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The latest Wimbledon tennis championships are nearly upon us and many people in the British Isles are wondering when and where the next home grown player is going to win the tournament. In this article I look at some of our hopes for this year and the future.
This is the first season in about the last ten when I feel that there is basically no chance of a British born player winning Wimbledon this year. Over the past decade I have really believed that Tim Henman was going to be the man to finally bring glory to our proud nation. For whatever reason he has always seemed to fall a little short,even though in truth he should be very proud of what he has achieved in his tennis career.
There have been at least a couple of times where he possibly should have gone on to win the tournament and this may be one of his regrets when he looks back at a long and successful career. His chances of becoming Wimbledon tennis champion have now all but disappeared.
Tim is currently looking a shadow of his former self and I think that the best he could hope for this year is a place in the quarter finals. Of course there is a slight chance that now that the pressure and expectation is off his shoulders, that he may thrive out there on the court, I certainly hope so.
Greg Rusedski is also in my opinion well past his sell by date. He will also do well to reach the latter stages but has never ever really looked like winning this tournament despite having a game which is well suited to Wimbledon.
The most interesting and exciting of the British hopes is Andrew Murray. Over the last eighteen months Andy has gone from strength to strength and last year he had a brilliant tournament at Wimbledon. In saying all of this I really do not think he has the skills required to win the tournament.
Andrew may well continue to improve and may well be crowned the champion of Wimbledon in the future. While a certain Roger Federer is around it will be very difficult for any player of any nation to win the tournament.
As for the future of British tennis I have heard that Boris Becker has started to help some of our young teenage prospects and many other new ideas are starting to be put into practice.
I feel that the problem is that there are very few courts where people can just turn up to and play. You are able of course to pay at a local tennis club but these prices can be very expensive for a family of four who just want to go and play on the spur of the moment. Most of the kids would much rather go down to the local park to kick a football around. This is a lot easier and is free of course.
If we really want a British champion of Wimbledon in the near future we have to have far more courts accessible to the average man and his family. The tennis clubs themselves could offer free coaching to the under tens to get them interested in the game. These youngsters could then become full members when they reach their teens and could be the future of each club.
Steve Hill helps to promote a number of websites including:
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