I have had a few queries about my annual Wimbledon Rant. Where is it? I have been asked. Well, first of all it was just so wonderful to have Wimbledon back after last year’s cancellation that I did not feel inclined to rant much. But as the event wore on I could feel the fingers twitching so here I go.
It was not a vintage Wimbledon and I was slightly bemused to hear that there would only be up to 50% capacity the first week and 100% capacity for week two. I wondered why the level of risk re Covid had suddenly vanished between Saturday night and Sunday morning but I have given up trying to work out the logic of the pandemic regulations which are wildly out of kilter. (Just to point out that until 19th July, our so called Freedom Day you can only have 30 people at a wedding but you can pack out Wembley to watch a football match and have a good fight at the same time)
I had a chance to book tickets as I am a member of the LTA and for the first time it was an online sale so with my special code I logged on and found I was in the LTA Waiting Room. I took the precaution of plugging in my ipad and just as well as I was in the Waiting Room for four hours. Then I received a message “not long to go now Elaine before you enter the Portal”. Portal? I am not bloody Harry Potter.
So I finally get through and, yes you have guessed it, most of the tickets had already gone. Tra la la. I could, however, purchase a ticket for what appeared to be the row that was furthest from the Centre Court if I wished. I checked the price and up popped up £240 at which point I thought sod the portal and exited via the Hogwarts Express.
Decided I was better off at home and as it proceeded to chuck it down for most of the first week I felt I made the wise choice.
OK so rant alert. It is the same one that I rabbit on about each year. The Commentators. I can only assume that there is something in the air at SW19 that turns each and every single one of them into a non stop wittering gibbering idiot with verbal diarrhoea. They NEVER and I mean NEVER shut up. Martina Navratilova is a living legend and what she does not know about tennis is not worth mentioning, but I do not want to hear here imparting this wisdom before, during and after the game. I want to watch the tennis in silence and then a few pithy well chosen comments when they change ends. I do not want a comment between every point, I do not want a comment when they go back for their second serve and when I have just witnessed a superb lob or whatever I do not need the commentator to say Oh that was a superb lob. I KNOW IT IS I HAVE JUST SEEN IT.
Oh and every year the Dynamic Duo of John Lloyd and Andrew Castle, both former No 1 British players are wheeled out. I do not know what they do the rest of the year and can only assume the BBC has a charitable arm for ancient Tennis Players who Need the Dosh and they are the beneficiaries. Both long past their sell by date.
I love Sue Barker, always have and she holds the whole thing together with consummate ease and professionalism but every year I think OMG somebody get that woman a hairdresser and a stylist. And yes I know it is bitchy to comment on her appearance but this year she reached a new nadir. Or should that be plumbed? One day she appeared in a sugar pink trouser suit which was just….words fail.
We now come to my Real Rant which is about Emma Radacanu the White Hope, the Future of British Tennis, a future Wimbleon Champion. Not my words but those of the press who as usual went totally over the top when this simply delightful, charming young lady who was in receipt of a wild card because somebody was ill, beat her opponent in the first round. She then went on to repeat the process in the second round by which time Sue Barker and Martina and Tracy Austin (who all should know better) were frothing at the mouth and getting frightfully excited and could not stop yakking about her. They did the same in 2019 when Coco Grauff, who I think was 15 also was the Sensation of the Year. And no she has not conquered the world or won Wimbledon but is getting on very well with her game and in the next year or two may very well win a Slam.
By the time Emma who had now been promoted to No 1 court came to play her match the hysteria was totally over the top. She was not expected to beat her opponent but at the same time everybody thought she would. Emma played very well (she is, despite all the hyperbole, a very good player indeed with a huge serve) and lost the first set but not by a lot. Then the trouble started. She slowly began to fall apart and could not breathe and was clutching her stomach. From my vantage point, ie my armchair, it was clear to me she was having a panic attack and the medical guys came on and she was taken off court. Ten minutes later the announcement came that she had been advised not to continue.
Cue every single commentator coming up with their theory and oh was not it a shame and oh dear what was going to happen and I was furious with the whole lot of them. They were the ones who had bigged her up and put all this pressure on her and if I could have been in a room with Sue and Tracy I would have told them exactly what I thought of them.
John McEnroe expressed his opinion that the pressure and expectation had got too much for her. Cue twitter outrage led by Judy Murray saying middle aged men should not comment on teenage girls emotions. As John McEnroe has three daughters of his own, as I tweeted back and pointed out to her, I felt this was typical knee jerk remark. He was accused of all sorts of things by the twitterati who should have shut up as next day Emma gave a very mature and delightful interview to Sue Barker on the Beeb saying that all the attention, all the pressure had overwhelmed her. In other words John McEnroe was right.
Emma said she had had the most wonderful week of her life and was so grateful for all the support she had received and she struck me as being an extremely well balanced young lady. She has now jumped up to 175 in the world the depths of the 300’s and her career, hopefully, will now continue on its upward curve. If it does not I put the blame firmly on the shoulders of the Press and the Wimbledon Lady Commentators who just went totally overboard and, as I have already said, should know better.
Enough.
Ok well that is it. I am hoping that some semblance of normality will return every more for next year.
Oh and a final thought. Emma, when led off the court in the midst of her attack and suffering from breathing difficulties, had a mask slapped over her face. Just what you need. Can’t risk you getting Covid can we but you might keel over from lack of oxygen.
And of course I was very cross that Djokovic, who I find totally obnoxious won (yes I know it is irrational no need to tell me). Of course that might have been because he was playing Berretini who, quite frankly is simply Gawjus.
Shallow. Yes. I have no shame..
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