The boys at Radio 5, bless ’em, are now including the EU referendum as part of their sports trailers. As in: ‘The European Championships; England versus Sri Lanka; Wimbledon; the EU Referendum; the Rio Olympics… don’t miss a second of this glorious summer of sport on BBC 5 Live.’ Nevertheless, the normally excitable world of sport has remained strangely immune to the dramas of the Brexit debate, though Sir Ian ‘Beefy’ Botham has put his considerable bulk behind the ‘outers’. Not surprising really. It was once said that cricket has the only trade union where the workers are to the right of the employers.
But keen Brexiteers should note that Serbia and Switzerland have won eight of the past ten men’s tennis majors (two for Stan Wawrinka and six for Novak Djokovic), and 31 of the past 52 once you count Roger Federer. Clearly, if you want to win a major, vote Leave.
But what a beast Djokovic is now, albeit one with immense charm, impeccable manners and an unbeatable fluency in umpteen languages. And surely, among the greatest there has ever been. Poor Murray wasn’t serving so well in the French tennis final, but he is still arguably the more versatile and interesting player: the angst-laden jazz saxophonist to Djokovic’s consummate concert pianist, whose finger placements are never more than a millimetre out. It’s much harder being the second-best tennis player in the world than, say, the second-best footballer. If you’re Ronaldo, you can have a whale of a time, hang about on boats, get a tan, and just not worry too much about Messi. But if you’re Murray, it’s a life of pain: well-rewarded but oh-so hard. He played some superb ground strokes in Paris and Novak chased them down.
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