Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers in a still from Match Point

Here’s a list of 5 famous movies centered around tennis that no tennis fan worth his salt should miss!

Strangers on a Train (1951)

What’s it about? Produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, this tells the story of a supposed pact that a tennis player makes with a stranger to commit “a criss-cross murder”. Or as The Guardian once put it, the story of “a nice guy tennis player who becomes embroiled in a reciprocal murder scheme”. Incidentally, this isn’t the only Hitchcock film to feature a tennis player; there was also one in ‘Dial M for Murder’, which had “a washed-up tennis star trying to murder his wife Grace Kelly for the insurance money – mainly plausible because this was before tennis went professional and back then players couldn’t serve and volley their way to independent wealth”.

Any good? A Hitchcock classic. “Game, set and match to Hitchcock: best-ever movie with a tennis player in the lead,” wrote Jasper Rees of The Telegraph.

Match Point (2005)

What’s it about? A retired tennis player (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) falls for Scarlett Johansson’s character.

Any good? “The basic problem from the outset,” wrote Philip French of The Observer, “is that Woody Allen, so much at home with the mores, pretensions and idioms of his native New York, is an ugly duckling out of water in England. Everyone talks in clumsy, lumbering dialogue that draws unintentional laughter: ‘I’ve got to meet my wife at Tate Modern. There’s a new painter she wants to show me’; ‘I think we should go for a ride tomorrow morning. We’ve got some wonderful new horses’; ‘You could have been a poet with the racket the way Laver was.’” The Telegraph’s Jasper Rees called this “an embarrassing double fault”.

Players (1979)

What’s it about? The story of “an attractive but directionless tennis hustler”.

Any good? “It isn’t exactly boring,” said the New York Times. “It’s pretty and painless and instantly forgettable”. The Telegraph called it “a gloop-coated soap, very much a second-round loser”.

Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951)

What’s it about? ”An intriguing little melodrama about an ambitious, domineering mother who pushes her daughter to become a tennis champion, only to accuse her of ingratitude when she falls in love and tires of the tournament circuit,” Timeout said. Rather like a Mildred Pierce of the sporting world, but with sympathies reversed” it added.

Any good? “Probably the truest ever cinematic portrait of the forces that shape the mentality of a tennis player,” wrote one critic.

Wimbledon (2004)

What’s it about? The improbable/heart-warming/ludicrous tale of the British player (Paul Bettany) who gets the girl (Kirsten Dunst) and wins Wimbledon.

Any good? ”More raspberries than strawberries for this rom-com,” one critic wrote. “The only way an Englishman is ever going to win Wimbledon is in a fantastical concoction like this”, went another critic, rather cruelly.

Article published with permission from The Tennis Space (www.thetennisspace.com)

By Alexandra Wills

With the news that the All-England Club is four months into developing a new ‘masterplan’ for the expansion of the Church Road grounds, which goes by the name of ‘Wimbledon 2020’, what are the other three tennis majors doing to keep ahead of the curve?

The Melbourne Park Master plan

An AUD$363 million redevelopment project, Stage One of the Melbourne Park Masterplan was announced in January 2010, and is designed to secure the future of the Australian Open in Melbourne, and shake off threats not only from other Australian cities, but also the likes of Dubai and other power-hungry tennis-loving nations in Asia. Expected to be finished by 2015, Stage One will see Margaret Court Arena upgraded to include a retractable roof and a bumped-up capacity of 7,500.

The new Eastern Plaza will also include eight new indoor tennis courts and 13 new outdoor courts, warm-up and warm-down facilites for athletes, a new eastern entry to Hisense Arena that will also serve as a public mill-about-and-drink-beer area, an upgraded western entry to Melbourne Park’s second show court, increased car-parking capacity, and, finally, a new landscaped entrance to Melbourne Park from Olympic Boulevard.

Also including plans to open up opportunities for Melbourne Park to host netball, basketball, concerts and other events, the project is the largest government-funded sports facility project ever seen in the state of Victoria, bigger than the 1956 Olympics and 2006 Commonwealth Games. Work began in May 2010, and is expected to be completed in time for the 2015 Australian Open.

