In the greatest feat of human endurance since Sir Robert Falcon Scott went to the Antarctic Mahut and Isner (who surely are really Cyborgs taking a break from the new Terminator movie are playing themselves to a standstill in a battle that seems to be taking longer than the Vietnam War. After 3 days, 5 sets and 138 games they have even managed to relegate the last minute wins of the reigning Wimbledon champion Roger Federer to a minor interest story as Isner finally wins.
Tennis is a strange sport in Britain where we manage to produce 1 world class player a decade who then seems to be constantly denied by the latest of the greatest. In the 80’s it was McEnroe, the 90’s Sampras & Hewitt and now Federer who seem to be intent on ensuring no British player ever wins a Grand Slam event again. The LTA are in bit of an invidious position as if they invest in grass-roots tennis and produce lots of good players one of them will win an event, will the nation will breathe a huge sigh of relief and then stop bothering to watch any Tennis.
The problem is that like Golf, Tennis is viewed as a rich man’s sport and as a result of that perception coupled with the cost of joining a Tennis club and getting good coaching there is no real working class presence in professional or amateur Tennis and until there is we will not have the number of successful players that the USA and Australia seem to produce (a position backed up by our Davis Cup position).
The world cup is proving fun at the moment as big names Italy and France have gone home with the possibility that Spain could join them
BRILLIANT
Unfortunately England have joined them. More on that rubbish set of performances later
Richard
3 years ago
That's the problem right there, grass roots investment. They should invest in concrete and tarmac courts and have some Pikeys resurface Wimbledon. That'll be the first step to creating some working class hero tennis champs.
ReplyDeletetennis is fucking boring and no self-respecting male would be seen within a 5 mile radius of any tennis court
ReplyDeletemiddle class kids are pootahs with floppy hair and even the talented ones are scared of the ball
working class kids on the other hand have nothing to lose. give them a whiff of success at a young age and theyre at it like a rat up a drainpipe.
little jeremy though - too many options, being avergae at cricket, being average at tennis, yachting in the solent, university, being a pootah etc etc
TEnnis is alright but in order to make it better they need to move the net to the top end of the court and hang it from a metal frame, throw away the rackets, and use a larger leather ball which should be kicked, then allow each tennis player to have an additional 10 men join them and play it so every time the ball is crossed over the line and to the back of the net, thats a point scored, oh and to avoid these super long matches have a fixed time,say 90 minutes.
ReplyDeleteOne thing to keep just for the english would be the scoring, that way we acrtually won yesterday 15-4! have that fritz!
Tennis is worth moments like fed Ex going out but to be honest the womens game is just a load of unmemorable long ball merchants (bit like Stoke City really)
ReplyDelete