Matthew Cronin, founder of TennisReporters.net, is one of the most prolific and insightful journalists working in the sport of tennis. Matt has covered men’s and women’s pro tennis for the past fifteen years, traveling the world to develop his unique first hand perspective on every aspect of the game. Matt is a regular contributor to Reuters, has written extensively for the official Grand Slam web sites, and did play-by-play on the first web radio broadcast of the US Open finals. A former co-president of the International Tennis Writers Association, Cronin resides in Moraga, Calif., USA, with his wife, Patti, and their children, Cassandra, Connor and Chiara.
Matt Cronin
Notes on Tour
Nadal: from Davis Cup to the practice court 4 days later. Just four days after he led Spain to its third Davis Cup title in the past four years, No. 2 Rafael Nadal tweeted that he was back on the...
Features and Notes
Carlos Alcaraz has a long road to greatness. But he's on track so far. It's been almost two years since Alcaraz first won a Grand Slam. Then, he was a fresh-faced teenager who grabbed the crowd and the title with...
Features and Notes
Going into 2023, the young Italian Jannik Sinner looked like a very good player, but not yet someone who was about to win a Grand Slam and climb into the top ranks -- unlike his friend and rival, Carlos Alcaraz,...
Features and Notes
A few years ago, a pair of now terrific players did not go into the net much -- even while playing doubles together. But this year, they became much better and now are the No. 1-ranked team in the doubles....
Features and Notes
It has now been 20 years that the American men have not won a Grand Slam. In the 2003 U.S. Open, Andy Roddick grabbed the title by beating Juan Carlos Ferrero in three sets by serving huge and unleashing his...
Features and Notes
Iga Swiatek seems to be having a smooth, successful season, recently lifting her third French Open trophy, but there's been a lot happening beneath the surface. It's been more than 16 months since the 22-year-old from Poland started dominating the...
Features and Notes
The Russian is looking for another winning run – "You feel like you're untouchable, and you know that everything you do, turns into gold." But can he and are technical limitations in his game making that less likely? A couple...
Features and Notes
There was a time a few years ago Daniil Medvedev couldn't find a solution for his game. The 25-year-old Russian is 6' 6" and no player that tall had won a Grand Slam -- until he did it a couple...
Features and Notes
It wasn't long ago that people thought the one-handed backhand was vanishing in tennis. When Roger Federer won his first major at Wimbledon, back in 2003, it seemed like an aberration. Since then, he's gone on to win 20 Slams,...
Features and Notes
All the Grand Slam champions on the ATP Tour are now 30 years or older. Perhaps in the next couple of years, a new young player or players will win a Grand Slam. None have yet, although Dominic Thiem made...
Notes on Tour
One of the greatest comebacks of all time: Tomas Muster at Roland Garros. Tennis has always had amazing of comeback stories. There were Andre Agassi and Jennifer Capriati's returns from burnout and personal hell to Grand Slam glory. There was...
Notes on Tour
Could Arthur Ashe have imagined the issues the tour faces today? When the ATP Tour was founded in 1972, Jack Kramer, Cliff Drysdale, Arthur Ashe and Raymond Moore likely couldn't have imagined that some 41 years later, the players, tournament...
Notes on Tour
Istanbul and Prague: both highly recommended. I was not sure exactly what to expect when, for the first time, I traveled to Istanbul for the WTA Championships, and then to Prague for the Fed Cup final between the Czech Republic...
Notes on Tour
Printable Version Wimbledon gave Paul Annacone a rare Grand Slam double. What influence does a tour coach actually have in producing Grand Slam champions? If we look at the great players in the modern game, there is far from one...
Notes on Tour
Barry McKay: playing great, pioneering promoter, genuine friend. When former U.S. No. 1, tennis broadcaster and tournament director Barry Mackay passed away in mid May, it wasn’t followed by the silence you hear when a pro player tosses a ball...
Notes on Tour
Is Wayne Bryan right about USTA Player Development? During the presidential primary season, it is common for candidates and interested observers to take big rips at government, because it is a large, easy target. The same goes with the USTA,...
Notes on Tour
John with his parents, John Sr. and Kay in Douglaston. Like many athletes who weren't blessed with a large frame and Olympian genes, John McEnroe describes his rise to the top of the tennis world as improbable. But it really...
