tennis

Murray shouldn’t have relied on injury-prone Raducanu

13 July 2024 9:00 am

Talk about raging against the dying of the light: Andy Murray and President Biden both. Murray because he is no…

Tennis romance that doesn’t contain much tennis: Challengers reviewed

27 April 2024 9:00 am

It sounds straightforward enough: a tennis romance starring Zendaya, idol of the mid-teen demographic and last seen riding a sandworm…

How sport helped shape the British character

2 December 2023 9:00 am

David Horspool connects different sports to our historical experience: cricket with class, golf with property rights, tennis with female emancipation and boxing with ethnicity

Does tennis have a doping problem?

17 September 2023 4:30 pm

Is it more remarkable that Romanian two-time Grand Slam tennis champion Simona Halep took performance enhancing drugs, or that she was caught?…

I knew I was right about private schools

2 September 2023 9:00 am

The Hunstanton Lawn Tennis Tournament has become an annual fixture in the Young household. Known as ‘Wimbledon-on-Sea’, the week-long competition…

I sledged Steve Smith for England

29 July 2023 9:00 am

In this summer of sporting dramas, every patriotic sports fan likes to think he’s done his bit to help. I…

Diary

22 July 2023 9:00 am

When someone asks ‘How are you?’ you have to assume your interlocutor is only being polite. Anyone who returns a…

High life

22 July 2023 9:00 am

Now that Wimbledon is over, a few thoughts about youthful brains showing traces of horse tranquillisers, angel dust and cannabis,…

Cricket, tennis and the Women’s World Cup: what a summer

22 July 2023 9:00 am

Great sport needs great rivalries, and that is why anyone with a pulse must celebrate being in the throes of…

Barbie’s world: the normalisation of cosmetic surgery

15 July 2023 9:00 am

Cosmetic surgery is booming thanks to social media

Watch out Wimbledon: padel is taking over

8 July 2023 9:00 am

The fast-growing racquet sport serving up a challenge to tennis

Shame on those who abandoned Peng Shuai

16 April 2023 3:31 am

No one really expects much in the way of principles or morality from those charged with running international sport. The…

Drama at Lord’s: Stumped is a treat for cricket fans

10 September 2022 9:00 am

So farewell to cricket’s The Hundred tournament, or what seemed by the end to be beefy South Africans in ‘Butterkist’…

I fancy Emma Raducanu’s chances at Flushing Meadows

27 August 2022 9:00 am

British tennis fans famously only acknowledge the sport exists for a couple of weeks in the middle of summer in…

How Kyrgios saved Wimbledon

16 July 2022 9:00 am

What separates this year’s ‘empty seats on centre court’ scandal from every other year’s ‘empty seats on centre court’ scandal?…

The Oprah-fication of Wimbledon

16 July 2022 9:00 am

Now that the weakest Wimbledon since 1973 – the year of the boycott – is over, a few thoughts about…

What do Beethoven, D.H. Lawrence and George Best have in common?

11 June 2022 9:00 am

This is not a book about tennis. Roger Federer appears early on, trailed by the obligatory question ‘When will he…

My one to watch at the French Open

21 May 2022 9:00 am

The timing of Brendon McCullum’s appointment as England’s Test match coach couldn’t be better for him, or for the matey…

Why do Russian tennis stars need to condemn Putin?

16 March 2022 9:14 am

Nigel Huddleston is Under-Secretary of State for Sport, Tourism, Heritage and Civil Society, hardly the biggest job in government. Yet…

The year sport and politics became inseparable

18 December 2021 9:00 am

Sport and politics have always been intertwined, but this was the year they became joined at the hip. Yorkshire racism;…

Lord Lucan, Joan Collins and the greatest dinner ever

6 November 2021 9:00 am

There’s a narrow stretch of Chelsea, south of the King’s Road from Oakley Street to Ormonde Gate, that reminds me…

Why the Reds have got the blues

30 October 2021 9:00 am

Not so much the hair dryer: more a gentle home perm. Contemplating the increasingly less youthful visage of Ole Gunnar…

I’d pick the Vero Beach retirement home for old ladies over Annabel’s

9 October 2021 9:00 am

Around 20 or so years ago I had a point for match point on a perfect grass court at Fort…

Can we talk about Emma Raducanu's Christianity?

16 September 2021 4:36 pm

I’ve just been looking at photographs of Emma Raducanu again, this time focusing on her upper chest. She usually wears…

Blue-tick Twitter is spoiling Emma Raducanu's victory

13 September 2021 7:10 am

How do you take the pleasure out of something so marvellous and joyful as Emma Raducanu’s US open victory last…