The Scot has made a heroic comeback from injury but he was outclassed by the young Canadian Denis Shapovalov and will surely ask himself if all the hard work is worth itIt was late when Andy Murray finally made it out on to Centre Court for his match against Denis Shapovalov, and the clouds were just closing in over the last little patch of blue sky left over Wimbledon.There were two lads out in the crowd on Henman Hill who were weighing up their options. It was a hard-won spot, the hill was so busy they’d closed it off, but they were thinking of giving it up. They’d had a good day of it, done a little too much drinking,...
The All England Lawn Tennis Club is accused of ‘squishing locals’ as it turns a park set aside for public use into a car park during the championshipsThere was a little knot of demonstrators on Wimbledon Park Road on Friday morning, just up the way from the All England Lawn Tennis Club. It was a very proper little picket, polite placards, friendly flyers inviting people to sign a petition.As protests go, it was ever so SW19, a civil sort of disobedience. “Welcome to Wimbledon Park!” the handouts read, “The Wimbledon and Southfields communities hope you have a great day at the tennis. They are giving up a lot so you can park here today.” Mainly their public park land, which...
The world No 2 has been treated as a threat, a familiar reception that black athletes receive when they step outside the boxOn Monday evening the four-time grand slam champion Naomi Osaka, the brightest young star across the world of tennis, withdrew from Roland Garros because she felt that her attempts to preserve her mental wellbeing were a distraction to her peers. In other words, it marks a shameful moment for tennis.Osaka had announced in a statement last week that she would not conduct her press obligations during the tournament, a decision that led to six days of attention and widespread discussion across the internet. While Osaka’s initial announcement and communication was far from perfect, it was bold of her...
Young athletes are expected to answer the most intimate questions in a cynical and often predatory environmentRegular attendees of Arsenal press conferences at the Emirates Stadium – in the before-times, when these things still happened – will tell of a mysterious character by the name of First Question Man. Nobody ever discovered who FQM worked for, or if he was even a journalist at all. His only real talent, if you can call it that, was to sit in the front row and make sure he asked the first question, usually by barking it while everyone was still taking their seats.Why FQM did this was never clear. It can’t have been ego: I never met anybody who knew his real...
Two years on from her grand slam breakthrough, the American is winning tournaments and improving her gameNot too long after Coco Gauff pulled off one of the best wins of her career, against the world No 4 Aryna Sabalenka in Rome this month, she was asked to reflect on the progress she has made since her breakthrough in the summer of 2019. Gauff responded without hesitation. She was absolutely happy with it, she said, but that she would not be satisfied until she reached her ultimate goal. Then she shrugged.“Especially during that time people were saying: ‘It’s a fluke, it will never happen again,’” she said. “I think I’ve proved all those people wrong. I’m going to continue to prove...