You are here: Home / Archives for tennisreporters.net

TR @ 20: Matt & Ron continue to roll

July 6, 2020 by
Matthew Cronin and Ron Cioffi

Read Matt Cronin’s story on the the 20-year history of TennisReporters.net.

If it wasn’t for Pete Sampras, there wouldn’t have been a TennisReporters.net.

Huh? Well, let me go back to the 1990s.

Early in that decade I worked at Inside Tennis magazine as art director. Not for too long; less than a year.

It wasn’t until about two months before I left for a newspaper job in Pennsylvania, Matt Cronin (excuse me, that’s Matthew Cronin) joined the staff as managing editor. I didn’t get much time to get to know Matt but we socialized a few times. When I packed up my family and headed to Scranton, PA, I realized Matt could have been a life-long friend, but now lost. I was wrong.

After three long years in Scranton, I ended up in metro Atlanta. It was about 1999 when I kept seeing Matt’s byline on all over the Internet. Not only was he traveling to numerous tournaments around the globe for Inside Tennis, he was also picking up gigs writing for Grand Slam sites. I was impressed.

So, I found the IT office number in my Roledex (yes, Roledex) and gave him a call. It wasn’t long before we were delving into our opinions about pro tennis. We ambled over to talking about the best male player ever, pre-Big 3, of course.

Defintely Rod Laver. And Sampras. I was thinking that Sampras’ lack of clay court achievement was holding him back in my appraisal.

Matt said, “If Pete had reached at least one French Open final, I would go with him.”

Brilliant, I thought. So, I said, “That’s exactly what I was thinking, too. At least one final.”

After the phone call, I realized that this minor agreement was more than a coincidence. It was an affirmation that Matt’s keen analysis was getting him noticed by the most important tennis websites. Didn’t hurt that he agreed with me.

But, was he writing for a tennis news site? No. Why? There were no tennis news sites at that time. Tennis.com and the like weren’t writing breaking news. A few other sites like ESPN.com had a few stories. But, there was no dedicated website with professional tennis writers pumping out news from tournaments on a regular basis.

A few more phone calls. A bunch of emails. Buy a domain. Design a logo. Find another writer. Build the test website. We decided to change the logo colors two days before 2001 Roland Garros started. In 24 hours, this TennisReporters webmaster rebuilt the site.

3-2-1. Blastoff. We were launched.

So, on a regular and daily basis, Matt and Sandra Harwitt, our other partner, pumped out the copy from the Slams and other tournaments. As I told more than one person (with a wink), Matt and Sandy get to watch the Slams in glamorous cities and I wait for emails in my bland suburban subdivision, do some editing, crop a photo or two and then post. For 20 years, it’s been the same house and same website. For 99.5+ percent of those stories, it’s been my buddy Matt and me.

Sandy was smart enough to drop out during our second year. There was no buyout because there was no money to split. Matt and I kept our heads down, knocking out the stories. We never made any concerted effort to find a backer with a lot of venture capitalist cash. Foolish us. TennisReporters had broken ground and was piling on the readers. With Matt’s Twitter account – still @tennisreporters – our traffic grew and grew.

After a few years Matt was named one of the top sports tweeters by Sports Illustrated. Going into a US Open, their mention of Matt put our website on the Internet map. We were getting more than 3,000 unique visitors a day. We got some advertising. Wow, we thought: Money! I told my wife that I was building my retirement income. Oh, foolish youth, even though I was in my early 50s.

In 2002, Fed Cup came to Charlotte, N.C. USA vs. Austria. We had a family friend in the city. So, I did what I rarely have done over the last two decades: go on the road, write stories and take photos for TennisReporters.

What made this special was that Matt was assigned to the same event by Inside Tennis. So, for the first time since we launched, I spent some time with Matt. Sort of.

Why? Because when Matt works, he is so focused that he can barely break out of his routine. Plus, he often is writing for TR along with other clients. Often pumping out three to five stories a day. So, I think we had a drink together. Maybe a meal.

Four years later I had an all-expense trip to the US Open, a ticket to the coveted President’s Box and four days in NYC, my hometown. Why? Because TR was receiving the USTA Media Excellence Award, Broadcast Media. The honor had previously gone to CBS and ESPN. And us!!! A few years later, the USTA discontinued giving the media award. To this day, TR can say that we are the only website to win the award. Plaque is still on my office wall.

