Predictably, there was a lot of criticism of the Beeb's coverage of the Wimby semi and final on 'News Watch' this morning ................
'Why was the local news axed for a tennis match?'
'Why so much coverage for an over paid tennis player who lost a match?'
'For the first time ever I turned off the BBC news.........' etc. etc. etc.
Hi Alis and all,
Oh this type of thing makes me mad. The semi, and Andy's win in it was a bit of history right in front of our eyes. Never in my lifetime, or in the lifetimes of any of us here I would imagine, have we had a British male tennis player winning through to a Wimbledon final. It was a huge moment, one I will never forget as long as I live. I know that when the DVD comes (it is on order) I will watch the semi over and over again, just to relive that moment, and to see Andy's wonderful moment of joy. I wanted to hug him! How must it have felt for Andy's team, especially Kim and Judy, who have been around through good times and bad, and when Andy was working his way through qualifiers and such. Funny, it makes me feel emotional just thinking about it!
The overpaid thing makes me laugh. When you break it all down tennis players could actually be said to be underpaid, when you consider how relatively short their careers (don't get any ideas Andy!) are. Personally I would rather see an overpaid tennis player like Andy than an overpaid football player any day, but there we are.
It just says it all to me that people can't go without seeing the news for one moment like this. It says a lot about why British tennis has spent so long in the doldrums, i.e. because basically people, the public, or sections of them, don't care. You could sort of understand why British players might not always have felt inclined to push themselves much, because what difference does it make really, the country as a whole won't care and prefers football anyway. Thank God that Andy is different and wants to be the best he can be.
