Tennis news, analysis, tournament coverage, and rumors
In a new four-part series, Martin Keady, our resident tennis historian, considers the end of the great “Trivalry” between Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, which has come with Federer’s retirement, and argues that it was the greatest rivalry ever in any sport. In all the understandable commemoration and celebration of the end of Roger Federer’s […] READ MORE
In the end, the only tie that Great Britain’s Davis Cup team could win in Glasgow was the dead rubber against Kazakhstan – and they only just managed that. Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski, the doubles pairing that arguably should have played in all three of Great Britain’s ties, eventually won a match of three […] READ MORE
For much of the 20th century – so, for most of the history of professional sport – art and sport were widely regarded as being almost mutually exclusive. Indeed, it was a commonly held belief, especially in the West, that it was almost impossible for someone to love both equally. Much of the British education […] READ MORE
As a sport, tennis has had its fair share of shocks over the last number of years. And last week we had another one, with the sudden retirement of Ashleigh Barty despite being clear number 1. On the “shocks” scale this was quite a big one, superficially up there with Bjorn Borg in 1981 and […] READ MORE
In the past week or so, the world has changed. The Russian invasion (or reinvasion, or expanded invasion) of Ukraine threatens the very existence of the country, such that Ukrainian sportspeople, including tennis players, are now literally putting down their boxing gloves, goalkeeping gloves and tennis rackets to take up arms to defend their homeland. […] READ MORE
It was the Queen of Hearts in Alice In Wonderland who claimed to have “believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Well, Carlos Alcaraz looks as if he is on the verge of achieving six impossible things before he turns 19 in May, because he has already achieved some remarkable feats that almost […] READ MORE
In the continuing absence of Roger Federer from the ATP Tour, tennis purists have had to look elsewhere for their stylistic kicks and in particular for a new favourite stroke to match the fluidity and grace of either Federer’s forehand or backhand. It is possible that many of them may eventually settle on the lovely […] READ MORE
It was back in 2019. British Junior Anton Matusevich was getting set to play Holger Rune in the Wimbledon Juniors tournament. As he told the Daily Mail’s Laura Lambert, “…The guy has no life, he just plays tennis every bloody day…he’s got nothing in his life apart from tennis to do.” Coming into the 2021 […] READ MORE
For Oscar Otte, his match against Alex Molcan Friday was a streak-buster. With Roger Federer’s record number of holds approaching in the distance, Molcan broke Otte’s streak of 68 games in a row with a break to 30. Molcan ended up beating Otte 6-3 4-6 6-1, reading the German’s serve better than anyone in recent […] READ MORE
Jannik Sinner’s rise has been so rapid that it is easy to forget that just two years ago he was preparing to play at the NextGen ATP Finals in Milan. Winning that event, when he was still only 18, catapulted him into the consciousness of the tennis-watching world and the ensuing 24 months have been […] READ MORE