Stars pay their respects to Mail’s Mr Wimbledon

ONE by one, they took a press conference seat to describe their wins or losses on court. But any talk of serves and volleys had to wait until after their tributes had been paid to a man who was no longer in the room. It has been a little over two days since Mike Dickson, Mail Sport’s peerless tennis correspondent (left) passed away, aged 59, while covering the tournament in Melbourne.

It is a mark of the esteem in which he was held that those he wrote about for more than three decades have been so moved. It can be a combustible dynamic between reporter and subject. The need for criticism, which Dicko never shirked, makes it so. But such was his decency, honesty and fairness, he had few equals on that tightrope.

The sincerity of the comments from the game’s great and good, from Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King to Coco Gauff show how well he walked it. Emma Raducanu, the topic of Dicko’s final dispatch, went straight to the bigger picture. ‘First of all, I would say condolences to Mike’s family,’ she said of a journalist who chronicled her fairytale in New York, all the difficulties that followed, and had written a book about a sporting story unlike many others. ‘I was pretty taken aback because he was here two nights ago and everything was normal. It just shows how precious life is and puts everything into perspective. ‘It’s a very sad day for everyone and his family. I really hope you can stay as strong as you can.’ Rafael Nadal, absent in Australia but whose glorious career drew some of Dicko’s finest reporting, there was a touching post on X: ‘Very sorry to hear about the passing of Mike who has been following tennis all these years. My thoughts to his family and to our tennis family for the loss.’ Boris Becker, with whom Dicko stayed close during and after the German’s time in prison, added: ‘Terrible news out of Melbourne. My sincere condolences to the family of Mike Dickson... RIP.’