The Last Post

Dear readers i haven’t been posting regularly for a while and thus have decided to close this blog down.

At todays mens Wimbledons finals I hope that Federer wins but that before too long Murray gets a slam.

Good bye.

Injury update

Having been injured for most of the past 5 and a half months I was delighted last week to be able to knock against the wall at the club.

I hit a combination of backhands and forehands for about 20 minutes or so. Then later in the week I managed to have two 20 minute knock ups against some of the other men at the club.

This week I had a 15 minute warm up and then played two tentative sets.

I still don’t feel the arm is quite right but its better than nothing. I will try to play again next week before seeing some new physiotherapists so it will be interesting to hear what they say.

LAst week my fore arm felt bruised after my play – strange but true – and of course I dont know if this is becuase it hasn’t healed fully or because I just haven’t played for so long. We shall see. Mr BH

Strings part 3

In a previous post see here I commented that I had bought a new frame and decided to try out some new strings. The strings were Wilson Sensations.

So how do they compare to the Volkl strings I am used to playing with?

Firstly they are thinner which I gather gives you more spin. I’m not sure I really felt evidence of that.

Secondly they feel different as you do get more “feel” when you hit the ball.

Thirdly they don’t last very long. I broke them on saturday which meant that I had only played 8 times with them at the most.

Thats all on strings for now. MR BH

Australian Open

Well boys and girls the Australian Open starts Monday next which of course means that the professional tour is really up and running.

I don’t have any predictions at the moment but I may post over the weekend. Mr BH

All change at Volkl?

Recently I had one of my Volkl racquets restrung and I noticed that the shop had very few Volkl racquets on show.

When I asked why this was I was told it was because the UK distributor was waiting to give the store frames. As you would I went on-line when I got home to read the following information on the Volkl website..

Boris Becker has bought the Tennis side of Volkl with his partner and they are creating a new company called “BORIS BECKER SPORTS GmbH, which therefore replaces Völkl Tennis GmbH”

Further to that they say that the two brands Volkl and Boris Becker will be produced side by side.

In the US they are already selling the Boris Becker racquets and apparently they will appear in the UK from October.

Not having tried them I would just like to say that I’m looking forwards to another range of Volkl frames which at some time in the future would replace my racquets. Mr BH

Henin record breaker?

In beating both Serena and Venus Williams Justine Henin has done an extremely rare thing. I believe that only once before has someone beaten both Williams sisters in a tournament.

However she has a difficult job still to do in playing the final against Svetlana Kuznetsova the reason being that NO ONE has beat both Williams sisters and then won the tournament.

One would feel that Justine is a better player than Svetlana against whom she has a very good record of 14 – 2 against the Russian but I wonder if the statistic mentioned above will play a part. Mr BH

What makes a good doubles team?

I gather that Jamie Murray and Eric Butorac have decided to go their separate ways after the US Open. That rather begs the question what makes a good doubles partnership?

According to Pat Bukoswski in her book the art of winning doubles a good doubles team is made up of two people with the following characteristics:

Pick someone whom complements you technically and emotionally

Someone who you can communicate well with – through good and bad times

and

Someone who you can SHARE the teamwork with.

I wonder how many of us have a doubles partner who fits those categories? BH