My partner Byron Smith (far left) and I (floppy hat) with our opponents after winning the Bronze Ball. With a new book out comes a new website – williamfinger.com and the opportunity to write posts on tennis and related topics. In this first post, I have great news: I just won my first U.S. Tennis Association “ball,” with a third-place finish in the 2024 National ClayCourt Championships, 75-and-over doubles – a Bronze Ball. My partner, Byron Smith, wrote on his Facebook page, “After 40 years of playing national tennis tournaments, I finally broke through and won a Bronze Ball!” At least I only had to wait six years from when I returned to major competition at age 71. You can read about my first National Clay Court Championships (2018) in Chapter 7 of Courting: A Tennis Memoir. The fates seemed aligned for Byron and me to win. In our first-round match, after a very poor first set, we won the second, forcing a “super” 10-point tiebreaker to decide the match (first to 10, win by two). Down 4-9, facing five match points, we somehow pulled it out, 12-10, and moved on. After a routine match in the second round, we