Linda Pearce
Linda Pearce is the Chief Tennis Writer and general sports reporter for The Age. She writes about a range of sports, including football, netball, and gymnastics. Linda has twice been named Australian tennis writer of the year.
Melbourne Vixens beat Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic in ANZ Championship
Linda Pearce With an emphatic 57-34 result at Hisense Arena on Sunday, the Melbourne Vixens improved their season record to 2-2 and regained their winning record against the Magic in their first home victory of...
John Millman: Behind Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic, Australia's next best thing
Linda Pearce John Millman and friends including James Duckworth contest a weekly trivia competition at the bowls club across the road from his family home in Brisbane and so, in that spirit, we ask Millman how...
ANZ Championship 2016: Vixens' recruit Rydes the wave
Linda Pearce After 19-year-old shooter Emma Ryde's surprise cameo in the Melbourne Vixens' opening round trouncing by the NSW Swifts, the debutant considered offering a tongue-in-cheek message to coach Simone...
Netball: Karyn Bailey unlikely to resume for Vixens against Magic in round 5
Linda Pearce Melbourne Vixens coach Simone McKinnis will wait until after Friday's training session to make a final call on injured shooter Karyn Bailey's fitness for the important home game against the Magic,...
How the Essendon drug ban could impact the Maria Sharapova case, says Tennis Australia president Steve Healy
Linda Pearce The Court of Arbitration for Sport's verdict in the Essendon drug case could act as an important precedent in Maria Sharapova's bid for clemency after her positive Australian Open test for meldonium,...
Ajla Tomljanovic's Tennis Australia funding in doubt as Fed Cup hopes take hit
Linda Pearce The generous funding arrangement that helped lure star Croatian recruit Ajla Tomljanovic to Australia is set to be reviewed as a consequence of the international rule change that leaves little...
ANZ Championship 2016: Bye for now for the Vixens, but more to come
Linda Pearce Despite no reported sightings of black cats or accidental strolls under ladder, luck has not not been kind to a Melbourne Vixens team that has lost one starting shooter to season-ending knee surgery...
Fed Cup 2016: No joy for Sam Stosur, or Australia, beaten 4-0 by the US
Linda Pearce Sam Stosur's emotion was obvious as her friend and Fed Cup captain Alicia Molik addressed the Pat Rafter Arena crowd on a second winless Fed Cup day in Brisbane.
Tennis: Expensive court exercises worth the gamble, says Tennis Australia president Steve Healy
Linda Pearce Tennis Australia president Steve Healy has defended the decision to lay a costly purpose-built clay court for the Fed Cup weekend on Pat Rafter Arena, as well as the expensive grasscourt Davis Cup...
Fed Cup 2016: Stosur beaten again as Australia downed 3-0 by the US in world group play-off
Linda Pearce Sam Stosur's distressing Fed Cup homecoming finishes with her second three-set defeat, as the depleted US sweep the world group play-off tie 3-0.
Fed Cup 2016: No room left for error as Aussies trail 2-0 against US in world group play-off
Linda Pearce The new and old of Australian women's tennis must combine for a perfect Fed Cup Sunday if the on-the-ropes hosts are to turn a 0-2 deficit into an unlikely victory in the world group play-off against...
Fed Cup 2016: Aussies trail 2-0 against US in world group play-off
Linda Pearce A depleted US team has taken the early advantage over a full-strength Australian line-up in the Fed Cup world group play-off, Madison Keys spoiling Daria Gavrilova's debut 6-4, 6-2 on Pat Rafter...
ANZ Championship 2016: Young Vixen Alice Teague-Neeld to take on Laura Geitz's Firebirds
Linda Pearce Tegan Philip's injury misfortune has been Alice Teague-Neeld's opportunity, and Saturday's appointment with the imposing Queensland Firebirds' defence represents the 20-year-old's biggest challenge...
Fed Cup 2016: Daria Gavrilova's wild ride to an Australian Fed Cup debut
Linda Pearce The Australian Open was still in session when its break-out local star, Daria Gavrilova, resumed what she calls her "normal life".
Fed Cup 2106: Sam Stosur hopes for a happy Fed Cup homecoming
Linda Pearce Queenslander Sam Stosur has rarely made two annual playing trips to her state of origin, and recent results would suggest that one visit has been more than enough, but she's hoping this...
Fed Cup 2016: Competition format queried ahead of Australia v US play-off tie in Brisbane
Linda Pearce The little sister to the now slightly doddery big brother that is the Davis Cup also appears ripe for a facelift, with US captain Mary-Jo Fernandez predicting a Fed Cup revamp is imminent under...
ANZ Championship netball, 2106: Vixens' sister act, Madi Robinson and Kelsey Browne, on song
Linda Pearce Sibling rivals now working for a common cause, and making a history, at Melbourne.
Tennis: Bernard Tomic to resume after wrist injury, while Nick Kyrgios takes a pre-French Open break
Linda Pearce Bernard Tomic will return to tournament play via a wildcard entry into next week's ATP tournament in Bucharest, as he starts his claycourt build-up to next month's French Open after an extended...
Rio Olympics 2016: Gymnastics team qualification a tall order for Australia
Linda Pearce At 173 centimetres, the tallest artistic gymnast on the international women's circuit is hardly of Liz Cambage proportions.
Netball, ANZ Championship 2016: Vixens v Swifts round one preview
Linda Pearce The debacle that was the Melbourne Vixens' last away game against the NSW Swifts is now distant enough in the rearview mirror to have been the subject of some bleak team humour ahead of this...