Big award. Heady stuff. That would definitely make TR a huge financial success. Yes, we got a few more ads. But, they pay fractions of pennies per viewer. Still not paying for my retirement. Still not making enough money to pay for an out-of-town trip to cover a tournament.

Even though I’ve worked for USTA Southern for 12 years, it was rare for me to be sent to the USTA semi-annual meeting over the Labor Day weekend and a visit the US Open site to see matches. Thanks for my communications job, I had a pass into the media room. And there was Matt. For the third time in 15 years, I got a quick hug and a few minutes of Matt’s attention. I was back there twice in the last few years. In 2017, I basically forced Matt to take off a few hours so we can have a real meal at a hotel restaurant. Trust me, a great treat.

Still, nothing in our 20 years together compares to a phone call from Matt in 2014. Wasn’t feeling well. Took a fall. Went to a doctor. Had a brain scan. Got a tumor. Cancer. Here’s the story. Classic TR … Matt wrote the main piece and I added a sidebar.

Matt took a break for about six months and TR went dark. There were many tennis journalists around the world who were pulling for Matt, knowing is ability and dedication. He was very well-respected and elected International Tennis Writers Association co-president. I was admittedly jealous of these writers; these were Matt’s working buddies who were sharing stories and drinks in crowded media rooms. I remained in Atlanta, three time zones from his California base.

During the hiatus, Matt had chemo. First, he was cured, then a relapse, then more chemo over the span of years. His output was sporadic, depending on his health. I took more time editing his stories, which often were less complex and incisive as material he wrote before the tumor. Still, through those dark days, he was still a writer, still a journalist eagerly looking to cover the next tennis match.

Now, he continues to be stable, healthy and active. But, his gargantuan ability to write quickly has been diminished. A man who did radio commentary on a global scale now has issues with remembering the right words in casual conversation.

There are often days, weeks, in which we don’t have new stories. Is the website making any money? No. Has the traffic grown? No. Have the ads flowed in? No.

Do I care? No, not really. You can’t be in a business relationship, any relationship, for 20 years without some highs and lows, some awards and some illnesses. For better or worse, TennisReporters.net continues.

Filed Under: Featured Bottom Right, Lead Story Tagged With: , , , ,

TR @ 20: Matt & Ron continue to roll

July 6, 2020 by

Read Ron Cioffi’s story on the the 20-year history of TennisReporters.net.

I was among the journalists who began writing about tennis early in the 1990s. Also, we also began appearing on radio and on TV at the majors. We were going to the Grand Slams and the other important tournaments, especially in the United States. There were amazing events and we made some fantastic friends, too. 

In 2000, some of us started talking about whether we could have a new magazine, one where we could write whatever we wanted to, without the bosses saying, “No, you cannot. We don’t like being controversial.”

We wanted to have our own voices. We might be scared or afraid. Really, in order to be happy, we decided to start TennisReporters.net, win or lose. It was time to go for it. So, in the new century, we decided to go online with our partner, Ron Cioffi, building our website.

Sandra Harwitt, who is still on the tennis beat, joined me as our primary writers. It wasn’t easy at all, when we started, because it was new, and we messed up a lot. Ron was home outside of Atlanta, posting stories on a nearly daily basis, especially during the Slams.

But overall, it was pretty good. It wasn’t terrific yet, but the journalists, the players, the coaches, the owners, and the fans began to come over and read our website. Gradually, we had thousands of people, looking at Tennisreporters.net. We were happy. We love tennis, and so do you, too.

Still, the site has never made much money so we all kept our jobs. Sandy (who dropped out a year later) and I continued to write for many other outlets that were the foundation of our income.

Now, in 2020, it has now been 20 years. We are still going on, with me and Ron. I live in California and Ron lives outside Atlanta. But, we still talk a decent amount. We are friends, believe it or not. 

Hopefully, in August, when the players return to play on court with the real events — due to coronavirus, which shut down every event in early March — then we will write about real competitive matches. We will all be thrilled. And all of the fans will also be incredibly excited. 

TennisReporters.net continues. We have survived 20 years and a pandemic.

Some more happy days will come.

