Re Jo leaving Australia, the family left because her tennis funding had been cut by the Australian tennis authorities. Had that not been the case she would have stayed and played for Australia and would have been of little interest to us. I'm sure I read something about them coming here because UK is English speaking and I think they did contemplate going to the USA.   She had to play her  junior career  from 2005 under the Aussie flag  because  she did not have British citizenship  although she wanted to represent  GB.She was supporting the England ladies football team in the recent  World Cup whole heartedly. To be honest relieved she didn't answer the cricket question and left it a  private matter because I did not want her to say Australia.  I'm sure if she had  said Australia it would have produced a lot of comment(probably adverse).  It's no more  than stating the obvious that it was only after she started being successful that anybody was troubled about her origins. The first time Jo really registered with me was the unfortunate Fed Cup campaign of 2015  and the first time I ever saw her play was at Eastbourne in 2015. I cannot remember when I became aware of her origins. She was contemplating packing up in 2015 and it was her successful run in the 2015 US Open that enabled her to continue into 2016. Had she called it a day then nobody would have been troubled about her origins. Remember reading recently about Kevin Pietersen saying why he'll always be South African first but hope if Jo feels the same way of her origins it will be private.    

Andy Parker wrote:

---

Agreed Coup - I think he probably wished he could have phrased the question better, and had he been with her one to one, I am sure he would have done.

-- Edited by Andy Parker on Thursday 11th of July 2019 02:39:49 PM

---

Although perhaps not - I heard Annabel Croft on the radio saying that she thinks she knows which journalist it was (someone from the Express) and that he'd had a run in with Jo at Eastbourne too! So there may be some back story beef between them.

RE: Jo's origins, I do think there's a bit of a tendency (not from anyone on here I might add) to question or test the extent of a player's patriotism or loyalty, which is increasingly untenable in the modern world where more people have links to often several countries...and it's a slippery slope. Thinking of the cricketing question, the person that's been criticised for *disloyalty* the most in recent times was probably Andy Murray for revealing his preferences on the Scottish independence question, for which he was roundly condemned. And he's pretty much as "British" as they come.

Yes indeed Grachka, it's a slippery slope re judging supposed loyalty to GB or whoever with often less than complete info.

And so true re Andy Murray. But some folk just don't 'get' that views on Scottish independence is a quite seperate matter. So expecting some to understand other nuances ...

And yes, Ace, that was very poor by Inverdale, especially given Cam's roots. Such lazy labelling often infuriates Scots ( and no doubt Welsh too ) with no wish at all to become independent, eg. me, let alone any others.

ROSAMUND wrote:

---

Re Jo leaving Australia, the family left because her tennis funding had been cut by the Australian tennis authorities. Had that not been the case she would have stayed and played for Australia and would have been of little interest to us. I'm sure I read something about them coming here because UK is English speaking and I think they did contemplate going to the USA.   She had to play her  junior career  from 2005 under the Aussie flag  because  she did not have British citizenship  although she wanted to represent  GB.She was supporting the England ladies football team in the recent  World Cup whole heartedly. To be honest relieved she didn't answer the cricket question and left it a  private matter because I did not want her to say Australia.  I'm sure if she had  said Australia it would have produced a lot of comment(probably adverse).  It's no more  than stating the obvious that it was only after she started being successful that anybody was troubled about her origins. The first time Jo really registered with me was the unfortunate Fed Cup campaign of 2015  and the first time I ever saw her play was at Eastbourne in 2015. I cannot remember when I became aware of her origins. She was contemplating packing up in 2015 and it was her successful run in the 2015 US Open that enabled her to continue into 2016. Had she called it a day then nobody would have been troubled about her origins. Remember reading recently about Kevin Pietersen saying why he'll always be South African first but hope if Jo feels the same way of her origins it will be private.    

---

 Everything that you write about Jo's history is as far as I know correct.

The family lost funding in Australia and felt that her tennis development would be better served here (with other English speaking countries considered, as you say).

That means that, as you say, because she is now famous, people are bound to want to know whether she now feels British and supports England in sports - were she not, then as you rightly say, no-one would care.

Switching nationality is treading a path, well trodden by others - the issue first became famous I think when Zola Budd, a white South African female athlete, became British to dodge the international competition ban on South African athletes, which was agreed internationally to stop South African sports people competing, in the hope of ending the vile apartheid regime. Zola came to the UK and as soon as her athletics career was over, went back to South Africa with her family, simply using becoming British as a passport of convenience. Her story was a one off, never ever repeated luckily.

Like lots of others, I campaigned against apartheid in that era, and it felt like a smack in the teeth when someone so openly defied the ban that was putting pressure on the white South African government, to make the apartheid government feel marginalised and isolated. 

In tennis, Greg Rusedski was the first high profile case - he had mixed nationality parentage, with an English mother and Ukranian father, and switched from Canada to the UK, and others such as Alex Bedene and Naiktha Bains have also done so, with Alex switching back to Slovenia again. Greg was the first high profile tennis player, and he received a much greater public grilling, as newspapers in the UK and Canada endlessly debated whether it was OK for him to switch his nationality.

When players who are already developing or playing in a sport switch for one country switch to another, people will of course want to know why and as time goes on, will want to know if they now feel fully British. The fact that Jo was supporting our fine side in the Women's World Cup, of course is a very good sign, and as I said previously, I hope that Jo does feel British and made welcome in the UK. I don't think that asking her about it is a sin or in some way racist or dangerous though- I am sure that in time she will write an autobiography and reveal all about her history and I am sure it will be a good read, as will her own analysis of her own fascinating career.  

-- Edited by Andy Parker on Thursday 11th of July 2019 04:14:53 PM

Coup Droit wrote:

---

I've always been more curious how Hungarian Jo feels.

I find the whole 'parents' thing quite interesting.

I have Russian friends who call themselves Greek, even though they're born Russian and have lived there all their lives, (until now in the UK), but feel 100% Greek because their parents are Greek and that's how they're raised

The fact that Jo insists on being 'Yo-hanna' makes me wonder it's her Hungarian heritage that is very important to her (the Aussie or GB one can be just a cloak really, you put one on, you take it off, it's not in the mother's milk, so to speak)

NB This is NOT at all a criticism either - as people have said above, it's simply very interesting how people view themselves, especially as the world becomes so much smaller.

---

 This is as interesting comment which is not clear. I know that in an interview in 2012 at the US Open  she says she  speaks Hungarian fluently. I've read somewhere about her father insisting that she speaks Hungarian if she is at home with them. I know she spoke Hungarian to the Hungarian Captain at the end of the Fed Cup tie in Bath. I read somewhere  when  the Fed Cup was held in Budapest in 2014 that members of her family came to watch. Obviously she has played Fed Cup ties against Hungary three times I think.  If you ever see any videos of her introducing herself she always refers to herself as "Yo-hanna " and not  as Jo. I cannot find anywhere on the internet where she is speaking Hungarian and her accent is not that of an Eastern European. Short of writing her autobiography  or an authorised biography being written we won't find the answer to the question. It's just as well she wants to be British because without her British womens tennis wouldn't have much to cheer about.