BB FANS

Watched the tennis when I can and again we have the same result, Tim lost. I know that we place a lot of hope (probably too much) on our only tennis player but this year was one of the best chances for him. Nearly all the top seeds have gone.

I wish we had more British Tennis players but until the snobs from LTA leave we may have a British Champion. They should take the game to the ordinary schools whose children would love to play to the sport, provide money for these children to play in form of grants instead wasting it in bank accounts where it just sits. Instead these people go to the private schools whose parents have tennis courts built in their back yards. (Remember Annabel Croft!) They need to find the Lynford Christies and the Sally Gunnels of tennis. But if we produced someone who had the passion and fight as Lynford had they would probably disapprove and complain that the rift raft has entered the game.

I wish schools would also stop moaning that competition between children is bad, that is the only way kids learn, to learn how to loose and to win. No wonder we loose at everything.

Well that is enough of rant from me.

I have a wimbledon rant too:

I really hate these Wimbledon crowds. 2 weeks of the year they dust off those stupid Union Jack hats and jump on the Henman bandwaggon... cheering at moments when you shouldn't really cheer (like when whoever Henman is playing makes a double fault or similar mistake). No wonder people play so hard against the guy, not only do they want to beat him, but they also want to screw the crowd over too.

I also hate the way the crowd clap like lemmings every time the ref asks people to stop using flash photography, or to turn off their mobiles. Half these people who clap are the ones who are using mobiles in the first place!

And why do they laugh at things that aren't funny, like when a ball boy drops a ball, or when a pigeon flys into the arena? Oh yeah... hahahahaha... that's hilarious! Did you see that, Betty? A pigeon just flew over the court!

Another thing that infuriates me is this whole royal box thing. The cameras pointed at the box the other day and it was almost empty. The commentator said (in reference to the head of the Lawn Tennis Association - who was the only person sitting in the box) "looks like his guests have popped off for afternoon tea". Isn't that a disgrace? Britain's last remaining player in the tournament is involved in a real tussle, and those bastards (who are fortunate enough to have the best seats in the house, which they don't even have to pay for) piss off after about an hour so they can gorge themselves on scones and tea!

And then the players are expected to bow to those royals when they come off the court. No way on God's earth would I bow to them. They should ban all those people from the royal box and let underprivileged kids take it in turns to sit in them. They'd probably appreciate the chance to see the biggest tennis event in the world from the best seats in the house.

All I have to say is YAY! Henman lost!!!!

I want Federer to win.

ooooh,I say!!

Tim is a good tennis player- but not good enough to win a grand slam.
Perhaps its time the British public accepted that fact, and realised that getting to the quarters for the last 8 years is an amazing achievement, in a sport, which is mainly for the wealthy and upper-classes in our country.
This country is obsessed with association football....
that will never change.
The kids who are playing with tennis raquets,in the local parks,
for the past 2 weeks, will put them away, after this weekend, and the
footballs and ghastly football strips, will re-appear, and stay with us, for the next 50 weeks, until Wimbledon is upon us again.
When Henman retires, and there is no one from the UK to fill his boots, we will all become misty-eyed and nostalgic for him, and reminise about what a fine player he was ,and how it'll be 20 years before we see his like again representing the UK.
phew.........rant over!!

That wasn't a rant!!A reasoned argument I'd say......I agree!

Sorry about my little rant! But I understand a lot of the kids frustrations of not being able to play tennis here. When I was 12 years of age (although they had seen me when I was 8 years of age when I was in my primary school) I was officially spotted by American coaches (actually they were teachers visiting the country on a exchange programme) whom came to my school and thought I should go to America but at 12 years of age the thought was a bit daunting and a bit expensive. So I opted to stay in the UK plus my parents didn't like the idea of me going to America at that age (My biggest regret.) believing that I would be able to get the same coaching here but never did. I found in the end that it was too expensive to be able to go in to the sport and I found little support from my school which was a comprehensive but I doubt if I would have found any support from a private school. By the time I was 15 years of age I gave up on the sport because of the lack of training facilities and the costs of learning the sport etc. But I was pretty good at the sport, I wasn't fast on my feet (which was weakest point) but I could really hit the ball hard and I was pretty accurate. I was that disillusioned with the sport that I haven't picked up a racket in over 10 years.

I feel sorry for Tim because there is too much pressure on him (he has achieved a lot) and we should have more tennis players in the game from this country especially as it was invented here, Wimbledon is the most famous and oldest of all the courts. You hear the commentators from America and you can tell that they would love a Brit to make it to the final. But for that to happen we should provide the same help and assistance as we do in football and athletics to those in the poorer communities to get in to the sport (I am not being horrible to those who go to private schools) because they are the type of people who will want to win more to get out of the poverty, we hear time and time again young boys going in to boxing to escape street life. But unfortunately this is never going to happen unless those who run LTA retire.

Tim wouldve been a brilliant player in the days of Conners, Nastasi, Macenroe etc etc. When Tennis was about rallies and not just who had the hardest fastest serve and who could get the most aces!

What makes me laugh is that we even have to draft in players from other countries (ie rusedski) who have a slight connection with the UK in an attempt to win and he fails miserably too....

It's a shame our country's number 1 sport (IMO) is yet another we fail at because we simply dont fund sport correctly!



