JANA NOVOTNA : TENNIS LEGEND

Hearing of the untimely death of Jana Novotna comes as a genuine shock. Aged only 49, she has reportedly died after a long struggle against cancer.

Novotna was a Wimbledon fixture for a decade, reaching the final of the Ladies' championship 3 times. Her demeanour on court made her a favourite of the crowd and her tearful loss to Steffi Graf in 1993 made her a legend. Never before or since had a defeated finalist been so distraught and never before or since had a member of the Royal Family acted with such unexpected thought and kindness as did the Duchess of Kent on that day.

Novotna came back and lost again in 1997 but, finally, she triumphed in 1998 and her jubilation was there for all to see as she again burst into tears, though this time of joy. Again it was the Duchess who awarded the trophy and it was clear that there was as much pleasure for her as for the player.

Jana Novotna was a great grass court player of the old school, serving and volleying with aplomb. She was also a fine player on any surface and won many titles in both singles and doubles competitions. She was a sporting star who became a household name and her early demise is so very sad.

WHY ARE WE SO SCRUFFY ?

Why do so many male tennis players seem to have no pride in their personal appearance ?

Years ago, in the era when 'whites' were the order of the day, even the likes of Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe managed to look fairly smart on court. Today, with Wimbledon now the only major championship which maintains even a partial 'whites' rule, many players now appear on courts around the world looking as if they've just rolled out of bed.

Unshaven and scruffy, wearing all manner of coloured clothing that often doesn't match or is simply drab in the extreme, their appearance is often depressing. When Andy Murray turns out in black or dark blue, with socks and boots of similar hue, unshaven and shirt hanging loose it demonstrates a lack of pride not only in his appearance but also a lack of respect for his fans, the audience in general and his country. A scruffy and unkempt appearance reflects a scruffy and unkempt attitude to life.

This afternoon at the ATP tour finals, Dominic Thiem played David Goffin. While Thiem's outfit was not bad and he actually looked reasonably smart, Goffin looked like an unmade bed. As he walked onto court one might have been forgiven for thinking that he'd grabbed the first things available prior to putting out his rubbish. He was a mess.

When sports, and other, stars and celebrities adopt such dreadful ways, how can we expect our children to have any pride in their own appearance ? We can't, and a walk through any town will show just what a scruffy country we've become. Horrible.

PARALYMPICS CHEATING : WHAT A SURPRISE !

I have never had any time for the notion of 'disability sports' and particularly for the ludicrous nonsense that is the 'Paralympics', though without ever decrying the efforts of those who have suffered from either birth defects or accidental and life changing injuries. Now, it seems, the principle reason for my scepticism is to be considered by Members of Parliament.

An investigation by the BBC (of all organisations !) has 'discovered' that there could be systematic cheating by manipulating the classification process that is involved in determining which athletes get to compete against which other athletes. A House of Commons committee is to discuss these claims and it's been suggested that the evidence they will hear will be 'explosive'.

There are times when I wonder just how stupid some people can be. Of course the classification system is open to abuse and is abused; any such system will always be abused by cheats in exactly the same way as many take illicit drugs to enhance their performances. Cheating is endemic in much modern sport because winning is all; the days of amateurism are long gone and winning is now all about vast prestige, wealth and honours that can be gained.

Footballers 'dive' to win penalties, cricketers claim catches falsely and what goes on in a rugby scrum is nobody's business. Only in sports which are closely monitored by television cameras is cheating not an issue; golfers and snooker players in televised tournaments rarely, if ever, come up short; major rugby union matches, with replays of every doubtful incident, are so well policed that players know they cannot get away with very much.

But how do you police a classification system which attempts to match competitors with differing disabilities ? Quite simply, the whole notion is ridiculous, shockingly open to abuse and largely pointless. By all means, encourage those with disabilities to enjoy full lives and, where they wish, to engage in sports to the best of their abilities, but for heaven's sake stop this nonsense of the 'Paralympics' and all that goes with it.

LEWIS HAMILTON : NOT THE GREATEST BY MILES.

Lewis Hamilton is obviously a good driver but is he really up there with the 'greatest' ?

Hamilton drives in an era obsessed with safety and at a time when technological advances have made racing cars completely different to those of past days. When Fangio and Moss, Brabham, Clark and Stewart were racing, they truly had to drive their cars; today, the driver has so much information and technological assistance that to even try to begin to compare modern drivers with those of 30, 40 or 50 years ago is a pointless exercise.

In terms of outright bravery, those of the 1950s and 1960s will always be superior; many died and others were severely injured while driving vehicles at breakneck speeds around dangerous circuits. Today, even crashing at 200 miles per hour is likely to result in little more than a few bruises; years ago, it would have meant certain, and often horrible, injuries and death, and yet the drivers still pushed their cars to the absolute limit and beyond.

