Laurie's Tennis articles

In my series of US Open matches flashbacks, we go to 2004 this time and take a closer look at the semifinal between Elena Dementieva and Jennifer Capriati. 2004 was the year the Russians dominated the grand slam scene, winning three of the four major tournaments at the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open. Just one year before, the Belgians dominated with Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters contesting the French, US Open and 2004 Australian Open finals. Therefore in the space of 12 months, the Belgians and Russians took over completely from the Americans. Prior to mid-2003, Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati, Venus and Serena Williams won all of the majors from the turn of the millennium bar Mary Pierce who won the 2000 French Open final. In 2004, the semifinals were a battle between the Americans and the Russians; surprisingly the Russians came out on top. Surprising because Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati were both multi grand slam champions and former number 1 players...

Every now and again I like to have a look at some of the classic matches of yesteryear.  This time we go back to the year 2000 and one of the classic rivalries of the previous generation between Pete Sampras and Richard Krajicek. Their last ever meeting took place at the quarterfinal stage of the US Open in the year 2000; and it turned out to be a brilliant match but so different to the type of tennis we see today. Also surprising is that they never played each other again, despite the fact that both players retired in 2003. Their previous meeting took place at the quarterfinal stage of the 1999 ATP championships in Cincinnati, and before that they met in the 1999 Miami Open also at the quarterfinal stage. Interestingly, their meeting in 1998 Stuttgart Super Nine (Masters) took place in the quarterfinal and their famous Wimbledon encounter in 1996 was also a quarterfinal. They played a lot of quarterfinals! The winner of these matches either went on to the final or won the t...

2017 is proving to be a challenging period for the players who hold the world number one position in tennis. Angelique Kerber regained the top ranking from Serena Williams during the clay court season whilst Andy Murray has been struggling to make an impression, with many early exits from tournaments since the season began at the end of December. What is really interesting is how similar the situation is for both players and I think this is worth exploring further.  The best way to do that would be to chart Angelique’s and Andy’s accent to number 1. For Angelique, 2016 was a great year; the best year of her career and may turn out to be the best ever year she will experience. Not many players in history have won two grand slam titles in one season and played in three finals. Not only that, Angelique also got to the finals of the Olympics, Cincinnati and the year end championships in Singapore.  The only slight downside would be that she could have won more finals an...

Johanna Konta wins Miami Open The clay court season is underway and we are about to embark on another great period of spring and summer tennis. This is a good opportunity to take a look at the one of the hottest properties on the tour right now in Johanna Konta.  Johanna has made a dramatic rise up the rankings in the last two seasons to a career high position of seven and recently won the prestigious Miami Open title, one of the biggest titles outside of grand slam level.  Let’s take a look at how Johanna has got to this position, assess her strengths and weaknesses and try to predict how far she can get in her career. Serve Johanna possesses one of the better serves on the WTA tour.  Johanna is a tall player at 1m 80 (5 ft. 11) and thus able to extend up and serve well into the corners.  Another asset for Johanna is her ability to consistently produce first serves of over 100mph which keeps her opponents honest more often than not.  As regar...

With the 2017 WTA season fast approaching, let’s take a look at some of the players who are likely to make the biggest impression and win the big prizes. Angelique Kerber The 2016 WTA season proved to be one of the most exciting for a number of years; and that was pretty much down to one player, Angelique Kerber, who took the game by storm by appearing in three out of four major finals and winning two of them. And yet, Angelique wasn’t a player who dominated the year by winning week in week out on the WTA tour but saved herself for the biggest tournaments; which is almost the domain of the experienced veteran, a player who peaks for the biggest tournaments in the world. This enabled Angelique to gain the number 1 ranking and become the oldest ever debutant number 1 at the age of 28.  Interestingly on the mens side, Andy Murray became the oldest debutant number 1 since John Newcombe in the early 1970s, and it is fair to say both Murray and Angelique play a similar gam...

Tennis, like many sports has been often been accused of being stuck in a malaise of tradition. However, tennis has been involved in quite a bit of innovation over the decades.   For instance the tiebreak, which was introduced in 1970; before the tiebreak, first sets in matches could often end up 10:8!   Tennis along with cricket were also the first sports to introduce Hawk-Eye.   Cricket initially brought in Hawk-Eye (developed by Paul Hawkins) for the benefit of television viewers, then later as part of the review system for the Third Umpire to check LBW (leg before wicket) decisions on the TV monitor in the back studio.   Tennis soon followed suit introducing Hawk-Eye in 2006 as part of their review system, where a player could challenge a call made by the umpire or line judge.   The ATP tour has introduced the no ad scoring system in doubles matches, however, I consider that more of a convenience for television rather than an innovation.   One ...