For the full draw, please click here: WTA Madrid 2013 Draw The biggest clay court event of the year so far is already underway in Madrid, and the star-studded field rivals that of any Grand Slam tournament. All of the world’s top 16 players will be in action in [...]
They say that behind every great man there’s a great woman which is perhaps why everyone is always interested in the partners of the world’s greatest sports players. Behind Roger Federer you will find his beautiful wife, Mirka Vavrinec. Mirka was born in 1978 and she immigrated to Switzerland [...]
Debates over who was the best female tennis player of all time abound. In the men’s game, it is generally recognised that Federer has surpassed all others in the history of the game.In the women’s game, it is not quite so straightforward.If it were a simple matter of career statistics, [...]
Where does Serena Williams, one of the best tennis players ever, come from? The answer to this question is the city of Saginaw, Michigan first gained world renown in the 1960’s Simon and Garfunkel hit ‘America’. In that song, it took ‘four days to hitch hike from…’, elevating the city [...]
Since they were 11 and 12 years old respectively, Venus and Serena Williams have been profiled on film and television from their days as up and coming tennis prodigies to becoming two of the most dominant players of their generation. In America, they had their own reality show back in [...]
As in the history of the men’s game, there have also been many outstanding women’s doubles pairings. From Lenglen and Ryan in the 1920’s to the Williams sisters, women’s doubles has thrown up many examples of great talent. In the current era, one of the factors that has distinguished the [...]
Looking back over the Grand Slam statistics since the advent of Open Tennis 45 years ago, most of those who would have been expected to have won a Grand Slam singles did so. It is hard to detect anyone unfairly deprived of such kudos. Many very good players have, indeed, [...]
Winning a Grand Slam event puts a player into a select group separating him or her from the general mass of players. By definition, it is the ‘best’ players who win Grand Slam events and in so doing, become generally considered among the ‘best’ in the game. This circular logic [...]
The many pundits in the game are generally in assent with the following view: The (medium-term) future of the game is bright: the future is Djokovic and Murray. This view is bolstered by events in the latter part of 2012 during which both players vied with one another for the [...]
No matter what her ranking is, Serena Williams remains for many the best women’s player on tour. But her return trip back to No. 1 for a sixth time this week punctuates yet another chapter in the stellar, yet at times tumultuous career for the 15-time Major champion. July 8, [...]
Tennis Finals – 1877 to 2012 1877 Wimbledon GS Spencer Gore d. William Marshall 6-1 6-2 6-4 1878 Wimbledon GS Frank Hadow d. Spencer Gore 7-5 6-1 9-7 1879 Wimbledon GS John Hartley d. Frank Hadow W.O 1880 Wimbledon GS John Hartley d. Herbert Lawford 6-3 6-2 2-6 [...]
The past is a different country, as the sage once noted. Twenty-five years ago seems like a different universe. E-mail and the internet were the preserve of a small coterie of techie ‘insiders’ and twitter meant to mutter inconsequentially (one might ask has anything changed?!). Microsoft released its 2.1 version [...]
Angelique Kerber v Ekaterina Makarova Angelique Kerber came past a potentially troublesome third round match against the teenage prodigy, Madison Keys. Given her usual standards, she has had a surprisingly serene route the tournament up until this point, and this is already the furthest that she has progressed in the [...]
Can you hear that? There is a particular noise that major tennis tournaments make, a mix of grunts and shoe squeaks, cheers and whistles, bustle and punditry. This year in Melbourne, though, there’s something missing. It’s a sound we’ve grown so accustomed to, that perhaps we’ve taken it for granted. [...]
