It’s been almost a week since Novak Djokovic was named world number one and celebrated that fact by upsetting the tennis odds to win his first Wimbledon title, and second Grand Slam of the current season. It would therefore appear to be the best time to look back on the reasons lying behind Rafael Nadal’s comprehensive defeat at the hands of the Serb.

The Wimbledon final was the player’s 48th match of the year to date. Remarkably, he has only lost one of those matches. With the player also having defeated Nadal four times this season prior to their meeting at SW19, there were some who believed that fate was on his side on a beautiful day in South London. However, Nadal is never an easy opponent, with the Spaniard the one man in tennis you can bet will never give up, no matter how much he has been backed into a corner, so the match was primed to be a classic of the modern era.

The very first recorded mention of tennis was in the fourteenth Cycle of plays called ‘The Second Shepherds? Play’ from the Wakefield Yorkshire dramatist known simply as The Wakefield Master. In scene VIII Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur?s round table plays tennis with a band of giants.

However, this would have been the medieval form of tennis known as real tennis which had evolved more than three centuries from an earlier ball game played in France around the 12th century.

This involved hitting the ball with the bare hand or later a glove and is believed to have started with monks playing the game in monastery cloisters, judging by the construction and appearance of some of the early courts.

The game quickly proved to be a hit among European royals and in England was taken up by Henry V in the early fifteenth century. A hundred years later Henry VIII made the biggest impact as a young monarch, playing the game with enthusiasm at Hampton Court on a court he built in 1530.

It is now known that proper dynamic stretching before playing any sport can greatly increase your overall sports performance. How is this possible?

The term dynamic stretching refers to a stretch that is performed while moving through a specific range of motion, depending on which sport you play or other purposes these stretches can be different.

Performing dynamic stretching also has the added benefit of extra blood flow delivering a lot more oxygen to your working muscles helping you too better your sports performance.

Here are some of the many benefits Dynamic stretching can bring:
Longer lasting sports endurance, better nutrient delivery to the muscles, greater blood and oxygen flow, stronger muscles, more muscle fiber activation, better muscle balance and function.

Now you can see why dynamic stretching is a good idea to
perform. Not only sports people can do this with great benefit but also the older people looking to increase their strength and flexibility in their muscles.

Wimbledon is one of if not the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world. With a history of nearly 200 years of champions, the legendary tennis tournament has played host to all of the best players in history and some of the sports greatest matches. With a heady mix of sporting excellence and jet set glamour, for a few short weeks in the middle of the British summer Wimbledon live becomes the center of the world

If you are in London over the summer then it is a chance to see a truly unique event as titans of sport battle it out year in year out for one of if not the most prestigious trophy in tennis. World class athletes locked in an arena of combat like no other firing a projectile at over 100 kilometers an hour with racquets crafted by world class artisans from graphite and carbon.

Rafael Nadal has pulled level with tennis legend Bjorn Borg after winning his sixth French Open title following a dominant victory over Roger Federer. Nadal won 7-5 7-6 (7-3) 5-7 6-1 to win his tenth Grand Slam title while keeping hold of his world number one ranking, with the Spanish player well aware before the match that anything other than a win in the final in Paris would lead to Novak Djokovic overtaking him at the top of the rankings.

The win for Nadal came at the expense of a man who dominated during the early stages of the action, Federer looking comfortable on court throughout the first few games of the set before wasting a precious set point and allowing the Spaniard to find his rhythm on court as the minutes ticked by.

Some uncharacteristically careless rallies from Federer allowed Nadal to pounce, with the Spaniard eradicating the lack of fluency that had seemed to haunt him during the build-up to the showpiece event, with the tournament match balls cited by a few of the top players in the men’s and women’s draw as holding them back, particularly in the tricky weather conditions.

There are few games that are quite as engaging as tennis and nothing comes close to the experience of watching the worlds best battle it out at Wimbledon or in other international lawn racket sport arenas in the world. Many people dream of one day sitting in one of these arenas and cheering their idols as they lift the world title in what has become one of the greatest sporting events in the world. In the meantime, what fans require is a dependable means to watch live tennis.

Globally, millions of ball game fans view quietly as the ball is hit back and forth between the players until a score is made. Silence is observed during the play with just the familiar sound of the ball as it is hit by the players, the screeching sounds of the shoes and the players strained voice as they exert full force to strike the ball.

Game, match, love the familiar lingo of tennis. A sport birthed in the middle ages by priests who played a court tennis indoors. It has since developed into a popular outdoor sport which has kept millions captivated and housebound with eyes glued to the legendary television set. The longest game stretched more than seventy six hours. In modern times people no longer have to hurry home or miss a score but can watch live tennis online.

Billions of people make use of the internet round the clock. Whether one wants to connect from a computer or mobile phone, the internet has become a popular spring of information and sport viewing entertainment. Nations apart have been brought together by sport and watching online is another means most sought. For some who will never see the likes of Wimbledon or who will miss out on local tv channels, viewing this game could be delightful.

Choosing the right tennis racket is obviously an important element in a player’s performance but something that is easy overlooked. Also manufacturers don’t make it easy with one standard approach. This is intended to be a basic guide to set you on the right path, and from there you can experiment and tweak until you get the perfect tennis racket for you. Here are the variables we suggest you look at.

Head Size: The head size relates to the power and “sweet spot” of the racket. The larger the head size of the racket the better both of these are. So why doesn’t everybody go for a larger head size? Because a smaller head size gives you more control – it is easier to make the ball go where you want it to but at the expense of power. If you are a beginner, it is best to start with a larger head size, about 105 square inches, and progress down to something in the region of 85 to 95 square inches once your own power and skill improves.

Novak Djokovic has surprised nobody, and particularly none of his loyal home fans, by winning the Serbia Open without dropping a single set, with the final in Belgrade last weekend seeing a dominant Djokovic defeat Feliciano Lopez of Spain 7-6 6-2.

The win at the Serbia Open represented current Australian Open champion Djokovic’s fifth title of 2011 and also extended his unbeaten record this season to an impressive total of 27 matches. It therefore seems safe to say that this latest victory has sent out another clear message to the player’s rivals in the game that 2011 is his, and nobody else’s time to shine and overtake Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the wider context of the ATP tour.

Djokovic is already able to boast an array of impressive statistics, with the youngster winning two Grand Slam singles titles since the start of his career while also becoming the first Serb to win a Grand Slam event, the youngest player in the Open Era to beat the top three players in succession, and also beating Roger Federer a trio of times within the space of just 12 months, something that only three other players in world tennis have managed to do against the Swiss legend.

A tennis ball is very distinctive and are used by millions of children and adults all over the world for playing tennis, of course, but many, many other less formal games as well. They are not only the right size for tennis, presumably anyway at 2.7 inches or 6.7 centimetres in diameter, but they also fit neatly into a hand or a dog’s mouth. Therefore people use them for playing catch, for various games of softball like rounders and for throwing for the dog to retrieve.

While I was a youngster, all tennis balls were white, but now you would be very hard pressed indeed to find a white one if, if indeed it is at all possible. Nowadays, all tennis balls are day-glow colours like yellow, green and orange. Presumably this modification was made for the purpose of visibility on the TV screen.

The word ‘tennis’ comes from the French – ‘Tenez’ (pronounced ‘teney’), which meant ‘Take up Position’ or simply ‘Start’. The origins of tennis were almost certainly well over a thousand years ago, when it was played by monks. The racquet or racket was the flat of the hand and the ball was wooden.