Filed Under: Featured Bottom Left, Lead Story Tagged With: , , , ,

OUR FIRST STORY: Tennisreporters.net, in Paris at Roland Garros

May 29, 2020 by
Pete Sampras, French Open, Roland Garros 2001


We started TennisReporters.net in May 2001, 20 years ago. We have posted well over 1,500 articles.

As coronavirus began to strike the tennis world, Indian Wells cancelled the tournament on March 9. Right after that, the tournaments pulled out quickly, including Miami, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros. Now, the WTA and the ATP have shut down until June 7. Or even further. No one really knows.

However, if you love tennis, you can reminisce with TennisReporters.net. We are resurfacing many of our best stories, written by Matthew Cronin.

FROM PARIS (2001): Having the glorious distinction of being the reigning Wimbledon champions means little in Paris other than being fortunate enough to have a gaggle of British journalist ask you whether you are planning on taking wildcards into Queens or Nottingham. Pete Sampras and Venus Williams discovered that quickly this year at Roland Garros; Venus, after she was bullied by Barbara Schett in the first round, and Sampras, when he was unable to uncork a bottle of white wine named Galo Blanco in the second round.

Sampras had perfect conditions this year to rid himself of the plague of Sisyphus in Paris  — hot, dry temperatures and only a little breeze. He had a great draw and actually followed his coach’s game plan to the tee – come in at all costs, run around your backhand and take a lot of chances on the return. 

But Sampras is nothing on clay when he’s not serving well and his forehand is sporadic. He is without a weapon. First, he barely got by No. 250-ranked Cedric Kauffmann. Then his serving performance against Blanco was one of the worst he has ever put on and he made a decent but not great player’s backhand look like Bjorn Borg’s during his prime. Sure, Blanco passed with precision, but it wasn’t as if Pete was making him guess much on his service games or was hitting deep approach shots.  The winner of a record 13 Grand Slam titles again failed to put together back-to-back wins at Roland Garros for the fourth successive year.  “It’s very frustrating, I knew what I had to do in that match and I just have to give him credit,” Sampras  said. “He came out with some clean passing shots. He had me on my heels and dictated all the baseline points. He just played better than I did – plain and simple.” 

Agassi zeroed in on Pete’s problems. “It’s straight fundamentals. It’s never been easy for a game like Pete’s to do well here. He’s great at turning an entire point around with one shot. On clay, you know, you can’t. You have to fight off three or four (shots) then slowly turn the point around, then slowly finish it. A guy like Alex) Corretja will slide to the forehand and buy himself a lot of time for the shot selection. Pete on the other hand will run to the ball, slam it, then slide. All that is doing is giving him much less time.  There’s nothing that you could teach Pete that’s going to make it any easier.” 

Blanco joins the list mediocre players who have taken down the dirt-challenged Pete in Paris: Gilbert Schaller, Ramon Delgado, Thierry Champion. Sampras will be 30 next year when he arrives at Roland Garros and even if he says he has many years to left to try to take the French title, you just don’t see aging serve-and-volleyers do well on the dirt anymore. Sampras may be the worst all-time great to ever comepete at Roland Garros. All of Open-era legends did better here – Borg, McEnroe, Connors, Edberg, Borg, Lendl, Wilander, Courier. Sampras would be better off taking his mind off the clay and zoning in quickly on the grass. He is titleless in ’01, having an awful year and is in danger of finishing the year out of the top-10 for the first time since ’89. He needs to take the fast train to London, find a pub, down a few pints and remember just what kind of player he is supposed to be.

Venus is another question all together. Williams was humbled 6-4, 6-4 by the Austrian powerhouse Schett, rendering her dream of grabbing the No. 1 ranking from Martina Hingis in the near future mute. “I just had a very, very rough day,” said Williams. I wasn’t playing normal.”

A confused Williams appeared to have her thoughts elsewhere, as the muscular Schett ate up her weak second serves and exploited her shaky forehand with blowtorch returns and a wicked forehand. Considered by many to be the tour’s hardest hitter, Williams frequently found herself on the defensive, unable to control the center of the court nor read where Schett was going with her shots. The Austrian also served effectively, stretching Williams out with a biting slice serve and occasionally running flat serves down the middle that left Williams flat footed. “It was my groundstrokes,” said Williams, who committed 43 unforced errors. “I couldn’t keep a ball in. I was making quite a few errors for no apparent reason.”

