Thwack!
We are hardly tennis aficionados, but we play the game occasionally and have several times attended the annual tennis tournament in Washington, D.C., currently known by the name of its main sponsor, the Mubadala DC Open. And once, in 2013, we ventured to New York to take in a match at the U.S. Open in which we got to see Roger Federer play. That’s Jane in the picture above, in Arthur Ashe stadium, sometime before the match began.
With the U.S. Open underway once again, we offer a tennis-themed acrostic this week, based on a quotation from Timothy Gallwey’s The Inner Game of Tennis, which came out in 1974. The book is in some ways less about tennis and more about an approach to life and its various challenges, combining aspects of sports psychology and Eastern philosophy. Indeed, Gallwey followed up the book by writing or co-writing five others: Inner Skiing, The Inner Game of Golf, The Inner Game of Music, The Inner Game of Stress, and The Inner Game of Work. Something for everyone, we suppose.
You undoubtedly uncovered a number of tennis terms in the acrostic. In that regard, Dave insisted on including a reference to Martina Navratilova, whom he once got to see practicing during her prime on an indoor court at Georgetown University. One breathtaking overhead smash after another!
Finally, we offer this charming video featuring Roger Federer and Pineapple, featuring a different but related sport – table tennis. Enjoy!
I only just recently found XWord Info, and have been so excited to be able to access the NYT acrostics again! I haven’t done any since those fated days in 2023, so I suppose this is the first one I’ve done that was constructed by you, David & Jane. It felt good to have access to, and was a fun re-entry for me!
The “Y” is dedicated to my great uncle who taught at Georgetown.
Typically smashing Acrostic.
This was fun and easy. Tennis is behind me, sadly, but I played for many years, making up with enthusiasm what I lacked in skill. Thanks for this timely puzzle.
I was pretty sure of the theme and NAVRATILOVA confirmed it, so when I saw some of the letters from TENNIS in the grid I was off and running. Fun!
Went back and saw the “e.g.” in the wood shot clue. It works as a descriptor as opposed to golf lingo. My bad.
Great fun and a highly enjoyable puzzle. A bunch of us attended the U.S. Open in an early round this tear. Although I shouldn’t be surprised at this point, it always amazes me how brilliant these men and women are. You don’t get the same impression of the extraordinary speed and agility of these athletes just watching it on TV.
Gallwey’s book was tremendously influential in the mid-1970s. He basically took Zen and the Art of Archery and translated it into tennis (and beyond).
The video of Federer being nosed out by Pineapple is charming. Actually, him keeping it as close as he did is really impressive. I really miss him from the big stage.
Great acrostic today!
And — what an astonishing coincidence!— a tennis acrostic smack dab in the middle of the 2026 U.S. Open, which I’ve been watching stream across my computer screen for the past week.
A classic still on my bookshelf. I had the pleasure of taking a tennis workshop with Gallwey right after his book was published, and it was a strange and revealing experience. He offers a valuble mental approach to performance for any sport, as his later books demonstrated. Thanks for bringing back the memory for this tennis buff still hacking away in my late-80s, and thanks for the timely puzzle.
Federer was always my favorite – the elegance and variety of his game and his charismatic presence on and off the court were a sublime combination. But Rafa won me over as well, with the ferocity of his game and his humility off the court (and the fact that he played with considerable pain throughout much of his career). Novak was harder to warm up to, but it’s impossible to deny his greatness, as evidenced by his record-setting 24 Grand Slam titles. (There’s a recently-released Netflix documentary about his life and career: “Novak Djokovic: The Wolf in Winter”).
Seems like Carlos Alcaraz v. Jannik Sinner is the new marquee rivalry in men’s tennis. It’s a shame injuries have prevented them from facing each other in the last three Grand Slams.
Have been a tennis fan since the days when Rod Laver dominated. The TV networks used to cover the majors and other tournaments regularly. Played some in high school and our area used to host the Transamerica Tournament. Saw Connors vs McEnroe in a final; a real treat. Loved the year Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King both won Wimbledon singles titles (1975?). So many sports and activities can teach us so many things, as the quote alludes to. Enjoyed.
As an Actuary, the statement in the first clue interested me. The statement that a Grand Slam in Bridge is less frequent than in Baseball was imprecise. Is it a rubber in Bridge vs. a game in Baseball. I did some research and found that the statement is generally true but not in all definitions. For instance a grand slam in Bridge during a typical rubber is more frequent than a grand slam in an inning of Baseball. But you only have so much space in a clue so understandably you could not lay out the whole probability structure.