Laurie's Tennis articles

With the 2019 season fast approaching, it is a good opportunity to have a look at some of the players of the WTA and their prospects for winning the big prizes on offer. Simona Halep In 2018 Simona finally achieved her lifelong ambition of winning a major title, and her favourite tournament to boot at the French Open where she played and lost two previous finals. Before her French Open triumph the year started well enough, although with crushing disappointment as Simona lost the Australian Open final to Caroline Wozniacki in the battle of the counterpunchers. The match was special because whoever won the match would become number 1 and win their first major title. Wozniacki came through after a nail biting third set but Simona would have been disappointed with the manner of defeat, having opportunities with breaks in the third set but ultimately losing it. I would suggest Simona caused her own problems by again backing off at crucial moments instead of going to net to put p...

This week our flashback article focuses on the 1992 US Open between Stefan Edberg and Pete Sampras. There was an interesting backdrop and a lot of factors at play going into this final which made it an historical occasion, a match that had repercussions and seen as a reference point in the recent history of tennis. The first thing to note is that the final was between the two previous winners of the tournament, Pete Sampras won it in 1990 and Stefan Edberg won in 1991. Whoever won the match would be ranked number 1 in the world and would finish the year as number 1, Edberg was number 2 and Sampras 3 seed. Therefore, already the match had huge importance riding on it.  If Sampras won the match, it would be the first time all four slams would be held by players from the same country, Jim Courier won the Australian and French Open, Andre Agassi won Wimbledon.  Sampras went into the US Open having won Cincinnati and Indianapolis so was well placed to win the tournament....

We continue to look at some of the interesting matches that have taken place over the years during the North American hardcourt season. This week we take a look at the 2009 US Open 4th round between Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams. The talk going into this match mainly centred on Kim Clijsters, a player who retired two years earlier, got married, had a child and then returned to the tour in summer of 2009 at the grand old age of 26. Let’s just say times were a little different in the 1990s and noughties when it was normal for players to retire in their mid to late 20s. Kim received wildcards to the Canadian Open, Cincinnati and the US Open and was an extremely dangerous player who favoured hardcourts above all other surfaces. Meanwhile, Venus Williams went into the match as slight favourite, but by no means clear favourite considering Kim Clijsters’ pedigree in the game. In fact, the last time Kim played the US Open, she won it in 2005, defeating Venus in three sets in the q...

We’ve come to that time of year again which I consider to be one of the most interesting periods on the tennis calendar. The hardcourt season is well underway with big tournaments taking place in Canada this week with Cincinnati and the US Open to come.   A perfect opportunity to flashback to some matches that have taken place in the North America summer over the decades. The first match I will look at is the 1991 US Open semifinal between Ivan Lendl and Stefan Edberg. A highly anticipated matchup in a very interesting US Open, where a 39 year old Jimmy Connors made it all the way to the semifinal to play Jim Courier.   Despite the six year age difference, Edberg and Lendl had already played each other on twenty three occasions previously with Lendl taking a 13 to 10 lead into the semifinal.   At that stage, many of the matches took place at grand slam level, including the 1990 Australian Open final, 1985 & 1991 Australian Open semifinals, 1990 Wimbledon semif...

There has been a touch of nostalgia surrounding the recent Nitto ATP Finals in London. It was announced before the draw took place that the groups would be named after Pete Sampras and Boris Becker in honour of the great matches they played in the ATP Championships, not only against each other but their consistent success at the tournament. Between 1990 and 1999 they appeared in eight of the ten finals winning seven and played each other in the 1994 and 1996 finals.  Sampras wrote a piece on the ATP website reminiscing about that 1996 final and Sky Sports put highlights of the match on their website. The perfect situation for one of my flashbacks as this is considered the greatest ever indoor match. The 1996 edition of the ATP Championships is significant. It was the first of four years the tournament would be played in Hanover, Germany; moving from Frankfurt where it was held at the Festhalle. The venue was built for Expo 2000 which was a world trade fair that would be h...