The Times - UK (2020-06-29)

the times | Monday June 29 2020 2GM 53

Sport

British tennis ‘very stable’

Lewis added that the spending plans

of both the club and the Lawn Tennis

Association would not be hit to any

great extent. “It won’t be severely im-

pacted. If you have to cancel, it’s great to

have insurance,” he said. “We’re still in

a very good position, we’re financially

very stable. British tennis is going to be

pretty well protected.”

Ian Hewitt, the new chairman of the

All England Club, insisted that the deci-

sion not to try to play the tournament

behind closed doors had been right.

“The cancellation was hugely disap-

pointing for us — and a painful decision

— but it was the right thing to do. We’ve

no doubt about that. And we believe the

timing was right.”

Lewis is being succeeded as chief

executive by Sally Bolton, who said

plans for next year’s tournament were

already under way. “We’ve got the US

Open and Roland Garros being staged

later this year and we will be looking

closely at what they do, and learning

what we can,” she said.

year for the insurance cover. The full

amount of the claim is still being

worked on — the championships

usually bring in £250 million in reve-

nue, but Wimbledon will not have had

to pay some costs such as temporary

staff, contractors and £40 million in

prize money.

The insurance has been a huge

blessing for the All England Club,

which will not have to make the cuts

that organisations such as the Football

Association and Rugby Football Union

have had to impose.

But Lewis said such cover would not

be available again in the near future.

“That’s impossible in the current

climate,” he said. “In the immediate

aftermath you can’t get insurance but

fairly soon after that you can start to get

insurance again, the market returns. So

there won’t be insurance next year. But

just because we’ve made one claim, it

won’t affect us in the long term.”

continued from back

james gheerbrant

Times sports writer

The first time I strode through the

gates of the All England Club, it was

my first week at The Times and

I was half an hour late to interview

Dominic Thiem (he got so bored, he

wandered off for a haircut). I’ve seen

Coco Gauff’s star ascend, Nick

Kyrgios melt down, Marcus Willis’s

dad cry, and two selfie-hunters miss

Roger Federer strolling past them

because they were overcome with

hysteria at the sight of velvet-voiced

umpire Kader Nouni.

I’ve loved Wimbledon ever since

I saw Goran Ivanisevic beat

Pat Rafter in 2001

on a television that

was wheeled into

the school

assembly hall, and

it’s one

of the parts

of the job

that still feels magical

to me.

smile or exhale, but he had spirit-level
shoulders and his matches against
McEnroe were classic Viking v
Sulking. When Borg quit at 26 to
make underpants, he became the
most enigmatic sports star of them all.
I miss the standing on Centre Court
and the old No 1 corridor, but most of
all I miss the mystery of Volvo-man.
He was, is and will always be
Wimbledon for me.

andrew jarrett
Former Wimbledon referee from 2006
to 2019 (who was looking
forward to the experience
of watching the action as a
spectator this year.. .)

As the referee, it’s the end of a long
period of preparation and the start of
a two-week stretch of intensity that
will fill your every waking moment.
In practical terms, there are the
various briefing meetings of officials
and grand-slam supervisors to attend
and address on the first morning. All
the plans and preparations you have
made are about to be put to the test
by hundreds of players on site and

millions around the world who are

focused on SW19. They will all expect

everything to be perfect. Why?

Because it’s Wimbledon.

So our expectation and focus is to

be better than perfect. The goal is to

provide the very best stage in every

possible way for the best players in

the world — it’s really that simple.

There is hope, expectation and also

a little fear.

You hope and expect the best but

also plan for the worst. If you foresee

possible problems, you can prepare

for them. That way you may have

time to deal with the unexpected,

and that always happens.

I will miss the rush of adrenaline

that comes with being responsible for

something that has been so important

to me, and the pride in leading a

team so committed to the

championships in every way.

But if I’m honest, I’m also

looking forward to the first

time that I will

be at the championships

when it rains and I can just

turn to my wife and say, “Shall

we leave now?”

Evans proves he is

worthy of top rank

• it always felt like home’

Dan Evans should have been on his

way to Wimbledon this morning

with renewed optimism but he can

take some solace from knowing he is

already the best of the Brit-pack.

His guile and defensive nous

proved too much for Kyle Edmund

as he won the inaugural Schroders

Battle of the Brits 6-3, 6-2 at the

sealed-off National Tennis Centre in

Roehampton, southwest London,

yesterday. It was the British No 1’s

first win in four attempts over his

rival and further evidence of his

improvement.

It capped a hugely successful week

for Jamie Murray, who had the idea

for the event. “I would like to do it

again,” he said. “Hopefully we can fit

it in somewhere.”

It may have been exhibition fare

but Evans, 30, played with enough

style and commitment to whet

appetites for when tennis proper

returns. Having beaten Andy Murray

in a three-set drama on Saturday,

Evans had too much once he dealt

with Edmund’s bellicose forehand.

One of the pluses of the event has

been the mid-match interviews with

players via headsets. “Messy start,”

Evans said at the start of the second

set. “He’s playing some big tennis but

I don’t think he’s particularly happy

playing more than four or five balls.”

It was a pithy assessment. Evans

made just three unforced errors to

Edmund’s 20 and his returning

prowess limited Edmund to winning

just 48 per cent of first-serve points.

“All the players have loved it and

that’s the God’s honest truth,” Evans

said. “It’s been just like a tour event.”

A year ago almost to the day

Edmund was beating Evans at

Eastbourne. At that point Evans was

the British No 3. A year earlier he

was also at the National Tennis

Centre during Wimbledon as he

worked on his game while serving

his drug ban. His rise is testament to

his resilience and a talent that has

sometimes been misplaced.

Now up to No 28 in the world, it

would have been great to see him go

into Wimbledon with a real belief.

That is for another time but this will

go down as a great week for the

Murray brothers too. Jamie proved a

skilled tournament director while

Andy showed enough class in his

three-set defeat by Evans to suggest

a revival is in the offing. He sat out

the third-place match to preserve his

sore shins, but was in a corner of the

court to help his stand-in, James

Ward, as he took on Cameron

Norrie. Murray’s brand of

encouragement was evident from

one aside caught by the

microphones. “You’ve got two weeks

in Virginia to sit on your arse before

your next match,” he said to Ward.

The tough love was to no avail and

Norrie won 6-3, 7-5. Afterwards,

Murray said: “I am OK. This week is

by far the most I have done in the

last seven months. My left shin has

been an issue coming and it was a bit

sore after my first match.” He will

expect to be ready for the restart of

the ATP Tour at the Citi Open in

Washington DC in August.

Evans will be spared the dubious

privilege of carrying British men’s

hopes into Wimbledon. Last year he

made the third round and gave an

indicator of where his mind was

when the possibility of usurping

Edmund as No 1 was put to him. “I

don’t want to be better than them,”

he said of his fellow Brits. “I want to

be better than the other guys.”

Without fans, without ball girls

and boys, without much tennis and

with black drapes giving a theatrical

flourish to proceedings, being the

best Brit was good enough.

Dan Evans 66

Kyle Edmund 32

Rick Broadbent

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