AUSTRALIAN tennis legend and former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash arrived in a sun-baked Liverpool yesterday to make his debut at the city's biggest-ever tennis event.
He was the latest in a galaxy of stars to appear at the five-day Liverbird Developments Liverpool International tennis tournament, the line-up of which also included Martina Navratilova and Ilie Nastase.
Cash, who won the Wimbledon men's singles final in 1987, showed his continuing commitment to the game by heading straight for the practice courts as soon as he arrived at Calderstones Park yesterday afternoon.
Afterwards, he said the experience of watching and participating in such events could help up-and-coming young tennis players from Merseyside become the next Wimbledon champion.
He said: "I like to do different tournaments every year, along with Wimbledon and the French Open.
"The whole point of getting the kids along to see some tennis is to help bring forward new talent, and who knows, another Wimbledon champion.
"Coming along to events like this was how my son got into playing tennis.
"Being a ball-boy is another great way of encouraging talent - I ball--boyed for my fellow Australian player Peter McNamara, who's also playing here, while 2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic ball-boyed for me.
"It gives a close-up view of the players to see how they hit the ball.
"Tournaments like this should be full of kids coming from local clubs - it's more important for them to come and watch this than have a tennis lesson for the day.
"One day the UK will produce a Wimbledon champion, but you need good coaching and a large number of kids coming through, and Britain has got neither at the moment."
News RSS Feed