Part Time Tennis Fans

How to tell a Part Time Tennis Fan (Fake Fan) from a Real Fan

1. They only think there are 4 tennis tournaments in a calendar year. Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon & US Open

2. They have no idea what a Challenger tournament or Future tournament is.

3. They support Nadal, Federer or Djokovic, but have no idea why.

4. When a player beats one of the top 3 they expect that player to suddenly break into the top 4. ie the Lukas Rosol miracle.

5. They say Andy Murray is always knocked out at the semi final stage of a tournament, despite the fact he has around 20 career titles on the tour.

6. They don't know what a tiebreak is.

7. They do not get the "You cannot be serious joke".

8. They only take a interest in Tennis when Wimbledon starts.

9. They think the Davis Cup is a cup belonging to Davis.

10. They only know one female tennis player, Serena Williams.

Exams

Its been a while since I've last updated this blog, i haven't really had time to due to exams. But now my exams are over and i have a lot of free time, I will try my best to update this blog at least twice a month, depending on the amount of tournaments happening.

Andy Murray's Radical Job Switch

Respect The BallBoys

The current breed of professional tennis players are lazy, ungrateful, and sluggish. These players have the luxury of having someone fetch their towels for them after every point and yet they complain of fatigue.

The effect of ball boys is completely underrated. If there were no ball boys present in the 2007 Wimbledon final, do you think Federer would’ve had the energy to overcome the youthfulness of Nadal? If there were no ball boys how do you think the female tennis players would be able to wipe the sweat of their foreheads after every match? I doubt they would make the trip to their seats just to get a towel each point.

It would help if after every match the umpire made the crowd acknowledge the work of the ball boys. During Wimbledon 2011, I heard the commentator say “The biggest compliment you can give a ball boy is if you say that you didn’t even notice them.” I think this is complete bollocks, if a ball boy puts 100% effort into making sure both players have enough balls to serve with & that the players always have a good supply of water, how can saying “oh I didn’t even know you were there” be a compliment. It’s more of an insult.

I would love to see a ball boy ask a player to say please before fetching his towel. What would happen then? It’s not a compulsory obligation that every ball boy should be a players slave. It would help if the players were a bit kinder to ball boys. What sort of example is it setting to the younger generation? If you’re treating ball boys like trash then they are going to copy.

We also shouldn’t underestimate the work ball boys put in every match. These guys are on their feet for 3 hours on average. How many of you can watch a match 3 hours nonstop and don’t lie. The probable answer is none. Imagine having to run nonstop for 3 hours? This is what the ball boys do, & I think it is excellent.

The Funny Side of Tennis Players

Tennis isn't all doom and gloom. I couldn't stop laughing when I watched this video!!

Who do I even Support (Andy Murray)

When you read the articles on my blog its probably hard to know who I support and who I don't. The person I support, and have always supported is Andy Murray.

Being an Andy Murray fan can be quite stressful at times. He knows that his tendency to display his anger can motivate his opponent during a match yet he still does it. I hope that Ivan Lendl will teach him to control his anger. Andy would've won so many grand slams by now, if only he didn't lose his temper during a match when he gave a break away or he misplaced a volley.

GrandSlam Potential?

Mental Strength

If Murray can stop throwing tempers on the court, then maybe he can overcome the likes of Nadal and Djokovic in grand slam semi-finals

Semi Final Jinx

In 2011, Andy reached the semi-finals of every grand slam. However, he only managed to reach the final once during 2011. Andy Murray is famous for his inability to get past the semi final stage of a grand slam. If he can overcome this jinx, then he will surely have the confidence to win his first grand slam.

Coach

He has taken a smart decision in hiring Ivan Lendl. Ivan Lendl is a multiple grand slam winner & he will definitely give Andy the boost he needs to win his first grand slam. Lendl  didn't win his first grand slam until late in his career and many people are comparing this to Andy Murray.

Andy Murray is a really talented tennis player, he just needs the right guidance and support to overcome the final hurdle. He has many fans around the world, and we are all rooting for him. Once he gets his first slam then the others will follow easily. 

COME ON ANDY!!

HEAD of the Class Video Contest

A few days ago, I was sent a message on twitter (@sportsgeek15) by a Tennis Camp Organisation and I was asked to write a blog to promote the competition that they are currently running.

