Tennishead's Articles – October 2008 Archive (8)

As soon as the Strictly Come Dancing resident band struck up the opening notes of Amy Winehouse’s appropriately titled You Know I’m No Good we all could’ve guessed what was coming.



Andrew Castle, in his sporting heyday the best tennis player in Britain, and pro dance partner Ola Jordan endured a decidedly rocky 90 minutes during Saturday’s live broadcast of the BBC’s hit primetime TV show.



After their opening dance of the sixth series, their visually challenging Cha Cha… Continue

The 11-year-old that was taken to hospital for anxiety during her first ever competitive tennis match has come a long way.



After recent wins over the likes of Venus Williams and Jelena Jankovic, there’s little doubting that Italian Flavia Pennetta now has the nerve required to succeed at the very top of the women’s game.



At the relatively mature age of 26 (for a female tennis player that is), Pennetta is enjoying a breakthrough year on tour.



It’s not that she… Continue

After the stresses of yesterday’s loss of images, the discovery this morning that they were in fact saved came as a huge relief. It also struck me that it was well worth having yesterday’s events on film – it’s not often there are pictures of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal losing on the same day! So, another few hours dealing with that this morning meant not much time to think about the mouth-watering prospect of Andy Murray winning another Masters tournament – which is exactly what he… Continue

If the enthusiastic Madrileños had had their way, Sunday’s final at the Mutua Madrileña Masters would have pitched the game’s two greats against each other, so that Rafael Nadal could conquer Roger Federer, and bring a repeat of this year’s epic Wimbledon final to Spain’s biggest tournament.



Nadal had started the week by finally receiving the ATP No.1 trophy, the first time the Spaniard has officially acknowledged his achievement since he toppled his erstwhile rival off the top spot… Continue

We preview the next seven days on the WTA and ATP Tours with events in Basel, Lyon, St Petersburg, Linz and Luxembourg.





ATP Davidoff Swiss Indoors



Where? Basel, Switzerland

Surface? Indoor carpet

Prizemoney? €891,000

Draw size? 32 singles, 16 doubles pairs

Big names? Roger Federer, David Nalbandian, Juan Martin Del Potro, James Blake, Stanislas Wawrinka

2007 champion? Roger Federer

Sub-plot? Up until late last week, it was all… Continue

Tennis entrepreneur extraordinaire Ion Tiriac is making the most of the media spotlight on Madrid this week by trumpeting his grand plans for next year’s Masters event in the Spanish capital.



In 2009 the Mutua Madrileña Masters Madrid, which in the past has been a men’s indoor event, will become one of the ATP’s nine new ‘Masters 1000’ tournaments and will be held outdoors in May on clay alongside a 64-draw ‘premier’ WTA tour women’s tournament.



The event’s new format, its… Continue

When Jelena Jankovic first assumed the No.1 ranking this summer, her ascension was largely greeted with surprise and disbelief. This was a woman who at the elderly age of 23 had not made it past a grand slam semi-final in her career, who admittedly had played a vast number of matches, but had not succeeded in converting them into titles, and was at the time losing at the quarter-final stage, week-in, week-out. Amelie Mauresmo and Kim Clijsters both reached No.1 two years before they won a… Continue

World No.75 Anne Keothavong enjoyed another good week on tour when she won the $50,000 ITF event in Barnstaple, England, on Sunday – her third singles title of 2008. Tennis pros don’t have much time to celebrate, though. After a 4am start on Monday and a short flight to Italy, Anne blogs from Ortisei, in the Dolomites, where she’s playing a $100,000 ITF event this week…



Making the long train journey from London to Barnstaple proved worthwhile after I ended up winning last week’s… Continue