Gentlemen's Singles Semi-Final, The Championships, Wimbledon. divbr //divdivToday, at some point. (If you care, you already know. I really don't.)divdivbr //divdivThis is a big deal here in the UK as one might imagine, and it's always a bigger deal when there is a Brit involved in some meaningful way. Tim Henman used to be the token Brit. Being English, it was fate that he would lose in the Wimbledon semi-finals. a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_henman#Performance_timeline"A lot/a. Andy Murray looks to be a superior player; whereas Henman never played in a grand slam final, Murray already has, losing to Roger Federer in the 2008 U.S. Open./divdivbr //divdivSafe money is on a Federer-Murray Wimbledon final this weekend. (Which, given my track record on predicting the outcome of sporting events on LGM is certain to doom at least one of the two to defeat in the semis.) As I've heard repeatedly over the past week or eight, a Murray appearance would be a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/8129983.stm"the first time in 471 years/a that a British player has appeared in the Gentlemen's Singles final. And frankly, I don't really care. I played the game, even on my high school team, but I was mediocre when at my best, and have no doubt declined since. What interests me about strikeHenman-mania/strike, erm, a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8128757.stm"Murray-mania/a is how accepted Murray tends to be south of the border. This is just a theory of mine that is not supported by any evidence, systematic or anecdotal, but my suspicion is that the English are more accepting of Scots than vice-versa. /divdivbr //divdivMurray is rightfully proud of being Scottish, to the point where he opined in 2006 that he would be a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/29/murray_blog_war/"supporting Paraguay against England/a in the opening match of the 2006 World Cup group stage, indeed going so far as to claim to support anybody but England (even Germany, I wonder? Argentina?) Rooting against the England football team in a major tournament (when they qualify) is not exactly going out on a limb, but it should also be pointed out that the last time Scotland so much as qualified was France 1998; in neither the World Cup nor the European Championships have Scotland progressed past the first round. I suspect the English are aware of this record.br /divbr //divdivBack to my central point: are the English more accepting of Scottish (or Welsh, or Irish, or whatever) sporting success than vice-versa? While I suspect this to be true, one of my (English) students has the following as her facebook status: "woo come on Murray only time it's OK to support a Scot" . . . /divdivbr //divdivBeing the jingoistic, narrow minded, nationalistic, reactionary sort that I am, will be pulling for Roddick in this match, assuming I manage to pay any attention. If my prediction curse dooms Murray, and all of Great Britain, to semi-final gloom, at least I'm getting on a plane in a little over a week to spend a couple months in the United States, mixing research with pleasure, and if Murray manages to lose today, enhancing my prospects for a long(er) life./div/div/div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7163938-80562687135763454?l=lefarkins.blogspot.com'//div
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