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Best of Five Set Masters Finals: Let's Bring Them Back

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Novak Djokovic wins Monte Carlo Back in 2012 I wrote an article for Eurosport asking whether some Masters finals on the ATP tour should be restored to best of five sets.    I think Masters tournaments are in need of a shake up. The dichotomy is that if I were to contact the ATP now, they would tell me how well the tournaments are doing, how much success they have had and how much money they generate, and there would be no need to change anything.   They would also think I am out of my mind but would probably be too polite to say it. But precisely the reasons why the ATP do not think there needs to be change, are the reasons there needs to be change.   There is no doubt in my mind that Masters finals exclusively becoming best of three sets has stifled competition and kept those at the top, at the top.   Why? There are a host of reasons for this.   The first thing to say is when best of five sets were jettisoned in 2007, it coincided w...

2015 WTA Season Needs More Competition

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Serena Williams wins Miami So, another weekend and another win for Serena Williams.   Serena won her eighth title last Saturday in Miami with a 6:2 6:0 victory over Carla Suarez Navarro, who was playing in her first Masters final.   We were all expecting a routine win but even I would not have predicted such a quick and easy victory. It appears to be getting relatively easier for Serena to win tennis tournaments the older she gets; usually it is the other way as it supposed to be more difficult the older a player becomes.   In fact, barring Venus Williams, every one of Serena’s rivals from her generation are retired and doing different things.   That includes Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, Amelie Mauresmo and Jennifer Capriati.   Remarkable indeed and let’s not forget Serena has won twelve major titles since 2008.      While this is all great news for Serena and her supporters, 2015 is so far ...

Tim Henman's Sampras dilemma

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  Recently ex tennis player Tim Henman gave his views on what has been the never-ending Roger Federer Pete Sampras debate.   Now this has been done to death since 2004 in the media and on tennis forums long before Federer broke Sampras’ records and long since Federer broke Sampras’ records .   What surprised me was that Henman, a guy who played both was so willing to give an opinion on an otherwise worn argument.   Henman was in Kolkata India as an ambassador for the HSBC road to Wimbledon tournament.   And he was asked the question:   Having played against both   Pete Sampras   and   Roger Federer , who would you pick as the better player?   This was Henman’s answer: Yeah, I played Pete when he was world No. 1. He was an incredible player, that's why he won 14 Grand Slams.   When he served well, he was at the top of his game. But Roger has a better all-round game and plays at a high level all the time. He has a great firs...

2015 Australian Open Round Up

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So, the Australian Open finishes for another year and two familiar faces have won the event.   Twelve months on that is quite a different scenario to 2014. This time last year Li Na defeated Dominica Cibulkova in a fun three set final, and a big upset occurred when Stan Wawrinka defeated Rafael Nadal to claim the mens trophy.   I recall Pete Sampras who travelled to Australia to hand over the trophy looking on in some bemusement during the presentation ceremony, having fully expected Rafael Nadal to equal his tally of fourteen major championships. But Warwinka had other ideas, coming out swinging in the first set and hitting second serves at 110mph in the corners, taking risks to win. Bottom line was it was a great start to the year to have two new Australian open winners and it really set up the mens year nicely culminating with another first time winner at the US Open in Marin Cilic. 2015 has not started as excitingly as 2014 (unless you are a fan of Seren...