Monday saw the publication of the ITF’s anti-doping testing statistics for 2016. Tennis’s anti-doping programme has been the subject of criticism in recent years, in most detail recently by an investigation by ESPN’s Outside the Lines (OTL) in October 2016. The OTL investigation made 3 main points: 1) that historically tennis’s anti-doping programme was unsophisticated in…
This year’s Australian Open has drawn attention again to the ageing phenomenon in professional tennis. With today’s women’s final being contested by Serena and Venus Williams and tomorrow’s men’s final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, for the first time in the Open era (since 1968) all four members of the principal singles’ finals at…
With only the Paris Masters 1000 event left to play before the World Tour Finals in London there are still 2 places up for grabs and as many as 7 players who could yet fill them. Thiem and Cilic are reasonably strong favourites to fill those spots, with Berdych and Goffin closest to benefit from…
By defeating Andy Murray 10 days ago and in so doing winning the French Open, Novak Djokovic is, as Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim has written, firmly part of the GOAT conversation – the Greatest Of All Time. Despite his dominance for four of the last five years, inclusion of Djokovic in this discussion would have…
The Estoril Cache Here’s the list of articles I wrote during the ATP tournament in Estoril. Match reports for Ubitennis Jo-Wilfried Tsonga withdraws from Estoril with injury [Link] Borna Coric impresses in Estoril [Link] Uneven performance good enough for Kyle Edmund in Estoril [Link] Paul-Henri Mathieu dashes home hopes in Estoril [Link] Borna Coric first of #NextGen…
Kyle Edmund, the British number 3 ranked 89 in the world, played at the ATP main tour event in Estoril, Portugal, this week where he reached the second round. The day after his defeat to Benoit Paire, the world number 20, I had a chance to talk with him about that match, his season so…
The Estoril Ultimatum Today is quarter finals day in Estoril. The most anticipated match of the day – and probably the week – sees Nick Kyrgios and Borna Coric go head to head for the first time in their careers. Both are part of the ATP’s #NextGen campaign (see here) and this should be the…
Following his win over Paul-Henri Mathieu in the second round of the Millennium Estoril Open in Portugal, I had the opportunity to ask Gilles Simon in his post-match press conference about the distribution of prize money at Wimbledon this year, announced by the All England Lawn Tennis Club on Tuesday. I have produced the transcript…
You will know by now that Cleaning the Lines produces data-driven content to bring a small measure of analytical rigour to the world of professional tennis. This week I have been onsite at the Estoril Open in Portugal and have posted daily some data-driven thoughts in what I’ve called The Estoril Diaries. However beautiful I find data…
27 April 2016 Transcript of Kyle Edmund’s press conference following his singles victory over Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-3 7-5; and his doubles victory with Frederico Silva over Johan Brunstrom and Andreas Siljestrom 6-4 3-6 10-6. [Questions in English only] Q: How do you feel about your clay form after winning two matches in two weeks? Last…
On a day when Wimbledon widened the gap in prize money between the haves and the have-nots (see text following the interview), I interviewed Steven Diez, a qualifier here in Estoril, who this year has also had to play Futures tournaments. Grand Slams and ATP events belong to the top tier of men’s professional tennis.…
Parked on the edge of Europe with nothing between them and other continents, the Portuguese since the 15th century have historically been explorers. That they have not yet come to dominate professional tennis, one of the few sports with tournaments in each region, cannot accordingly be attributed to a genetic flaw. Happily, though, in terms…
In a marketing campaign known as #NextGen, the ATP in March this year started promoting 14 players aged 21 or under as a future generation of players to break through and threaten for titles. #NextGen may sound like a plan for renewable energy, and in some ways it is: its purpose must surely be preparation…
Sunday saw the final round of qualifying at the ATP tournament in Estoril, with the winners of the 4 matches played going through to the main draw. In the high-profile world of Federer, Djokovic et al., playing tennis is about titles, performance, and securing a historical legacy. For these guys trying to qualify though it’s…
This post was first published by Ubitennis on 17 April 2016 at the following link. In his 100th ATP tour final, Rafael Nadal defeated Gael Monfils 7-5 5-7 6-0 to win his ninth Monte Carlo Masters title and his first Masters 1000 title since Madrid in 2014. Following a thrilling final lasting 2 hours and 46…
Cleaning the lines 