BARNSLEY man Calvin Betton will return to Wimbledon this coming week hoping for a repeat of last year when he was the coach of the winning men’s doubles pair.

The New Lodge man, who started playing on park courts in Stainborough with his father before playing and coaching for Barnsley Tennis Club, is a professional tennis coach currently specialising in doubles.

He coaches Henry Patten and Harri Heliövaara – who won the Wimbledon title last year as well as the Australian Open earlier this year – plus another doubles player Luke Johnson who would have also been seeded at Wimbledon but broke his wrist at the Queen’s tournament last week.

Calvin told the Chronicle: “Last year is still fresh in the memory. It was brilliant and I will never forget it.

“The Australian Open was great as well, very different because it finished at 2am in an empty stadium whereas the Wimbledon stadium was full.

“Henry and Harri are going there as second seeds. If they had won the semi-final at Queen’s, they would be number one in the world. Hopefully they will make the final again.

“Henry and Harri have both had injuries over the clay season which affected them in the French Open. They both seem fit and healthy now.

“There is something special about Wimbledon, even though it’s probably not my favourite tournament. For the doubles, we play on the outside courts and it’s not as easily accessible for spectators with just park benches.

“But it’s well-run and it’s our home tournament so it’s obviously enjoyable.”

Betton is worried that the crowd for the men’s doubles final might not be as large as usual this year.

“They have changed the timings of the men’s doubles final, putting it before the women’s final instead of after. Normally, if anyone left before the doubles final, anyone who had a general ticket could come in and take their place. Now we’re relying on people who have bought tickets for the women’s final turning up three hours early to watch the doubles which I find unlikely because there are a lot of corporate people and a lot of exceptionally wealthy people.

“Then we will get a lot of talk of how no one wants to watch the doubles. They do, but they are outside the stadium.”

Betton also hosts the Tennis Unfiltered podcast with George Bellshaw and James Gray. He said: “I don’t see myself as outspoken or controversial, but other people seem to think that.

“I am less abrasive on social media than I used to be.

“The podcast is just me and two other lads having a conversation and I speak normally.

“People seem to enjoy it.

“I had about 20 people coming up to me at Queen’s last week saying they liked listening to it. It’s a bit of fun and we don’t get paid for it.”

On his life of coaching tennis around the world, Calvin said: “It’s just what I’ve always done and they are just tennis matches.

“People think it’s much more glamorous than it is. I went to Madrid, Barcelona, Hamburg, Rome and Paris this summer and in total I did about an hour of sightseeing, getting an Uber to the Colosseum in Rome.

“In 2024, I think I slept 60 nights in my own bed in Barnsley and half of those were in one spell.

“It’s a lot of time on the road.

“But it’s what I love doing and, when you win something like Wimbledon or the Aussie Open, they are great memories.”

He was caught up in the powercut in Spain when at the Madrid Open in late April.

Calvin said: “Every tournament has electronic line calls so we couldn’t play. Everything was down.

“They told us no one could leave so we were talking about sleeping on the floor.

“Then, about a minute later, another announcement went out that everyone had to leave.

“So we had top ten tennis players in the world walking back to their hotel with thousands of other people.”