Film · September 12, 2026
Tennis
Blog · July 12, 2026
Wimbledon 2026, week 2
Wimbledon 2026 is almost at its conclusion, and as I'm less interested in the men's final than I should be, I'm happy to draw a line under it for this year before we have crowned both champions. It's been brilliant, for me much better than last year and with plenty of intrigue throughout. I wrote in my first week roundup about how many seeds were falling by the wayside and …
Blog · July 5, 2026
Wimbledon 2026, week 1
As I do most years, I have taken some time off work over the Wimbledon fortnight to be able to absorb as much tennis as possible, and boy what a first week of grass court action we have had. I paid quite a lot more attention to Wimbledon Qualifying this year as well, so was going into this week with plenty of tennis activity already in my mind, and lots …
Film · July 5, 2026
King Richard
Blog · June 9, 2026
Roland Garros 2026, week 2
This was a tournament that just kept on delivering surprises, day after day. After blistering temperatures in the first week, the conditions cooled a little for the second but remained challenging. The wind picked up and played its part and we got to a position where whoever the champions were going to be, they were going to be a surprise! Sabalenka dropped out in shocking fashion, similar to Sinner before …
Blog · May 30, 2026
Roland Garros 2026, week 1
I didn't think I would have much time to watch tennis this fortnight, so for Roland Garros 2026, I have defaulted to the excellent online radio. Radio Roland Garros has always been a highlight and continues to be so. Great balance of tennis commentary, general chatter, pun games, and friendly banter, and this year plenty of talk about the weather. It's been hot this past week, and I don't envy …
Book · August 28, 2025
Wimbledon: A Personal History by Sue Barker
Book · August 18, 2025
The Racket by Conor Niland
Blog · July 26, 2025
Thoughts on Wimbledon 2025
As usual, I took some time off work this year over the Wimbledon fortnight to watch as much tennis as I possibly could. This time, I decided to shift the days a bit and focus more on the second week rather than the first... so typical that this was a year in which most of the top seeds went out super early and so I was left watching rather random …
Book · June 17, 2025
The Wild Card by Judy Murray
Blog · June 1, 2025
Thoughts on Roland Garros 2025
Since Sky took the broadcast rights for WTA and refuse to put any decent replays up, I've not been watching as much tennis as I used to. It's a shame, but it also means when I do get to subscribe to Discovery for a month to watch the French Open, it's a real treat. Watching the players running around the orange clay courts whilst listening to Radio Roland Garros, what …
Book · January 13, 2025
Calling the Shots by Sue Barker
Blog · December 4, 2024
One rule, two approaches?
I've been very intrigued by the news that came out recently of Iga Swiatek's one-month tennis ban for failing anti-doping tests, the way this has been handled versus others. As a long-time Simona Halep fan it was frustrating to see her sitting in the sidelines for multiple years whilst the case was investigated, and it's not been a barrel of laughs since she returned to the courts - what with …
Book · August 21, 2024
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Book · August 11, 2024
Knowing the Score by Judy Murray
Blog · July 14, 2024
Thoughts on Wimbledon 2024, week 2
The second week of Wimbledon was somehow so much better than the first but also really quite frustrating. The singles action got really interesting and good, but it felt much harder to keep track of everything else. It was a really, really wet fortnight and it's so impressive that the schedule didn't slip very much considering there were a few days with basically no play. But the concertina effect did …
Blog · July 7, 2024
Thoughts on Wimbledon 2024, week 1
Although the UK is suffering from a lack of summer at the moment, the sporting events continue apace. Some are enjoying the football, if enjoying is the right word(?) but for me, it's all about the tennis. Going into Wimbledon this year, the field seemed wide open and even more so when Sabalenka pulled out of the championships. My focus has been on the women's side, as always, but it's …
Blog · May 17, 2024
Queens to Queen's Club
Today it was announced that women's tennis is returning to Queen's club for the first time in more than 50 years, and whilst I can understand that this is an exciting announcement that brings together the two tennis tours at a high profile location, it feels disappointing to me. I've previously loved going to Edgbaston Priory Club to watch some tennis and now what was previously a 500 event (middle …
Blog · January 21, 2024
Discovering sports by chapter
Tennis has rolled into a new year and already we are into the first Grand Slam, with the Australian Open under way and as fascinating as ever. As a UK viewer, the last couple of weeks have been pretty disappointing, as Amazon dropped their coverage of the sport via their Prime streaming service and Sky have picked it up instead. We got a taste of this during the US Open …
Blog · September 16, 2023
Tennis on the blue courts, feeling blue
The US Open drew to a conclusion last week with a new champion on the women's side and the same old champ on the men's side. I wish I could say I watched and enjoyed it all but I didn't... the only way I managed to keep up with it was to have a copy of the draws, and read the news and scores each day to keep track. It's …
