Anyone for tennis? Wimbledon’s here again, so almost everyone is!

Yes, another two weeks (or more) of tennis, or lawn tennis, will be played out at Wimbledon, south west London from today.

Interestingly, this year the men’s and ladies’ champion will win equal prize money, each pocketing £750,000 – around $1.5million – if they come through 7 rounds of tennis.

Personally, I think this is equality gone a bit mad.  The men play best of 5 set matches and the ladies best of 3.  How can they possibly be valued as worth the same?  Add up the predicted hours on court and it is anything but equal.

Now, I personally adore the scantily clad beauties in their all-white outfits screaming and grunting their way around the grass courts of Wimbledon – but enough about the men.  It is the ladies tournament that has a plethora of young, stunningly beautiful, athletic and (most impressively) highly competitive females who will be all out for a final place on July 5th.

Forgetting the huge prize money for a moment, the top 20-30 girls are capable of beating each other on their day and we should expect some smiles, cheers and plenty of tears over the tournament.  The competition is, quite simply, fierce.

Which may make me feel slightly more sympathetic toward the equal pay they will now receive for their efforts.  Only slightly though.

My personal favourite is Jelena Jankovic and there are at least ten others that I enjoy watching, not least of whom is Maria Sharapova the highest earning ladies tennis star – whose beauty and presence has bewitched many a male (and female?) since her arrival on the LTA tennis tour.  I expect these two to play well – and I personally hope so as they are worth dodging work for an hour whilst they show off their skills.

This year, I also expect the Williams sisters Serena and Venus to go close but will be hoping Jankovic can better her great tournament last year, where she got to the quarter finals of the ladies sngles and won the mixed doubles with a Scotsman, Jamie Murray.

As a fellow Scot, I hope Jamie’s brother Andy can stay clear of injury and get a run going through the men’s singles – with Jamie likely to do well in both doubles competitions.  To have a Scotsman, never mind a British male, do well at Wimbledon is fantastic.  To have two of them – brothers, no less – progress into the second week will have a great effect on the youngsters looking for role models and give the game of tennis another huge boost across the UK.

I cannot see beyond the world’s top three for the men’s champion though.  Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic – in that order – should provide the winner this year.  If Andy Murrau makes up the other simi-final spot, it will have been an entertaining Wimbledon 2008.

Myself, I’m old enough and ugly enough to know that my biggest kicks will come from the smiling beauties of the opposite sex screaming and grunting their way around Wimbledon in search of that bumper paycheck in their make up, mini-skirts and ponytails.

Game on!