tennis

My wife’s revenge has me at break point

15 July 2017 9:00 am

Fifteen years ago, when I was The Spectator’s drama critic, Caroline used to complain that she had become a ‘theatre…

‘Tennis’, 1930, by Eric Ravilious

Match made in heaven

8 July 2017 9:00 am

Tennis is best played with a wooden racket on a shady lawn somewhere close to Dorking. There is no need…

McEnroe serving in a mixed doubles match with Steffi Graf at Wimbledon, 1999

Always the Superbrat

8 July 2017 9:00 am

John McEnroe’s father calls. In fact, he calls McEnroe’s manager’s phone, presumably because dad doesn’t have a direct line to…

Why I won’t be watching Wimbledon

4 June 2016 9:00 am

Write about things you really know was the advice Papa Hemingway offered wannabe writers, so here goes: the French Open…

Hearing that 60 is the new 40 makes me want to punch the nearest octagenarian

7 May 2016 9:00 am

   New York I went downtown to Katz’s the other day and had a pastrami sandwich that made me want…

The secret to doing better at darts – and life

23 April 2016 9:00 am

I have always been intrigued by the scoring systems for different sports, and the degree to which they contribute to…

Ray Moore lost his job for telling the truth

2 April 2016 9:00 am

My old friend and one-time doubles partner Ray Moore has stepped down as chief executive of the Indian Wells Tennis…

Tim Parks’s one-sided ‘love story’ is a long trudge in the rain

13 February 2016 9:00 am

The title of Tim Parks’s 17th novel is false advertising, because Thomas and Mary: A Love Story is barely a…

John Terry’s ‘farewell’ is a load of hypocritical old tosh

6 February 2016 9:00 am

Just when you were thinking that the Premier League had become a much nicer place without José Mourinho in it,…

Novak Djokovic, the world number one, said that he turned down US$220,000 to throw a match. (Photo: Getty)

This could be the year that sport starts to die

30 January 2016 9:00 am

If sport loses the public’s faith – and it’s starting to – then all its power and glory will fade

(Photo: Getty)

The Davis Cup will be one final flourish for Andy’s Barmy Army

28 November 2015 9:00 am

There’s nothing quite like a sporting celebration, but the lash-up after Britain’s (almost) inevitable victory in the Davis Cup tennis…

Serena Williams is an all-time great – but is it wrong not to declare her the greatest?

12 September 2015 9:00 am

Serena Williams, according to some commentators the greatest woman who has ever graced this earth of ours, will complete the…

Australia’s amazing, exhausting sporting comebacks

25 July 2015 9:00 am

I have never met an Aussie I didn’t like, but, crikey, their sporting indefatigability is exhausting. Don’t they ever give…

Ancient and Modern: Juvenal and Cicero on whether grunting has a place in sport

18 July 2015 9:00 am

What a pleasure it was to watch the men’s final at Wimbledon contested with a minimum of grunting, exclaiming and…

Croquet is a sport that makes you want to cheat and kill

18 July 2015 9:00 am

I have always been what I suppose one could call a weed, and a cowardly one at that. I never…

Roger Federer helped me through my nervous breakdown, says William Skidelsky

13 June 2015 9:00 am

Good writing about sport is rare — and good writing about tennis is that much rarer — so it’s conspicuous…

We should be grateful for Andy Murray (and Kim Sears)

7 February 2015 9:00 am

It wasn’t that long ago when the most exciting event in any British tennis fan’s life was whether Jeremy Bates…

The missed New Year opportunities I would have rowed the Atlantic for

10 January 2015 9:00 am

 Gstaad The very end of 2014 laid an egg, and an expensive one at that. I missed David Tang’s bash…

It’s not just Kevin Pietersen. England needs a whole team of new heroes

8 February 2014 9:00 am

Englishmen used to be deported to Australia as a punishment. Now they get sent back to England as an act…

Roger Alton: The day Viv Richards came to watch me play cricket

11 January 2014 9:00 am

Sir Vivian Richards came to watch me play cricket the other day. That’s the sort of sentence you wait a…