Media feeding frenzy. Journo's are lazy buggers- one researches the story, the others borrow mercilessly, with each new article being a mutation of the old..... And, I do rather suspect here may have been the source. With our strange preoccupations, we do know a little more about Mr Dee than average......
Saturday was a great day. I am still smiling for Mr Dee and his life. It is just great. I did wonder what would happen when he called home.....
At last, it's made its way into the Times, and Imoen, Grundon and BritishTennis.net have their 15 minutes (well, 5 seconds, but who's counting! ) of fame.
Win cheats tennis player of folklore fame Ben Hoyle
For one glorious moment Robert Dee stood on the threshold of a defining achievement for British tennis: the longest official losing streak in the history of the sport.
No one who follows Wimbledon or the travails of the Davis Cup side will be surprised by what happened next.
In classic British style Dee blew his chance of immortality by beating Arzhang Derkshani, a 17 year old unranked American, 6-4, 6-3 to record his first victory in 55 attempts in an International Tennis Federation competition or qualifying event. It was a victory that sent titters through the tennis world, where the unintentioned record bid has made Dee, 21, a cult figure.
He compiled the losing streak over three years. Before his unexpected victory, recorded in qualifying for an obscure tournament near Barcelona on Saturday, Dees arduous and expensive three-year itinerary had taken in defeats in Sudan, Iran, Colombia, Venezuela, Botswana, Rwanda and Senegal, as well as Europe and the United States.
When he moved level with the Gua-temalan Diego Beltranena on 54 consecutive ITF career defeats last month, contributors to the Kings of Clay internet forum saluted him for securing his place in tennis folklore.
When he beat Derkshani his British fans at www.britishtennis.net were ecstatic, hailing him as an example of determination rewarded.
I cant quite believe this is true, wrote Grundon.
Just goes to show that if you keep going long enough there is always someone worse than you are.
Imoen was positively bullish: so ... what's the record for most consecutive wins? Surely he's going for that one next?
Alas, it was not to be. In Dees next match normal service was resumed when he lost to Artur Romanowski, a 21-year-old Pole.
Dee began playing tennis at 11. Like Andy Murray in his formative years, he is based in Spain, where he trains for five hours a day. Unlike Murray, his Lawn Tennis Association ranking of 4.2 is that of a decent club player Neil Harman, The Timess Tennis Correspondent said.
According to the ITF Dee has won career prize money of £1,154 and reached a career-high world ranking of 1,466 since he made his debut at the lower reaches of the professional world game in 2005.
On that occasion he was routed 1-6, 0-6 by Jaime Arriaga, a Mexican tennis coach, prompting an investigation by The Times into why a number of British players were receiving wild cards for tournaments where they were clearly out of their depth.
Since then Dee has improved dramatically, his father said. Speak to his coaches. They will say he has made phenomenal progress. He has got much better.
Alan Dee, the managing director of a logistics company, and his wife Barbara have funded their sons assault on the foothills of the professional tennis circuit from their home in Bexley, Kent. Mr Dee refutes suggestions that Roberts career is an expensive fiasco.
I actually cant think of a better investment at all than in pursuing something that you still believe you are going to succeed in.
He is getting a lot better. Mr Dee said that his son had scored frequent victories in professional tournaments in Spain, which are ranked below Futures tournaments, the ITFs lowest-grade professional tour events but still of a high standard.
Hes ranked 600 in Spain, the most difficult tennis country in the world. Thats a very good rating.
Well, it was worth the wait
-- Edited by steven at 00:56, 2008-04-23
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
The Independent has another in depth article on Dee - some classic lines, if more inaccuracies than most. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/tennis/worlds-worst-tennis-pro-finally-wins-a-match-814062.html
It's worth having a look at the full article, but classic lines include:
Perhaps somewhere inside the great British loser Robert Dee there is a Pete Sampras or a John McEnroe struggling to get out. If so, the struggle continues ...
His unblemished record of utter failure on the pro circuit was known only to a few tennis buffs until young Dee did something startling and wholly unexpected in a qualifying round for a minor tournament in Spain he won.
