Laurie's Tennis articles

We have reached the end of 2019 and entered a brand new decade. A good opportunity to take our annual look at the WTA players who will be key protagonists in 2020. Unlike in the men’s game, the transition to the new generation has already taken place. In 2019 three of the four major championships were won by players under the age of twenty four,   Naomi Osaka already has two major titles to her credit, whilst Ashleigh Barty finished the year as world number 1, French Open and WTA champion. Therefore, it is fair to say the WTA tour is in good hands going into the 2020s. Ashleigh Barty There is no better place to start our preview than with the current world number 1. Ashleigh (or Ash as she prefers to be called) had a superb 2019, initially reaching the final of Sydney international and the quarterfinal of the Australian Open in January. Ash followed that up with a big win at the Miami Open, then her major title at the French Open defeating Markéta Vondroušová in the...

This week we continue our Flashback series on grass and take a look at the 2006 Wimbledon final between Amelie Mauresmo and Justine Henin. 2006 saw an interesting championship which culminated with a popular winner in Amelie Mauresmo; a player who had been through a lot in her young life at that point, overcoming a number of adversities to triumph on the big stage. Strangely enough, her opponent Justine Henin also experienced many adversities as well whilst ascending to the top. This is a reminder of what it takes for many of the world stars to get to the top of their profession. In Amelie’s case, there was a lot of talk about her after coming out as gay as a 19 year old in January 1999. Amelie was not on speaking terms with her father but it was reported she was able to come to peace with him shortly before his death in 2004. Not to make things any easier, the press often gave Amelie a difficult time over a number of years for her physical appearance and perceived lack of ...

We are in the middle of Wimbledon 2019 so as always a good time to focus on our flashback series, looking at grass court tennis. Today we take a look at a match that is largely forgotten, the 1999 Wimbledon semifinal between Pete Sampras and Tim Henman. I say forgotten as the final between Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi is widely seen as Sampras’ greatest performance and there are a large number of videos on YouTube of that particular final. However, the semifinal against Henman was quite a struggle mentally and emotionally for both participants, and perhaps as it turned out, a hard training session for Sampras, honing his skills for the final. The 1999 championships had been wrecked by rain in the second week; this caused a backlog of matches, which during this period of history was quite normal. Back in 1999 and as recently as three years ago, the championships took place in the last week of June and the first week of July. I always found this a bit strange, as once Wimbled...

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....