tennisblogger's blog

At odds of just 5/2, it would appear that Rafa Nadal is going to be unstoppable in this year's US Open.

However, men's tennis has been a little more open than usual this season, so is there a chance that someone could sneak through and snatch the title from under his nose? I would say yes.

The most obvious reason to oppose him is the fact that he has never won the event. Admittedly, he has made it to the semi-finals on his last two visits to Flushing Meadows, but that doesn't mean he will be able to go one better this season.

Nikolay Davydenko seems to be coming back into form at just the right time after he cruised into the quarter-finals of the Studena Croatia Open.

The Russian has struggled to get back to his best after suffering a serious wrist injury but at his latest tournament, which he is top seed for, it seems like things are starting to click once again.

He made short work of Frenchman Stephane Robert, seeing him off 6-1, 6-2 to secure his spot in the next round and it seems he is getting back to his best.

The world of British men's tennis has had Jeremy Bates, Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski and Andy Murray to cheer on over the last 20 years or so but there has been somewhat of a drought on the women's side.
Times could be changing now, and more eyes arebe focussing on a new breed of Brit girls coming through in world tennis. The likes of Elena Baltacha have plugged away for years and in 2010 she won the Dow Corning Tennis Classic in Michigan, the first ITF win over her career and fellow player Katie O'Brien has risen to a career-best world ranking.

Most tennis betting pundits agree that the junior championships at Grand Slams are a good place to find future major winners.

The US Open is, after the French Open, the most wide open Grand Slam on the women’s tour. Serena Williams has won ‘only’ three times at Flushing Meadows and once in the last seven years.

No family has dominated a sport in such a way that the Williams family has dominated women’s tennis over the last decade, and nowhere has their dominance been more complete than at Wimbledon.
 
Serena and Venus Williams have won a combined 19 Grand Slam titles since breaking through in the late 1990s, eight of those coming at Wimbledon where only Maria Sharapova (2004) and Amelie Mauresmo (2006) have broken their grip on the title since the start of the millennium.

When you talk about the characters in Wimbledon history, there are few more recognisable than John McEnroe, not only for his fiery persona but his ability as a top flight tennis player.
McEnroe played during a golden era for the sport, from the late 1970s until the late 80s. During this time luminaries like Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors, Ilie Nastase and Ivan Lendl also graced the courts.

For a man who ended his career boasting a 42-14 winning record at Wimbledon it is still inexplicable just how former British number one Tim Henman never even made it to a final at any of the Grand Slam tournaments.
 
Henman, along with Greg Rusedski, held the hopes of British tennis for almost a decade, but when his career came to an end in 2007 he was lumped in with the lovable losers that British sporting history is littered with.