Laurie's Tennis articles

The 1994 Wimbledon final between Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanisevic took place on an unusually hot July day for London.     Beforehand, everybody knew the rallies were going to be short and points quick.   However, no one would have predicted the importance that match would play in the direction of modern tennis.    The match was won by Sampras in straight sets with a strange scoreline of 7-6 7-6 6-0.   After Ivanisevic lost the two tiebreaks, he crumbled in the 3rd set as Sampras pulled out an array of returns and passing shots.   However, what seemed to get the media going was how the match unfolded, with a series of strong serves, aces, mishit returns or returns into the net on an incredibly regular basis.    With the temperature around 30 degrees centigrade and the ball flying as a result, there were zero rallies as a consequence.   Ivanisevic hit 25 aces and Sampras 17, whilst many of Sampras’ serves were consisten...

Jonny Marray has found fame and fortune late in his career. Jonny broke into the public consciousness in emphatic style, claiming the Wimbledon doubles title as a wildcard with Dane Freddie Nielsen; which can only be described as an amazing achievement. The most incredible thing about the victory was that both guys literally smiled their way to the title; always playing in the moment and treated success and failure the same with each passing point, especially the key ones. It must have been unnerving for each of their more illustrious opponents, particularly the Brian Brothers in the semifinal and the pair of Lindstedt / Tecau in the final. In fact, in the final Lindstedt often had the look of “what the hell is going on here? We’re losing to wildcards!!” Which made the spectacle even more incredible and engaging for the Wimbledon crowd plus the millions who watched on prime time television. Jonny’s win was also the catalyst for what is now described as the grea...

British Tennis celebrated a great weekend with Heather Watson winning the first singles title of her career and the first WTA title by a female British player since Sara Gomer won in Aptos in 1988.   Watson defeated Chang Kai-Chen of Taipei in 3 hours 11 minutes of tense and intense tennis with both players going for their first title.   Watson took the match on a third set tiebreak after serving for the 2nd set and saving match points in the 3rd.   Not only did Watson win her first singles title, she also reached the doubles final partnering Kimiko Date Krum but lost to the US pair Spears/Kops-Jones. However, this has not been the only success for Heather Watson this year.   Earlier this summer, Watson teamed up with Marina Erakovic to win her first WTA doubles title in Los Angeles.   Watson also reached the 3rd round of Wimbledon, the first player to do so since Elena Baltacha in 2004   Meanwhile, Laura Robson has also had an excellent summer...

Andy Murray conquered years of questions and self-doubt to win his first US Open title.   Caroline Wozniacki so far has chosen a different path to Murray and now appears to be regressing in her career.   Is it too late for Wozniacki to win a major title? After his first three major final losses and other disappointments, Murray accepted change was needed to his game mentally and tactically.   By appointing Ivan Lendl as coach, Murray showed to the world he was prepared to take tough decisions.   The memo is that Lendl first approached Murray’s representatives towards the end of 2011 with a view to working with Murray.   Not that it matters who approached whom as it was clear changes needed to be made to Murray’s game if he wanted to win a major title.   Since the appointment at the beginning of January, Murray’s game more or less looks the same but the changes are more subtle.    First of all, Murray has cut down markedly on t...

2012 has proven to be a great year for Angelique Kerber, Angelique is rapidly becoming a household name in the world of tennis, mainly due to her exciting performances and rise up the rankings, Angelique is now an established top 10 player on the WTA tour with a good chance of making the year end WTA championships in Istanbul.     Angelique won her first career title at the indoor event in Paris in February, and backed that up with a title two months later in Denmark defeating Caroline Wozniacki.   However, the win in Paris showed what Angelique is all about, defeating Maria Sharapova in straight sets in the quarterfinal and Marion Bartoli in a three set final thriller in front of an extremely raucous home crowd.    In reality, Angelique’s good run started well before 2012, twelve months ago at the 2011 edition of the US Open, Angelique came from nowhere to get to the semifinal, defeating players of the calibre of Agnieszka Radwanska and Flavia Pen...