“I admire Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, the two Swiss,” said 18-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas last fall when he was asked to name his tennis idols. Does it seem odd that a teenager born in Greece, ...

“Ashe’s backhand is one of the touchstones of modern tennis,” John McPhee wrote in his 1969 book Levels of the Game. “He can underspin it, roll it, hit it flat. He can cradle the ball on his racquet, ...