'We have to get behind our Andy'

It is, after all, a question of Empire. I am referring, of course, to the crowd's — and my — enthusiastic support of young Andy Murray in his heroic five-set centre court match on Monday night against the dreaded Frenchman, aka Richard Gasquet. Of course, Murray won fair and square. Shout we might, but we couldn't put the ball over the net for him, could we? We only have the Falklands and Gibraltar now to call our own, apart from a tenuous connection with Australia and the rather tarnished glory of the Commonwealth, so we need to look for British, or English, achievements where we can. And football hasn't provided anything much this year, with the fiasco of an England-free Euro 2008.

Of course, the 21-year-old with the endearingly frizzy hair and a macho tendency to snarl after key points, comes from Dunblane, which is in Scotland, but that doesn't matter. No, it honestly doesn't, as England has been skilful at absorbing members of other parts of the United Kingdom when they're talented. Look at the way your George Best was treated as if he were a real Mancunian.

Of course, we've been here before, but Murray's mint condition and powerful serve, not to mention his fighting spirit, seem to offer a real hope this time, with his reaching the quarter finals at such a young age. Sue Barker, John Lloyd, Buster Mottram, Annabel Croft, Jeremy Bates, Jamie Delgado ... the list of near-misses goes on and on. Then there were Greg Rusedski (you see what I mean about absorption) and finally, the gentlemanly Tim Henman, who looked like a 50s matinee idol and seemed just too darned nice to win. There have been moments of real glory, like Virginia Wade in 1977, the year of the Silver Jubilee. But since then, Britain has had slim pickings compared to the wins by the Americans, the Australians, the Eastern Europeans, even the French with Mauresmo. Maybe we have ourselves to blame by allowing tennis to remain middle class.

But we hanker after a home-grown victory in the game we virtually invented with royal tennis. So to all those mean-spirited people who begrudge UK plc its brief moment in the SW19 sun, I will quote Voltaire, another Frenchman maybe, but hellishly bright: "I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it". Come on, Andy!

Jane Hardy

'The baying fans were a disgrace'

Anyone wondering what English football hooligans would be doing while their national soccer stars languished poolside as other European countries competed in Euro 2008 got their answer this week.

They were at centre court in Wimbledon, hooting and jeering and bawling and chanting, slow-handclapping and booing, and doing everything they could to disrupt the match plan of Richard Gasquet in his epic defeat to 'I'm no Tim, I'm an Andy' Murray.

It was disgusting. Even the commentators joined in the crowing schadenfreude as coverage switched from the quiet lagoon of BBC2 to BBC1 so the whole nation could participate in the ugly scenes from the comfort of their living rooms.

But this wasn't a one-off. The baying hounds of England's upper-middle-classes have been at this carry-on since the disgraceful treatment of Ilie Nastase in the early 70s by both crowd and 'Lawn Tennis' authorities.

Forget about Cliff Richard and strawberries and cream — the defining characteristics of Wimbledon have been antagonistic chanting, vicious partisanship, irrational mass hatred of players.

Despite the BBC's background chuckling, there is nothing 'good-natured' about raucous gloating over a missed backhand. It's the tennis equivalent of booing the opposing team's national anthem.

As well as Nastase, one JP McEnroe — rather subdued in the commentary bunker as the torrent of abuse rained onto the court around the hapless Frenchman — was loathed by the Wimbledon mob and authorities, until his 'brave' defeat to Borg in the 1980 final.

Ditto Connors, Lendl, Navratilova, Sampras — loathed en masse at the outset, their every error cheered to the skies in behaviour entirely at odds with the stereotypical British attachment to the values of fair play. And all in the service of the latest gaunch to wear the mantle of 'Great British Hope'.

Here's another question. Why is it that as long as there is even just one 'hopeful' lumbering his way through the early rounds, the LTA is content never to respond to the deep criticisms of its failure to grow tennis as a sport among young people as a whole? All the more embarrassing as much poorer nations with much smaller populations can turn out world-beaters year on year.

The answer can be found in the self-satisfied baying fools of centre court. That's the audience British tennis wants.

And sadly for British tennis, that's the gene pool from which their thin trickle of ranked players will forever be drawn.

Phil Bunting