Soaring temperatures, frayed tempers

Proverbial bad boy John McEnroe immediately hit back, arguing that fans love to witness a few frayed tempers and banged-up rackets and that on the contrary, getting mad adds fire to one’s belly and venom to one’s game.

Coach Boris Bekker, meanwhile, caused a stir, declaring that almost everyone uses sign language or less detectable foreign language to gee up their charges from the sidelines. This, of course, is strictly against the rules and could result in midmatch suspension of the guilty coach and player.

Frankly, Novak Djokovic, based on his performance against retiring Finn Jarkko Nieminen, needs no coaching whatsoever, either on or off the court, and the one bit of advice Bekker should be drumming into him – GET TO THE NET – he has failed to communicate over two years, regardless of whether signalling it from the players’ box or shouting it from the rooftops ...

Perhaps the worst protocol crime of the week was divulged by BBC commentator and ex-champion John Lloyd during a coffee break in the media centre: Spaniard David Ferrer, who’s always acquitted himself well on grass, is injured and categorically knew he was going to have to withdraw from Wimbledon. However instead of coming clean and crossing himself off the list before the draw, he deliberately waited until after the draw to announce this, conveniently ensuring his compatriot, Rafa Nadal, wouldn’t have to face big-serving American John Isner in the early rounds.

But this manouevering came back to haunt the Spanish camp when Nadal faced qualifier Dustin Brown, who should have represented an easy ride into the next round. Instead, the former world No 1 found himself royally humiliated, with the Duchess of Cornwall, looking on.

I have long banged on about the need to volley and how the only way to beat a Nadal or a Djokovic – or any top player, for that matter – in this age of relentless baseliners is to attack the net as relentlessly.

I saluted Federer’s embracing of this tactic, catapulting him back into top contention.

Hundreds of young players and so-called experts have argued it’s impossible to approach the net today because the balls bounce too high or racket technology doesn’t allow it, or, given the standard of ground strokes, you would simply be passed at net, or that the grass is now too slow, etc.

In front of the entire world, a man weighed down by dreadlocks and the knowledge he was confronting a giant of the game gave the entire tennis world a lesson in how to attack the net and Nadal a hiding. Even the maestro’s typical ploy to take a medical time-out at set down couldn’t undermine Brown’s momentum and his determined game plan.

If the British crowd had been cheering Murray and Watson ad nauseum through their ridiculously easy early rounds, they roared even louder for this rabid Rustafarian revolutionising the game.

Even serve-volleyer McEnroe, who did exactly that when he dis-