Laurie's Tennis articles

Tennis Works We now have a new focus for British Tennis…Participation! Although I laugh when making that statement as it seems obvious that this is something a governing body should be doing but it is a serious direction that I believe should be the number one on the tennis agenda. Over the 14 years that I have been developing the coaching element of Tennis Works, my focus has been on getting as many people as possible to try the game and give them opportunities to continue playing. I established a Charity called MK Ace, which allowed us to get funding to help cover the large costs of hiring public facilities, staff, marketing etc and make tennis very affordable for all. The network I created in and around my town in Milton Keynes, Bucks, was huge and the operation had over 18 venues, 12 coaches, 20 schools and 1000 people a week playing tennis. Then…we hit a recession! Funding dried up, the Schools Sports Partnership network lost its budget to provide coaches int...

Amelie Mauresmo and Mary Pierce Laurie’s Tennis Articles continues to look at previous championships of the new millennium and this week looks at the 2005 edition in Staples centre Los Angeles. The 2005 WTA championships was the final edition to be held at the Staples centre after a four year stint.   Unlike Madison Square Garden which was seen as a successful period for the championships; the problem with the Staples centre was not only was the stadium extremely vast, the court appeared at best medium slow.   In today’s tennis a slow indoor court is not an issue but in the early 2000s it seemed strange to hold such a prestigious event on a court where the ball was not really coming through quickly.   However, with the Americans dominating the WTA tour at the majors, it was sensible to hold the event where big crowds would be guaranteed.   Even so, Venus Williams missed three of the four editions; Serena Williams didn’t qualify in 2003 and was injured i...

Laurie’s Tennis Articles will take a look at some of the classic WTA championships in recent times, which culminated in either a memorable final or memorable matches throughout the event.   This week we take a look at the 2000 championships. In November 2000, the event called the Chase championships would be held at Madison Square Garden in New York for the very last time after a successful period of almost 30 years.   There was controversy over the new venue chosen for 2001 and 2002 in Munich Germany as Monica Seles publicly stated that she would never play in Germany again after the infamous stabbing incident in Hamburg in 1993 and perceived lack of justice in the German courts where her attacker was not given a prison sentence. The tournament set up was vastly different back in 2000.   The top 16 in the world qualified for the year end tournament which was pure knock out from first round to the final.   With the format change since, this seems a b...