Jensen, an American, was banned from wearing an England football jersey during the championships but got around Wimbledon rules after making a trip to Lillywhites sports shop in the centre of London.
When he walked out on court for his mixed doubles first round with Nicole Arendt, he was bedecked in full cricket kit.”I was all decked out with long trousers and a cricket sweater that had the three lions on the front,” said Jensen, who was a 1996 French Open finalist with Arendt.Jensen, who was also wearing a Robbie Fowler-style nose-plaster to improve his breathing, moved comfortably into the second round with a straight- sets victory.After the match Jensen, nicknamed “Dual Hand Luke”, because of his ability to play both left and right-handed revealed his tactics for playing mixed doubles. “It can be an economic thing, I mean it’s not the cheapest sport in the world, but heck, my Dad taught me so it’s not like we were ever paying for tennis lessons.”Payment for anything is no longer a problem, especially as Washington could probably earn just as much as a male model. But the only real certainty is Washington to go through a sentence without using the word “heck” or the phrase “you know”. He will not be appearing on Radio Four’s Just A Minute.Washington is the best black American player since Arthur Ashe and recognises that tennis is not the preferred sport among black children. “You know, the kids I was growing up with, none of them ever played tennis and I got a couple of jabs,” he said. That would be some progress for the 27-year-old, as he has never previously been beyond the second round here.
In 1991 he led Ivan Lendl by two sets to love before presenting the No 3 seed with the match on a velvet cushion.For some reason people reckon the bet of the tournament is Sampras. But, as the match progressed, Ulihrach, shrank further from his full height to end up a bent, forlorn figure. In less than an hour and a quarter Washington had blown away him, and the Czech Republic’s sense of invincibility, by a 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 scoreline.With Boris Becker now removed, the American appears to have calm waters ahead of him to the semi-finals, where he should not count on the undivided support that rolled from the stands yesterday He could meet one Tim Henman at that stage. The world No 20 does not miss on any please or thank you when ball-boys bring him water, and on the rare occasions he had to question a call yesterday, he approached the chair with an almost embarrassed posture.Washington may be 5ft 11in but he is operating in the land of the giants and his chunky body accentuates this relative smallness Over the net was the modern prototype. The 21-year-old from Prague is 6ft 2in of the leanest cut in the shop. But on the occasions his opponent won a game, a strange noise came from the top of the official’s chair, the sort you normally hear when you find your grandad gargling in the bathroom.
Bohdan Ulihrach (BO-dan, OO-lee- rock) sounds as dreadful as Vlad The Impaler and his name certainly scared the living daylights out of John Frame (frame).Washington was less disturbing His manners are lovely. MaliVai has a brother Mashiska and three sisters, Mashona, Micheala and Masanja.As he had to deal with only surnames, the umpire on Court Two was spared a verbal faux pas yesterday whenever Washington had to be mentioned. (The caller might feel a bit weary anyway after the walk up the drive: Washington has collected career prize money of $2,372,042 (pounds 1.5m).
Our man is actually called called mal-la-VEE-yah and his parents seem to believe the initial M sits rather nicely with the Washington surname None of that George or Denzil nonsense. The sporting equivalent of Peter Piper is offered at Wimbledon every year and yesterday the big one seemed to be MaliVai Washington v Bohdan Ulihrach. The accepted pronunciation for the former in Europe is “mally- vi”, but if you asked for that person at the front door of his Florida home a puzzled look would spread over the occupant’s face.
“I am surprised that she’s gone out but the competition is so strong these days you never can be totally confident.”. It is not easy being an umpire at Wimbledon. You have to adjudicate on codes of dress, player behaviour and close line calls And then there are the names. To date she has got that far for the loss of a mere 10 games and looks like a woman with a mission to remove a bad memory.”Monica on a strong day,” she said of Eastbourne while failing to mention that it was a jaded one for her after two matches and six sets against Conchita Martinez and Jana Novotna on the day before. Appelmans’ was quick and accurate, and faced with the novel experience of having to move her feet, Schultz-McCarthy was slowly worn down 7-5, 3-6, 12-10.Four years ago one man put pounds 10,000 on that Schultz-McCarthy would Wimbledon one day, a bet that is looking less wise by the year. It would have taken an extremely bold punter, however, to place money on Mary Joe Fernandez lasting longer in the tournament than Seles after she had been forcibly removed from the court by the erstwhile Yugoslav in the final of Eastbourne last Saturday.While Seles is winging her way back to Florida, Fernandez is through to the last 16 with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Argentina’s Florencia Labat.
I’ll just have to take care.”One seed who did not take sufficient care was Brenda Schultz-McCarthy who appears to have everything she needs to succeed at Wimbledon but manages to blow it on an annual basis. This time the Dutch 11th seed found a way to make an early exit against Sabine Appelmans.The Belgian plays left-handed because her friends used to when she was little, which makes you wonder what kind of player she would be if she ever used the stronger wing because she tamed the most violent serve in the women’s game with some blistering returns.Schultz-McCarthy blasts the ball down at speeds approaching 120mph and at 6ft 2in she rarely has to do much more than stretch out her arms to finish off the job even if her opponent’s co-ordination is fast enough to make a return. Just about the last thing the championships need, particularly with Boris Becker’s withdrawal, was another name to succumb to injury so it was probably more than the medical staff who were concerned when Sanchez Vicario pulled up with a wrist injury during the match.”I stretched one of the ligaments in my arm as I went for a shot,” she said, “and my wrist went the other way It’s not anything important. “I started playing more aggressive, trying to go for my shots I think I improved when I needed to I’m playing better at this stage than I was last year.
