out to be a historical figure in the sport as he played at Wimbledon and was a part of the formation of the old WCT back in the 1970s with his fellow oil billionaire partner Lamar Hunt. Somehow Al G. Hill found out about the site, loved my work and reached out with a generous donation. When I asked about why his personal assistant (Joy) said he liked the site so much, she mentioned an article I wrote defending Sharapova regarding the doping charges.

Al was also very generous to give me Ashe Stadium tickets in his private which I was able to entertain some friends and colleagues with. One friend, the former heavyweight boxer Andrew Golota, who boxed for the heavyweight title four times, including against Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, was so excited about the chance to see the US Open with Al Hill’s box tickets, he left on Sunday night at 9pm from Chicago and drove straight to the US Open with a friend, arriving at around noon on first day Monday. We had a blast for four days.

Golota is a famous Polish sporting figure – he won a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics – and when Caroline Wozniacki found out he was at the Open, she invited him to a party at her NYC apartment and also invited him to sit in her box in Ashe during her matches. She made a very good run at the Open that year, I believe partly inspired by the imposing, powerful presence of Golota.

I maintained a friendship with Mr. Hill until he passed away a couple of years ago. We often exchanged letters and penpal conversations. The amazing thing was he was paralyzed by an accident where he fell off a porch, yet he still managed to read www.tennis-prose.com and continue life.

Oh, there have been so many vivid memories. Just a few weeks ago, I received an email from the publisher of a new tennis magazine in Europe asking if I’d be interested to write a feature on Emma Raducanu. The two other writers involved in the new magazine are an International Hall of Fame inductee and a woman who writes long features for GQ and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. To be considered among such heavyweight writers is an honor. My feature on Emma has been submitted and the boss is very happy with it. I was told by the magazine boss that they contacted me because he likes “the tone of my work.”

Margaret Court, the most accomplished champion in the history of tennis with 64 Grand Slam titles (singles, doubles and mixed), did a Biofile interview with me last year.

There have been a lot of ups and downs and super highs and some lows in the eleven years of unique tennis reporting and coverage at this site. Plenty of friendships have been made. One guy shouted out my name at a match at Miami Open, as he recognized me and my fedora. We ended up meeting, having lunch and playing tennis in Sarasota a number of times. We kept in contact for years.

It’s a nice feeling when readers express their love for the content, discussion, interviews, insights and reporting … and the site visit numbers have never been higher.

Thank you for being a part of the site and keeping me inspired to continue. I believe the best days of the site are ahead in the future. Hope you stick around for the ride.

Al G. Hill · Andrew Golota · US Open

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