My time: 4:30, just thirty seconds shy of my record.
Theme: TENNIS COURT surfaces are found at the starts of the three themed answers: GRASSHOPPER, CLAYMATION, and HARD KNOCKS.
Right off the bat is an answer that isn't all that common: HATTON Garden, "London district known for diamond trading." It is in the Holborn district of the London Borough of Camden, close to the boundary with the City of London.
For "bump fists" I foolishly put *DAB instead of DAP. Curse these youthful fads and their weird made-up words! For "ventilate thoroughly" I put *AERATE instead of AIR OUT. Both of these cost me time.
Red Sox slugger Tony Armas has been in the puzzle before, but I don't recall seeing actress ANA de Armas. She was in the excellent Knives Out and Blade Runner 2049. Also apparently she is or was Ben Affleck's girlfriend?
Riddle-me-this, I know. Riddle-me-not, maybe, okay. But riddle-me-REE? Never heard of it. But it's at least 200 years old, so more fool me.
We've had early-1900s Montana congresswoman Jeanette Rankin in the puzzle, but not Jeanette LEE, a Korean-American champion billiards player nicknamed the Black Widow.
Martin Luther King said that RIOTS are "the language of the unheard." Sometimes. Sometimes they're the language of entitled whiners who can't see past their own privilege and are too sensitive to learn from mistakes.
More names: anchor ANDREA Mitchell is an Emmy-winning NBC News commentator.
I vaguely remember the Fox dramedy "ROC," starring Charles S. Dutton. The show began life as a traditional television sitcom, chronicling the ups and downs of Baltimore garbage collector Charles "Roc" Emerson (Charles S. Dutton), a tightwad who constantly brought home items thrown away by residents on his route. As it progressed, the series adopted a more dramatic tone, with several installments featuring social commentaries on gang activities, violence among youths, the consequences of drug use on childbirth and the plight of African-Americans in the United States. It was also the first prime time scripted American series since the late 1950s to broadcast each episode of an entire season, its second, live.
I've heard of Deion Sanders, but didn't know his nickname, Neon Deion. Because he was flashy? He won two Super Bowl titles and made one World Series appearance in 1992, making him the only athlete to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series.
Here's a totally new word for me: STANNIC, meaning of tin, especially with a valence of four.
The Wildcats have come up so many times. I just can't get it through my thick skull that they are the mascot for Kansas. K STATE was even an answer on December 7, 2017.
Novelist RONA Jaffe, she of the anti-D&D book and pandemic name, has appeared a few times.
Whew! Even though I solved this one way under average time, I still think it was somewhat hard for a Tuesday. There was a great deal of new stuff for the second-easiest crossword of the week! But I do enjoy learning new things, so that's not necessarily a complaint. The theme was a fun one.
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