Williams did manage to fight off three match points in the contest’s final game, but unlike numerous times in the past, Schett didn’t seize up and Williams couldn’t pull herself through. 

Venus has played sparingly this year, but did win the Ericsson Open, devastated the field in Hamburg on clay and then was upset on dirt by Justine Henin in Berlin. She has never performed well here and why she thought that playing two clay court warm-up events was enough preparation for her stated to desire to win Roland Garros this year is confusing. She needed more preparation to find her footing on the clay and to be able to groove her groundies. The 20-year-old believes she has been playing enough. “I never dreamed it would turn out like this,” Williams said. “Normally I turn it around but today it wasn’t there.”

The Compton Crusher is not going to win a Grand Slam by using the retreat as her most common tactic, which was her main strategy against Schett. She’s now essentially in the same position she was last year, approaching Wimbledon with two bad losses in her last two Grand Slams. Can she repeat her 2000 performance and grab glory at both the All-England Club? Not if she brings the same attitude that she did to the court against Schett.

Filed Under: Featured Bottom Left, Lead Story Tagged With: , , , , ,

Aussie Open: Stan finally The Man

January 26, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Stanislas Wawrinka

Wawrinka finally believed enough to pull off a Slam title

MELBOURNE – Eventually, some player was going to take out a member of the Big 4 and win a Grand Slam. It had not occurred since 2009 when Juan Martin Del Potro stunned Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer at the US Open. Sixteen Slams went by and Nadal, Federer, Novak Djokovic or Andy Murray captured them.

Last year, Stanislas Wawrinka began to rise out of the veteran doldrums, reaching the ATP Finals for the first time, finishing in the final eight and almost upending Djokovic at the Australian and US Opens.

But was unable to win those contests or some other critical ones because he seemed to be missing a little extra oomph and kick on his shots at the end of matches. He seemed to freeze and a Big 4 member shut him down.

But not at this Australian Open. His coach, Magnus Norman, convinced that he was good enough – that he could sting first serves, flat forehands and booming backhands. He overturned his two five-set losses to Djokovic by stopping the Serbian and his 28-match winning streak cold in the quarterfinals. He did not allow big Tomas Berdych to break his serve in the semis, and then in the final, he finally hit through a man whom he came into the match with an 0-12 record against. He came out flying and despite some shaky moments against Rafael Nadal and his bad back, he triumphed 6-3 6-2 3-6 6-3.

“It’s quite crazy what’s happening right now. I never expect to win a Grand Slam,” Wawrinka said. “I never dream about that because for me, I was not good enough to beat those guy. During the match tonight was important. I talk a lot with Magnus [Norman] who has been in that situation, to play a final. He told me it was important not to think about the result but think about the way you want to play, the way you want to win every point.”

Yes, Nadal’s back began to hurt in the warmup, but the Spaniard hung in there and even though he was below his level he tried to survive, hence his taking of the third set. Wawrinka was nervous then as it’s never easy to play an injured foe because it’s hard to get rhythm or figure out a winning strategy.

Nadal did regain a bit of speed and a smidgen of power in the fourth set which forced Wawrinka to play fairly well again. He admitted that the occasion was huge and he was not completely himself, but he kept battling his own demons and was terrific in the last two games. He ripped a forehand down the line winner to break Nadal to 5-3. Then he held at love to win the crown: he nailed a service winner; put together a clean serve and volley; smacked another service winner wide and then won the contest with a blitzing forehand winner.

“I still think that I’m dreaming,” Wawrinka said. “It’s strange feeling. I saw so many final. I always try to watch the final of Grand Slam because that’s where the best player are playing. Before today for me wasn’t a dream. I never expect to play a final. I never expect to win a Grand Slam. And right now I just did it. And especially the way I was playing all the tournament, it’s for me a big surprise to play that well. To beat Rafa today, even if he was injury, I think I play my best first set during the match; I was ready to play four hours or five to beat Novak in the quarter, to beat Berdych in semis. That shows me I’m doing the right thing since many years. That if you practice well, if you work hard, you will always have a chance to be in a great position to play your best tennis.”

