Keeping Tabs: June 28

Pippa's in the Club today to see Murray the Ruthless Moaner, and the London papers are all over it. And her. And her brother James. According to the Telegraph, Pippa looked “relaxed, despite a barrage of attention”—that's a relief—though her brother unfortunately appeared to be "warm in a blue suit and suede loafers.” We’re also informed that the Cardigan she’s wearing is by “Orla Kiely, a favorite designer of the Duchess of Cambridge, and was originally 265 pounds and is now on sale at 132.50 pounds on their website.” We don’t, however, find out which price Pippa, surely the most glamorous woman in the world who “works part time for her parents’ mail order business,” paid for the Cardigan, if any. And they call these people reporters?

(Aside: Searching for a name for your twee indie-pop band? Pippa's Cardigan sounds like a winner to me.)

Moving on...

That Word Again...
My wrangling with the Times of London’s website continues. They, or their server, don’t seem to want my money. But thanks to a friendly local reader and commenter here, I have finally been given a glimpse of a Simon Barnes column. It's about, naturally, Andy Murray. Barnes picks up on the theme of the moment—ruthlesness:

MURRAY MUST SUMMON THE RUTHLESSNESS TO BE A LEGEND IN OUR OWN TEATIME

I would be more convinced of the possibility of Murray being "ruthless" if the word wasn't so closely followed by "teatime."

Otherwise, Barnes doesn’t disappoint. His first sentence is perfectly impossible to understand:

“Andy Murray has made an awful lot of decisions in his life, but he didn’t half choose a bad time to be born.”

Other highlights from His Ponytail:

Murray’s “splendid fourthness”

Barnes’ observation that, “Murray does not have the demeanour of a self-conscious artist, but . . . he does love a well-made point. He loves the logic of it, the way one shot inevitably leads to the next, and finally to the kill shot: a painting executed in a few deft strokes.”

Barnes’ conclusion about Murray and his struggles? Nothing too fancy or poetic there: He thinks the top three guys are too good.

Our Turn
Yesterday we bemoaned the state of Australian tennis. Every day we bemoan the state of British tennis. Today the Americans take a turn in the Indepedent.

UNCLE SAM’S SEARCH FOR A STAR GOES ON
Strip away the outsiders, the no-hopers, and the already beaten, and Uncle Sam is left with just Serena Williams to fly the stars and stripes

Roddick, who apparently, along with Brian Baker, qualifies as a no-hoper, drily countered reporters’ questions on the subject yesterday. “We’re not the only country which has not had success since 2003.”

The article tries to find a reason for our slip—it’s a world game now, our best athletes don’t play tennis, etc. Looking at two U.S. men who are in the draw, Roddick and Mardy Fish, muddies the waters even more in my mind.

The two of them grew up together, went to high school together, and worked with the same coach in Florida, Stanford Boster. Why did they both make it, when so many thousands their age didn’t? You could ask the same question about John McEnroe, Vitas Gerulaitis, and Peter Fleming, all of whom came out of New York in the 1970s. The city hasn’t produced a great player since, but these three guys who trained together all reached the Top 20.

It seems that great players can gather in small groups, at special moments, and together make lightning strike (or some more logical metaphor along those lines; I’m pressed for time). The more we try to standardize the production of champions, the more random it becomes. Who could have predicted Federer, from Basel, or Nadal, from Mallorca?

Fun in the Family
Andy isn’t the only Murray getting attention this week. According to the Express, his mum, Judy, is being given some credit for the success that a few of the British women, most prominently Heather Watson, have had at Wimbledon so far. Judy is the country’s new Fed Cup captain. Her secret? Fun.

“My mum has always been about having fun and trying to make it enjoyable,” her son Andy says. "If that has rubbed off on the girls and made them play better, that's a good thing. . . . It’s nice for the women to have a female coach around. You don’t see that very often.”

Judy’s sense of fun seems to have worn off on the bubbly Watson. Which leaves one obvious question: What happened with Andy?

No Snitch

COURT REPORT: ODESNIK HITS BACK AT SPY ACCUSATIONS

Remember when Wayne Odesnik had his two-year ban for possession of HGH cut in half by the ITF, because he had “assisted the authorities”? The assumption then was that Odesnik had given doping officials information about other players. Except that no other players appeared to suffer the consequences of that information. Yesterday, Odersnik, after his first-round loss, told us why.

“I would 100 percent never say anything bad about a player or be a spy or something of that sort,” Odesnik “fumed,” as the Mail put it.

A Missing Note
At the Tennis Channel’s site, Steve Flink has penned a nice ode to one member of the tennis community who is not at Wimbledon this year, Bud Collins. He's ailing and couldn’t make the trip to an event he’s been covering since 1968. In the press room, Flink believes that, “Something seems entirely off key about the music of Wimbledon being played without Bud being near the center of the melody.”

Steve goes on to recount how encouraging Bud was when he first came to the tournament as a kid in ’69. It’s a story every other tennis writer alive, including myself, knows well.

Treading Water
Yesterday I wondered what the tabs’ headline writers would come up with for Heather Watson, now that “elementary my dear Watson” has had its day. The Mail gives it a shot with:

HEATHER’S IN CLOVER! WATSON KEEPS SMILING THROUGH AND KEEPS WINNING

Hmmm, sounds like they’re treading water for now. They’ll have to up their game if Watson beats her next opponent, third seed Aga Radwanska.

HEATHERING THE STORM, anyone?