As you know by now, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga produced a great comeback in the Wimbledon quarterfinal against Roger Federer. Tsonga lost the first two sets 6-4 and 7-6 but fought back to win the next three sets 6-4 6-4 6-4.  It was the manner of Tsonga’s comeback which was really impressive. Federer played a good match and his level didn’t actually drop, but Tsonga stuck to his principles and style of play and got his reward as a result. Meanwhile Federer probably played too passive which he...

Well, it’s that time of year again, it’s the beginning of the 3rd week of January, time for another edition of the Australian Open! In the womens draw, the title is really up for grabs and is as wide open as I’ve ever seen it.  With the withdrawal of Serena Williams, there is no one outright favourite for the title in my view with any of the current top players are capable of winning the tournament.  This is due to the fact that there have been many injuries and loss of form of...

Recently I was alerted to an interesting article that was published in the Independent Newspaper in September 2001.  The article was entitled "ITF introduces three types of balls to counter power game."  A link to the article can be found here. It is interesting to look back to 2001 to see how the game has changed since then and the International Tennis Federation’s direct influence on that evolution.  Certainly a lot of factors seem to have fallen into place to give us the...

The heart of the North American tennis season is apon us, so I think it's time to take a look at the greatest hard court players of the Open Era. I will take a look at the greatest male champions first, analyzing their achievements, games, and what made them great. In the next article I will focus on the great women hard court players of the Open Era. There have been some dominant players during the Open Era, especially since the late 1970s to mid 1980s, when most grass tournaments were...