If British tennis has a proud record at Wimbledon in recent years, it is that at least one of its men has usually made it to the last 16, keeping home interest alive into the second week. Andy Murray's wrist injury, threatening his place in Friday's draw, means that even this morsel of credibility may not materialise in 2007.
Only once in the past 15 Wimbledons has a British male failed to reach the fourth round. Perversely, this was two years ago when we had the untold riches of three players capable of going through to the second Monday. Grass-courters Tim Henman and the now-retired Greg Rusedski were in the world's top 40 and Murray, then 18, had announced himself with stirring performances at Queen's, where this year's rain-affected Artois Championships are due to reach their conclusion today.
Murray went the farthest of the three at Wimbledon in 2005, losing to the former runner-up David Nalbandian in the third round after an attack of cramp contributed to his surrendering a two-set lead.
If Murray rules himself out of Wimbledon this week, and his coach, Brad Gilbert, will leave the decision to him after he has tested the wrist in exhibition or practice matches, Henman, who has lost eight tour matches in a row after starting the year with a win, and the infuriatingly nearly good Alex Bogdanovic will be Britain's main hopes of making it past the middle weekend.
After Murray, Bogdanovic, a 23-year-old from north London, is the most talented of the new generation of British players. He did well at Queen's last week - at least that was the general reaction to his taking a set off the second seed, Andy Roddick, before losing in the third round. It might, though, have been better for Bogdanovic and British tennis if it had been represented as an opportunity tossed away rather than one from which he should derive satisfaction.
Regarding our players as gallant losers rather than squanderers of golden opportunities has become a recurringly unhelpful motif. Put Bogdanovic in a crunch situation at Wimbledon next week and which would be the more likely to motivate him in to pressing as hard as he possibly could for victory: memories of the approbation he received for losing to Roddick, a former world number one, or the shockwaves from a resounding dressing-down for having screwed up when within reach of a considerable coup?
The left-handed Bogdanovic is an extremely talented player with an exemplary single-handed backhand and a touch and feel for the game possessed by few. It was Roddick who succinctly identified the problem. 'I don't think his feel for the ball or his strokes have been in question,' he said. 'With Alex it has been a bit between the ears, how much he is willing to put in on a daily basis.... If he can play close to that consistently you will have another top-40 player on your hands.'
You could expand the 'bit between the ears' criticism to British tennis in general, with the honourable exception of Murray whose mental fibre may turn out to be tougher than his physical fibre. Otherwise, our game is overpopulated with players who are better at explaining how they failed than striving not to fail.
The ultimate striver on the men's tour is Rafael Nadal, the Spaniard who a week ago won the French Open, arrived in London the next day to start his grass-court preparation for Wimbledon and was in doubles action at Queen's on Tuesday. He would have liked to have been here this weekend, but unexpectedly lost his quarter-final to the French outsider Nicolas Mahut.
Even though Nadal was helped by a kindly draw, his performance in reaching last year's Wimbledon final, where he lost to Roger Federer, was arguably the most impressive grand-slam showing of his career, given just how inexperienced he is on grass. Mahut exposed that inexperience at Queen's on Friday.
After losing to Mahut, Nadal was straight on a plane back to Majorca. Even he felt in need of a rest. 'I've spent a lot of time away in the past two months,' he said. 'I've been at home for maybe two days. I need to disconnect, play some golf, watch the end of the football season, have some fun with friends. For two days I need to put my racket very far from me.'
As for Federer, who sets out in pursuit of his fifth successive Wimbledon title in eight days' time, he reacted to his defeat by Nadal in the French final by withdrawing from the tournament in Halle and disappearing from everyone's radar. It is likely to be the last unscheduled disappearing act he does for a while.