The French Open Expansion plan
Much as in Melbourne, with rumours circulating that the French Open was destined to be moved from its historic home at Porte d’Auteil because of the clay-court slam having vastly outgrown its limited floor space, the French Tennis Federation announced a 257 million Euros (£241m) expansion plan in May 2011.

Including the building of two new show courts, one with 5,000 seats and the other with 2,000 seats, a new national training centre, a new media centre, and a roof over the Court Philippe Chatrier, the tennis complex is set to grow by 60% in size. The project, funded by a combination of the French Tennis Federation, the city of Paris, and the central government, is due to be completed in stages, with everything up and running by the 2016 French Open. A retractable roof is also planned for the Court Suzanne Lenglen at a later date.

Re-modelling the US Open
Announced in 2010, the USTA is breaking new ground with a $300 million renovation, which is set to include building three new stadium courts, but, somewhat controversially, without any provision for a roof on either Arthur Ashe, the US Open’s centrepiece, or on any of the new courts. “We will continue over the next 10 years to research (about the feasibility of) a roof over Arthur Ashe,” USTA President Lucy Garvin told SportsBusiness Journal. “It remains technologically and financially challenging, but we are going to continue to research the technology that may allow for a roof.”

The redevelopment plans include tearing down the current 10,220-seater Louis Armstrong Stadium and its neighbour, the 6,100-seater Grandstand Court.  A new 10,000-15,000 seater Louis Armstrong Stadium will be built in its place. Two new 3,000-seat mini stadiums, the locations of which have not yet been determined, but which will be designed to ‘offer a more intimate view of the matches’ will also be built. Additionally, there will be construction work carried out to widen Arthur Ashe Stadium’s upper levels to add more public facilities. It is not known when the new courts will be completed.

Article published with permission from The Tennis Space (www.thetennisspace.com)

By Mark Hodgkinson

So thoughts are already turning to how Kim Clijsters will perform on the All England Club grass this summer, first at the Wimbledon Championships and then at the Olympics. That may seem premature, but with the Belgian to miss the entire clay-court season because of a hip injury, there is now an even greater emphasis on how she plays on the lawns.

And if Clijsters were to win the Venus Rosewater Dish or stand on the podium with a medal of any colour, it would be an emotional moment, because whenever she visits south-west London she thinks of her late father Leo, a former professional footballer who passed away three years ago. Though Leo suffered from hay fever, and so was constantly sneezing as he strolled around Wimbledon Village and the All England Club, it was his favourite tournament, the one he loved to watch his daughter competing in. “What would it mean to win Wimbledon? That’s hard to describe as it’s been a fun and emotional experience for me, every time I’ve played at Wimbledon. That’s because my dad used to go there every time. It used to be his favourite tournament,” said Clijsters.

“We used to stay in a house together, and it was always a lot of fun. When I go there now, I feel that emotion very strongly. That’s why, if I won Wimbledon, it would be a very emotional experience for me. I would be thinking about my dad.”

Leo Clijsters used to enjoy the fact that his daughter played on grass, the same surface he used to run around on. “The connection with my dad is stronger at Wimbledon than at other tournaments, for sure. He never went to the Australian Open or the US Open, for example. He loved going to Wimbledon. He would say, ‘you’re playing on grass, that’s what I used to play on’,” said Kim, a former world number one.

“He also loved the whole history of the tournament and the sport. My dad was a traditional kind of guy. He appreciated the white clothing, and not letting everything go crazy, but keeping everything simple and traditional. It was so easy – we would stay in a house and walk to the courts. He loved that. He had some hay fever, and some bad allergies, so I remember that he was always sneezing.”

Family is of huge importance to Clijsters, who, as the mother of four-year-old Jada, is attempting to become the first mum to win Wimbledon since Evonne Goolagong went to the champions’ dinner in 1980. “I’ve seen Evonne around and spoken to her,” said Clijsters. “It’s been nice to get to know her. I’ve spoken to her about what it was like winning Wimbledon as a mother. She said, ‘yeah, you should do it – you go out and play and if you lose, you lose, and you’re home taking care of the kid’. That’s how I feel. Everyone asks me what my schedule is. Okay, there are days when it’s hard but you just do it.”

