Roger Alton Roger Alton

The pain of being second-best

Also, let’s start an on-the-pitch clean-up at Euro 2016, and the fight Muhammad Ali won extra slowly

issue 11 June 2016

The boys at Radio 5, bless ’em, are now including the EU referendum as part of their sports trailers. As in: ‘The European Championships; England versus Sri Lanka; Wimbledon; the EU Referendum; the Rio Olympics… don’t miss a second of this glorious summer of sport on BBC 5 Live.’ Nevertheless, the normally excitable world of sport has remained strangely immune to the dramas of the Brexit debate, though Sir Ian ‘Beefy’ Botham has put his considerable bulk behind the ‘outers’. Not surprising really. It was once said that cricket has the only trade union where the workers are to the right of the employers.

But keen Brexiteers should note that Serbia and Switzerland have won eight of the past ten men’s tennis majors (two for Stan Wawrinka and six for Novak Djokovic), and 31 of the past 52 once you count Roger Federer. Clearly, if you want to win a major, vote Leave.

But what a beast Djokovic is now, albeit one with immense charm, impeccable manners and an unbeatable fluency in umpteen languages.

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