Laurie's Tennis articles

Last Sunday we witnessed an exhilarating end to a great French Open, one of the best for many years.    The focus will be on Novak Djokovic and his missed opportunity to win the French Open and join the elite club of guys to win all four major championships in their career.   But for me, what made this the best tournament of the last decade was the champion being dethroned at a relatively early stage; with the remaining players thinking this is their best chance to win the title which eluded them for so long.   It is inconceivable that one player could win a tournament nine times at grand slam level, so when he loses early, it really is up for grabs.    The way Wawrinka was able to win the tournament was truly remarkable, and is rather fitting that he won the tournament in such a manner a day after Barcelona beat Juventus in the champions league final, a triumph for attacking risk taking sport over efficient if unspectacular play. Although it...

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...

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 ...

  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...