It’s easy to be cynical.
In the current world we live in, after battling a pandemic that has quite literally killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world and where we pretend that it’s just fine to just keeping carrying on? Yeah, cynicism is easy.
But vaccines have been effective and allowed a good portion of the world to start moving on with their “normal” lives.
That includes the sporting, and tennis, world where the matches and the events never fully left our lives all that long. May we never take this for granted again.
Someone who definitely won’t be taking tennis things for granted is BBC Wimbledon Andrew Castle, who missed the sport on the All Lawn English Tennis and Croquet Club last year when Wimbledon did the sensible thing. The man has his own feature out right now at Betway, and you can read at your own convenience.
While you’re at it and while you’re looking for a good reminder that life is coming back to normal, why not give Betway a try? If you’re into that sort of thing, why not see the odds on predicting the Wimbledon champions? Or how about betting on England winning Euro 2020 in what’s quickly turned into a perfect Cinderella story?
But back to Castle. We suggest you to read through the entire interview in full, yet we wanted to highlight some of our favourite moments.
He only has one first love: Wimbledon
“It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what makes Wimbledon so special,” he says. “I could say that the tennis and the atmosphere is what brings it to life, but it still gets you even when it’s dormant and sleeping.
“I have goosebumps when I arrive and nobody’s around. It’s just one of the great privileges to call it my place of work.”
The first tennis match he ever covered
Pretty crazy to think, but Castle’s first match he ever covered was one of a certain Spaniard. “My first commentary was a Rafael Nadal match out on court 12, and I remember him standing out.”
Yeah, that doesn’t surprise us—but it definitely does to see him mention that the great Nadal played on as minor a court as court 12.
That all said, with apologies to what Castle says about watching Andy Murray triumph, our favourite moment comes when he discusses the do’s and don’ts of covering the sport. He may be an ex-tennis pro, but that’s not what makes him a great commentator.
Why is Castle good at commenting tennis matches?
“I don’t really know what qualifies you to commentate or present on any particular subject other than a vigorous amount of research to do it justice,” he says.
Good advice and words to live by. But wait, there’s more. Here’s Castle again. “If I’m interviewing the Prime Minister on GMTV, I’m preparing a set of questions that I want to know the answer to. That’s based on journalism.”
“People might say: ‘What’s a tennis player doing working on this?’. Well, I have done the work, so now I’ll wear whichever hat somebody wants me to wear.”
Let’s maybe look at teaching this perspective in schools. That’s a lesson for everyone.
