Tribute: Fabrice Santoro, the magician

For a player of such longevity – one who played in a Grand Slam tournament across four different decades – my first memory of Fabrice Santoro was at Roland Garros in 2004. Unrivalled in their knowledge, the Eurosport commentators were clearly enjoying themselves, chuckling and gasping at the Frenchman’s array of shot-making and crowdpleasing. That […]

TRIBUTE: Mercurial Marcos Baghdatis

A longtime fan favourite and a player who I always enjoyed watching either in person or on TV. Cypriot Baghdatis was an unpredictable player both in shotmaking and emotion. He would joke and play the jester at times, at others he would decimate the world’s very best. Most will rightly remember him best for his […]

Tribute: Anastasia Myskina

With those large steely eyes and an equally great resolve underneath a slight frame, Anastasia Myskina lit up the WTA tour all too briefly from 2000 to 2007. In that time the Moscow-born baseliner became the first Russian player to reach number two in the world and with her sole major title at Roland Garros […]

Tribute Tuesdays: New regular feature starting next week

A rushed post on Monday – itself already a much delayed update to this blog – gave a fleeting round-up of the clay season so far. (It’s been a bit of an epic one). One of the many stories that arose from a mad week in Madrid was the sad farewell from David Ferrer. This […]

TRIBUTE: Fluid, formidable and fragile. Farewell Tommy Haas

The other big story joining Naomi and Juan’s heroics last fortnight was Tommy Haas’ retirement announcement. The German, now tournament director at IW of course was as graceful, humble and captivating in his deliverance as he was as a player. Possessing a wonderfully fluid yet powerful all-court game, Haas was comfortable on all surfaces, reflected […]

Irresistible, infuriating, inspiring, inconsistent: A fond farewell to Daniela Hantuchova

July 6th 2017 saw the 18 year career of one of my tennis heroes come to a close as Daniela Hantuchova called time on her playing days. Together with first Tim Henman and then Roger Federer, Hantuchova has been the player I’ve admired most for almost two decades. In that time I’ve had to […]

September results round-up and farewell to Li Na

True Trailblazer – Li Na was an immensely popular and deserving champion – Getty Images The goings on in New York tend to dominate tennis’ September, but those remarkable results aside, it’s time to look at the other winners and losers as 2014 gets all Autumnal in Asia. With les garcons preoccupied with Davis […]

Gone too soon: Battling Bally remembered

Amid the extremely sad news today of Elena Baltacha losing her fight with liver cancer at just 30 years old – mere months after diagnosis – I offer my own paltry dedication. The woes of British tennis have long been documented – for while the men were ably represented by Henman, Rusedski (kind of) and […]

Kim triumphs as the tour bids farewell to a true great

Well Doha and now the WTA tour has wrapped up for another year – Caroline was made the new numero uno and was subsequently beaten by Kim in the final. A tight and engrossing encounter, but the outcome provided both a fitting and indicatively frustrating outcome. Wozniacki has been consistent this season and surely a […]