Laurie's Tennis articles

Tennis has been in the news a lot this year and we are still in March.   It started at the Australian Open when the BBC and BuzzFeed made reports of match fixing which had been taking place over a number of years.   That was already well known but it was suggested that the Tennis Integrity Unit had not been taking the accusations seriously enough, did not investigate properly and the unit was too small to be effective, mainly comprising of a few part time senior ex policeman.   ATP Chief Chris Kermoode refuted this claim and promised robust actions.   However, in the last week, the Italian Authorities claim they have evidence of top 20 tennis players being involved in match fixing and accused the tennis authorities of not doing enough to bring these players to justice. If that was not bad enough, Maria Sharapova announced to the world not her retirement which some journalists had predicted, but that she failed a drug test for meldonium which was...

The Australian Open has a habit of throwing up surprising results and brilliant stories for fans of tennis and sport in general. In 2014 Stan Warwinka beat Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinal and Rafael Nadal in the final to win the Australian Open in dramatic fashion.   This weekend Angelique Kerber pulled off a similar feat, defeating Vi c toria Azarenka in the quarterfinal and Serena Williams in the final.   Like Wawrinka, Kerber found something deep inside herself, an inspiration to come up with an aggressive game plan to go for her shots and overcome players who had been dominating her in the head to head rivalry.   We were treated to a riveting final and at the end of it there was not a dry eye in the house, a very emotional victory, even Serena Williams felt emotional for Angelique!   So, how was Angelique able to transition to grand slam champion?   Let us have a look at her progression over the last few seasons which brought her to this ...

First we had the answer to the annually asked question of ‘When will we have a British Wimbledon Champion?’ in July 2013 and now we have an answer to British success in the Davis Cup! British tennis is buzzing with a positive vibe felt by many across the country and the hope that this success will propel us out of the shadows we’ve been in for many years. What Team GB achieved in the Davis Cup was something quite remarkable after only being in the Europe/Africa Zone Group 2 in 2010 with a play-off match against Turkey which decided whether they would be demoted to the bottom level of the competition. At this time, reaching the final like they did in 1978 or even going one step further like they did in 1936 where they won would have seemed a million miles away. A lot has changed since 1936 and other countries have overtaken Britain in the sporting arena, but it takes one or two exceptionally great players to change a nation’s fortune. What the LTA did back in 2010 when they ...