After two long years of waiting, fans were elated to return to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center for the US Open. But as with almost everything else, the COVID-19 pandemic has left an imprint on tennis, too.
From a reckoning over mental health in professional sports and a migration towards touchless technology in the stadium to a changing of the talent guard — both the way fans enjoy tennis and the players they’re watching have changed.
In the middle of a military base outside Mexico City, an army colonel runs what he calls a kindergarten for dogs. Puppies that one day will become rescue dogs, or sniffer dogs for drugs or explosives, get their basic training here, at Mexico’s Army and Air Force Canine Production Center.
