OK, the sad fact is the British can’t produce a tennis player worth a lick (I may not be able to say that much longer, with the young Scotsman Andrew Murray making such strong progress that even John McEnroe is interested in working with him).
But the Brits sure produce some fine tennis writing. In fact, as a group, the British press pariahs probably stack up as the best SWAT journos on earth. So, over the next few weeks, we’ll be linking frequently to our UK colleagues, so that you can sample their work. For today, check out Neil Harman’s great piece in The Times (London) on the Wimbledon qualies (don’t you wish your local paper gave tennis this kind of coverage?) Or revel in Barry Flatman’s delightful run-down of Britain’s “Top 10 Great White Hopes” from the last Sunday Times.
Also, you can find a great example of how British tennis writers approach the sport (more like theater critics than the typical, stat and/or quote-driven U.S. reporters) in Mark Hodgkinson’s Telegraphpiece on the Andy Roddick/Ivo Karlovic final at Queens last Sunday. If you prefer a light touch, check out the amusing report on the same match by Stephen Bierley in The Guardian. Sue Mott of The Telegraph is one of the sauciest writers out there, you can sample her here. We haven’t even mentioned Simon Barnes, the heavyweight columnist for The Times. Simon doesn’t do qualifying – or suburban tennis clubs.
If you want to go deep into the British line-up, or keep track of what it’s producing when TennisWorld is otherwise occupied, the easiest way is via this must-read website.
Curious about this site, I e-mailed its author. Lo and behold, she’s a 23-year-old, Indian-born woman named Kamakshi, now living in that large and relatively unpopulated area north of Detroit known to some as Canada. She’s a self-effacing former international relations student who’s finishing her masters in journalism. She’s been a tennis fan and sometimes journalist since she was 6, and doesn’t play as often as she’d like because of her workload and a wrist injury.
The site’s been around for a few years, and she once commented on most of the pieces to which she linked. I wish she still did (lately, she has been slipping in the occasional mot juste). Check out her site. If you like it, send her money or roses--or just a nice note of thanks telling her how mad you get at TW for poking fun at that progressive Northern wonderland, Canada.