Wawrinka became the first guy to defeat the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds at a Grand Slam since Sergi Bruguera did it 1993 Roland Garros when he overcame Pete Sampras and Jim Courier. He became the first No. 8 seed to win a major since the 1980 Australian when Brian took the title.

Nadal was quite upset that he couldn’t bring his best, but he is friends with Wawrinka, called it “Stan’s day” and went on to salute the Swiss: “He was playing amazing. Is very tough to stop him when he’s playing that way. So just congratulate him because he’s playing better and better and he’s playing with amazing confidence, hitting every ball very, very hard, moving himself great. In a court like this one, the court goes quick, the bounces are a little bit lower and quicker than usual, is very difficult when somebody’s hitting every ball very hard and with that confidence to stop him.”

So now Nadal leaves Australia without a coveted 14th Slam title. Federer still owns 17, Djokovic six and Murray two. Del Potro owns one and now so does Wawrinka who at the age of 28 may not be done yet. He owns an attractive game and is a refreshing personality that the tour is glad to have.

 “To win a Slam, to be No. 3, both for me is a big surprise. But I think more to win a Slam. Because in the ranking you can be No. 3 without winning a Slam. But now it’s both happening, so it’s a big surprise. It’s amazing feeling. I saw Roger [Federer] winning so many Grand Slams in the past, so now it’s my turn to win one. If you look the 10 past years, except Del Potro, it’s only the top four guys who was winning all the Grand Slams. So, I will need time to realize what I did in these two weeks. Because at the end, even if Rafa was injury, I think I deserve that Grand Slam because I won against Djokovic, No. 2; I won against Rafa. I did amazing two weeks, and I was playing my best tennis ever.”

Filed Under: Featured Bottom Left, Lead Story Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Sony Ericsson Open/Miami Draw Breakdown

March 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Nalbandian shows a resurgence. Photos: Mal Taam/MALTphoto

THE MEN: DJOKOVIC FAVORED IN ALL HIS MATCHES

Novak Djokovic’s path to the Miami semis looks fine; he could face the mercurial Marcos Bagdhatis in R2 (who says he can beat him but really can

Filed Under: Featured Bottom Right Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Subscribe to TennisReporters.net: Free for 1 Month, Paid for 1 Year

January 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

TennisReporters.net newsletter
RECEIVE MORE THAN 50 NEWSLETTERS A YEAR
Choose Annual Subscription or One-Month Free Trial

TennisReporters.net is now taking subscriptions for exclusive stories sent via e-mail. We will send you at least 50 stories a year along with breaking news notifications.

The cost is only $79.99 a year for materials you won

Filed Under: Featured Bottom Left, Lead Story Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Caro Mia! Wozniacki Upsets Kirilenko for Sexiest Award

January 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Caro edged out two Russians.

Nadal Repeats as Sexiest Male; Newcomer Goes to Tomic by 1 Vote

The public has spoken in the seventh annual TennisReporters.net Readers’s Poll.

In the most anticipated and heavily populated voting ever, Caroline Wozniacki rode a wave of a European votes to outshine last year’s winner, Maria Kirilenko, and win the “Ana Ivanovic” Sexiest Female Player.  The Dane also outpolled two women who lead the early returns, Maria Sharapova and Julia Goerges.

Defending champ Rafael Nadal prevailed among the men for the “Marat Safin” Sexiest Male Player, edging fellow Spaniards Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez

Both awards are named after the two players who won the award for five straight years and were retired from competition.

In 2011, Novak Djokovic basked in the glory of his standout season with a large lead over the field in the Top Male Player. Somewhat remarkably, despite winning Roland Garros, No. 2 Nadal came in third in the poll behind Roger Federer, who did not win a 2011 major.

Wimbledon and WTA Championships winner Petra Kvitova outdistanced No. 1 Wozniacki by a commanding number for Top Female Player.

Even though the annual poll drew in an amazingly large vote total

Filed Under: Featured Bottom Right Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dog day late afternoons

October 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Maria and Caro did not have the seasons they wished for.

So Caroline Wozniacki will end the year ranked No. 1 again, possibly a position she doesn

Filed Under: Featured Bottom Right Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

US Open: grading the pros

September 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

 

This was written before the women

Filed Under: Featured Bottom Left Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Federer mutes Monfils; to meet Djokovic

May 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Featured Bottom Left, Matt on other sites Tagged With: , ,