GB rank and file strive to fill void left by Wimbledon as ‘British Tour’ gets underway at Roehampton

Wimbledon‘s Centre Court rocked on first Friday last year, when 15-year-old Coco Gauff saved two match points in edging out Polona Hercog to reach the last 16. And 12 months later there was still professional tennis going on in south west London on Friday, although the scene could hardly have been more different.

A highly restricted audience were dotted around on the grass in front of the National Tennis Centre at Roehampton, watching lower-ranked GB players trying to control the ball in the gusts that swept through the first event of the reconstituted ‘British Tour’.

No Pimm’s or strawberries and cream, no need for the umpire to ask ‘Quiet, please’, just the sound of aspiring pros grinding through the gears as they returned to competition after four months off. 

Cameron Norrie is one of many GB players in action at this month’s British Tour event

The winners of the singles in the 16-strong draws for men and women will take home £900 each, which is £175,000 less than Gauff received for her sensational progress to the fourth round aged only 15. The players at Roehampton have had to take what staff at the Lawn Tennis Association HQ call the ‘Yellow Brick Road’, an assigned pathway through the NTC building which leads to the outside courts being used.

It might not be the All England Club, but everything is still frightfully well organised.

Even at an event with names recognisable only to the cognoscenti, no chances are being taken. There were temperature checks at the door, hand sanitiser everywhere and a strict limit of one coach per player on site. Small details have included the use of six balls in play for a match, rather than the usual number of four at this level, to reduce the possibility of them becoming what Boris Johnson would term a ‘vector for the disease’. 

It all seemed a very far cry from the conduct of the recent Adria Tour, which collapsed into a Covid-ridden shambles for its chief promoter Novak Djokovic. A sign by the courts at Roehampton warns that handshakes are forbidden, let alone the kind of mobbing in Djokovic’s social football matches or the now infamous trip to a Belgrade nightclub. 

Coco Gauff rocked Wimbledon on the first Friday last year by beating Polona Hercog

The fact is that at the lower level of tennis, players are much more used to doing what they are told, whereas at the top there are some who consider themselves above instruction.

The US Open is currently wrestling with what disciplinary measures to put in place for those who do not follow the rules, although the GB men at the ‘Battle of the Brits’ last week appeared to behave in an exemplary fashion.

This week is the first chance since lockdown that the women have had to compete. Among them is Emma Raducanu, the promising 17-year-old from Kent who, in a parallel universe, may well have received a Wimbledon wildcard.

‘It’s great to be back competing, I didn’t play for nine weeks, and practice and matches are very different,’ she said after reaching the semi-final. ‘Unfortunately Wimbledon didn’t happen. The LTA have done a good job in getting these tournaments on behind closed doors. The first few days we were a bit confused, but it didn’t take much getting used to.’

Raducanu plans to play several more domestic events ahead of the official circuit resuming next month, although the tournaments in America are far from certain to happen.

The lockdown has been mostly beneficial for individual sports in the UK like tennis and golf, which were among the few able to resume eight weeks ago.

LTA chief executive Scott Lloyd last week reported that automated tennis court bookings are showing a 250 per cent increase this summer.

Promising 17-year-old Emma Raducanu may well have received a Wimbledon wildcard