Laurie's Tennis articles

Daniil Medvedev is a player on the rise, a member of the “next gen”, Daniil won his biggest tournament to date at the season ending World Tour finals in London, defeating Dominic Thiem in an entertaining three set match.   Daniil showed resilience in coming from a set down to win convincingly, taking advantage of Thiem’s mental and physical tiredness in the third set.   Daniil also got revenge on Thiem, who defeated him in straight sets in the US Open semi-final earlier this autumn.   Daniil also became the first player to defeat the top 3 seeds to win an event on the ATP tour and should be congratulated for that achievement.   Daniil has an unorthodox and intriguing game style which is definitely worth looking at in some depth. Daniil’s Serve Daniil is the latest in a long line of very tall professional tennis players. Since the start of the 1990s, players 6 ft 4 plus (1 metre 95) include Todd Martin, Michael Stich, Mark Rosset, Alexander Popp, Mark Philippous...

This year’s US Open final between Alexander (Sasha) Zverev and Dominic Thiem would usually be the final major tournament of 2020. Despite the strange situation of one more major tournament to be played at the French Open due to coronavirus, it does not stop us from assessing how the “next gen” performed at the US Open in the absence of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and the unfortunate disqualification of Novak Djokovic during the tournament.   This gave the US Open an impetus and sense of urgency we have not seen at a major tournament for years, probably since 2001 Wimbledon when Federer knocked Pete Sampras out of Wimbledon and all of the remaining players suddenly realised it was their big opportunity.   So, how did the “next gen” do at the US Open and what are the implications for the future of men’s tennis going forward?   What we saw was a mixed bag of performances by the stars of tomorrow which left more questions than answers, and that includes the final itself...

The 2000s was the most competitive decade for women’s tennis. An era where a number of talented players came through together, culminating in a plethora of serious rivalries; similar to the 1980s men’s tour when Lendl, McEnroe, Connors, Edberg, Becker and Wilander all fought it out for top spot and major titles.    Let’s take a look at the great players and the legacy they have left, in the order of the players with the most weeks at number 1 throughout the decade. NB : For the purpose of this article, I will refer to legacy Tier 1, Primary Mandatory and Primary 5 as Tier 1 titles.    Justine Henin Justine Henin is the first player to feature, the premiere player in the mid-2000s, Justine spent a total of 117 weeks as number 1 in the world.   Once described as “the female Federer” by John McEnroe, Justine won seven major titles including four French Opens, two US Opens and one the Australian Open in 2004. Justine never won Wimbledon but made ...