When the average punter considers tennis, they conjure the legends of the game: Serena Williams’ revolutionary power and style; Djokovic’s irreverent on-and-off court behaviour; and closer to home, Hewitt’s insistence on celebrating a winning point by miming a tête-à-tête between himself and a hand puppet.
Peter Colt – the bumbling protagonist of Richard Loncraine’s 2004 romcom Wimbledon, played by Paul Bettany – is no such household name. “For the better part of ’96”, he ranked eleventh in the world, but now he’s an unseeded, washed up 31-year-old struggling to accept his inevitable descent into obscurity. Before he reluctantly accepts a role as tennis director of a private club (full of lascivious older ladies), he’s set to play his last Wimbledon.
