The String Theory Yearbook
Letter from the editor
As I have mentioned multiple times both on my Substack and on Twitter, fan culture is something that is incredibly important to me. Most of us live in a world where most physical leisure spaces require money to access and where most creative outlets are commodified to an extent. This means that (sometimes digital) spaces where we are free to express ourselves in an open-ended and amateurish way are more crucially important than ever. I have found that fan spaces, and particularly Tennis Twitter, have been that expressive space for me.
Sometime around November, I realised that there are plenty of other people in the digital tennis fan space that feel the same way I do! Plenty of people were quick to tell me how liberating it felt to apply serious emotion and analysis to something that is (in the grand scheme) relatively inconsequential. Because of this, I thought it was only fitting to make an anthology of some sort to put on display some of the talent present in our community, and the String Theory Yearbook was born.
Beginning with a section that centres fan culture itself, Danny Richardson reflects on how Twitter mediates the tennis fan experience for the better in “For the Love of Tennis.” Isabel Wing continues this thread in “Tennis Brought Me Back to Earth,” with an investigation of her personal history with the sport, and how it proved to be a crucial support in both bad times and good. Tennis Truther continues with “Patron of the Sport,” a reflection on why people are fans of tennis in the first place. In “Equal Love,” Raz discusses the challenges and joys of keeping up with tours that are not as well known to fans, shining a crucial light on doubles, the ATP Challenger series, and the ITF series.
The second section of the yearbook is dedicated to analysis of tennis through a more academically minded lens. In “On Tennis and Queer Engagement in the Sport,” Tom Jones discusses the role of masculinity in tennis spaces, and the implications this has for queer fans of the sport. The second article in the section, “The Historian’s Complaint” by Emma Salley, applies a historically- minded analysis to the narratives we construct within the sport.
We then transition to a focus on particular players, with the third section of the yearbook centring profiles of particular players. Siddhant Guru begins the section with “Federer: A Legacy Beyond Numbers,” a meditation on Federer’s cultural implications for the sport as a whole. Owen Lewis then shifts the attention to Novak Djokovic’s game, arguing that he has the highest ceiling in the sport currently in “Novak Djokovic has Still Got It.” With “Baez: Remember the Name!” Jethro implores us all to watch out for the career of Sebastian Baez. Ericka rounds out the section with “The Kyrgios Conundrum,” an investigation into how Nick Kyrgios continues to receive major support within the tennis world despite having admitted guilt to charges of physical assault.
The final section of the yearbook concerns analysis of the competitive field of tennis as a whole. In “Prize Money and Gender on Tour,” Patricia delves into how and why the prize money gap between the ATP and WTA tour persists. The section concludes with “Wonderful ATP Youngsters,” Shirley’s analysis of why tennis’s newest generation of players shows substantial promise.
The publication of this anthology has been delayed several times (I am a full time student after all!), and for this reason I would like to thank all of the contributors once again. It was very important to me that I got this right, because it’s not just my writing—it’s hours of work from people who take this as seriously as I do. I hope that I got it right, however, and that you’re able to see yourself reflected in the pages of this anthology.
I want to extend a special thanks to DotDotTennis and Becks for providing the beautiful illustrations you see within the anthology. Dot provided the lovely cartoons between sections, while Becks was responsible for the cover art as well as player line art between articles. I additionally would like to thank Becks for helping me with the editorial process and putting up with all of my questions over the past few months.
I would additionally like to thank my subscribers on Substack for supporting String Theory over the past year. I know that I have been quite inconsistent about uploading due to my schedule, but knowing that people care about what I have to say truly means the world. If you would like more writing about tennis and pop culture, I would really appreciate if you could subscribe, as it helps encourage me to write more!
I am truly so lucky to be surrounded by such talented writers, analysts, poets, statisticians, illustrators, journalists, and so on. It’s astounding to see such talent applied to analysing a sport that we all love, and all without a profit incentive. It is therefore my pleasure to introduce all of you to the 2022 String Theory Yearbook!
May, I love this! All of it. I wish I could write individual comments for each piece, but this was just a delight to read. And the art! I'm already a fan dotdot, but now I love Becks' work as well.
I'll just leave one specific comment . . . @Tom Jones - this was really well-done. I am completely NOT you (I am a cishet female, probably a good deal older), and one thing that I love about following tennis is that the fandom is very inclusive of all genders. I say that as an American, a huge baseball fan, and I spent most of my younger life trying to get people to realize that I knew what I was talking about. But I really resonated with your commentary about Kyrgios - I still can't stop thinking about his "soft" comment. Reaction when I've told others (non-tennis fans) about it - "yeah, that's exactly what a bully would say". One thought about his locker room comment - I wonder if it's actually true that he's so "popular" (I mean, is he in high school?) or does no one want to stand up to him. But the entire way he is promoted completely makes me crazy - even if you don't know about the off-court stuff, he is such an enormous bully on court that I find him painful to watch.
May, I had communicated with you last year on Twitter about my feelings about NK, and how I sold my tickets for the last few days of the Citi Open because of him. I am getting all worked up thinking about it again anyway, so I'll stop here :)
I am Patricia (2nd-to-last piece), completely in admiration of all of the contributors here, with their gifts of beautiful writing and art. I am going to have to search out some substacks!!
Fucking ugly dyke retard, you look like you have DOWN'S. They should sterilize mongs like you so you don't pollute the gene pool. "Pick me"-ass bitch.