Article published with permission from The Tennis Space (www.thetennisspace.com)

Rafa Nadal – a favourite among Indians

By Haresh Ramchandani

A recent survey has found that tennis is the second most followed sport in India. No prizes for guessing the first. That would be cricket – the only pan-India obsession besides Bollywood.

The report, published by SMG Insight/YouGov, is admittedly based on a small sample -1,100 Indian adults, mostly in metro cities. But even if one were to use a larger sample size, the result may not be very different. Football, behind tennis in the survey by a mere three per cent, might be the only other sport that could come close to taking the second spot.

Irrespective, there is no doubt that tennis has been rising in popularity in India. And this boils down to two major reasons.

The first, surprisingly, has nothing to do with the sport itself but with the socio-economic changes that India has undergone in the last 20 years. In 1991, faced with a precarious balance of payments position, India opened up its closed economy. What followed was an unleashing of the potential of the Indian economy. Rising GDPs, per capita and disposable incomes has meant that tennis, considered a rich man’s sport, has become more accessible to a wider and burgeoning middle class.

The opening up of the economy created more jobs and the number of women participating in the workforce is several times higher than twenty years ago. That along with the increase in number of nuclear families has led to a fundamental change in the way kids spend their time away from school and their holidays. Two decades ago, when I went to school, free time and summer vacations were spent playing with friends outdoors and in each other’s houses. Today, kids’ time outside of school is fairly structured – dance and music classes, swimming and tennis lessons – this has a direct correlation to the number of kids participating in different sports and activities, not just tennis.

The economic development has also meant that as Indian corporations become bigger and more profitable, there are more rupees to be spent on sponsorship of sporting events and infrastructure. Another by-product was the cable and satellite television boom in India. In the 1980s, Indians had to rely on the unreliable national broadcaster Dooordarshan to see live tennis four times a year – during the closing stages of the grand slams. Today, India has ten sports channels – which means plenty of airtime for channels to show live tennis. Indians now watch grand slams from the very first round and weekly ATP and WTA events are also often on TV. With the internet, live streaming and 4G connections, Indians now can watch their favourite tennis player all-year round.

The second reason has to do with the sport itself. Every sport increases its following as national players and teams garner more acclaim on the international stage. India has always had a rich tradition in tennis. From the Krishnans to the Amritrajs and everyone else in between, tennis has been part of our sporting landscape for decades now. At a time when Indians rarely reached the international level in other truly global sports, there have been a few Indians who have made their mark in tennis.

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi – India's tennis legends

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi took the nation and the doubles tour by storm in the late 1990s and early 2000s by becoming the world’s top ranked team and winning three grand slams. They proved that Indians could be world beaters, even if it was only in the doubles format. More than a decade later, Paes and Bhupathi are still going strong and winning grand slams.

And in 2005, Sania Mirza burst on to the tennis scene, becoming India’s first non-cricketing athlete to cross over and become a national celebrity. The Indian, wearing short skirts and a big attitude, unleashed her forehand to reach the top 30 in singles world rankings. Through controversies and injuries, Sania trailed a path where no other Indian female tennis athlete has, inspiring a legion of young girls to follow her path. Somdev Devvarman has also established himself on the men’s tour, though he has been nursing a shoulder injury since January. India currently has 18 men in the top 1000 world rankings and 10 women.

The success of these players has shown a whole new generation of juniors that success on the international tennis circuit is not impossible. More juniors are taking the sport seriously, hoping to become the next Yuki Bhambri.

Also, tennis has been in the midst of a golden run in the last decade. The historic exploits of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and now Novak Djokovic have got fans glued to the sport the world over, not just in India.

Following the win of Li Na at the French Open last year, tennis exploded in China and experts say the effects of that will be seen ten years down the line in the number of Chinese players on the international circuit. With a billon-plus population, India is one grand slam champion away from witnessing her very own tennis explosion.

Article published with permission from The Tennis Space (www.thetennisspace.com)