Tennisnowornever

How many times, tennis fans, have you heard commentators, journalists and now retired legends of the game squawk enthusiastically about the quality of play we have been spoiled with in the era of the big 4? Tournament after tournament they chant:  ‘The physicality is remarkable!!’  ‘These guys are just superhuman!!!’  ‘Will we ever see such greatness on court again?!!?!?’ ……Sound familiar? But before we accuse the hypothetical record of needing to be changed we should realise the band responsible for releasing it have recently launched a new album. That’s right, the smash hit of the moment: it’s the #nextgen!! All of a sudden EVERYTHING is about Zverev, Kyrgios, Thiem and the gang. What a boyband that would be. And don’t get me wrong, this is completely justifiable. No one would be talking about them if they didn’t have results and talents to back it up. Meanwhile that ‘classic album’ is still selling really well. You know, that one that brought the band to...

Just a short round up this evening of the day’s action from day 2 of the Aegon Championships at Queen’s club. If you read my earlier series '5 things we learned from the French Open 2017' then you will know that lesson 5 highlighted the unpredictable nature of the men’s and woman’s games so far this year. Today’s results have only strengthened this belief. All started innocently enough as third seed Milos Raonic took to the centre court to face world number 698 Thanasi Kokkinakis. Although these stats make it sound like a demolition should have ensued the encounter was never going to be that straight forward. Raonic has not had a particularly convincing 2017 season so far. He has struggled with injury and is currently ranked number 16 in the ATP race to London. Opponent Kokkinakis had been ranked as highly as world number 69 back in June 2015 and is only 21 years old so clearly has talent well above what recent form would suggest. Still, with Kokkinakis low on match pl...

Almost two years ago exactly I watched a girl play tennis. She was a fairly normal girl in nearly every way except for one: this girl was someone that we would all come to know as Jo Konta, British number 1 and current world number 8. It was 2015 and the Aegon International tournament was being televised for the first time by the BBC. My money was on Caroline Wozniaki to lift the woman’s singles trophy but I was wrong. This prize went to Belinda Bencic who defeated Agnieszka Radwanska in the final to emerge the victor from a very strong field. However, in retrospect, none of this became my most enduring memory of the tournament. Surprisingly, all I can really remember was watching one of the wildcard entrants. She was a local girl who was ranked around the 150 mark in the world. I wasn’t expecting much from her: just another home hope that the commentators were excited about who would probably have an unremarkable career when all was said and done. But still I settled down to wat...

Lesson #5 The game is in flux! Okay, so, a little contradictory? I know: I’m just after implying that the matches at this year’s French Open were more predictable than normal and I stand by it! In terms of outcome that is. As I said, it appeared that identifying which player was physically stronger often answered the question of who would win. So if we could guess the result then what do I mean by ‘the game is in flux’? Well firstly let us think back on some of the score lines from the tournament. While it is true that the winner was often predictable the manner in which they got there was so often not. The Halep vs Svitolina encounter was always going to be a tight one. Hence, the fact Svitolina stretched her to 3 sets was pretty regular. But if anyone foresaw the demolition that would follow in the decider then I would like to congratulate you and maybe even employ you to write these for me! The momentum was so obviously with Svitolina….so how come Halep took it 6-0?? She ...

Lesson #4 Power play is in vogue, but will that work on grass? If there was one thing that particularly struck me from this year’s French Open it was how clearly style of play influenced the outcome of so many matches. Of course, this is always the case. Federer has a grass court game as obviously does Sergei Stakhovsky, Marcus Willis, Johanna Konta etc. That doesn’t mean they are not capable of winning on clay (and vice versa: King of clay Nadal has won Wimbledon) but it is evidently a more natural fit for someone like Rafa or Fabio Fognini So why did this concept come as such a surprise to me? After all, Roland Garros has a reputation as being the most physically draining of all the slams and clay is a surface famously hard to adapt to if you have not been brought up playing on it. It takes time to develop an understanding of how to win on it and many of the all-time greats of tennis such as John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and Martina Hingis failed to ever lift the c...

Lesson #3 No man (or woman) is a machine... This post is perhaps more personal to me than has been the case so far. Actually, I have a confession to make! So make a cup of tea, sit down and brace yourselves for a revelation….I am a Djokovic fan. I know, it’s not the hot thing to be right now but don’t try to save me friends: my appreciation of the Djoker already runs way too deep. Seriously though, it’s not exactly news to any follower of the ATP tour (fan of Djokovic or not) that his form has taken somewhat of a nose dive in the last 12 months. It all started at Wimbledon 2016 when he crashed out of the 3 rd round to the ‘blind squirrel that found a nut’- Sam Querry- in 4 sets (don’t look at me like that! That’s the words of Querry’s own coach, not mine!!). But, realistically, for a man who had just conquered the pinnacles of the sport by holding all 4 slams at once (something not even Federer and Nadal have managed to date) it was not initially that concerning to most. Ho...

Lesson #2 The changing of the guard is coming…..But it’s not here yet!! If you read my last blog post ‘5 things we learned from the French Open: Lesson 1’, then you will know that the French Open 2017 taught us that the next gen are on their way as they gain confidence and slowly chalk up wins against the big 4. In particular, Dominic Thiem looks like a strong charge who could have a fruitful clay career awaiting him. However, it’s easy to fall into a trap of overpraise for younger players when they do succeed when, in reality, they lack the consistency necessary to rule the game. Let us stick with Thiem for a moment: in 2016 at the ATP World Tour finals Dominic was able to take the first set from Novak Djokovic in their round robin match but went on to be relatively easily dispatched in the two sets that followed. Sure Djokovic raised his level, but anyone watching would probably have agreed that Dominic’s reaction to taking the first set resembled one of panic at finding him...

So dear tennis fans, you semi-postponed your life for a whole 2 weeks to immerse yourselves fully in what we know is one of the four most important events of the year. Personal hygiene and social life may have suffered but was it was worth it? Well, perhaps your answer depends partially on which players you were supporting but I assure you that whether you were happy with the results or not this tournament was an eye opener on many levels. With Wimbledon just around the corner, over the next few days I am going to roundup the 5 main knowledge nuggets we can extract from the French Open 2017 and, more importantly, what they mean heading into the grass courts: Lesson #1 The changing of the guard is coming… Tennis is a sport always looking to the future, even if sometimes prematurely. My first recollection of hearing about the impending ‘changing of the guard’ was probably in 2012 into 13. It was a year in which BBC commentators seemed to talk about nothing but the inevitable fall...

There’s that feeling again: the morning after. You are missing him already… Before you conclude that I must have had a very interesting booze fuelled night out, and am now dealing with the inevitable hangover of the soul that too often accompanies while you painstakingly overanalyse every detail and wonder whether you should call the number he gave to you (I mean, he was soooo dreamy, right?), I will set you straight. I didn’t and I’m not! *guilty face* But seriously, I refer to that feeling that every true tennis fan knows oh so well: it is the morning after effect. Roland Garros 2017 is finished. Mourn all you like people….it’s done… forever! Who are you missing? John Inverdale obviously! Now who is going to greet you excitedly every morning with promise of a whole days’ worth of incredible shot making and drama? (For any non UK readers wondering who John Inverdale is…don’t bother). Okay so considering that the French Open tournament will of course be back next year and that t...