2003 Backspin Archives

Dec.2002 - "2003 10 Most Intriguing Questions"
Jan.5 - Wk.1 - "Act 1, Scene 1: The Waffle Meets the Williams" (S.Williams/Clijsters)
Jan.12 - Wk.2 - "From Waffle to Wattle?" (Oz Preview)
Jan.19 - Wk.3 - "A Blue Angel & a White-Hot Wattle" (Weingartner/Clijsters)
Jan.27 - Wk.4 - "Serena Slam-Slam-Slamming Away" (S.Williams)
Feb.3 - Wk.5 - "The Start of Something Big?" (Davenport)
Feb.10 - Wk.6 - "Round and Round, Round by Round" (S.Williams/Dementieva/Mauresmo)
Feb.17 - Wk.7 - "Here Come the Russians (Oh, & Venus, too)" (Myskina/Likhovtseva)
Feb.24 - Wk.8 - "Veterans, Veterans & Veterans... Oh, My!" (Raymond/Navratilova)
Mar.3 - Wk.9 - "Painting the Mural Off Exit 2B" (Sugiyama)
Mar.17 - Wk.10/11 - "Chucking the Choke?" (Clijsters)
Mar.31 - Wk.12/13 - "The Usual" (S.Williams)
April 1 - "1Q Report"
April 7 - Wk.14 - "April Foolin'" (Myskina)
April 14 - Wk.15 - "A Ray of Hope?" (JHH/S.Williams)
April 21 - Wk.16 - "Captain Crash & the Beauty Queen from Poprad (or "The Tale of Punch-Drunk & Wonder Girl")" (Dementieva/Hantuchova)
April 28 - Wk.17 - "April Showers" (JHH)
May 5 - Wk.18 - "Amelie Day" (Mauresmo)
May 12 - Wk.19 - "To Choke or Not to Choke" (Clijsters/JHH)
May 19 - Wk.20 - "Redemption & Achilles Willies?" (Clijsters/S.Williams)
May 26 - Wk.21 - "Open Season, or Fait Accompli?" (RG Preview)
June 2 - Wk.22 - "Roland Garros Mid-Slam Report"
June 9 - Wk.23 - "2003 Claycourt Awards" (JHH)
June 16 - Wk.24 - "The Silent Sister" (Maleeva)
June 23 - Wk.25 - "Wimbledon Preview"
June 30 - Wk.26 - "Wimbledon Mid-Slam: A Shrieking Success"
July 8 - Wk.27 - "Grasscourt Awards" [Backspin First Anniversary]
July 15 - Wk.28 - "Mid-Calendar Musings"
July 22 - Wk.29 - "Missing-in-Action" (Fed Cup)
July 28 - Wk.30 - "Easy-Bake Kim" (Clijsters)
Aug.4 - Wk.31 - "While the Catsuit's Away" (S.Williams/Clijsters/JHH)
Aug.11 - Wk.32 - "Let the Debate Begin" (Clijsters)
Aug.18 - Wk.33 - "Signs, Eh?" (JHH)
Aug.25 - Wk.34 - "And the New Queen of Belgium is..." (U.S. Preview)
Aug.31 - Wk.35 - "U.S. Open Mid-Slam Report"
Sept.8 - Wk.36 - "Queen Justine" (JHH)
Sept.15 - Wk.37 - "Zombies, Punch-Drunk & Me" (Dementieva)
Sept.22 - Wk.38 - "Honor Thy Elena" (Dementieva)
Sept.29 - Wk.39 - "(The Russians are) Here, There & Everywhere" (Myskina)
Oct.6 - Wk.40 - "And a Teen Shall Lead Them" (Sharapova)
Oct.13 - Wk.41 - "A Coronation Delayed" (Clijsters/JHH)
Oct.20 - Wk.42 - "Le Petit Taureau is the Queen" (JHH)
Oct.27 - Wk.43 - "Some 'Ai' For Ai" (Sugiyama)
Nov.3 - Wk.44 - "And One to Grow On" (Sharapova)
Nov. - "2003 Tennisrulz Award Nominees"
Nov.11 - Wk.45 - "Prelude to a Kiss... or another kiss off?" (Clijsters/4Q Awards)
Nov.17 - Wk.46 - "2003 IQ's Humbling Recap"
Nov.24 - Wk.47 - "Russians Played Roulette, and Mauresmo was the Bullet" (Fed Cup/Backspin Awards)
Nov.26 - "2003 3rd Annual WTA Yearbook"

...these are the links to the fifty editions of Backspin that appeared on Tennisrulz.com during the 2003 season. At this point, I was still huddling with Pierre Cantin in an attempt to come up with a name for the column. So, many of the editions either don't have a name, or are called something other than "WTA Backspin" (such as "Service Break").

Week 27 marked the first official anniversary of the column, which debuted as an individual entity on Tennisrulz in July 2002 (though a series of "WTA Report" sections appeared at the end of my "Jelena Corner" columns on Jelena-Dokic.com in 2001-02, as well).

This season includes what is one of my favorite Backspin editions, "Queen Justine" (where I professed my blossoming "feelings" for a certain Belgian after her U.S. Open championship run) in Week 36, even if I do have a regrettable typo ("ladder" instead of "latter" in the early going) in there that still sticks in my craw like a tack in my shoe.

If anyone wants to read any of these articles, but the links no longer work, simply e-mail me at "Contact Me" button in the site's sidebar (with Backspin in the subject) and make a request.