Many years ago the ball boys/girls were from underprivileged areas - Im not sure if this is still the case though

I'm not a fan of Henman's, remember when he hit that ball girl a few years ago out of temper?

AND he had a double bounce in the match before the last one (can you tell I've not been watching it properly? ) One of the commentators mentioned it but the other one said nothing and neither did Tim (he did eventually lose the point which was something)

He's a bit like the hm's in BB4 - charisma free

My wimbledon rant -

Not one british girl made it past the opening round (do we even have any?) Time and Greg did, and they get slaughtered because they didnt make it all the way.
They still did very well to get where they did, both are strong tennis players and are ranked quite high up in the world.

Its the typical British thing, you put someone high on a pedastal pinning all your hopes on them and shouting about them as much as possible, knowing that they could very easily fall. And when they do? the poepl that placed them there dive on them like a pack of rabbid dogs chewing an old carcuss.

Yeah, we dont do as well as we would all like in the Wimbledon competition, but the problem is the lack of decent players we produce.

I totally agree with that you have said, the lottery helps Athletics, I think a lot of ball boy/girls come from one of schools situated not far from the courts.

Tennis especially the mens have become boring because of the big servers I think they should bring back the wooden rackets or have two tournaments one with the wooden rackets, they do it in other sports. You would then see better tennis being played. My favourite of all time was Borg. At the moment it is Andre Agassi because I like the way he plays tennis with out being a huge server.

I think if you want to watch good tennis I would go and see the girls play because they have more rallies except the William sisters are very dominant at the moment (I really admire them, they played in courts with broken glass) but I still believe they can be beaten. If Davenport hadn't had the injuries she has suffered with I think she would have been more of a thorn. But I am glad the William sisters are around because the girls needed to take the tennis to a higher level. I think now that the a lot of girls have become more Athletic in there approach they should play the five sets like the men and if they did that the William sisters wouldn't be so dominant because as they are heavy hard servers you could tire them out similar to what Agassi does in the mens game. You would then find even better games in the womens tennis. I was watching the interview with Jennifer Caprati and she said could have carried on playing and perhaps won, if they feel like that then they should be allowed to.

I know there is an argument that the girls should have equal pay but as they only play three sets maximum they shouldn't get the same amount of money as the men, if they do start to play the five sets then they should be awarded with same reward money. But until then no because a five set match could last about five hours. Unfortunately I don't think they will ever let the girls play the five sets because Wimbledon wont like the idea of extending the tournament.

As you can see I still like to watch tennis, I am glad I have the Eurosports on NTL so I can watch the other grand slams.

That is because it is hard for kids to get in to the game also we are about 10 years or maybe even more behind other countries. There is no facilities for the kids to learn and when they do go to the courts to play they have to pay to use them (unlike the States where many are free) and then they are told by the adults to leave to make space for them to play. If we want winners I would bring in some American or Australian coaches to this country and put them in charge of trainning our tennis players but unfortunately for us to produce winners it is going take about 10 years just to catch up.

You will never see any girls playing to the high standard needed in this country, you only have to look at the athletics to see the difference, if you are a boy you will get more sponsorships deals, if you are girl you will be lucky to get one, one of our top athletes I think it was Kelly Holmes last year or the previous (could be wrong) in one of the tournements had problems with her trainners and couldn't afford a new pair and she had won medals in the previous olympics. If the girls in athletics find it hard to get money just for trainers imagine the poor girls in tennis, they have got no chance, it is more easier for a boy to go in to sports than it is for girls. I was listening to Linford Christie awhile ago and thinks the way the girls in sports are being treated is disgusting and very unfair.

I think (with Tennis) it doesnt have the media glitsy image that sports such as Athletics or Football recieve. They need to spruce up the image (along with everything you justs said) You can have as much funding going in as possible but it has to appeal to the youngsters today. And that in itself is one hell of a battle.

How to get kids into it without there being sporting heros to look up to...ala beckham or redgrave...?

Well the first thing is to allow for a lot of the courts to be free. There is a lot of kids now not doing anything in the summer this is the time to encourage them and there is many students training to go in to teaching sports, we should get these University students to help with coaching the kids.

But actually one of the best schools I have seen that have been able to encourage children in to sports is in France, what they do is when they have an hour at dinnertime or more instead of the kids going out to play in the school yard they open up all the sports facillities in the school and those interested in learning sports are able to practise then with the teachers or student teachers, doesn't matter what sport it is, they even have kids learning fencing. However if the children aren't interested in sports they can do another activity be it art, drama or chess. I think this is a brilliant idea because as we know most of the kids don't at dinner time stay in the school yard and end up roaming around the shops instead causing trouble.

The next thing is to encourgage competition between schools, like they do in the States. Make it a big event, invite the parents and if they win give the winners money to put aside to help them with the training.

You would easily get kids in to tennis, okay we don't have a Sampras, but if you introduce these kids to the William sisters whom have struggled to make it (although they are not English) that should help to aspire many kids that if they can do it then any one can. But again money should be available for them for to enable them to succeed.

We had tennis at school, free use of courts outside school, a tennis coach who used to do quite cheap lessons in the park and the leisure center, free racket and ball loans, and yet not many people were ever really bothered by it, kids thought of it as a bit outdated and prefered to go home to the computers consoles or go up into the chase and get drunk.