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My grandpa was an Alexander, and he was known as Sandy! There's loads of abbreviations for Alexander in the UK, Alex, Alec, Eck, Xander (pronounced Zander), Sandy, and Al, Ally, although those last two are more common for Alistairs.

The big problem in the UK, which applies to sport in general, is that we are great as a nation at watching sport, but actually doing it seems like a lot of hard work, and too much of a chore. It used to be that the public tennis courts would be full during Wimbledon, but now we've got so many...

The point is that when Nadal took that break, there were plenty of Fed fans who made a great deal of noise about how suspicious it was, and that winning to soon after a long break was not possible without chemical assistance. Now many of those same people just think it's a sign of class, and...

The thing is that there are so many different possibilities for a tennis player when it comes to PEDs that trying to draw attention to a particular symptom, especially one that happens to plenty of non-dopers such as 'excessive sweating' comes across as wishful thinking. Some people sweat more...

And Wade is known for being bitter, mean spirited, and out of touch. Meanwhile, Hass made a point of approaching Murray to apologise that his comments were entirely misrepresented by the media, so it seems a bit pointless using him a 'back-up'. Many players would simply withdraw, or retire...

Murray wasn't there last year either, and quite a few more missed it because they wanted to be fresh for the Olympics. In their favour, the Canadians have a couple of local players in Raonic and rising star Shapovalov who can fill column inches. It's always going to be disappointing for any...

Trust the Americans to name the era in which they peaked! Given that the name Fred Perry went onto adorn a fashion line that still sells, then it's safe to say that tennis got a lot of attention when he was winning. Watching back old footage, it's apparent that Laver was a big international...

Too many people leaping to the conclusion that it's some kind of grand scheme, when in reality Nadal just happy to have a top player come to stay, and to hit with. People must have forgotten that Nadal became quite friendly with Dani Valverdu when he was working with Murray, and he'll have been...

Stan does have a rounded style, but he's playing in an era where the leading players are more multi-dimensional than ever before, so he can look like a bit of a ball-basher by comparison. The difference means that he doesn't seem to be able to play vaguely well if his whole game isn't working...

I'd say he's done incredibly well when you consider his father, and everything he's put the family through.

Basically, they mean he has a wide range of shots available to him, has good anticipation, can read his opponents well, and can come up with solutions if his opponent is playing particularly well, or is part of his game isn't firing. More specifically, he plans ahead during a rally. He...

Not at all. But the fact remains that Sharapova deliberately hid her use of meldonium from her team and didn't include it on the anti-doping form because she knew the reasons for taking it were nothing to do with a medical condition, but an aspiration to get a competitive edge over her rivals...

The results were clean (as far as we know) at the time she achieved them, so I don't think she can be ruled out forever, but I would like to see a little bit of humility and a sense that she's accepted responsibility, and that she needs to work her way back. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem...

Yes, and in very similar circumstances to now. He also had injury problems, played a slightly reduced schedule, including a weak clay season and withdrew from the French Open & Rome because of injury. People were quick to point out that you can't expect to be number one if you aren't entering...

Is there not a rule about not having the trainer for a pre-existing injury? I bet he wasn't sure if he was allowed treatment, which is why they had the chat. Worth pointing out that Cilic has never retired during a match, so he's more than willing to play through pain.

That's what bugged me. We all like a bit of empathy for the loser, and a quick mention of how well she'd done, all things considered, would have been more than acceptable. But this was for the BBC, not American tv, and there should have been more focus on the merits of the well deserving...

Without the option of reading their medical notes, it's hard to have a meaningful opinion, but both are managing to beat decent players (off and on) when playing with their current problems, so I reckon that from a medical point of view they have a good chance of a quality return following...

I understood him wanting to understand the dip in form, and it's inevitable he was rooting for Venus, but it was a bit ungracious, and inappropriate at a time when we should have been praising Muguruza. To be honest, I think Muguruza just got better, getting over some early nerves and getting...

The "Big Four" needed four players, because they were the ones dominating the semi-final spaces of all of the big tournaments, and blocking the paths of all trying to challenge. If any player managed to best one of the Big 4 in a quarter final, they'd have to face another one in the semi-final...

Courts are allocated, in part, based on how popular the players are with the crowd at that point in time. It's not based on how far they are expected to go as such, although that is going to be a factor for the crowd when they decide who they want to see. And as someone has pointed out, Court...

At risk of throwing my shaky statistical credentials around, there is a world of difference between peak forehand speed and average speed. If your playing style consists of ball-bashing, then there isn't much variation between your average and peak speed. If you regularly deploy drop-shots...

I totally understand not having them on display, and some of them are particularly overly large and ugly, but I think loaning them out to a tennis museum or local clubs, or at least putting them in storage for his kids to see when they are older, would have been better. If he really wanted shot...

I noticed him not chasing every ball in the match against Fognini and thought it didn't bode well. I mean, it might have been a sudden realisation that it wasn't a good idea, but more likely that it was a sign that he really wasn't feeling comfortable. I saw comments about Murray not...

To be fair, the context was that he'd rather play tennis than watch tennis, and with only so many hours in the day the tennis he watches is often his peers as he finds it more interesting. Yes, there was the point about the long rallies, but I got the impression that it was all a bit...

Fed fans are so used to him playing on the first Monday they've started to think it's his right. IMO, the Wimbledon scheduling is the most fair. Some players will get two days off half way through the tournament, but come Monday, they'll be playing against other players who had two days off...

When I saw Mac talking about his off-court distractions, and issues in his personal life, he seemed to talk as if we were all supposed to know what he was talking about. Obviously, this is JMac here, so he's not afraid to do a bit of stirring, but call me naïve, but I got the impression that he...

Most of the complaints about Wimbledon boil down to the fact that demand for tickets considerably outstrips supply. Whatever system is used to allocate tickets, a lot of people will be left frustrated. It's naïve to think that it might be quieter on the first Tuesday than it is during the...

He's normally taking the mickey out of the relative levels of his career to that of the other commentators and those on court, so I don't think that's fair. It's designed to give context to how difficult it is, and a nice counter to the whining from Lloyd who often sounds like he begrudges the...

I'd see how I felt if he got to the final, but because he's never done much on grass, right now it doesn't feel like he deserves to win it. If not one of the Big 4, and given the choice, I'd rather an up and coming player won than Stan.

My problem with John Lloyd is that he acts as if every fluffed shot is a disaster, and appears to be under the impression that all you need to win is a positive attitude. He focuses a lot on the errors (which presumably he'd have avoided) of the losing player. Castle gets a bit of a slagging...