23 June 2003
No. 10 seed Tim Henman – the only British man competing for the singles title – is considered a long shot because of an injury.
— Source
Perhaps I shouldn’t have expected much from the paper that claimed that George Galloway was in the pay of Saddam Hussein, using ‘almost certainly’ fake documents. Whatever happened to fact-checking?
As it happens, there are ten British men in the 2003 singles draw. Admittedly, I’d be surprised if half got through the first round. But with Greg Rusedski looking in stunning form on his comeback from injury, having won the Nottingham Open last week, who says that Henman will do better than him?
On the radio today I heard of ‘a survey’ that said people were bored with tennis, that it was too fast, the graphite racquets had made big serving more dominant. Never mind that the game has improved — apparently service speed is more dependent on racquet speed than composition — we want it how it used to be. I’ve been unable to find a link to this, which is a shame.
Sports’ most boring superstars just illustrates the point, with Pete Sampras at number two. And at the Embassy World Snooker Championships, the commentators always bemoan the lack of ‘personalities’ to entice people into the game.
Balls to that. Snooker’s still exciting and interesting. Kevin Doherty had a real struggle to get to the Embassy final, Ronnie O’Sullivan fell to Marco Fu despite a 147, Mark Williams won a record 13 games in a row…and this wasn’t a classic tournament. Tennis is the same. There’s no need for self-publicising headline-grabbing controversy-creating ‘personalities.’
Then again, I live near the home of lawn tennis, so you might expect me to be a fan of classic grass-court tennis. (Somewhat strangely, I’ve never played tennis at that club, but I have played a fair bit of squash.) Seeing Ivo Karlovic grow in confidence against defending champion Lleyton Hewitt, volleying well, hitting groundstrokes well, and serving superbly to cause on of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history was incredible. Upsets are bound to happen on a surface that only a few players really feel at home on, but where the tournament organisers have altered it to appease those who don’t.
Right now, Rusedski is playing Waske in a terrific display of serve-volleyer against serve-volleyer. I don’t mind gruelling baseline rallies dominated by topspin, but there’s nothing to beat a good serve-volleying performance.
One last thing: the BBC’s little Flash game, Tardis tennis, is great fun. And the best player to have is Queen Vic, the big server! Good to see the BBC honouring the traditions.