My name is...erm... Andrew, obviously. I am 26 and have just bought my first home in a small(ish) village near Nottingham. I first got interested in tennis in 1987, at the age of 8 (it seems so long ago now!). A certain blonde german caught my interest and have been a huge fan of tennis ever since. I followed Steffi's career right through from the rise to #1, the 'Golden Slam' in '88 to her fantastic French Open title in 1999. Iwas lucky enough to see her play a couple of times at Wimbledon, and her last great match (SW19 quarterfinal vs Venus Williams in 1999). I really admired her mental strength, and her athletic ability and that seems to be what attracts me to supporting new players, which is why i think i admire Andy so much. I prefer women's tennis to mens on the whole, but Andy has managed to lift my interest in mens tennis over the last year. But my many years (decades almost!) of watching tennis has given me a large knowledge base and a hell of a lot of enjoyment.
About me personally, i am employed by a College as a Project Manager for a partnership organisation. All quite boring really, but it pays the bills and the travel costs of following the tour wherever possible! Its also a far cry from the Analytical Chemistry degree i got from University, and i'm not entirely sure how i got to where i am from there, but its been an interesting ride!
I have in the past written many articles for tennis websites and magazines (i won't name drop!), however over the years my time has become more and more limited with work and personal pressures and i have had to stop. Its a shame as i enjoyed it.
I guess i should stop rambling now and be quiet, its been nice reading all about everyone on this thread, it seems like a nice board to be part (certainly better than the BBC site). I look forward to contributing more in the future!
"Hi Andrew, I post on the Beeb as well. This site is certainly more civilised, nobody fights (unless my threatening to bash people with my zimmer frame counts, but I don't really mean it, I haven't got one!)
It is also nice that everybody on here supports Andy. No Murray-bashers allowed."
Pleased that you like the message board Andrew. You must know quite a lot about tennis - having knocked up with Elena Baltacha and written for those magazines. Did you ever write for Tennis Ace or the LTA tennis mag ? It was a shame as I only saw the final years of Steffi's career as I only started following tennis in 1999. I remember those amazing matches against Venus Williams and Martina Hingis in the French. That was quite a year at the French with the famous Hingis choke and tantrum and Agassi coming back to win from 2 sets to love down. It would have been very interesting to have seen how Steffi at her best would have matches up to the Williams sisters at their best. Those players were groundbreaking in terms of setting new standards of power and atheleticism and a match like that would have been amazing. I think it will be a long time before we see a repeat of Steffi's slam year.
"I've seen a fair amount of matches yeah, but i'm sure not as many as some on here. I had one article in ACE, nothing really exciting, most of my writing was published online.
I could talk about Steffi all night, so i won't bore anyone too much. I don't know if anyone will ever repeat the 'golden slam'. "
