Previously published on March 1, 2020 for Tennis Panorama News By Agallivant (March 1, 2020) DUBAI, UAE – On TV screens, the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships seems impossibly grand and too fantastical to contemplate traveling…
Auckland’s Waiheke Island & Australia’s Great Ocean Road
My trip to Australia and New Zealand involved more than tennis. Before my first night at the tennis on the 2nd Monday, I spent a few hours at the State Library of…
Fan Slam: Ten Years Later
Completing the fan slam immediately begs the question: which one is the best? * In many ways, the answer depends on what matters to you. I started traveling the tennis tours regularly…
Completing the Fan Slam at 2019 Australian Open
I hadn’t thought that I would complete the fan slam by attending all four of the tennis majors. I was happy to have visited all three in 2009. Since then, I have…
Australian Open 2019 Draw Show: The Matrix
Welcome to the 2019 tennis season! There is a reason why they call the Australian Open, the Happy Slam from the fans perspective: we have missed tennis and are hopeful for our…
Closing out the 2018 Tennis Season
I’ve kept up the tradition of Indian Wells, US Open, and the World Tour Finals for the past 10 years! My how time has flown. This year, I was happy to add…
On the Road at the World Tour Finals 2018
I am back on the road. I took in the World Tour Final in London with a slight detour to see Hamilton, have afternoon tea at the Rosewood Hotel, and take a…
Reviewing Laver Cup in Chicago
It was a grand adventure in Chicago. On the podcast below, I break down all the good time that was had by the Federer faithful who trekked to the windy city for…
Burying the 2018 US Open
The 2018 US Open promised so much and delivered very little. With the heat and the final results, I’m happy putting hiding this slam in the bottom of the memory box. However,…
Delpo Masters Indian Wells and Federer
As Indian Wells is virtually in my backyard, it would be silly to not attend for even a few days. The PODCAST Related posts: Indian Wells 2013 in pictures Returning to the…
Podcast #112: Spilling more ATP with Sergiy Stakhovsky
The 2018 Australian Open is over. We have feted the new tennis champions. It is time to talk about the possibility of an ATP tennis players’ union. We invited Sergiy Stakhovsky, who…
RealzTenisFanz Podcast #107: 2017 RTF Podcast Awards for Tennis
It’s awards season, so we have decided to hand out our very own awards for best and worst performances on the tennis tours. We reviewed a #Fedal season on the ATP tour…
Seeing Federer Capture his 8th Wimbledon
I am not a sports fan, I am a tennis fan. More specifically, I am a live tennis fan. So, while I will occasionally pull up a stream to watch my favorites…
Maria Sharapova’s Ban Reduced
I am on a break from writing. However, I continue to talk tennis with the gang on the RealzTenisFanz Podcast. Our latest episode is Episode 71: Life with our Gurl Meldonium The Gang reacts…
Kamau Murray – Sending Minority Kids to College with Tennis Scholarships
The Realz Gang interviewed Kamau Murray, President/CEO of XS Tennis, Executive Director of XSTEF, and coach of American tennis player, Sloane Stephens. We talked about his push to send minority students to college on tennis…
Anti-doping in Tennis and Sports with Richard Ings
The Realz Gang and our guest, Richard Ings, sat down for a long interview on current anti-doping efforts in tennis and sports, the challenge of WADA, and the relationship between match-fixing, gambling,…
Confronting Male Tennis Player Privilege
Former tennis player, Raymond Moore resigned as CEO and tournament director at Indian Wells on Monday morning, March 21st in the wake of pushback from controversial comments he made during a breakfast…
Serena Williams is Tennis Sportsperson of the Year
I’ve been thinking about the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year (SOY). The list of twelve nominees is here. Sports Illustrated will make its announcement on Tuesday, December 14th, 2015. For now,…
A Die-Hard Federer Fan Makes a First Time Visit to the ATP World Tour Finals
It began as a whispered thought: “you should try to go to London for the World Tour Finals”. At the time, the ATP had not announced plans to extend the tournament’s time…
Singapore 2015 – Tourism and Tennis at the WTA Finals
Traveling alone can be a scary thought, especially if you’re a newbie (like me!). Going all the way to the other side of the world to a country you really don’t know…
Serena Williams, Intersectionality, and Body Image
It has been a very busy week on our podcast. I reached out to Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times to invite him to sit down with the gang and unpack…
Reviewing Wimbledon 2015
Another Wimbledon has come and gone. We saw Serena Williams capture her 21st major with a competitive straight sets win over Garbine Muguruza. Then Novak Djokovic defended his Wimbledon crown by taking…
Welcome to Wimbledon 2015
It’s one of my favorite times of the tennis calendar year. Wimbledon 2015 has arrived and it has brought us many good things already. Namely, a resurgent Venus Williams who doled out…
Highs & Lows – Week 1 French Open 2015
Related posts: 2015 New Year Resolutions for Our Players to Watch Welcome to Wimbledon 2015 Reviewing Wimbledon 2015 Temporarily Grounded: A Tennis Podcast with Cari Champion
Temporarily Grounded: A Tennis Podcast with Cari Champion
I am temporarily grounded until summer 2015, when I hope to get back on the road to see live tennis. In the interim, I’ve been a guest on RealzTenisFanz Podcast. We take an…
2015 New Year Resolutions for Our Players to Watch
2015 is just around the corner and we are continuing with that noble Roman tradition of crafting new year’s resolutions. I haven’t made a new year’s resolution in years and I am…