This is the description of the competition on their Facebook page

"Submit a video to show us all about you! Demonstrate your personality, creativity, passion for tennis, as well as your academic and school activities. Get your teammates, teachers, coaches and friends to talk about you on screen. Then, if you're a finalist tell everyone to vote for you!

Let your personality shine, as you represent yourself as the HEAD of the Class!

Are you...
• between 13-17 years old?
• a tennis player?
• on Facebook?

You could win...
• 1st Prize: Two-week residential camp at the Julian Krinsky School of Tennis and a weekend trip!
• 2nd Prize: One-week residential camp at the Julian Krinsky School of Tennis!
• 3rd Prize: HEAD Tennis Racquet and Oversized Tennis Ball Signed by Maria Sharapova

Every entry automatically gets...
• $50 toward camp tuition at the Julian Krinsky School of Tennis!

What are you waiting for? Share why you are the HEAD of the Class today!

We will announce the winner on May 7."


If you are interested in this competition you can enter via their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/juliankrinskycampsprograms/app_154581087931912

Also, you can go to their website http://www.jkcp.com/


Or you can follow them on twitter https://twitter.com/#!/jkcp

Article Ideas

When you come to my blog you're going to want to find all the latest tennis information. However, most tennis blogs do that as well. As a way to expand my blogs, I want to debate certain topics to do with tennis. So if there are any controversial issues that you want me to write an article about, you can tweet it to me @sportsgeek15 thanks.

Jurgen Melzer Captures Memphis Title

Austrian Jurgen Melzer capped off a stellar week at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships, relegating fourth-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic to runner-up status for a second straight year at this ATP World Tour 500 tournament with a 7-5, 7-6(4) victory Sunday.

Melzer became the first 30 year old to clinch the Memphis crown since Ivan Lendl in 1991, and improved to a 4-7 mark in ATP World Tour finals. He also won the indoor hard-court titles in Vienna in 2009-10 and the clay-court tournament in 2006 at Bucharest.

"Of course it’s a relief to win a tournament, especially a 500; I haven’t won one before," said Melzer. "After a tough season last year, it’s obviously something nice. I played a really good match today, I kept my head in the game. I knew it was tough. He’s probably the best server on tour at the moment. Sometimes you just walk left to right without doing anything, but I felt like when the ball was in play and when I had my chances, I played really solid."

The former World No. 8, who had recorded wins over top seed John Isner and No. 3 seed and former finalist Radek Stepanek this week, broke in the 11th game before serving out the opening set. Raonic went up 4-1 in the second set, but Melzer drew level at 4-4 and proceeded to close out the one-hour, 37-minute win in the tie-break.

"After the match against John, I felt this could be my tournament because I’ve been really playing well and things have been going together," he said. "I’ve been going for lines when it was important and especially the big points I’ve been playing well the whole tournament. This is confidence, this is what you need. In the end, it’s one or two points and I’ve played those better than the other guys this week."

Raonic had won 19 straight sets coming into the final, losing serve just once in 41 games. He fired 22 aces in the final to take his week’s total to a tournament-high 88.

"He neutralised my serve better than anybody else the last two weeks, so a big part of it is getting a lot of free points to not getting that many," said Raonic. "You have one mentality set on why the free points aren’t coming, like the last few times, and that was pretty much all due to credit to him. I just didn’t catch on early enough.

"There wasn’t really much I could do a lot of times in the matches. He was pretty much taking it to me. I felt like he was the one dictating more than I was, so he was taking that away from me. He was playing very close and inside the line, while I felt I was quite far behind, so I was the one doing most of the running."

Similar to 2011, the 21-year-old Canadian had come to Memphis straight from his title win at the SAP Open in San Jose. Last year, he was edged out by Andy Roddick in a 7-5 third set. "It doesn’t feel like it’s too far out of my grasp," said Raonic. "It’s like somebody dangling a piece of cake in front of my face and then taking it away at the last second. I’ll definitely be back."

He was attempting to win his third title of the ATP World Tour season, having opened the season with the hardware at the Aircel Chennai Open (d. Tipsarevic).

Article Taken (ATP Official Website)

Who can Break into the Men's Top 4?

The question that every tennis fan is thinking right now is who will be able to break the continued dominance of the worlds top 4, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer & Andy Murray. In this article, i will be examining the possible candidates to the feat that many people are thinking currently impossible.