For any sportsman to be considered 'great' they also have to pass one simple test, that of being magnanimous in defeat. On this measure, Hamilton fails miserably. When he wins, it's all smiles and great joy, but when he loses it's recriminations and sullenness. He looks for someone to blame or some conspiracy against him. Last year it was all about the desire of his German team to help his German team mate, Nico Rosberg; yesterday we heard him suggesting that Sebastian Vettel had deliberately crashed into him, a ludicrous notion as Vettel's only hope of winning the championship for himself was to win the race.

Hamilton is a fast driver but the silly suggestions that he's a great, even 'the greatest' are simply not supported by the facts. He's actually a classic example of a spoilt child who found success at too young an age and now sees it as his right, throwing tantrums whenever he doesn't get his way. One wonders what he'll do next year if Ferrari, Red Bull and even McLaren start beating him regularly. My bet is that he'd chuck his toys out of the pram, quit the sport altogether and go off in pursuit of some other arena in which he can be the centre of attention with no one to challenge him.

Sad.

MISERABLE ANDY OUT OF WIMBLEDON

No one can doubt that Andy Murray is a very good tennis player, certainly the best that Britain has ever produced. One can only wish that he was a more attractive personality.

His defeat at the hands of Sam Querrey in today's Wimbledon quarter-final was unexpected to say the least, though Murray looked increasingly uncomfortable as the match progressed and his virtual collapse in the final 2 sets surely indicated that he was not fully fit. His movement on court was even more 'porky' than usual and suggested continuing hip problems, while his contorted facial expressions suggested a man in all kinds of mental torment.

While some players appear quite bright and breezy, Murray always looks dull and miserable, except when letting out on of his jaw-splitting yells when he just looks plain ugly. He rarely seems to smile and his speech is slow and boring. His clothing on court is usually scruffy; his chosen colour schemes, Wimbledon whites excluded of course, tend to be dark and unattractive. He often sports the unshaven  appearance so beloved of many of today's trendy young men but which serves to simply suggest that they are unwashed as well as unkempt.

While Johanna Konta bubbles and smiles, Murray moans and grimaces. Konta gets on with it, while Murray bemoans his misfortune at every turn. Murray is dour, unsmiling and not all attractive, while Konta is the exact opposite. Given his career success and apparently very happy family life, why does Murray always seem to come across as such a miserable git ?

Murray is out of Wimbledon for this year which is a shame, but at least we'll be spared his miserable on-court persona. We still have Jo Konta to cheer for though and here's hoping that she can make up for the disappointment of Murray losing his crown.

LIONS DRAW WITH ALL BLACKS : NO WINNER ?

One of the great international contests ended on Saturday in a draw, with two incredibly tough teams fighting each other to a standstill. A draw between the British and Irish Lions and the New Zealand All Blacks was not only a fair result it was the right result, and yet some are whining about there not being a result at all.

In some sports there has to be a winner. Tennis, in particular, is one-on-one with a scoring system which does not allow for a  draw. However, football, cricket, and many others routinely produce draws and a draw in rugby, while less common, is a legitimate outcome. Unfortunately, modern audiences seem to shy away from anything other than a 'win-lose' outcome and so we have races of all sorts, between people, horses, cars, dogs and anything else that comes to mind, decided by thousandths of a second. Can we really determine which competitor has crossed the finishing line first down to such a level, indeed, should we ?

In days gone by, before the incredibly fine timing and high speed cameras that we have today, 'dead heats' were frequently the outcome of races. When competitors have given their all and yet cross the line within a hair's breadth of each other, do we really need to separate them by the odd thousandth of a second, an interval of time that none of us can imagine, let alone determine, without the aid of specialised technology ?

Those who complain about the outcome of Saturday's wonderful rugby match and argue for some way of determining 'a winner', are misguided. There are scoring systems in rugby which allow for such tinkering when it is essential, as in the Six Nations' or World Cup competitions, but this was a series of 3 stand-alone matches with no need to determine an absolute 'winner'. In fact, both teams emerged as winners and with huge credit from 3 terrifically hard fought games. 

Neither side deserved to lose and it would have been a travesty if some artificial mechanism had been introduced to ensure that a 'winner' emerged. This series will go down in history as one of the great international contests and that both the final match and the series ended as draws will serve only to enhance its status in the folk lore of Rugby Union. In truth, everybody won.

THE LIONS LOST .. BUT NEXT TIME ...... ?? !!

The All Blacks, a phrase that might be construed as racist in any other arena, beat the British and Irish Lions. Is that so surprising ?


The All Blacks are the best national side in the world and have been for most of the time since the game of rugby was invented; for some reason it's become their national sport. As a small country, they've adopted it as their way of making an impression on the rest of the world and, by heavens, have they achieved their goal. It has become the equivalent of a religion and the traditional 'Haka' that is performed before every one of their matches is one of the great spectacles of sport.


The All Blacks did dominate the match but their dominance found resolution on only a couple of occasions; the Lions defended brilliantly and even scored one of the 'great tries' in reply, begun by Liam Williams and ended by Sean O'Brien. Nonetheless, the Lions lost, but they will have
learned much in defeat.


This ain't over yet !!!