Monday, April 09, 2007

Tennis Troubles

This weekend saw the NEC host the Davis Cup clash between Great Britain & the Netherlands which ended in a 4-1 victory to the British team. The Great Britain team included all three ranked players that have represented Great Britain over the last twenty years: Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski and Andy Murray. Greg Rusedski used the occasion to announce his retirement from the game after his doubles victory on Saturday.

It is sad that Britain has only produced one decent tennis player in 20 years, namely Tim Henman. Andy Murray gave up on the Lawn Tennis Association and went to learn his trade on clay in Spain; Greg Rusedski famously defected from Canada in 1995. So despite all the money and projects spent on encouraging our next Wimbledon champion over the last decade or so, not one has come through. I am not sure how much has been spent in total, but I am sure we could have managed to bribe Roger Federer to defect for a fortnight to win our first Wimbledon Championship in 25 years.

This is a damning indictment of the opportunities we give to the children of this country. It is not really a surprise that we came out as the worst place to grow up in that UN report recently.

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