David Ferrer

Ferrer is a player who many people seem to underrate, he is a player who is a veteran on the tour, he has won masters events and hes represented his country in the Davis Cup. He is currently ranked world number 5 and he has been there for a significant amount of time. Many people class David Ferrer as only having one game plan, to always chase down the ball and get it back into play. It will work against the lower ranked players, however it wont be as effective against the better players. We saw this in the 2011 us open, when he was knocked out by Andy Roddick. Andy Roddick isn't someone you associate as being a fast player with a lot of stamina but he was able to overcome Ferrer. How does this link to Ferrer's ambitions of being a top 4 player i hear you say?  Well, Roddick used to be the world number one and he has grand slams under his belt, and if Ferrer cannot defeat someone like Roddick, who has been top of the rankings, how will he expect to challenge the top 4, the answer is he wont. David Ferrer is a really great player who is the best at doing what he does, but in terms of winning a grand slam and challenging the top 4, he doesn't possess enough weapons to do this.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Tsonga is a crowdpleaser, he possesses a plethora of weapons in his game and he has previously proven that he can go toe to toe with the best of the best. We saw this at Wimbledon in 2011 where he because the first player to come from 2 sets down again Federer and win. We also saw this very early in his career at the Australian Open semi final in 2008, where he absolutely demolished Rafael Nadal in straight sets. I believe Tsonga will break into the top 4, but the only thing that could hinder him is his consistency, he couldve earned extra ranking points against a player that many people thought he could beat at this years Australian open, Kei Nishikori. If Tsonga can perform at Roland Garros and then hold on to his ranking points at Wimbledon, then I'm sure he will be borderline top 4.

Tomas Berdych

Berdych is another player like Tsonga, he has proven he can lock horns with the likes of Federer & Djokovic. We saw this at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, when he beat federer in straight sets in the quarters and then he knocked out Djokovic in the semis en route to his first grandslam final. If Berdych can maintain his form, and brush up his second serve, then i am sure he will be challenging for a top 4 place in the near future. I

Juan Martin Del Potro

Finally, Del Potro is the only player out of the four who currently has a grandslam to his name. He is also the only player outside the top 3 to have lifted a grandslam in the past 4 years. Del Potro has the serve, he has the forehand and the height to intimidate even the best of players.  He's had a good start to 2012, he's won Marseille (d, Llodra), he reached the Aussie Open Quarters (l, Federer) and he reached the Rotterdam finals (l, Federer). I think Del Potro is a dead cert to be challenging for a top 4 place by the end of the year. If you are wondering why he hasn't improved since his 2009 Us Open Triumph, it's because he has been very unlucky with injuries. This time last year, he was playing challengers in places you've never heard of, so in a way he is still getting all his ranking points back.

David Ferrer Topples Almagro in Buenos Aires

World No. 5 David Ferrer halted Nicolas Almagro’s 10-match win streak, overcoming the defending Buenos Aires champion 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to win the Copa Claro title on Sunday.

After losing the opening set, Ferrer controlled the remainder of the final clash, facing just one break point. He broke Almagro three times, including twice in the third set to increase his undefeated reign over his countryman to a 9-0 mark.

Ferrer is the second two-time winner on the ATP World Tour this season, joining Milos Raonic, who will later go for his third title in Memphis. The 29 year old began his year by repeating as champion at the Heineken Open in Auckland (d. Rochus). He improved to 13-14 in title matches, collecting his seventh clay-court crown.

Almagro was aiming to win back-to-back titles during the Golden Swing for the second year in a row, having successfully defended his Brasil Open 2012 trophy in Sao Paulo last week (d. Volandri). He dropped to a 15-4 season record.

Article taken from (ATP Official Website)

Juan Martin Del Potro Defeats Llodra To Lift Marseille Trophy

Juan Martin del Potro captured his first title of the season at the Open 13 Sunday, defeating Michael Llodra 6-4, 6-4 in Marseille to lift his 10th career ATP World Tour trophy.

Del Potro put 73 per cent of his first serves in play, winning 36 of 40 points. He broke Llodra once in each set to wrap up the final victory in 83 minutes. The Argentine increased his undefeated record against the 2010 titlist to a 3-0 mark, having also claimed their first-round encounter at theABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam last week.

The win gives del Potro his first indoor crown, after finishing runner-up in his previous three indoor title matches. He improved his final record to 10-5, taking home his first title since winning the Estoril Open (d. Verdasco) in 2011.

