bleungberg.com

Poor Greg. When he was flying the flag for Britain at Wimbledon, all everyone cared about was Tim Henman.

Sure, Henman performed much better at SW19 year in, year out: reaching four semis compared to Rusedski’s sole quarter-final appearance in 1997. Added to that is probably because the press liked Rusedski less due to his Canadian heritage or accent or general demeanour and fairly abusive behaviour on court. Middle England he ain’t!

Sadly, in retirement, it looks like the pecking order hasn’t changed.

Rusedski goes on the downmarket ITV show Dancing on Ice, whilst Henman is slated to appear on the upmarket version - BBC’s Stricly Come Dancing.

Meanwhile, in their new roles as tennis commentators, it is once again Henman who emerges as the star pundit, regularly landing the plum matches on Centre Court as Rusedski languished in lesser contests elsewhere.

That’s a shame as Henman - though vastly improved since his ‘plummy-sounding’ debut on BBC TV last week - is still miles behind the quick-firing Rusedski (much like his famed 130km+ first-serves!) in terms of analysis and media-savvyness.

By being trumpted as the BBC’s big-gun signing for Wimbledon - and in the process bumping off the illustrious pair of Jimmy Connors and Martina Navratilova from the BBC commentary booth in one stroke - the pecking order is established.

Henman might have lost his voice briefly halfway through the second week, but Rusedski was nowhere near to being his replacement - that went to John Lloyd.

That settles it then: it’s Henman who once again comes out on top, with Rusedski trailing - and trailing badly - in his wake.

Mind you, Rusedski, Connors and Navratilova can’t have been the only ones miffed at Henman rapid promotion to the top; John Lloyd, Great Britain’s Davis Cup captain, who had been behind the mic for many of the big matches over the last few years, now finds himself doing more and more doubles-matches during the latter stages of the championships. If Henman hadn’t lost his voice for the Nadal-Murray game on Wednesday, ‘Lloydie’ wouldn’t even have got into an already crowded commentators’ box alongside John McEnroe and Andrew Castle for the quarter-final clash.

Whilst his place is assured for the men’s final on Sunday between Federer and Nadal, alongside Andrew Castle (why not David Mercer? Or Barry Davies? Or even Simon Reed?) and Henman as McEnroe is contracted to NBC, the same cannot be said for Boris Becker. Not so long agao, the three-time German champion was the BBC’s major signing once - until he was replaced by Jimmy Connors in the final.

Becker himself had replaced Pat Cash who has been relegated to doing radio. So, I think we’ve estabished a pattern here: Henman might be ‘in’ now but it won’t be for long; he’ll be replaced as soon as Andy Murray retires. Murray already talks and analyses better than Henman. His retirement couldn’t come soon enough o those of us who are already tired of Henman’s whiney voice.

And whilst we’re at it - can we have more female pundits on the BBC, please? Bring back Navratilova, or even better still - the imperious Pam Shriver.