A surprise victory ... brought to an end the longest losing streak in the sport's history. A few churls were suggesting yesterday that Dee's record of failure was not completely unmatched. It was pointed out that he had only equalled a record set by the legendary Guatemalan, Diego Beltranena, who competed in 54 professional tournaments between 1997 and 2005 and lost every match.
But putting Dee on a par with Beltranena does not do justice to the immensity of the English player's incompetence.Note that it took Beltranena eight years to notch up 54 defeats, and the Guatemalan ... never lost more than 76 sets in a row.
There was, by contrast, an almost artistic perfection to the losing streak that Dee maintained until last weekend.
... the peerless Dee ...
In February, he entered a qualifying round for a contest in Spain and achieved what might be called a perfect score losing 6-0, 6-0.
... Derakhshani, a college student who has played for the Nevada state men's team.
Last night, the British Lawn Tennis Association admitted to being puzzled about Dee.
Paul Henderson, head of the £11,625-a-year Eltham College, where Dee was a pupil, said: "Rob was never the Eltham College tennis champion and I have to say that, when his dad came to us and said he was taking Rob to play tennis in America, I was a bit surprised."
... He has even made two trips to Britain to lose to British players ...
A neighbour of the Dee family was less kind: "His parents have never given up hope of him making it they probably even think he'll win Wimbledon but frankly he's a bit rubbish."
Other great British losers (with sentences about each one)
Michael 'Eddie the Eagle' Edwards England World Cup football team 1950 Maurice Flitcroft Peter Buckley England 2007 Ashes cricket team
I hope Robert's enjoying this as much as we are.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
"Pom breaks run of 54 defeats" - Brisbane Times "If at first you don't succeed ..." - Geelong Advertiser "Breaking News: Tennis's worst record is broken" - Fox Sports Australia
In the history of British tennis failures, and it's been a long and rich history, no one had previously come close to the serial defeats that have flowed from the racket of Robert Dee, a 21-year-old from Bexley, Kent.
Dee said last night he had found his new fame "a bit odd", but raise a glass of Pimm's to him, as when it comes to losing, he's absolutely world class.
... But he even failed in his efforts to make the record his own, ...
Dee sounded baffled yesterday as he reacted to claims that he might just be the world's worst professional tennis player. "I honestly didn't know about the record so all the attention is a bit odd," he said.
[do we believe this? ]
"Obviously it was great to get my first win but I can't believe that people don't have anything better to write about."
[Let's be honest, he has a point here!]
A spokeswoman for the LTA confirmed yesterday that Dee had not received any official funding,
[you don't say! - it says a lot about the cynicism in the press about the LTA that they even asked this question]
Even the Kent county office were largely in the dark, regarding Dee as something of a jet-setting man of mystery ...
Dee is now living and training in La Manga, Spain, and in recent months has been playing tournaments on Spain's national tour. Apparently, he's even threatening to break into the top 500 of players based there. Roger Federer, beware.
-- Edited by steven at 06:55, 2008-04-23
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
At last, it's made its way into the Times, and Imoen, Grundon and BritishTennis.net have their 15 minutes (well, 5 seconds, but who's counting! ) of fame.
Blimey! May only be 5 seconds of fame but I'm quite chuffed about a quote in the Times
I saw it mentioned on BBC Breakfast too this morning - I'm awaiting the call to go on Inside Sport with Gabby Logan!
Perhaps we should all start posting in soundbytes from now on. If anyone's still quoting, The Hoose says that "Dee used to be the Tim Henman of modern tennis but now he's proved that, where Tim would have bottled it, he has the determination to grind out a victory".
So now we know that the British media does read BritishTennis.net as they've taken the quotes straight from my article on the main page, so maybe we should start some outlandish rumours just to see what else they will pick up!
Fair play to Dee for exploiting this as his moment of fame really and great to see him getting coverage all over the place, although I'd love to see them pay this much attention when a British player wins a tournament
guess you will eb buying a times and puttign ti in the scrap book
No point, Count. It's not in the print edition!
I know - I just checked
Anyway, the fame lark was a bit of a double edged sword. In order to tell anyone I was quoted in the Times I had to admit I was a tennis geek and followed the exploits of our heroes across the world.
Whilst that's not a problem on this board where being a tennis geek is generally respected its not the same in real life.