Llodra was appearing in his first final since lifting the AEGON International trophy in Eastbourne two years ago. The loss was just his third in 18 matches at the ATP World Tour 250 event.

(Article taken from ATP Official Site)

Victoria Azarenka on becoming World Number 1

Does she deserve it?

Now that I have my own blog, I can finally sum up what I think about Victoria Azarenka becoming world number 1. I think she is a really talented tennis player and I think she will become an even better tennis player over the years, however I don't think she is the right person to currently be world number one.

When you think of a world number one, you think of someone who is intimidating and someone everyone else on the tour fears. With Azarenka, I don't think the intimidating factor is with her yet. With Serena Williams and Kim Clisters, you know that you have to play your best tennis just to be able to keep up with them in a match. Also, in a tournament, if you see that you have Kim or Serena next in the draw, you don't feel too optimistic. With Azarenka, you're not going to be too scared when coming up against her because you know there is a chance that you could beat her. I think the right person to be the women's world number one, currently, is Petra Kvitova.

Petra Kvitova is someone with an varied arsenal of shots, she has a powerful left handed forehand that is like a rocket when she unleashes it, and she is also a good serve and volleyer. Due to the fact that she has a powerful Forehand, players become intimidated when they come up against her. Players also become intimidated because of her height. I'm not saying that Azarenka is a bad player and that she doesn't deserve to be world number one, I'm saying that someone like Petra Kvitova would be better suited to the role.

Agnieszka Radwanska Defeats Julia Gorges

Agnieszka Radwanska was nearly out in the first round but she found a way to survive, and now she's the new champion at the prestigious Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships - as well as the new World No.5.The No.5-seeded Radwanska had a rocky start to the week, having to fight back from 5-3 down in the third set to beat Canadian qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak. But she made it through that and moved smoothly through the rest of the draw, the only blip coming in the semifinals against Jelena Jankovic, losing the second set - she rebounded well, bageling the No.8 seed in the third set.

Elsewhere, Julia Goerges was putting together one of the best weeks of her career in her very first time playing Dubai. She took out several marquee names - former No.2 Svetlana Kuznetsova, former No.5 Daniela Hantuchova and former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki - to make the final and get a chance to avenge a 61 61 loss to Radwanska in their only previous meeting, last month.

This time, Goerges played Radwanska much closer. Radwanska broke in the first game of the match and took a 4-2 lead, but Goerges broke back and stayed even to 5-all before Radwanska broke in a five-deuce game and took the set, 7-5; the story was similar in the second set, as Radwanska got two early breaks, Goerges got one back but Radwanska closed it out, 6-4. Final score, 75 64.

"I was pretty close to losing in the first round, so I'm extremely happy right now," Radwanska said. "Tonight I think I was just better in a couple points, to be honest. In the important moments I was more consistent. The conditions were a little bit difficult during the match, but I stayed calm until the end.

"Julia's forehand is a very big weapon. It's just going so fast, and sometimes I'd be moving to it right away and the ball was already behind me."

"Agnieszka's a tough player and I was close to winning both sets," Goerges said after the match. "There were a few balls I missed, but it was still the way I should play it. You need to dictate the game by yourself and that's what I did. It wasn't enough today but it was still the right direction for my game.

"She doesn't give you anything. She doesn't do any mistakes at all. And when she does a few, it's at 15-all or 15-0, not in the important moments."

Radwanska is projected to move from No.6 to No.5 now, a new career-high. "It's great, but it's still far rom being No.1," the Polish No.1 said. "It looks pretty close, but it's still far. But I'm not really going to think about it too much. I'm going to keep playing my game and try to keep up my good tennis, especially in big events like this. I just want to enjoy my tennis and try winning matches."

Goerges' phenomenal week will see her rise from No.19 back to her career-high of No.16. "I'm not disappointed. It was a big step in the right direction for me," the German said. "I was leaving everything on the court and she's a Top 5 player now. If you lose 5 and 4 in one hour 40, you shouldn't be disappointed. It gives me a lot of confidence to see I'm close to those players and can beat them. It was about two or three points in the end. I'm very proud of this week."

Radwanska collected her eighth WTA title, her fifth at the Premier level (also Eastbourne in 2008 and Carlsbad, Tokyo and Beijing in 2011); she is now 8-2 in her career in WTA finals. Goerges is now an even 2-2 in WTA finals.

(Article Taken from WTA Official Website)