Two weeks ago, the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, women’s version, looked like what the Brits would call “a damp squib”. A dud, that is. (A squib being a firecracker. Yes, they have a different word for everything.) The tournament was hanging its hat on Agnieszka Radwanska, the world No. 3, but not exactly a […]

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Which sport do Americans like most? It was the same in 2013 as it was in 1985, and every year since. The National Football League. Duh. We like our danger and violence, and we like our color and strategy and cheerleaders, and tidy three-hour blocs mapped out on Sundays and three nights a week. The […]

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I had heard of Angelika Cibulkova, of course. You work in sports in a country where tennis is popular … sure, you have heard of anyone ranked in the top 30. What I did not know … is that Cibulkova is 1.60 metres tall — or just shy of 5-foot-3. Which makes her run to […]

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Rory McIlroy is in Abu Dhabi this weekend for European Tour event, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, which brought to mind a piece from a few weeks ago. About McIlroy, 24, becoming engaged, on New Year’s Eve, to Caroline Wozniacki, 23, his girlfriend of approaching three years. And my “bah-humbug!” suggestion is that these […]

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An advantage to living in a small country? When celebrities visit you tend to get much closer to them than you would in a bigger, more impersonal place. Like, say, a tennis tournament. Going to Wimbledon or the U.S. Open might be fun, but your interaction with players will be minimal. Same as any other […]

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This is always a bit tricky. Putting out newspapers on December 24 and December 25. Even in the Middle East, where Christmas this year was “Wednesday” … not much goes on. End of the year, a batch of sports taking a few months off … that happens even in Arabia. December 24 is the slowest […]

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Andy Murray won the “gentlemen’s” singles championship at Wimbledon today, the first Briton to do so since Fred Perry in 1936. Yes. Seventy-seven years ago. And there went another great losing streak. I am on record expressing support for the continuation of all prominent losing streaks. They give context and shape to teams, people and […]

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It must be hard to be the brother of a star. A sports star, especially. Many of us seem to embrace the notion that if one brother is a huge talent, the other must be, too. Same parents, right? Same upbringing? Same results. Easy. Almost never works out. The “other” is generally shorter or stouter […]

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For much of the past decade, the game of tennis has seemed on a steady slog towards a joyless aerobics-driven end in which He Who Can Keep the Ball in Play Longest will win the major events, often in five hours or more. Men and women, nearly everyone stands on the baseline and slugs it […]

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If you are of a certain age, you may recall a recurring theme in the Peanuts cartoon strip. Charlie Brown would be preparing to kick a football, which his tormentor Lucy van Pelt was holding (as for a field goal) and as Charlie Brown approached she would snatch the ball away, much to CB’s frustration. […]

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