Opinion: Why Djokovic’s covid exemption matters

Yes, I too thought we’d be rid of this blog by now, but like coronavirus, it keeps on coming back. But unlike covid-19, you can all choose to ignore this, and it matters little to me either way. A crass segue into today’s topic yes, but what else do you expect. We of course welcome […]

OPINION: Pandemic continues to reveal tennis’ dark side

Compared with other popular sports, tennis largely escapes the broad contemptuous strokes from critics. Footballers pay is wholly unjustified, rugby players are thugs, golfers and cricketers have zero personality and their sports and fans are ridiculously dull. I could go on. But tennis, well the main gripes seem to revolve around the classist roots that […]

OPINION: Petra’s bravery on show again and YouTube offers up rankings reminiscing

Forgive the rather convoluted, bloated headline here. Two tennis titbits caught my eye this week. Kvitova’s courage back in the spotlight Sports stars are not immune to personal attacks or tragedy. In tennis, Monica Seles and the Williams sisters are two recent examples of these respectively, all three recovered to do great things of course, […]

OPINION: 2019 season predictions

Welcome back. In this, the first of this year’s weekly posts (every Sunday), I take a vague stab in the dark for the season ahead. Who will have a good year and who will struggle. Slam Champions Australia: Federer and Halep With Rafa and Andy still injured and Djokovic maybe still finding his feet, there […]

WTA Finals encapsulate a rich and varied 2018 for women’s tour

For years we have marvelled at the undisputed greatness of Serena Williams and in the same vein as Roger, Rafa and Novak we tell ourselves to enjoy this great champion while we can. But as we know, such historymakers at the summit of both tours are their only similarity. Elsewhere we have two very beasts. […]

OPINION: No wonder Naomi’s nonplussed after New York

Forgive the rather trivial nature of the title here, this is a sad realisation. The brilliant Naomi Osaka who so memorably took her maiden slam last month and was already regarded as a revelatory history-maker and future great, has finally opened up about the less than perfect manner of her Flushing Meadows victory. Let’s be […]

Djokovic’s latest record reignites debate and scrutinises the hate

I’ll freely admit that my love for this sport is often skewed by wholly biased favouritism. If a player beat Hantuchova at a major (most frequently Sharapova or Serena but most significantly Ivanovic in the 08 Aussie SF), denied Federer another slam (Nadal and Djokovic), or simply replaced Tim in the timeline (Murray) then they’d […]

Wimbledon 2018: Was I the only one who knew Federer would lose?

With Roger and England’s exits from their respective competitions still proving tough to get over from, a short reflection piece and a question…did no-one else see this coming? The false decline For years between 2013 and 2016 I echoed pretty much everyone else by adopting a resigned view that Roger Federer was so firmly ensconced […]

OPINION: Clay season musings

A (long overdue) look at the upcoming tournaments on the red/green stuff. After the sunshine double in March, some clay tournaments have already finished of course (the green clay of Charleston saw Kiki Bertens triumph in a tough field which included Madison Keyes and Julia Georges). WOMEN So, who is looking good? Well historically the […]

OPINION: Ranking system ripe for change?

On my daily Twitter sweep, I noticed a piece on ESPN discussing the current ATP and WTA tour ranking system and whether another prominent version can viably replace it. The Universal Tennis Rating, already popular and widely implemented at junior levels in the States works on an algorithm. Taking a players last 30 matches into […]