The magic of saving a match point
The first round of the Australian Open was anything but easy for Angelique Kerber. She fought hard but her opponent matched her stroke by stroke. In the first set Kerber led by a break, but let the lead slip away and lost a tiebreaker. In the second set she led again, but lost the advantage. … Continue reading
Thirtysomethings can still do it
In 1990, the big story in tennis was a 13- year old, who was just starting a professional tennis career. 24 years on, can you imagine a crowd of reporters waiting somebody to play her first professional match? Something similar happened twice in 1994, when there were two 14-year olds doing the same thing, one … Continue reading
Fräulein Vorhand
In the late 80´s and early 90´s, Germany was a spoiled tennis nation. Steffi Graf was at times almost unbeatable and the charismatic Boris Becker was very popular and successful. By the year 2000 that all was history. Graf and Becker had retired and the tournaments in Germany started to suffer big time. The Hamburg … Continue reading
Coaching gets bizarre
My second day at the Australian Open finished yesterday by watching Maria Sharapova practise session. At first I couldn´t recognize the coach she was talking with, but of course he was Sven Groneveld, her new coach. His different hairstyle and sunglasses fooled me. Sven has been on tour for a couple of decades coaching various … Continue reading
Serena or Steffi on the court with me?
Late last Friday I was once again in the middle of our weekly doubles match. It was not looking good – I was serving at 1-5, set point down two times. Somehow we won that game and several games more and ultimately the set in a tiebreaker. Wow! That was a reason for a high-five! … Continue reading
Tennis-Minna 