Laurie's Tennis articles

One month has made all of the difference for Andy Murray.   Murray went from despair in his Wimbledon final defeat to Roger Federer, to absolute joy one month later in the Olympic final against the same opponent.   So what made the difference?   There were a few factors that ushered the transformation, mainly change of mentality and approach to the game. Because it was the change in mentality which lead to the change in approach and tactical awareness, you cannot have one before the other. And during the Olympics I saw a Murray that played consistently aggressive from start to finish in most of his matches particularly in the semifinal and the final.    In the Olympic final, Roger Federer came into the match on the back of an incredible semifinal against Juan Martin Del Potro which lasted almost 4 hours and 30 minutes and went to 20 – 18 in the 3rd set.   Murray played two mixed doubles matches with Laura Robson on the Saturday, which left him ...

Womens British tennis is looking up after years in the international wilderness.  There is a long way to go before Britain can get into the elite group, but in Heather Watson, we have a player who has the desire and talent to make a real impression on the WTA tour for years to come.  We also have a situation where we have two British players of a similar age vying to be British number 1, the other player being Laura Robson.  That can only be good for British tennis if both players can push each other to ultimately rise up the rankings and be consistently in the top 30 of the womens game.   That process has already begun this summer.  Heather Watson reached the 3rd round of Wimbledon, which was the first time that has happened since Sam Smith in 1999.  And last weekend Heather won her first tour doubles title in Stanford with partner Marina Erakovic of New Zealand.  With that triumph, Watson reached a career high 71 in the WTA ranki...

Petra Kvitova relinquished her Wimbledon title in a defeat to 2010 champion Serena Williams in two sets on centre court on Tuesday.  It was a high quality match, particularly in the 2nd set, but the difference between the two players was the serve of Serena Williams.  Kvitova will be disappointed not to defend her Wimbledon title but should use this experience to learn from the defeat and become a better player longer term. By her own admission, Kvitova has not had a great start to 2012 in comparison to 2011.  By July 2011 she had won Sydney, Paris Indoor, Madrid and Wimbledon, plus played in the final of the Aegon Championships in Eastbourne.  However, so far in 2012 Kvitova has not reached a final of any event despite getting to 4 semifinals including the Australian and French Opens.  This has left some people to question whether she has the potential to become the best player in the world.  There are a few factors which have prompted this...

We have taken a look at Pete Sampras game by breaking it down into different facets. I will now take a look at how Sampras performed against his main rivals from the era of the 1990s through early 2000s.  Sampras v Courier It is interesting to look back on Jim Courier’s reign as number 1 in 1992; a player who made the most of his talent with hard work, Jim was compared to Ivan Lendl during this period – not least by Brad Gilbert in his book called “Winning Ugly”.  Courier used Lendl’s tactic of trying to dominate each match with his forehand and was extremely good on clay as a result. However, Courier did not possess natural athletic ability; therefore once his level started to drop at the young age of 23, he found it hard to get it back.   You could argue Sampras played a major part in that, because he frustrated Courier a lot in the major tournaments, Sampras was often in Courier’s way and that would frustrate anyone.  Courier won their 1991 US ...

The grasscourt season has begun and Wimbledon is not too far away.  It is an opportunity to take a look at one of the great grasscourt players and tennis legends.  This article will look at Pete Sampras’ game in detail, and the next article will concentrate on Sampras’ main rivals throughout his career.  Pete’s Serve This is one of Sampras’ most recognisable shots; many regard him as having the greatest serve in the game’s history.  A study was conducted at the 1998 US Open which showed that despite speeds upwards of 120mph, Sampras was able to generate up to 4260rpms; and up to 5357rpms on the 2nd serve, far above any other player.  Other players who served at similar speeds had far less RPMs on the serve on average.    See study here This is one of the reasons why Sampras’ serve was so good, he possessed the ability to generate slice and topspin in equal measure and sometimes combined the two at the same time.  S...