Notes on Tour
Bjorn Borg's hometown: Sodertalje, Sweden. Bjorn Borg's father, Rune, loved table tennis, but it didn't put bread on the table in his town of Sodertalje, Sweden, so he kept his day job selling clothes while his wife, Margarethe, stayed at...
Features and Notes
On the night of March 8, Indian Wells pulled the plug. The next morning, Miami said it was still on. Then was Miami canceled and the ATP Tour was suspended for six weeks, and the ITF for five weeks. Soon,...
Notes on Tour
What are the facts behind the suspension of American journeyman Robert Kendrick? By the time Tennisplayer subscribers read this, American journeyman player Robert Kendrick may have rallied just about every single U.S. male player to his side in his attempt...
Notes on Tour
The spin potential of Babolat string was a major topicin 2010. It isn't that common for equipment or products to be at the forefront of discussion during the Grand Slams. But that has not been the case at Roland Garros...
Features and Notes
Roger Federer is 38 and still winning. His title collection started in 2001 at Milan and having won another in his hometown of Basel, he has now collected 103 ATP titles, almost unheard of. By comparison, Rafael Nadal has 84...
Notes on Tour
Serena's fine at the U.S. Open doesn't tell the real story about rules on the tour. About a year and half ago, now 13-times Grand Slam champion Serena Williams was fined $82,500 for launching an eye-popping verbal assault at a...
Features and Notes
Nine months ago, Sloane Stephens won her first Grand Slam title at the US Open. Then this year she got to the final of the French. It was pretty surprising, because she had just come back a couple of months...
Features and Notes
It looks like the Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro has an opportunity to win a major again -- and that could be because of his weakest shot. The way he played his way back into contention at the highest levels...
Notes on Tour
Where Rafa once belonged - is he about to get back? It has taken three years for Rafael Nadal to get back to the verge of where he once belonged. The Spaniard has won 14 Grand Slams, which is amazing,...
Notes on Tour
If pro tennis is so healthy why are the stands often so empty? Outside of the US Open and the highly successful Masters Series tournaments at Indian Wells, Miami and Cincinnati, there are almost no events making money in the...
Notes on Tour
It took 15years, but the effect is real. The Williams sisters effect has finally come to fruition. Now, more than 15 years after Venus reached the US Open final in 1997, there are six young, promising US African-American women players...
Notes on Tour
Printable Version The "Rafa Slam" wasn't the story. The 2011 Australian Open did not represent a massive changing of the guard, but what it did show is that there is new blood on the horizon with the potential to rise...
Notes on Tour
Ted Forstmann, billionaire, IMG owner, sports bettor. It doesn't look like Ted Forstmann, the billionaire chairman of the sports and entertainment agency IMG, will ever be sanctioned for placing a $40,000 bet on Roger Federer to win the 2007 French...
Notes on Tour
Could tennis compete on Monday night? Are you ready for some Monday Night Tennisssss? That's been the main catch phrase used to promote Monday Night Football over the past couple of decades, and might be the right promo and recipe...
Notes on Tour
Nicolas Mahut after: the greatest match ever or just the most boring? There are many occasion throughout the sporting year that fans are blinded by giant headlines and rapid fire highlight reels covering supposedly special dramatic developments. This is part...
Notes on Tour
Borg was winning but the experts called for serve and volley. In the late 1970s, it was still claimed by some that winning Wimbledon required a serve and volley style. This of course was an absurd assertion, as Bjorn Borg...
Notes on Tour
The Odesnik bust highlights deeper problems with drug testing. The Wayne Odesnik humane growth hormone fiasco shows tennis isn't policing its own - and furthermore when we look at the issues around testing for HGH, probably can't in the immediate...
Notes on Tour
Is the tour schedule the real problem? The constant complaining by top players about the length and physical demands of the season defies logic. Virtually every top player, man and woman, now currently plays more than the required minimum events,...
Notes on Tour
In the press room, the "Commander in Chief." He may appear to be a worry free, laid back guy at times, but one of Roger Federer's nicknames in the press room is the "Commander in Chief," which emanates from his...
Notes on Tour
About a month after Serena Williams' massive implosion at the US Open, an official from one of the Grand Slam nations told me that there was no chance of the 11-time Grand Slam champion being suspended from one of the...
Notes on Tour
Monica Seles: Ana's childhood heroine. Ana Ivanovic's childhood heroine, Monica Seles, didn't scale up the ladder as slowly as the statuesque and deceptively ambitious brunette has. For Seles it was: Here I come, ba-boom, ka-boom, see what just hit you...