A British Champion

‘THAT was a great weekend’s sport. And the Sun has good reason to keep the celebrations alive as it tells us that Roger Federer is British.

‘This is for my mates back in my hometown of Barnsley’

Yes, the Wimbledon champion is British - “well almost” - says the Sun, as it sensationally reveals that the Swiss tennis player may have had a great-great grandmother called Mabel Chamberlain who is “thought” to have been English and lived “somewhere” in the UK.

Wow, indeed!

And just as soon as the paper discovers that Maria Sharapova, the “sexy 6ft Russian” and new Wimbledon women’s champion, “might” have had a distant uncle who “could” have lived in Stevenage, the clean sweep will be ours.

British sport has never been in such good shape. And, sticking with the Sun, we notice that Wayne Rooney, hero of the European campaign, says “DON’T SACK BECKS” all over the paper’s back page.

And why is he saying this? Because Becks makes Rooney look so much better? No, because the tattooed one is an inspiration to young Wayne.

And there’s Rooney again, on the back of the Mail, the subject of a story to the effect that his current club Everton will not sell him for a penny less than £30m.

It’s the big football news of the day, although the Mirror misses the scoop and wastes its back page telling its readers that last night Greece - minus Wayne Rooney – won the European Championships.

“ACROPOLIS WOW” comes the paper’s laboured headline, which is trumped by the Star’s “Greece lightning”.

Only the Express contains itself and says “Greece Europe Kings”, before relating how the 100-1 rank outsiders beat Portugal and won the cup by the game’s only goal.

But until we find out that the Greeks were inspired to triumph by Rooney and how it’s he who is the real hero of their victory, we must make do with some more tennis news.

And there it is in the Express. And his name is Miles Kasari, the young British player who came up just short in his quest to become the first British winner of the Wimbledon boys’ singles title in 42 years.

For the record, Kasari lost to French prodigy Gael Monfils 7-5, 7-6, and with it the chance to restore some sense of purpose to British tennis.

But let’s all hail the new Henman-to-be. Tim’s not getting any younger and it’s about time we had another player to cheer to the point of success - and then moan and groan about as he misses out…’

Posted: 5th, July 2004 | In: Back pages Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink