Tennisnowornever

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...