Tennis Loss Curls Some Stiff Upper Lips

As Tim Henman’s rain-delayed, nail-biting quest for a shot at the Wimbledon title ended in defeat Sunday, British tennis fans let out a collective sigh of resignation mixed with relief. Three days of hoping against hope had come to naught. At least the wait was over.

“The capacity to live with disappointment is an essential requirement of followers of British sport,” the Independent on Sunday newspaper said.

And that was before Henman lost the Wimbledon semifinals to Croatian Goran Ivanisevic. “Believe in yourself,” the paper urged player and fans alike.

“It’s not that we don’t want to win, it’s that we don’t expect to win,” said John Smith, 62, who watched the Henman-Ivanisevic match at the George IV pub in West London. “We desperately want to win, because we haven’t won for years.”

Not for Smith’s entire life, in fact. A Briton has not won Wimbledon since 1936 or even made it to the finals since 1938. Nor is Britain winning international competitions in the other sports it introduced to the world--rugby, cricket and golf.

In the run-up to Sunday’s play, some Britons indulged in visions of Wimbledon glory, saying a Henman victory would be as magnificent as Britain’s 1966 World Cup triumph over Germany--perhaps the greatest moment in British sporting history. Maybe this time, they allowed, with Americans Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi out of the picture, their man from Oxford could win.

But it wasn’t to be.

For Henman’s third loss in the semifinals--in 1998 and 1999 he was defeated by Sampras--fans blamed bad weather and bad luck. They faulted what they deemed to be Henman’s lack of killer instinct.

“I think he doesn’t have the mental strength to cope with the pressure,” said Marion Anderson, the operator of a holiday ski company who watched Henman go down to defeat at the Paddington Sports Center, a private tennis club. “Everyone will be saying he’s not aggressive enough, especially after today.”

Of course, being Britons they will say it politely. They were good sports about losing--Henman above all. He quickly washed up and put on a clean T-shirt and a good face.

“It hasn’t been easy,” he admitted, calling on a store of private-school manners and reserve.

It must be particularly galling to lose in the way he did, reporters prodded. Henman was in the lead and on a roll Friday when play was suspended by rain. He lost ground during the 51 minutes of play Saturday before rain again brought the game to a halt, and then he finally fell Sunday.

“It’s always disappointing, whatever way you lose,” Henman said. He vowed to “come back even stronger next year.”

This is classic British cool--sang-froid, some would say. It is the same composure that his parents and wife displayed in the Center Court stands, barely moving a muscle while much of the country was jumping out of its skin in agony. That demeanor has turned some very British tennis enthusiasts off Henman.

“He is the epitome of what’s wrong with English tennis, stiff upper lip and no emotion. That’s why it’s perceived as an elitist sport in the United Kingdom,” said Irene Savereze, who also watched at Paddington.

Tennis Seen as Upper-Class Game

Actually, tennis is seen as an upper-class game in Britain because it is an upper-class game, other viewers said. There are few public tennis courts and neither much public financing nor significant private sponsorship for what until not so long ago was treated as a “girl’s game,” with cricket considered more appropriate for boys. The result is a small pool of accomplished tennis players and only two world-class competitors, one of whom--Greg Rusedski--actually hails from Canada.

“It’s a clubby thing here,” architect John Attwood, 40, said at Paddington. “I only started playing a few years ago. I wasn’t taught it in school.”

Bookkeeper Dave Murphy, 40, agreed that tennis is for the “wealthy and nouveau riche” in Britain.

“Go to Wimbledon and you’ll see. It’s all the people Americans left this country to get away from. That’s why you had a revolution, right?” Murphy said.

If the American Revolution was not exactly fought to make tennis available to the masses, it was about a spirit of freedom and individual pursuit that many Britons see as lacking in Henman and other British athletes.

“As a nation, we remain on uneasy terms with the principles of self-assertion that contribute so much to sporting success,” the Independent said. “When an achiever like [five-time Olympic rowing gold medalist] Sir Steve Redgrave comes along we are as much amazed as delighted. It is an attitude that could do with changing.”

Britons are more comfortable with team sports, said Larry Coyne, originally of Ireland and the owner of a cargo airline. “They don’t like gladiator type of contests.”

Indeed, many fans felt deeply sorry for Henman, who they believed would have won Friday when he had the momentum before the rain. They wanted to share a Henman victory in the Rolls-Royce of tennis events--the one that Britain stages peerlessly but cannot seem to win.

‘The Whole Nation Was Watching Him’

“He was under 10 times more pressure than Ivanisevic. The whole nation was watching him,” said Louisa Holt, 27, an engineer who watched at the Warrington Pub in West London.

“I think he deserved to win. . . . But it’s good for this country to get someone even to the semifinals. It’s a lot better than we’re used to,” she said.

Unfortunately, tennis coach Marcus French said, Britain is used to defeat.

“We’ve had a lot of practice supporting people who don’t make it through to the finals,” he said.

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