Instead, he went to the shop he co-owned in Silver Springs, Maryland, and was stringing tennis racquets when Dee Tompkins walked in the door. She didn’t know it then, but strings were definitely ...

The problem? The wrong racquet was taken to the stringing room from Davidovich Fokina’s chair, which left the world No. 30 without his weapon of choice, and the chair umpire calling out after ...