I wanted to beat her but I wanted her to win Wimbledon you see because it was her last
I wanted to beat her, but I wanted her to win Wimbledon, you see, because it was her last one So I was really stuck I didn't know what to do Martina was very nice. She walked up to my parents afterwards and said what a delight it was play someone who loved the game so much. Last time I saw her she still remembered who I was and said hello."Taylor's playing career has been restricted since she injured an elbow in February last year, and she now coaches. "I'm hoping to work with the county to get some more players through. Angela Billingham, our captain, brought me in when I was 13 and took me down to Frinton The first week I played one match, on the Friday.
The rest of the week I was the gofer, looking after everyone else But it's amazing It's a team thing. Youngsters can't have it any better than coming through this."Who knows? Maybe Harry will enhance Devonshire Park's tradition as a breeding ground for tennis.. You would have thought that such a proudly priapic plant would have no problems. You would imagine that it might come naturally to this most tumescent of fruits; that its phallic appearance would announce it as a true Don Juan of the subtropical scene. You would, of course, be wrong.In fact, the banana's sex life – or lack of it – is cause for growing concern to farmers and scientists. The reality is that, far from being the joyous product of sexual congress, as most fruits tend to be, the domestic banana that we know and love is an asexual clone, one that results from the sedate, artificial act of vegetative propagation. And no pollinated sex means no annoying seeds, which may be good news for hungry consumers but also means that there's little or no genetic variation – and hence little or no resistance to the banana's many natural enemies. Devoid of sex, the poor cloned banana is a sitting target for any pest.
Finding a way of introducing a little spice – and therefore genetic variety – into the reproductive life of the banana (and its cousin the plantain) is therefore a pressing problem.That's why a project to do just that has now begun. Announced last week, it involves scientists from 11 countries forming a consortium to decode the banana's genome within the next five years. As with the human genome project, the information will reveal much about the genes that make a banana what it is, and more importantly what it might be with a little extra help. This information – and any resulting advances in genetic modification – will be of profound importance, not just to banana boffins, but to a large proportion of humanity.The banana is the world's fourth largest staple crop, one on which which the livelihoods of half a billion people depend. But, recently, an evil-sounding beast called the Black Sigatoka fungus has been throwing those livelihoods into jeopardy. Black Sigatoka, along with the weevils, worms and viruses that also routinely attack bananas, is a particularly disturbing menace in the tropics, where the cooking banana and starchy plantain provide up to a quarter of the daily intake of essential calories.
