Tuesday, June 21, 2005

NEW BALLS, PLEASE

It’s that fortnight of the year again when Britain goes potty over Tim Henman only for the poor lad to fail abysmally. Wimbledon – game on!

Well, I come in defence of Timmy.

Tim Henman is by far the best tennis player that this country has produced in decades. Look at his record. He’s won 11 ATP ranked tournaments. He has been as high as No.4 in the world. His match record at Wimbledon is 40 wins, 11 loses. Last year he appeared in two Grand Slam semi-finals.

Okay, he’s never won a Grand Slam tournament and I highly unlikely to do so. Yes, I get fed up like everyone else with the absolute silliness that goes on this side of the Channel whenever he plays.

However, ignore all the crapola and you’ll see that Henman is a very good grass court player. He’s good on hard courts, but poor on clay. Even at 30 years old (ancient by modern tennis standards), his game is still together. He will probably make it as far as the quarter-final this year. That’s not great, but the consistency of his game is something to admire. That he plays through hyped-up expectations every year at Wimbledon shows a great deal of mental fortitude.

We could do without this stoopidity:

"Tim can win Wimbledon. I think he's capable of beating anybody at Wimbledon, even Federer." - Goran Ivanisevic

Yeah, I’ll have some of those drugs too, please.

Good luck to the lad. However, you’ll hear no shouts of “C’mon Timmy” from this blog. And spare a thought for Andy Murray, who might even be the real deal.

:: Posted by pete @ 13:15