The Next Point Annual 2012
The Australian Open is finished, Davis Cup is days away, and the golden clouds are gathering over South America, ready to release their usual spray. It seems like an appropriate moment to release The Next Point Annual 2012.
Free to download – there is no feasible way to pay for it even if you wanted to – this volume includes nearly all of my articles from throughout the 2012 season, starting with Abu Dhabi and concluding with the Davis Cup final.
The introduction I provided for last year’s annual remains largely pertinent to this one. The only thing worth adding is that the new volume is even longer, so if you do print it out, don’t drop it on your foot. I don’t know where I stand legally with that. As before I have re-edited some of the articles, in order to correct the worst grammatical howlers, and only when the intended meaning grew so subverted that it courted solecism. The factual errors and the errors of judgement, on the other hand, remain untended.
Many readers have pointed out that my tennis writing is not like most other tennis writing. Partially this is a matter of temperament, since I’m inclined to write in a way that some might consider old-fashioned, or at least in a way that resists the innate ephemerality of the internet. Consequently, I tend not to include very many links, and I only very rarely embed video. My personal view, as a writer, is that words should be sufficient, and that if they aren’t, then I need to find better words. It means that compiling a year’s worth of pieces into a single volume is a comparatively straight-forward task. They were mostly written with something like this in mind, anyway. So, aside from being a matter of temperament, it was a matter of design.
The reason I do it at all, however, is largely a matter of personal satisfaction. I hope you enjoy the new Annual, and thank you sincerely for all your support.
The 2012 Next Point Annual can be downloaded here.
I still remember some great quotes from your articles…and Jesse, many thanks to you that my friends started getting more interested in tennis (to the point of actually watching some matches with me) because of your often witty and hilarious write-ups. And I won’t have to watch tennis alone anymore, or at least I can talk about it without appearing strangely obsessed. Finally, an admiration for your doing this out of pure love for the sport!
Well, as to that last point, I don’t want to give the impression that I would refuse if someone was to offer me money.
And as to the first, it’s such a wonderful thing to hear that I’ve helped get people into tennis, and that you no longer have to watch it by yourself (or talk about it to yourself).
So: thank you.
It is just unfair that you can write so brilliantly about each and every match you covered! I have just dipped in (reading like some people eat candy, picking out their favorites: Fed’s victories), and then going back and reading each morsel. Simply awesome. Thanks for making this available in one place. Pure gems!
It’s my pleasure, and thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy it all the way through, although given how long the thing ended up being, all the way through sounds like a pretty daunting journey. Luckily, as you say, it’s pretty easy to dip into.
I hope you never ‘start to talk about how long you’ve gone on for’. You’re a peach.
As are you, Jeremy, and a tiger, too. A tiger peach, if you will, or ‘un pexego tigre’, as they probably say in Galicia.
Thank you so much… I did print the full report out yesterday and my feet are grateful I paid special attention not to drop it… The Amazonian forest trees though are howling at me.
Next to me sits the tall promise to never get bored on a dark winter night and the perfect finish to a year full of initiations and firsts for me… where the tennis world unexpectedly collided with my world, became alive, exciting and utterly disrespectful of daily routines and nightly sleep…
Last June, I thought I really owned it to David Goffin to watch his match against Roger Federer… the first tennis match I watched since “a few years back” when I enjoyed Jimmy Connors’ fighting spirit… I instantly became an admirer of my young compatriot as well as a devoted fan of Federer.
It didn’t take long for me to discover that tennis is played more than 4 times a year and that there are quite a few more fascinating tennis players out there… After my first tennis matches live at a Challenger in Belgium last October, I’m delighted to be able to see Djokovic play in my own backyard today and possibly Sunday
The Next Point is another blessed discovery where my love for tennis, for words and for humor are all happily nourished.
I’m looking forward to read about all the matches I didn’t know were being played in the first half of 2012 and to relive the second part of the year.
If there was a Paypal button allowing for donations somewhere on the site, I’d be happy to offer a grateful contribution for all the reading delight you offer us.
Thank you
I can think of few sports as inconsiderate towards fan’s sleeping patterns as tennis. And now, perhaps through no fault of your own, you’re one of us. It’s a glamorous existence. If you aren’t there already, one day soon you might find yourself hunched before your computer monitor at 3am peering at a grainy feed from a first round Challenger match in Kharkov. I like to think I’ve played a small part in that.
Nearer to home, you have my condolences that Goffin went down to Troicki today in such a manner, and that you might have watched it from close range. But there was Djokovic (who didn’t seem that frightened by the court at all). Looking further ahead, do you have any plans for a pilgrimage to Roland Garros?
I’m very glad I’ve been able to address the need for tennis, words and humour. That is precisely what I set out to address, in the full knowledge that the number of people who would appreciate it will always be dwarfed by the number of people who’d rather click through an idiotic slideshow on Bleacher Report.
Some of my favourite writers, and the writers who influence me most, are those who continually demonstrate that the difference between purportedly high and low cultures is much less significant than we’re led to believe. Robert Hughes wrote about fly-fishing the way he wrote about Goya. Anthony Lane works the same trick whether he’s reviewing a Disney film or discussing Nabokov. Clive James brings the same style to an analysis of Formula One racing or Tango dancing that he does to Kristallnacht; the tone changes, but the style is the same, and the voice is thus unifying. I couldn’t see why one couldn’t write about tennis the way one writes about literature, which is to say in a literate way. (The question of why so few other tennis writers feel the same compulsion is a related question, though it is one best left for another time.)
And, on a final note: I hope you printed double-sided!
Dowloaded and opened in iBooks – as eco-friendly as it gets!
)))))
Thank you, Jesse! You are the GBOAT!!!!!
Excellent, and thank you, Natalia.
Without seeking to pin beauty down, I’m confident you have revealed plenty of it not only through your understanding of tennis, but also through your lovely writing about it.
Thank you.
Your writing is impressive. The rest of the lowly blog world can learn a thing or two from you.
Thank you, although I fear the general direction of blog writing is downward, dragging professional writing with it.
The condolences are gratefully accepted… An often overlooked occupational hazard in the life of tennis lovers is seeing the players so deeply hurt and disappointed after a tough loss and sharing their pain. David took it very hard indeed…
The highlights of the weekend included seeing Djokovic play and Olivier Rochus (whom is not as diminutive as the Davis Cup webiste insists calling him) playing quite a few beautiful points.
I also mentally presented Djokovic with a sportsmanship award for applauding a few great points from the Belgian doubles team – a understandable rare attitude on the Serbian side of the court.
My pilgrimage’s plan for this year is a one-week trip to Halle. Roland Garros may have to wait another year… Although, now you mention it, I might still visit for a day or two during the first week…