Wonderful World Of Wimbledon / Ralph Ellis / 23 June 2008 / Leave a comment

Poor preparation and a public perception of petulance lead Ralph Ellis to fear that the British hopeful may not make it into the second week.

Tim Henman has changed the way we look at Wimbledon forever. When I covered the tournament for the first time back in 1987 the focus was entirely on the world stars and nobody expected a Brit to last beyond the first two days. When in 1992 Jeremy Bates became the first home player in more than a decade to reach the second week we went and camped on the lawn of his house on Sunday morning to talk to him. Bates later became our Davis Cup captain but was an unlikely standard bearer back then. But then along came Henman - and Greg Rusedski - and the focus every year was on the hope of a home hero.

Tim has gone for good now and will be at SW19 only in the BBC commentary box. So it's down to Andy Murray to carry the flag and to be honest he's not terribly well equipped to do it. He's tried this morning to get the crowd on his side, revealing that rather than being a Scot he's actually one quarter English because his Gran comes from Newcastle. 'Quite a few of my mum's side of the family are in Newcastle, and anybody who knows me knows how close I am to my gran so the anti-English stuff was not the nicest thing to hear,' he tells Charlie Wyett, who used to ghost his column in The Sun. 'I travel with my physio who is English, my fitness trainer is English, and my girlfriend is English too. I live in London, and I would have qualified to play football for England although I wouldn't have got in the team!'

Good try, but it's not going to make the slightest difference to an English public who so far just haven't warmed to the surly seeming young man. If you've been one-on-one with Murray you'll have seen glimpses that he's actually good fun and quite a warm personality. But it just doesn't come over to the greater public and only one thing will change his image and that's results.

Don't bank on them coming this week, though. He insists the injuries to thumb, neck and thigh, or wherever else it was that required what seemed like a complete body massage during a match at Queen's, are healed and behind him and won't affect him now. But his preparation hasn't been right and there are no guarantees that he'll last the first week. He is [9.0] to get through his quarter of the draw (and at the moment [13.0] to lay) where Rafael Nadal is [1.28] to go through. In truth he will do well to even reach a showdown with the French Open champion next Monday because there are dangers ahead. While it shouldn't be too hard to negotiate tomorrow's opening game with Fabrice Santoro, the third round carries a potential clash with any one of Guillermo Canas, Tommy Haas and Tommy Robredo who have all been around the block a few times and are capable of playing well on Wimbledon's green grass.

If you are dreaming of home heroics then Murray starts the tournament priced at [48.0] to win it. The only thing to be said for that is that as ever for Betfair punters it's a much better price than odds of between 25 and 28 being offered by most traditional bookies!

Five things you didn't know about Jeremy Bates

1. He was British champion six times but only ever won one major title on tour

2. He was a Wimbledon winner in 1997 - the mixed doubles with Jo Durie

3. As a young player he turned down the chance to work with Boris Becker's manager Ion Tiriac

4. He won only two of six Davis Cup ties he was captain for - not helped by Tim Henman's decision to retire from the team

5. His highest ever singles ranking in the world was 54.

Tags: Andy Murray, Fabrice Santoro, Greg Rusedski, Guillermo Canas, Jeremy Bates, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Tennis betting, Tim Henman, Tommy Haas, Tommy Robredo, Wimbledon