Blog · July 2, 2023
Five things ahead of Wimbledon 2023
It's Wimbledon time! Lush green grass courts, strawberries and cream, and one eye always watching the weather to see how much play is going to get completed each day. I can't wait! Here are five things I'm looking forward to ahead of the 2023 tournament: Being on it. Have watched qualifying and kept an eye on that draw, as well as being ready with the draw and the order of …
Blog · June 12, 2023
Thoughts on Roland Garros 2023
Another successful two weeks of Roland Garros is complete, with our attention turning swiftly to the grass court season. However, there was plenty to enjoy on the clay courts of Paris, here are just a few notes I made as the fortnight unfolded: As always, loving Radio Roland Garros. They seemed to get a lot of heat about the balance between ball-by-ball commentary and general chatter, but I think they've …
Blog · January 24, 2023
Break Point to prove
When Netflix announced they were making a documentary series about tennis, similar to their work focused on Formula One in Drive to Survive, I was intrigued. I didn't watch the motorsport one, having spent too much of my time already watching that sport, but people seemed to think it did a good job telling the stories behind the races, and even non-F1 fans were raving about it. Imagine if they …
Blog · July 11, 2022
Wimbledon 2022
Two weeks of tennis drew to a close yesterday, with the Wimbledon 2022 tennis tournament crowning its final champion and then standing down to give the grass its well-earned rest. It wasn't a simple fortnight, with plenty of discussion points and controversies, and a final day of tennis that included a fight for the men's singles championship between two less-than-ideal candidates. I kept abreast of the men's side of things …
Film · July 1, 2022
Wimbledon
Book · October 9, 2021
All In by Billie Jean King
Blog · July 5, 2021
Wimbledon wombles on
How joyous for Wimbledon to be back on our screens! One week down and one to go, and what great tennis we've seen so far. I hadn't particularly intended to write a post about this year's championships, but then I remembered that it's so-called Manic Monday, and it's potentially the last one we will see. Going forward, Wimbledon will no longer have that sacred Middle Sunday off, instead they will …
Book · September 27, 2020
Unstoppable by Maria Sharapova
Blog · August 7, 2019
Holy bluh, that's a lot going on there
Tennis tournaments quite often gather their sports stars together to do small promotional stunts to promote the event. You know the kind of thing, holding koala bears in Australia, or visiting the Great Wall in China. The Rogers Cup in Canada has a different take on this - getting a selection of WTA players to try and guess which of four cups is proper maple syrup. This seems like a …
Blog · July 15, 2019
Super Saturday and Sunday in the summer of sport
What a weekend of sport that was! I’ll admit my focus was pretty much exclusively on Wimbledon, but it was hard to miss the fact we were doing well in the cricket, and there were a handful of motorsport events to also catch the eye. But the tennis held me in thrall for the full weekend. I’m not a huge fan of the men’s game anymore, it’s too whippy and …
Blog · June 20, 2019
Super grass
Feeling a little the worse for wear from our weekend at two music concerts, we decided the ideal remedy was to head to the Edgbaston Priory Club for a spot of tennis. It's the second year in a row we've attended the event, and was just as good this time round. There's a nice relaxed feeling at Edgbaston, in fact when you walk in it feels more like a summer …
Blog · February 19, 2019
Tennis but not as you know it
A couple of weeks ago, BTSport's tennis coverage switched to the latest rounds of the Fed Cup - the self-styled World Cup of tennis wherein players team up according to their country and battle it out to win the tournament and be best across the globe. The British team were playing on British soil for the first time in several years, and were doing pretty well, so it was some …
Blog · January 4, 2019
Back on the courts for 2019
One of the things that brightens an otherwise dull January is the return of tennis. Things in tennis-land go quiet in December, once the finals are all complete and players are taking a well-deserved rest. But the WTA swings back into action in January, and we are already saturated with coverage. Brisbane, Auckland, Shenzhen and some bonus Hopman Cup were all available on our screens this past week. With a …
Film · April 1, 2018
Battle of the Sexes
Blog · July 16, 2017
The Championships, Wimbledon 2017
For the past two weeks, the 2017 Wimbledon Championships have been underway, and they’ve provided lots of ups and downs, highlights and disappointments, the usual Grand Slam tournament soap opera. This year was different for me, though, because I was there on day one. I was one of those attendees in the grounds of the All-England Club. I never really thought I’d get to Wimbledon in person. It was a …
Blog · July 11, 2017
Playing favourites at Wimbledon
Usually when I watch sports, I am looking for a good game/match/race, and may have a favourite in the mix but as long as it’s a good battle or an impressive display, then I’m happy. Over the last six months or so, I’ve been investing myself into the WTA tournaments so that now I have a handful of favourites, for a variety of different reasons. Somehow, I’ve escaped without any …
