BBC obsession with celebrity distorts Wimbledon coverage

The broadcaster focuses all its attention on the big names which takes away from the underdog’s deserving moment

On Tuesday night, after a magnificent first-round encounter on Centre Court had stretched well beyond its scheduled slot on BBC television, Clare Balding signed off by saying: “I’m off to bed dreaming that I had a heart as big as Serena Williams.” Quite a statement given that the veteran former champion had just lost.

Balding is a brilliant broadcaster but you suspect she will have woken up thinking it might have been better to at least acknowledge the fact there was a winner – Frenchwoman Harmony Tan, beating an all-time great on her debut at Wimbledon.

The trend continued in the coverage of Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray. Fair enough to dwell on the ending of the two brightest stars of British tennis, but you would have been forgiven for not even knowing who had knocked them out.

Before charges of hypocrisy are screamed, yes, other media – including Telegraph Sport – made similar calls in terms of focusing on the three big-name losers. But newspapers, denied space and time, have no choice but to pick a side – the BBC, with its hours of sprawling coverage, is not so constrained.

This is a reflection of an obsession with celebrity. The focus on the coverage is entirely on the names we know. Also, in every moment of the coverage of her defeat, Raducanu was referred to solely by her Christian name: Emma this, Emma that, Emma in trouble here. Her opponent, the Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, was just called Garcia.

When Balding addressed John Mcenroe and Kim Clijsters after the match on Today at Wimbledon, Garcia was not even mentioned. All we heard was Emma. It was not even sharp investigation of the reasons behind her defeat. “She’s only 19” is not valid scrutiny – she was 18 when she won the US Open.

Tennis is an individual sport, so naturally the focus has to be on the individual. The reason for the slo-mo promos that precede one of the big names appearing on Centre Court is to build up the characters in the narrative. That sort of presentation needs those big names to succeed. Expect the focus to be entirely on Rafa (Nadal) and Novak (Djokovic), with a side order of Katie (Boulter).

What this forgets is that in a oneon-one confrontation, there is someone else involved. And, as has been proven this week at Wimbledon, that someone else has a very good chance of winning. Celebrity obsession clouds the judgment.

In circumstances such as Tan’s victory over Williams, the underdog deserves their moment. Had such ranking inversion taken place in the swimming pool at the Olympics, Balding would have recognised its power. But at Wimbledon, it seems the philosophy is different. Here it is not victory, but who we know that matters.

Raducanu was referred to solely by her Christian name: Emma this, Emma that, Emma in trouble