No matter how much recycling of dead wood is done around the world, we'll never save a forest with London's print industry in business. It's a welcome sight for an American to walk up a narrow sidewalk in the morning, past brick chimneys and meticulously landscaped yards, and run into an old-fashioned newsstand bristling with sober, respectable, gray newspapers as well as screamingly colorful gossip rags. The morning quaintness is punctured by the garish-red front page of the Mirror, which features a paparazzi-style photo of a barely clad local model/actress/hanger-on, accompanied by this banner headline: "Jordan's crazed bender till 10 A.M. Page 7."
Turn the tabloid over and you get something almost as good: "Fed Gives Murray One Final Insult." Now we know Wimbledon is officially on. What else are the tabs saying? Here's a run-through of the nuggets from the last couple of days.
—Being a controversial Wimbledon men's champion from the 1980s apparently gives you honorary citizenship in England. Or at least you're allowed to yammer on about the same subject for years in its papers. Pat Cash, John McEnroe, and Boris Becker are all guest columnists here during the Championships. (I guess no one cares about the opinions of the 90s guys—Sampras, Agassi, and Krajicek.) While asserting that he favors Federer to win the title in the Times, Cash can't help getting back on the old hobby horse, saying that he nevertheless wishes that Rog would do it by serving and volleying more. I wonder how Pat would have responded if, after his Wimbledon win in 1987, someone had said to him, "Yeah, nice job, Cashy, but I was disappointed that you didn't play from the baseline more."
—The Mail begins with a promo shot of Federer in is new Nike clothes under the headline, "Oh no! What are you wearing now, Roger?" It goes on to describe his latest wardrobe as something akin to a "cruise captain's outfit."
—Mail columnist Mike Dickson elevates the tenor a bit with a reported item skewering the ITF's Tennis Intergrity Unit, which is tasked with the match-fixing beat. According to Dickson, the Unit consists of just two policemen, Jeff Rees and Bruce Ewen, "who do not even have full time clerical support." He goes on to quote an unnamed source—known rather over-mysteriously as "Someone"—saying that after the Davydenko case, "suspicious activity quieted down . . . but it is unquestionably on the increase again. A small number of repeat offenders, probably less than 10, exists."
—The Sun zestfully sinks the lowest, naturally, beginning its coverage with a shot of Andy Murray screaming next to the headline: "I want to be the Becks of tennis!" On the back page, the paper gets down to the inevitable: a shot of an angry Roger Federer next to the headline: "Has He Got the Balls? Fed's New Andy Blast."
The story, picked up in all the papers but not in quite the same pungent language, details Federer's recent words that Murray is a good tactician and has played him well, and that he "doesn’t want to make excuses," but (a) Murray hasn't won their two meetings in finals, when it's "crunch time," and (b) that Murray beat him when his back was keeping him from "performing his best."
I wasn't there to see how Federer said these words, which matters, but I can imagine they would irritate Murray. I can understand the remark about finals, because Federer is thinking ahead to the fact that the two of them can only meet in the final here, so that's relevant. As for Federer's back, it was obviously hurting him when he lost to Murray in Shanghai, and it may have been hurting when he lost to him in Indian Wells (I was at the match and don't remember it making a difference), but the important thing is that Murray beat him both times. If you finish a match on your own power, there can be no allowances for anything. Allowing for one injury or illness or emotional problem means allowing for them all, and then no victory means anything. If I were writing the history of tennis, would I mention Nadal's knees in describing his loss to Soderling in Paris? No—like Federer in Indian Wells, what counts is that Nadal was outplayed (plus it didn't look to me like he was hampered by them). It's a key part of the sport that should be dealt with honestly by the fans of any player: Losses happen, even to the very best, and even when they aren't injured.
For now, the tabs need something to grab onto to give the men's draw drama. I look forward to them turning Federer-Murray into a blood feud for the ages over the next two weeks.
Now that I'm caught up in the media frenzy, I must go watch a 15-year-old wild card from Britain named Laura Robson, who has just taken the court. The kid is a kind of tabula rasa for the tabs so far: In the Times, she's "Shy Laura"; in one of the gossip rags, she's the tried and true "wild child."
Let's see if she's any good first.