Blog · May 24, 2017
The WTA's three-way comeback trail fight
We are rapidly heading towards the point of the year where Wimbledon takes over UK TV screens. Currently, the WTA and ATP tours are finishing up their stints on the orange clay, with the French Open still to come, but attention has already turned to the highlight of the grass court season (and arguably the entire tennis-related year). This year, there are no less than three women with everything to …
Blog · May 17, 2017
Battle of the Sexes - We want a little bit of what you've got
Blog · April 7, 2017
On board with on-court coaching
If you've watched tennis for any extended period of time, particularly outside of the main grand slam events, then you might have seen the moments when coaches come on court to have a chat to the players mid-match. It only happens on the women's tour, and isn't at every event, nor does every player choose to do such a thing, so it can be a blink and you'll miss it …
Blog · January 7, 2017
Tennis takes on speed sporting
Evolving sports to appeal to new generations of fans usually involves adapting to shorter attention spans, and that is something that can cause plenty of debate amongst the more traditional sport lovers. I'm in favour of making sport approachable wherever possible, but there's likely room for all formats - long and short alike. Tennis is taking this approach, it seems, and I recently learnt about a new format. I've talked …
Blog · July 13, 2016
Podcast of the Month: The Tennis Podcast
The 2016 Wimbledon Championships drew to a close this past weekend with Williams and Murray taking their respective crowns and bringing to an end two weeks of spectacular tennis. I've never felt quite so on top of all the Wimbledon action as I have this year, well not since I once took a whole week off to watch nothing but the tennis. There are two reasons why I've managed to …
Blog · June 2, 2016
Five reasons I prefer women's tennis
I enjoyed watching the first week of the French Open at Roland Garros, but the second week has been a bit of a washout. These days it always feels a bit weird for me to watch men's tennis because we get to view so much of the WTA via BT Sport's brilliant almost-constant coverage. Having seen a few men's games this past seven days, I'm convinced that we've got the …
Blog · February 29, 2016
Watching like a hawk
It was nearly seven years ago I wrote up some thoughts about Hawkeye, the super-accurate camera tracking system that allows line calls in tennis to be queried and corrected. At the time, I spoke of its benefits and pondered whether we would ever get to a stage where there are no linesmen at all, instead umpires would rely on Hawkeye to make all the decisions. This hasn’t happened, but more …
Book · February 25, 2015
Court Confidential by Neil Harman
Blog · May 29, 2014
Tennis on tap
When we signed up for BT Sport, I figured it would be one of those things that would be exciting for a week or so, and then eventually become a forgotten about channel – or in this case, set of channels. I couldn’t have been more wrong. We’ve watched endless hours of content from the telecommunications broadcaster, and although not all of it appeals (ultimate fighting is not my cup …
Blog · March 10, 2014
Third set's a charm
I read with interest this post about Maria Sharapova’s views on men playing three set matches. I’ve heard the arguments that women should play five-setters, to earn the equal prize money they were given a while back, but I hadn’t heard the flip side to that. At first, I couldn’t really see any reason for change, but actually reading her quotes, it makes a lot of sense. Sharapova’s main points …
Blog · June 23, 2013
Aegon International tennis at Eastbourne
With a trip to Brighton already on the cards, a need to add another sport to my Life List endeavour, and a timely reminder from the fabulous Lou, I found myself clutching tickets to the penultimate day of the Aegon International competition in Eastbourne. I made a slight error in entering the Devonshire Park grounds round the back, rather than the main entrance, which means when I was later in …
Blog · July 21, 2012
A former champion or a past champion?
At the beginning of the month, when I was catching up with the Radio 5Live Wimbledon podcasts, I was intrigued by this snippet of conversation between John McEnroe and Pat Cash. McEnroe was hosting one of those 606 listener call in specials, but Cash had to share a sudden irritation of his that wasn't in relation to any question in particular. Pat: Something that annoys me a little bit, people …
Blog · March 30, 2011
Tennis girl
This is a piece I submitted for my journalism course. The brief was to write 250 words about a news item, in a general opinion piece style. The girl behind one of the UK’s most iconic images has revealed herself to the world… again. You may not have heard of Fiona Walker but you’ve likely seen the poster of her – walking away on a tennis court, skirt hitched up …
Blog · June 23, 2010
Our worst year ever, I'm still watching
As a change of pace to all the football talk, here's a post about Wimbledon! It seems it's become an annual thing for me to summarise all the ways I'm trying to keep up with the best tennis tournament around. In 2008, I talked a little about the live commentaries, whilst in 2009 it was all podcasts and apps. This year, I'm going to do more of the same, as …