2014 Gratitude List: Build-A-Tournament for Christmas!
‘Tis the season to consider what I want for Christmas and I have decided to build myself the perfect tournament based upon the ones I attended this year. The list includes: the…
Throwback Thursday: 2010 Totally Scientific Tennis Season Survey
In 2010, @fiorebianca, @trublu and I conducted a totally scientific tennis season survey via Twitter. The results are listed below. A few things stand out: Roddick was highly entertaining in 2010; Ernest Gulbis…
2014 Gratitude List – Twitter Meet-ups
As I focus on mundane and tedious things like lining up a new job for 2015, I’m feeling especially grateful for the elements that made my tennis travels extra special this year. Twitter…
2014 Davis Cup Finale in Pictures
All pictures taken with an Android phone. After a tense start to Day 2, it turned out to be a great day for the Swiss…
A First Davis Cup for the Swiss
The good news at the start of day 3 of Davis Cup was that the Swiss had two chances to win their first Davis Cup title. France too but let’s try to…
Davis Cup Doubles – The Swiss Takes It
It takes two to make a thing go right It takes two to make it outta sight! Hit it! I bet that’s the first time those lyrics were quoted about tennis! I’ve…
Davis Cup-The Number Two Men Rise
Let’s start with the good… Stan Wawrinka and Gael Monfils, the number two players for their respective countries, kept the Davis Cup dream alive for Switzerland and France. If Davis Cup is celebrated for…
Lying Low in London
Have you ever started a project that you knew was going to be too ambitious from the outset but you just didn’t want to scale it back? I took a look at the…
Walking in Bill Clinton’s Foodsteps in Oxford
Once I said goodbye to my stint as an Oxford student, I returned to regularly scheduled business: exploring Oxford with my minimal budget. UK, we really have to talk about how my…
Playing Student at Oxford University
My cousin is in her third year at Oxford University. While I awaited the start of the World Tour Finals in London, I stopped by for a long weekend. This was my…
Two Days in Zurich
After working as media for onthegotennis in the Swiss Indoors Basel tournament, I took the one hour train ride to Zürich to visit a friend. I had two full days to do some exploring…
China Open 2014 – A Fan’s Perspective
The China Open officially became a combined tournament in 2004, so this year marks its 10th anniversary. Inopportunely, I left China in 2004 and have spent the exact same ten years studying…
A Look at the Kia Korea Open
(As it looks like I might not make the Asian swing this year, I asked Joanna to provide some insights on one of the tournaments on the tour. Based upon her overview,…
Why I Loved My Davis Cup Weekend in Switzerland
Tennis is my main passion and it has carried me around the world for years: America, Australia and Europe. Everything turns around tennis. I try new ways of travelling, to arrange journeys…
US Open 2014 – My Quick Take
It’s been awhile since I have considered the US Open a bucket list item for tennis fans. Blame it on the US Open being in my backyard for the few years I…
Tennis Labor Day at the US Open
My reserved seat in Armstrong paid off quite nicely when I saw this line-up for my Labor Day viewing at the US Open: Novak Djokovic (SRB) [1] vs Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) [22…
Cincy Tennis: A Fan’s Point of View
The Midwest has a little tennis secret (that isn’t so little anymore, to be honest) called The Western and Southern Open. This tournament is a master’s 1000 event so all the…
Talking Tennis Travel on Broke at Love Podcast
Hi folks, I feel like the hits keep rolling this week. It’s been weeks since I posted and now I have written two posts in quick succession. I had a chance to talk…
Sony Open Tennis Photo Gallery
These are some of my favorite photos from Sony Open Tennis in Miami. I was happy I managed to catch the tournament champions, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams, at practice. Of course, I aimed…
A New and Improved BNP Paribas Open in the Desert
While in LA, I checked out the improvements to the tournament in Indian Wells. I arrived on Tuesday at 1 pm and left on Thursday morning. I bought a general admissions ticket ($53) for…
ATP Tournament Itinerary for 2014
In 2013, I went to five ATP tournaments (including a slam): Indian Wells, CA; Washington, DC; Montreal, Canada; US Open; Basel, Switzerland; and the World Tour Finals. Of the six, Basel was…
The World Tour Final is a Peak Fan Experience as Well
The top 8 men and doubles teams are in London’s O2 Arena, aside from Andy Murray who is sidelined with an injury. While better analysts have broken down the field here and…
Basel Surpassed My Wildest Dreams
It’s taken me this long to recover from my trip to Basel, Switzerland. To be honest, I’m still trying to process what happened there and why it was such a wonderful surprise….
Indian Wells 2013 in pictures
Indian Wells traditionally starts off my tennis year and this time it did not disappoint. I’m happy that I was able to make the tourney this year as I’m aiming for new…
Delpo’s Long Mid-match Shirt Change
Delpo vs Roddick was an emotional roller coaster ride. I wanted Delpo to win but I didn’t want Roddick to lose and have his last match. It was so stressful, which is…
It’s the Grail I tell ya!
In case you could not tell, I’m a “follow your bliss” kind of girl. When I need inspiration, I will pick up a Joseph Campbell book to get my juices flowing or…
Podcast #173: A Realz Church Service
During these trying times as folks are losing hope and faith in all things, we decided to take you back to church and bring you a deliverance service unlike no other. Janina…
Podcast #171: All is not swell at Indians Wells!!!
Back with another exciting episode for you in this very stressful time of a pandemic. We are here to serve you up the best medicine, laughter. So as usual, tennis thinks it…