Richard Isn’t King in the Eyes of Wimbledon, British Press

Virginia Wade--”Our Ginny,” as the local tabloids proudly referred to her--won the women’s singles title at Wimbledon in 1977. Queen Elizabeth watched from the royal box. She hasn’t been back since. Nor has any British player--man or woman--been back for a singles final on Center Court.

The closest was the late Fred Perry. As the last English man to win here, capturing the last of his three consecutive titles in 1936, he has been immortalized with a statue of his likeness just outside the stadium. It moves almost as well as some current English players.

That does not include Tim Henman, annually considered the Great Brit Hope after twice reaching the semifinals. All of England seems to be waiting anxiously to see whether Timbledon has fulfilled his promise to improve his second serve enough to challenge Pete Sampras.

If not, they are ready at the drop of a passport to switch allegiances to Greg Rusedski, who, like English boxer Lennox Lewis, came here as a Canadian citizen. But they will cheer Rusedski as one of their own if he, like Lewis, ever wins a crown.

Otherwise, the English have to find their glory in history.

“Do you ever think about Willie Renshaw?” Sampras was asked after his first-round victory Monday.

“Not really,” Sampras said, smiling.

“You know who he is?”

“You mention him on these interviews we do after the match,” Sampras said. “I still don’t know who he is.”

He, of course, was kidding. He knows that, besides himself, Renshaw is Wimbledon’s only seven-time men’s champion, a record Sampras is trying to break this year. He wishes he had it as easy as Renshaw, who, according to the system in the late 1800s, had to win only one match some years to win the tournament.

The only thing the British dislike more than hearing about their futility in tennis is to hear from an American about how to fix it, especially if that American is Richard Williams.

While attending daughter Venus’ fashion show at an exclusive club in Chiswick last week, Williams blasted the Lawn Tennis Assn. for its elitism.

“They tell me the best clubs here cost [$7,500 to $9,000] a year,” he said. “If that keeps up, you are not going to have any tennis players. Your best players are not going to come from these private clubs. Tennis players are in the ghetto. Looking at the average income of black people who live here, you have to get people to drop some of the higher prices at the private clubs.

“You are going to be suffering and waiting for Virginia Wade to come back, and I don’t think she is going to come back.”

One version of that story ran in the Daily Mail under the headline, “Ghetto Blaster: Venus’ dad warns snobbish Britain will never win Wimbledon again.”

On Tuesday, snobbish Britain fired back.

A spokesperson for the Lawn Tennis Assn. told the Daily Mail that they had contacted the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, about assisting club officials with inner-city tennis programs but that Richard declined unless each was paid $150,000. They declined.

That’s their story and they’re sticking to it. I don’t know if it’s a lie. Richard Williams does like money. On the other hand, he and his family, including the two tennis champions, do a considerable amount for charity without asking for compensation.

A tribute is scheduled in their honor in Los Angeles on Aug. 5 because of the money they’ve contributed to tennis scholarships for inner-city children from our area, although Williams said Tuesday he doesn’t want to participate.

“I’m a poor little ghetto guy who has done so much, but that’s between me and God,” he said.

One thing he has done by the sheer force of his personality is to all but turn his immensely talented daughters into backup singers. Appearing today: Richard Williams and the Supremes.

As the defending women’s champion, Venus played the opening match of the tournament’s second day Tuesday on Center Court and won, but her father was the one mobbed by fans and media immediately afterward.

I’m not sure it’s all his fault. He was walking outside the stadium after the match when he was stopped by a few fans for autographs. Suddenly, he was surrounded by media. He was asked to talk, so he did.

Asked about the Lawn Tennis Assn.’s allegation, Williams pulled a video camera from his camera bag and summoned a fan to record his answers. He wanted a record of the interview.

“Every time I say something to the papers, I see it the next day and I see my beautiful face and four or five lies,” he said.

He denied that he asked the LTA for money.

Then he blasted the Daily Mail for reporting the story without asking him for a comment.

“Keep that camera on,” he demanded of the fan.

“I’ve heard that this is the greatest tournament, and I believed that,” he said. “I was also told [the English] have the most lying press in the world. I don’t know if I believed that or not, but I’m leaning that way. If you have the best tournament in the world, why do you have to have the worst press in the world?”

After a few more body blows, he retrieved his video camera and walked away. Now it’s on, the war of the words. But no matter what the British say about him now, he can always claim that he has produced three times more Grand Slam championships than they have in the last quarter of a century.

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Randy Harvey can be reached at randy.harvey@latimes.com

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