The Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon have started today. We know this because the weather has suddenly turned shitty.
Tennis does not have the greatest profile in the Londonist dungeon, and Wimbledon is generally treated with indifference (whereas football is loved and loathed in equal measures), but it would be remiss of us not to pass comment on the start of an event which, in contrast to many other English sporting occasions, is always brilliantly organised and is contested by a fairly likeable bunch of sportsmen and women.
In our humble opinion, tennis is a sport best viewed on tv, mainly because it means you get to listen to McEnroe and Becker deliver fascinating, funny and insightful commentary (contrast with the idiotic Motson, McTwat...sorry McCoist, Wright et al at the Wold Cup) and if you've got digital, you can watch any game you like on the Beeb. If however you do have some masochistic desire either to queue for weeks and weeks in order to claim one of the small batch of tickets the poshos release to the general public, or if you fancy being surrounded by a multitude of braying home counties Hildas and Henrys on 'Mount Murray' or 'Henman Hill' (whatever they're calling the thing now), then click here for details.
As we see it, the hot topics at this year's tournament are as follows...
1. Federer
Can the lovely Roger win his fourth championship in a row or will the savagely be-muscled Nadal ruin the party?
2. The Williams Sisters
Are they finished as a force? Have they been going to too many booze n' crack parties with A-Rod? What will Serena wear?
3. Henman & Murray
In what ways will they invariably fail to live up to the ludicrous expectations of the local media? Will Andy get hit by the cramps again and give us some Becks style vomiting? Can Tiger Tim take his 'intense stare and fist-pump' routine to new levels of non-intimidation.
4.Equal Pay
Will the All England Club cave under pressure and start paying equal prize money to the women? How cross will Martina Navratilova get about it? How many offensive comments from the male players (they're lazy etc) will pop up in the media?
5. Kirilenko
How long before we get bored of seeing photos of the 'new Kournikova' in her Stella McCartney gear?
That is all. Apart from some more links:
The official Wimbledon site .
Tiger's website .
The Times Wimbledon blog .
