Prologue

I love playing tennis, I love watching tennis and I love gambling on tennis. In short, I love tennis (although I’m partial to a little football on occasion too) so I thought, “why not immerse myself in the sport even further by writing about it as well?” A few reasons came to mind, not holding a degree in journalism was one, not having the time was another, and in the end I talked myself out of it, I had previously written a blog 3 or 4 years ago along a similar theme but it didn’t last especially long.

Then four months ago I bought my first house which set off a chain of events that has led me to change my mind and start this blog. The essence of the story is that before buying the property I would watch and gamble on tennis approximately 15-20 hours a week and, as a hobby, it was quite profitable (I made enough for a deposit on a house at least). My mistake was thinking this could carry on the same once we moved in and I started to do all the DIY my girlfriend had planned for me. Now, in most aspects of life if you’re not focused you probably won’t be successful and, for me at least, gambling is the same. Between work and DIY I was shattered and wasn’t ever in the right frame of mind for sitting down for a tennis session let alone trying to shoehorn in half a set here and there and trying to force some action. Fortunately I didn’t lose too much money before I decided that if I couldn’t dedicate myself to it then I was better off temporarily stopping altogether. This wasn’t as easy as it could/should have been but that is for a later post.

So why the blog? Well about a month ago I decided to get back in the saddle and start gambling again but so far it hasn’t gone too well. Also, as I mentioned right at the beginning I love playing tennis but at the ripe old age of 26 I’ve already reached my peak; the occasional ball I would once have thundered back down the line now flies past my racquet and the Köellereresque dives that once frequented my game are becoming an endangered species. The combination of those two has started to slightly dampen my love for the game. Therefore, I’m hoping that by writing about my favourite players, my thoughts on matches that I watch and about my (hopefully profitable) gambling on these matches it might help to keep my enthusiasm up. Hopefully I'll find something to write about at least once a week and that someone will enjoy reading it.

Addendum

It is probably a little late to dedicate a whole post to Andy Murray’s triumph at the US Open but I’d like to mention it and a paragraph on the blog’s opening post seems fair enough. First off, I’m a big Murray fan, back in 2007 I even had an “Andy Murray’s going to buy me a house challenge”. Sadly that never quite came to fruition, neither did my 2008 “Juan Martin Del Potro is going to buy me a Ferrari challenge” but those are both posts for another day. I don’t agree with the majority of the print media who suggested that winning the US Open in such a ‘Golden Era’ is the greatest British achievement in tennis. With unarguably the greatest player ever now 31 and the pretender to his throne’s knees finally giving out, I don’t think it is a particularly fair comment. What I do think is fair to say is that Murray’s win is the greatest British achievement in tennis, full stop. To get to the top of any sport is a phenomenal achievement and the leaps and bounds he’s come on physically in the last couple of years and mentally this year is nothing short of incredible. He had plenty of doubters, largely from a press and public that would on average struggle to name more than 6 tournaments but hopefully he can now kick on and win another couple before any of the decent youngsters mature enough to challenge. It truly was a great end to a fantastic 6 weeks of sport.