Wimbledon has come and gone for another year.
But this year was a record — the first without rain. It is only the fifth time since 1922 that no play has been disrupted by the weather throughout the tournament.
I’m certainly envious of the lovely summer which my friends and family in England appear to be enjoying.
The crowds at Wimbledon may even have complained they were too hot with temperatures reaching 29 C.
I think I could have coped though — as long as I had some strawberries to enjoy.
While I have not yet been to Wimbledon to watch a match, it’s something I certainly plan to do in the future and I love watching it on television.
I seemed to manage to miss a lot of it this year (probably due to the time difference) but I was pleased to see the woman’s final wasn’t another Williams-Williams match.
Venus lost in the quarterfinals, ensuring the first final without both Williams sisters since 2007.
It was completely expected that Serena Williams would win Wimbledon, but it still brought a tear to my eye when she made her acceptance speech — as it clearly meant the world to her to hold the Venus Rosewater Dish (awarded to the ladies singles champion at Wimbledon) in her hands again.
I did feel sorry for Vera Zvonareva, but it was extremely unlikely she would prevent Williams from bringing her number of Grand Slam titles to 13.
Whenever Wimbledon takes up the British media’s attention for two weeks, sportswriters and columnists bemoan the lack of a British champion and forever ask why isn’t Britain good at tennis?
I always feel sad for Tim Henman. He did extraordinarily well, but never quite made it to the final. He was our semifinal hero four times, but people still moaned about why he wasn’t crowned champion in his own country.
Then there’s Andy Murray. The whole of Britain crossed their fingers for him this year but his semifinal match was against Rafael Nadal, who won the tournament.
Murray will no doubt remain Britain’s hope for a long time to come and I will be following his matches with interest.
But just two days into this year’s Wimbledon, Murray was the only British player left in the singles.
None of the British women players made it very far at all unfortunately.
I was hoping Laura Robson, junior grand slam champion, would get further than she did but she’s only 16 and her future is very bright.
But she certainly gave the number 4 seed, Jelena Jankovic, a run for her money.
Jankovic is nine years older than Robson and 230 places higher in the world ranking so it was unlikely Robson would win.
It was certainly good experience for Robson and I can’t wait to watch her career progress and one day cheer for her in the Wimbledon final.
The British media is calling for a change in the way tennis is treated amongst youngsters and wants those with potential to be better coached and modelled into champions. Easier said than done.
Britain is a tennis-loving country and tennis coaches assure us progress is being made at the lower levels.
Perhaps British players feel too much pressure because it is Wimbledon and the expectation level is too high.
But I hope sometime in the near future a singles final will feature a British player on centre court.
Rebecca Lawrence can be reached at 691-1258.
