Laurie's Tennis articles

With the hugely surprising announcement of Marion Bartoli’s retirement overnight, its worth taking a look at other retirements that have surprised the world of tennis and sport in recent times.   But not only shock retirements it is also worth considering players who were big stars and major winners but kind of disappeared from the limelight almost overnight. In looking at players who retired suddenly, certain themes keep re-occurring.   They started their career at the top at a very early age, they suffered a lot of stress due to constant traveling, they found it hard to deal with tough losses, and they often failed to sparkle in their comebacks. Gabriela Sabatini Sabatini retired in 1996 at the age of 26 which is a crazily young age.   But by the time of her retirement, she had already been a professional for 11 years having turned professional in the mid 1980s.   Sabatini won the US Open in 1990 defeating Steffi Graf in straight sets.  ...

With the US Open fast approaching, it would be interesting to take a look at some of the best players who never managed to lift the trophy at one of the toughest tournaments in the world. In the opinion of many, fans and experts alike, the US Open is probably the toughest of the Grand Slam tournaments to win.  The surface is unforgiving and the weather can be hot and humid in New York in early September.  The crowd atmosphere is often raucous and many night matches finish in the early hours of the morning. The most difficult thing for the players has been the schedule. For many years, the semifinals of the men's event took place on the second Saturday with the final the following day.  Depending on how the semis turned out, one of the finalists often had less than 24 hours to prepare for the final. Meanwhile, the womens final was sandwiched between two mens semifinals up to the mid 1990s. These factors have made it a very difficult tournament to win. Bjorn ...

2 001 Wimbledon has gone down as one of the greatest championships in the Open era and Grand Slam history.   There was great drama throughout, and great weather up until semifinals day, when the tension reached unbearable levels, climaxing with the incredible and unprecedented “people’s final” which took place on the 3rd Monday.   The final between Goran Ivanisevic and Pat Rafter will live long in the memory of those who witnessed it, watched it on television or listened to it on the radio. What set up this particular Wimbledon to be one of the greatest tournaments was the dramatic defeat of Pete Sampras by Roger Federer in the 4th round on the 2nd Monday.   Sampras went into the event without a tournament win for a year, but was still defending champion and number 1 seed.   It was an almighty close battle which Federer edged 7:5 in the fifth set. The defeat was hugely significant because it gave the remaining players a lift that they had a ch...