In celebration of the US Open, for the third year running we brought back the only party that matters: Racquet House at Rockefeller Center®, featuring a pop-up tennis court on Center Plaza from August 22nd through August 27th. New Yorkers and visitors participated in a variety of programming daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., which including professional players rallying with kids from local community programs talent sessions featuring fan-favorite tennis stars, content creation opportunities, and exclusive private events. Activations on Center Plaza also included a FILA claw machine where visitor ..read more

By Avery Vukhac Hidden away at the back of the US Open’s presidential suite, the tournament’s unsung hero remains hard at work, scissors in hand. For 15 years, hairstylist Julien Farel has hosted a pop-up salon for all players participating in the Open. Tresses of top-seeded players fall to the ground as Farel carefully styles each coif. Growing up in Lyon, France, Farel didn’t have aspirations of becoming a hairdresser; until he was 14, he dreamt of being a professional soccer player. While attending a middle school for athletes, Farel received an offer from France’s national soccer team t ..read more

By Wendy Laird I’ve been to Wisconsin exactly two times. The first visit was during graduate school, when a fellow journalism student who, like me, was missing skiing something fierce, planned a trip for the two of us up to Wisconsin. There’s good skiing up there, we were told by Chicagoans who didn’t know any better. So we of the Cascades and the Rockies drove two hours north from Evanston, IL to ski a “mountain” with a 200-foot elevation. And yet there I was in July—ever the optimist—driving to another geological anomaly in Wisconsin, once again with no real concept of what lay ahead. I ..read more

by Allen McDuffee Watching Clervie Ngounoue play tennis, it’s easy to experience a kind of cognitive dissonance. The teen’s demeanor is calm and introspective. Her movement is smooth and deliberate. But when she’s ready to strike, what comes off her racquet is nothing but seismic. It’s a power-centric game that the 18-year-old has been playing for years, and it put her at the top of the junior tennis world at the age of 16. After kicking off her summer by reaching the semifinals in girls’ singles at Roland-Garros (not to mention winning the doubles title with fellow American Tyra Caterina G ..read more

作者：Theresa Lin Read this article in English 上周六，继李娜在墨尔本捧起澳网冠军奖杯十年之后，郑钦文成为历史上 第二位进入大满贯单打决赛的中国网球选手。虽然郑钦文在决赛中不敌实力强 劲的阿依娜·萨巴伦卡（Aryna Sabalenka），但一年多前我与她交谈时，我认为 郑钦文就是天选之女，甚至她的到来都是命中注定的。当然，她不会这么认为。 2022 年底，我为网球杂志《Racquet》第 21 期的封面故事采访了郑钦文， 我被这位 20 ..read more

In this feature from our latest Issue No. 24, Paramore’s Zac Farro gives us a preview of his upcoming zine, A European Summer. “There are many reasons to know, love, and follow Zac Farro. He is a striking photographer and a world-renowned musician. He is a tastemaker, being one of the original members of the Grammy-winning alternative rock band Paramore, and the founder of Congrats, a record label Farro built from the ground up, which supports indie artists in his creative orbit and beyond. He has a wry sense of humor and impeccable style, with undeniably one of the best hat collections in ..read more

On this, the first day of Summer, we’re proud to present our official Must Have list for 2024. We used to call this our annual Summer Gear Guide, but tennis these days requires so much more than gear, it requires that one adopt the tennis lifestyle. And if there’s one thing we at Racquet are going to do, it’s scour the Earth for the most important and stylish accessories, experiences and yes, gear, to empower yours. By Avery Vukhac Style Lacoste’s 1924 Collection Lacoste’s simple, yet elegant designs are categorically French in that they tend to look chic on a wide array of players, fro ..read more

Justine Henin could have been a worthy foil for Serena Williams, if only she had kept playing By Alex Macpherson For over a decade, men’s tennis was defined by one of the greatest rivalries of all time. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal ushered in a golden age for the ATP; entire books have been devoted to individual matches in the 35-strong “Fedal” series, which wrote a late and unexpected chapter in 2017 Australian Open final. But in the same time period, tennis fans were robbed of a rivalry that had the potential to define the WTA in similar ways. Serena Williams and Justine Henin were pol ..read more

In 1990, the Ecuadorian former professional tennis player shocked the world—and possibly himself—with a four-set win over heavy favorite Andre Agassi to win the French Open title. He became the first man or woman from Ecuador to win a major, and according to Agassi’s 2009 memoir, Open, it was one of the worst defeats of his life and he spent most of the match worried his wig would fall off. Here, in this piece from Issue No. 11, his countryman Vicente Muñoz recalls a visit to Gomez’s reliquary, filled with trophies, memorabilia, and hard-rock cassette mixtapes. I’ve known Andres Gomez for ..read more

by Loria Stern Stepping onto the iconic red-clay courts of the Monte Carlo Country Club, it’s hard not to be struck by the sheer beauty of the surroundings: The sparkling Mediterranean Sea glistening in the distance, and the red-clay courts fenced by stone masonry dating back to the early 1900s. The Monte Carlo Country Club has a rich history starting when the club’s founders, a group of British expatriates and tennis aficionados, sought to create a haven for tennis enthusiasts on the French Riviera. Starting in 1897 with the inaugural Monte Carlo Masters, the club has become a premier des ..read more