Serving up weekly waffle from the tennis world
Today’s official announcement from camp Djokovic of the struggling Serb’s split with Andre Agassi comes to little surprise. Even if the partnership had been during more fruitful times, it never seemed a natural marriage. The mentor too radical and the player – one imagines – too eager to stick with what worked so well for […]
Read More OPINION: Doomed Agassi and Novak pairing was never believableTennis balls are yellow, not green. C’mon people.
Read More OPINION: Wading into the colour debateSorry USTA, but your 50 year anniversary celebrations are likely to be ever so slightly tarnished by the frankly lame new tournament logo unveiled this week. Clearly the brief was to adopt a more modern l, minimal look and certainly one could argue that the old design was a little dated for reason I can’t […]
Read More OPINION: New US Open logo is a dud.Next week sees the refreshingly different/shameless cash-in Tiebreak Tens tournament return, this time in the fitting arena of Madison Square Garden. The stellar line up of current players and a few retirees sprinkled about – all contributing to a list designed to appeal to as many demographics worldwide – has some mouth-watering names. Strangely, some […]
Read More OPINION: Marion may find it tougher than she thinks back on tourThis won’t be a popular one, but it’s called opinion for a reason. Boris Becker kept up his knack of questionable comments when he yesterday claimed that tennis needs Andy Murray’s return. Now, yes the former world number one is a sudden superb player and deserves to be mentioned amongst the big 3, but can […]
Read More OPINION: Sorry Boris but tennis doesn’t need Andy as much as you thinkIt still boggles that the last great tennis game, Top Spin 4 is 7 years old, nothing has challenged it in that time but in Tennis World Tour we could have a new contender. Gameplay footage had been lacking until only recently, and even that has been more of a developmental diary piece showcasing the […]
Read More OPINION: Thoughts on the next tennis videogame: Tennis World TourIt was a slightly rushed and vague entry yesterday so my apologies. The final chapter here sees a game that by and large still represents the pinnacle of tennis in videogame format and, while not perfect, has enough ingredients to satisfy most fans even today. The first Top Spin was arguably superior to its first […]
Read More Opinion: Part Five of my favourite tennis videogames: Top Spin 4As each game goes on this featurette, the technical advances each time really ramp up. Virtua Tennis introduced realistic (for the time) player models and an interactive crowd, amongst other innovations. But the connection with the ball was what really impressed, arcadey yes, but oh so satisfying. On the surface, the progression from the sega […]
Read More OPINION: Part Four of my favourite tennis video games: Top SpinFast forward to the new millennium and the 128-bit era. Before the PS2 conquered all in it’s path, Sega’s Dreamcast enjoyed a fleeting moment in the spotlight with some of the best arcade ports ever seen, including today’s entry, Virtua Tennis. Looking at the game again, the player movement which so emphasized the heavily arcade […]
Read More OPINION: Part Three of my favourite tennis videogames: Virtua TennisAfter Pong kicked this feature off yesterday, we continue chronologically with an entry from my favourite generation: the 32 bit era and the beloved Playstation 1. My first gaming console was actually an Amiga 1200 which served me well for five years. I had to quickly check if there had been a tennis title in […]
Read More OPINION: Part Two of my favourite tennis videogames: Anna Kournikova’s Smash Court Tennis