‘Bad Luck Laura, There’s Always Next Year’ read one headline aimed at Middle England. ‘There’s Always Next Year’ is the nauseating phrase that informs one and all that Wimbledon is upon us. The recipient of said phrase on this occasion was 16 year old, world ranked 234, Laura Robson; were the British nation actually expecting her to win? There would have been more chance of David Cameron saying “we really need things to say the same” or for Paul McCartney saying “Actually, me and Heather Mills are still on really good terms”.
Whilst Robson’s underlying potential cannot be questioned, her Britishness perhaps can. In Melbourne, Australia she was born and raise… on the tennis court she spent most of her days. However, despite being born and educated in Australia, if she’s good at sport, we’ll have her – which is pretty much the UK immigration policy in a nutshell.
I am not having a dig at Robson for switching her nationality to British, she’s not the first and probably won’t be the last. For many years, Britain were represented at tennis by Greg Rusedski; a man who would have felt more at home in British Columbia than he would in Britain. The French have adopted a similar approach with their national football team, with many players being of African heritage. This plan massively backfired at the current World Cup as they crashed out in the first round, nonetheless, the team did show some typical French traits – they went on strike.
In the men’s game, Andy Murray is the only hope, if you are an Englishman and refuse to support Murray on account of him being Scottish, then tough. There were no English players in the men’s draw – for the first time ever. Such is the sheer dearth of talent in the British game, that whilst we love strawberries & cream and shouting “come on Tim”, we are ultimately woeful at tennis.
Quite why Britain is so bad at tennis is something of an unknown, it certainly isn’t a new thing; we have been bad for many years. A gentleman on Sky Sports when commenting on this very issue, referred to the fact that Australia is also currently very poor at producing tennis players. Whilst being a good attempt at dodging the issue, it doesn’t really wash; when Burnley were relegated from the Premiership this year, their manager didn’t say “well, if you look at the points table, 2 other teams were also relegated”.
Tennis is ultimately a very enjoyable game to play: competitive and good for one’s fitness. I had a relaxing match in the local park against my friend the other day, I won 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 – I believe this means I am now ranked number 8 in Britain.
Wimbledon is the event that makes Britain tennis mad and for two weeks the world’s elite (and a few bit part players from the UK) complete for the various titles on show. Often things are quite predictable: Federer or Nadal will win the men’s singles; the Williams sisters/brothers will win the women’s singles and Lily Savage or Edna Everage will win the mixed singles.
This year’s tournament has thrown up a few interesting moments, none more than the epic encounter between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut; a match that began in the car park at Wimbledon before the game was even codified and on the match’s 10th anniversary, the tennis complex was built around them. The match finally ended on Thursday afternoon, with Isner trouncing Mahut 70-68 in the final set – it would have been nice if the umpire had referred to 40-40 in the final set as “deuce”. This game was easily the greatest in terms of grit and determination and easily the worst in terms of killer instinct.
These games add to our love of tennis, as does the superb BBC coverage. They have some of the all time greats of tennis as part of their commentary team: John McEnroe, Boris Becker and Pat Cash. Tim Henman also commentates, he even commentated on the final last year… well… he was bound to get into the final eventually… he tried for long enough.
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