How much can a human being take?I think he is playing the best tennis of anybody because nobody else
How much can a human being take?”I think he is playing the best tennis of anybody because nobody else at Wimbledon has that type of pressure. I notice that he has improved his serve a great deal, his movement around court is better. It’s much worse for the Henmans.”If he doesn’t win, it seems like no one wants to talk to him. How can the fans of this country be that tough on him, yelling at him? One guy in the crowd the other day even had his hands together, praying If he wins he’s a god, if he loses he’s a dog I wonder what must be going through his mind.
But if he ever wins this tournament, he could be the next king of England.”Williams thinks the expectation heaped on Henman, who was beaten by the unseeded Croat Ancic in the quarter-finals, could even be harming future British tennis prospects. “What’s happening to Henman might be keeping a lot of British kids from coming into the game. When they see what’s happening to him, who wants to volunteer to be the next victim?”I wouldn’t say that’s the only reason why no young talent is making it on the tours, but it’s about 70 per cent of the reason in my opinion. After watching his daughter Serena lose the women’s final yesterday, Williams urged: “It is time the fans here realised the amount of pressure on that young man is just tremendous.
“When you have a whole country riding on your shoulders how can you cope with it, every day looking at the newspapers and seeing yourself on the front pages? He was in the locker room when I went there the other day and I felt like asking him how he survived under such pressure.”I also spoke to Tim’s parents just before the quarter-final [the defeat by Mario Ancic] and asked how they were standing up to it all. They said it must be just the same for me with Venus and Serena, but it’s not.
Richard Williams, father of the Williams sisters, last night warned British tennis fans to “get off Tim Henman’s back” or risk destroying the country’s leading tennis player. They will have loved her a little less after her words yesterday.. Her volleying was patchy, she charged the net and at times seemed oblivious to the fact that this was doubles, not singles.Navratilova had, of course, entered all three events at Wimbledon. Her participation in the singles, 10 years after her last match, was meant to sharpen her doubles play. But despite her 46-minute first-round demolition of Catalina Castano, making her the oldest winner in the Open era, she stirred up more headlines over the wisdom of her taking part.Despite all that the crowd have loved her, which wasn’t always the way when she first burst on the scene as a chubby Czech before winning 18 singles Grand Slam titles – half of them at Wimbledon. Sugiyama, in particular, exploited their lack of teamwork, and Navratilova was all too often lobbed.
Navratilova will be the oldest competitor in Athens and said that was the goal this year, not Wimbledon or the US Open. She also confirmed that this would indeed, finally, be her final year. No more comebacks.A lot of improvement will be needed if she and Raymond are to win gold. They lacked co-ordination and belief, and three times clashed rackets as they went for the same ball. Twice she implored herself to “come on” after winning shots, but it was half-hearted. What was more revealing was a steady tapping at her head with her racket after an error.
