The epidemic of withdrawals in the first week of Wimbledon doesn’t look good.
Every athlete gets injured at various points in their career and we would all rather be competing than pulling out.
One or two players saying they are unable to finish their match off is what you would expect.
But eight in the first couple of days?
Something’s not right with that.
We’ll never know for sure but the cynics will think that not all of the eight would have started their matches if the £35,000 first round loser money wasn’t open to them even if they withdrew.
And the same cynics would ask whether they would have dropped out early if that payment had been waived.
It looks even worse when two of the eight have re-entered into the doubles.
Some players have said that they feel there is a responsibility on them to finish their game and I totally agree with that, with a few obvious exceptions if an injury is really serious.
I liked the Heather Watson quote, which was: “I can’t speak for anybody else, but if my leg was broken, I’d be crawling to the next ball. That’s just me, though.”
The tournament hasn’t been helped, either, by the attitude of Bernard Tomic.
He basically claimed that he doesn’t respect the sport and he couldn’t care less if he was winning or losing, saying that he was playing for the money.
I’m pretty sure that if that continues to be his mindset he won’t be around at the top of the sport as long as he thinks.
Tennis players work incredibly hard but they also get huge financial rewards. I understand that money will be one motivation but if it’s your main one then that won’t be enough to drive you on when the going gets tough.
That sort of attitude sets a terrible example to kids starting out in a sport but it also shows them what sets the best and the rest apart.
It’s why Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic are winning grand slams and talented players beneath them aren’t.
* What a brilliant weekend I had at the Celebrity Cup at Celtic Manor.
I had such a great time on and off the course. Everyone was so friendly and we were really well looked after.
With 50,000 people watching me hit a golf ball, let’s just say I was pretty nervous! I kept wanting to tell the crowd not to stand too close because we weren’t real golfers!
Myself and Max Evans beat Gareth Bale and Sir Gareth Edwards…..two of Wales’ most successful ever sports people, which will be a nice story to tell.
After that I ended up playing with guys like Ronan Keating, Brian McFadden and Bradley Walsh. There was never a dull moment, that’s for sure!
Playing against Mike Tindall and Anton du Beke in the final was a great laugh but we ended up finishing second.
I managed to keep up with the lads but it’s taken a while to get back to full speed at training this week!
