While the landscape of women’s tennis is changing, the men’s field seems a bit more predictable. Early-line odds makers strongly favor Spanish clay court magician, Rafa Nadal while the current unranked favorite on the women’s side is Belgian Justine Henin. Too bad the odds makers and the ranking committees can’t get together. We might have more balanced events.

In Melbourne, one of the most dominant signs read Just In Time, a tribute to Justine Henin’s return to the tour.

Elena Dementieva has had to endure the label so many tennis players and golfers dread: the best player never to win a major. Spain’s Sergio Garcia is widely regarded as the male golfer who ought to have won a prestigious championship by now, but hasn’t. In men’s tennis, Andy Murray and Nikolay Davydenko are battling for that double-edged distinction, which carries with it both a compliment and a deficiency.

At the biggest tournaments in tennis, Michael Llodra is considered a lightweight. At the 2010 Open 13 event in his native country, the left-handed Frenchman lived up to his last name. Mr. Llodra - make that, Monsieur Llodra - was simply a load over the past week at the Palais des Sports in Marseilles, France. […]

Margaret Smith Court won more Grand Slam singles titles than Martina Navratilova. So did Steffi Graf. Chris Evert won just as many Major singles championships as her good friend managed to do. If you wanted to say that Navratilova is not the greatest singles player in the history of women’s tennis, you could make a […]

Sixteen long years after having her career derailed, a renewed Monica Seles found reason to celebrate once again. The best ballstriker in the past 25 years of women’s tennis – for reasons beyond her control –could not become the single most accomplished champion in the history of her sport, but the nine-time Major champion was […]

When you think of stylish Swiss tennis, you think of Roger Federer, but before the “Basel Dazzle” became the greatest Grand Slam champion in the Open Era, a Swiss Miss made her own mark on the world of Major tournament tennis. Martina Hingis is not yet 30 years old, and yet she’s in many ways […]

The first thing that needs to be said about Marat Safin is that 99.5 percent of human beings would love to have this enigmatic Russian’s problems. This magnetic Muscovite with movie-star looks, a body tailor-made for tennis success, and a full assortment of formidable skills won over $14 million, traveled the world, won two Major […]

There will be a time and place to celebrate the winners of the first two men’s singles quarterfinals at the 2010 Australian Open. (In the next post, actually!) But one can’t comment on two riveting spectacles at Melbourne Park without addressing the acute agony of the valiant competitors who lost on Tuesday. Andy Roddick and […]

If the bottom half of the women’s draw at the 2010 Australian Open could be viewed as a battle of two nations, the one country that has created as much newsworthy activity as Belgium is clearly Russia. While Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin and Yanina Wickmayer caused much ink to be spilled after their Friday exploits, […]