30-Love: The Chronicle of College Tennis
Colette Lewis' Zoo Tennis is a must-follow for fans who want an early look at the stars of tomorrow.
From individuals to organizations, weekend warriors to professional players, minute observations to big-picture ideas, tennis has been top of mind across the board over the past two years.
“I feel like this is the tennis boom part two,” says Trey Waltke, general manager of the Malibu Racquet Club in southern California. “Everyone is talking tennis. Everyone is playing. People are rediscovering how great tennis is.”
Tennis shouldn’t rest on its laurels; the first boom didn’t last forever. But this is as good of an opportunity to reflect on what the sport has gotten right, during a time when so much has gone wrong.
Over the next few weeks, we'll do just that, with a series of stories—30-Love—that highlights 30 things worth celebrating about the New American Tennis Boom. Look for past articles on the left side of each page.—Ed McGrogan
WATCH: Tennis Channel Live discusses junior tennis and the pressure that comes along with it.
A freelance journalist for over two decades, Colette Lewis provides a staple of the tennis insider’s diet with Zoo Tennis, the long-running blog she first launched in 2005. Focusing mainly on junior and college tennis, Zoo (short for Kalamazoo, Michigan, home of the USTA Boys’ National Championships) offers a look at the stars of tomorrow and serves as a living document, one which fans and journalists may reference once those stars make it in the pros.
Lewis also maintains a popular Twitter account @zootennis, replete with contemporary analysis and throwback photos of your favorite players from way back when. In the hours after Jackson Withrow partnered Nathaniel Lammons to upset top men’s doubles seeds Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic at the US Open, Lewis was there with an image from when Withrow won the 18s with fellow American Jack Sock in Kalamazoo.
If the best way to understand the future is by studying the past, Lewis’ blog is both a labor of love and an essential service, scribing history as it happens.