tennis
In defence of Novak Djokovic
Why does no one like Novak Djokovic? If Roger Federer is the player that even non-tennis fans can’t help but…
Why do the Japanese still seem so ambivalent about Naomi Osaka?
It had all started so well for Naomi Osaka. Dressed in the colours of the Japanese flag, the tennis star…
Forget football – rugby is the real beautiful game
The question is surely destined to become a pub quiz staple: ‘Who moved a bottle 18 inches across a table…
In praise of chastity
New York It’s party time in the Bagel, or at least private party time. Yours truly is an extra man…
Have tennis players always been expected to give interviews?
Game, set, chat Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open after being fined $15,000 for failing to…
In defence of Naomi Osaka
‘Kawaisou’ or ‘wagamama’ (poor thing or spoiled brat)? That’s the question Japanese tennis fans have been asking ever since world number…
Dear Mary: How can we use our neighbour’s tennis court without inviting him to play?
Q. Our neighbours have a tennis court which, under the property’s previous owner, we enjoyed playing men’s fours on. The…
The science of tennis grunts
How grunting helps players win
I went to hell and back to meet my new granddaughter
Wolfsegg, Austria I have finally understood what’s wrong with the modern world: motorways. These dehumanising slabs of asphalt covering our…
Croquet is the perfect sport for social distancing
In Mr Alton’s absence, I thought readers might want a column about sport. The problem is that I’m largely indifferent…
How tennis went socialist
Desperately boring times but very healthy ones. No parties, no girls, not too much boozing, lots of smoking and reading…
The appeal of ugly men
Gstaad Lenin Moreno is in trouble, despite his very unchristian first name. For any of you unfamiliar with the name,…
Coco Gauff won fair and square, but she played terrible tennis
Martina Navratilova has never been shy about telling it like it is. She came out when other athletes were hiding…
What the new generation of tennis players could learn from Rocket Rod Laver
A chum was in Waitrose a year or two back, and was bending down with some difficulty to look at…
Boris is the only one who can save the Tories
A lady once offered to go to bed with me if I could ensure that she would write The Spectator’s…
My hero Roger Federer
Asked how he was feeling as he was about to give a speech to a ladies group, Mark Twain, looking…
Is it possible to draw Serena Williams without being racist?
I have spent the morning trying to draw a cartoon of a black person without it being racist. It’s bloody…
My faux pas at the Duke of Beaufort’s bash
A letter from a reader in South Africa mentions that the writer’s father insisted a white dinner jacket was permissible…
Why suburban ladies really play tennis
Because my mother is always telling me everything will be all right if I join a tennis club, I’ve joined…
Toby Young: I’ve been unmanned by a tennis brute in bright pink
As regular readers will know, Caroline has developed a fanatical interest in tennis and is currently captain of the ladies…
It will amply satisfy all your comeuppance needs: Battle of the Sexes reviewed
Battle of the Sexes recreates the famed, culture-changing 1973 tennis match between 55-year-old Bobby Riggs, a self-proclaimed chauvinist, and 29-year-old…
No balls
Borg vs McEnroe is a dramatised account of one of the greatest tennis rivalries of all time — between Bjorn…
My wife’s revenge has me at break point
Fifteen years ago, when I was The Spectator’s drama critic, Caroline used to complain that she had become a ‘theatre…
Match made in heaven
Tennis is best played with a wooden racket on a shady lawn somewhere close to Dorking. There is no need…
The dying art of sports commentary
Taki 3 July 2021 9:00 am
Wimbledon is here at last, after its absence in 2020. What struck me watching the French Open on television a…