What it is about our women tennis players that makes them freeze under the Wimbledon spotlight?

What it is about our women tennis players that makes them freeze under the Wimbledon spotlight rather than shine?

It has become part of the seasonal rituals at Wimbledon that the plucky Brits fall at the first fence rather like ponies taking on the vertiginous obstacles of the Grand National.

The frustration that seems to vex most seasoned tennis hacks here is not just all the money pumped into the sport which is so clearly not paying dividends. Nor the fact that most of the British success stories like Andy Murray only flourish because they take themselves abroad to academies in Spain or Florida.

Virginia Wade who was the last British woman to win here describes the pressure of being a British player at Wimbledon as being like, a "waveyou either ride it or it dumps you."

Well there's no doubt which way the wave has gone with such players as Elena Baltacha and Anne Keothavong who manoeuvred themselves into winning positions before losing their first round matches.

Nigel Sears who is in charge of the women's game in this country insisted they were not chokers but, "It's Wimbledon and they feel the pressure."

What really irks the sports hacks is the fact that our players are being derailed by pressure and nerves as if these are new inventions in sport or unique to British Wimbledon players.

But the big question is why? Home advantage is usually a help rather than a hindrance in sport. I don't see the likes of Giggs and Rooney collapse against Chelsea when they're being roared on by a passionate Old Trafford crowd.

When Brett Lee has the Freemantle doctor' blowing over his shoulder with the WACA crowd at Perth baying for English blood in an Ashes Test he does not slow down. No, he cranks up the pace until he is bowling with demented frenzy.

So whatever excuses the LTA trots out for the latest massacre of women British tennis hopes please come up with something more original than pressure or nerves. It's part and parcel of sport, rather like taxes and death are part of life.

The women who play against the likes of Baltacha and Keothavong would kill to be cheered for every point. It's time for British women to ride the wave of popular support at Wimbledon and not be dumped by it.

Let's hope one was amused

It seems staggering that the Queen's visit here is her first in 33 years. Wimbledon and Her Maj would seem to go as well together as strawberries and cream.

Judging by the excitement in the crowds and the painstaking walkthroughs that Wimbledon officials went through before her visit she should come more often.

Perhaps in future years we might see more of her grandson Prince William who by all accounts is a handy left-hander who plays at, where else, Queen's. He was recently there playing with Kate Middleton and could not resist picking up a bag with the club's logo on it for his grandmother as a joke. One assumes she was amused.

Line judges deserve praise

Part of Wimbledon's charm and fascination is the secret army of line judges and stewards for whom the championships are clearly part of a big annual ritual for them.

Kitted out in their Ralph Lauren gear one yearns to know how they got their coveted, yes probably coveted, positions and what they do in real life.

There is something quintessentially English about their different shapes and sizes and the fact they do not cower in the face of muscled American professional players when they glare at them after calling "out" on another ace.