The Climb. Everybody in the tennis world knows it, and those old enough vividly remember their surprise in witnessing the unique celebration. Now a staple of any finals day at a major championship — 14 players since 1987 have scaled the Centre Court architecture at The Championships — and those triumphant few at Wimbledon pay homage to Pat Cash, the original climber to his family and friends. The Wimbledon champion, who dared to dream and delivered 30 years ago. Having punched away a forehand volley — his 52nd winner on the world’s most famous lawn — to beat World No. 1 Ivan Lendl 7-6(5), 6-2, 7-5, Cash turned to his team and raised his arms to the sky in celebration...
The abiding memory is of a stick-thin figure bedecked top-to-toe in yellow and blue, who unleashed explosive groundstrokes and a monotonous groan, which echoed around Stade Roland Garros, to wear down the best clay-court players the professional circuit had to offer. With each win as Gustavo Kuerten walked off court, came an infectious smile in acknowledgement of his growing legion of followers, to whom he became universally known as ‘Guga’. “To win Roland Garros was unbelievable,” Kuerten told ATPWorldTour.com, on the 20th anniversary of his win. “It’s become more absurd as the years have passed. Now I know how hard it is to win a Grand Slam, but back then I kept questioning, ‘What is this?’ and ‘How did I...
If you listen closely, you can hear the crunch of pristinely trimmed blades as players take to the grass courts of the Aegon Surbiton Trophy in suburban London this week. The grass-court season is here, and the fresh smell of carefully groomed lawns is in the air on the ATP Challenger Tour, with three weeks of tennis set to commence in England. The tournaments in Surbiton, Nottingham and Ilkley provide some of the more quaint and picturesque settings on the circuit, but which Challengers are held in the most scenic, breathtaking locales? We look at the 10 best, presented in alphabetical order by city... Kunming Challenger (Anning, China) One of two events in the Asia-Pacific region that feature on our...
