Tennis: Wimbledon pretenders learn to sit and watch the water flow: Ian Ridley reports from Roehampton, where yesterday's wash-out of pre-Wimbledon qualifying gave younger players much-needed practice in the art of Hanging About

THE things they don't teach you at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy: No 1, Hanging About.

Now, however well endowed with power serve, ripping forehand and fistful of backhand the modern techno-player may be, Hanging About is an oft-overlooked skill especially needed for the short season in England and one any potential Wimbledon champion must acquire.

For all those lost-soul new boys and girls wandering the lawns of the Bank of England Sports Club at Roehampton yesterday, the qualifying competition for Wimbledon provided a baptism of fire, or rather water. Not a ball was hit, but there were still some interesting techniques

to be picked up from the veterans.

Those used to being out to grass were easy to spot, never wasting a moment or chance. They were practising footwork by avoiding desperate Japanese TV crews; they were keeping up their energy levels with bananas and studying the manuals. 'Agassi dumped by his lover' was the heading to the chapter one was reading.

The greenhorns just sat and ossified, looking too interested for their own good in Arnold Schwarzenegger videos on the TV in the pavilion, or trying to make something of British culture from Richard and Judy on This Morning.

They laughed at the Tannoy strangling their names and at the announcement in the rain requesting the presence of the water boys, and not the rock band of that name, who in leafy Roehampton would not have been singing that Olde England Is Dying, anyway. Mostly they sat, though, their tans from what is an eternal summer until they hit London looking like rust.

Wimbledon's qualifying tournament is a pain in the grass for the more experienced players at the sunniest of times. 'It has to be done,' was the best a world-weary Carl Limberger of Australia could manage. It does, however, offer the up-and-comers a name-making chance. Someone called John McEnroe, for example, qualified as an 18-year-old in 1977 and then made the semi-finals.

These days there are also comparative riches. For the 16 men who make it through to the fortnight proper - eight women qualify from their competition - there is pounds 3,050 each. These first-round losers even make pounds 760.

The total prize-money of pounds 203,120 reflects the rising stature of the qualifying competitions. A hospitality tent has even been pitched; yesterday Alec and Eric Bedser were guests there, or was it Eric and Alec? Satellite TV will be covering it next.

'It is a lot better organised than when I had to qualify in 1971,' said Anand Amritraj, the veteran Indian player here this year to try 'for a bit of fun' to make it into the doubles tournament with Srinivasan Vasudevan.

'Then there were no linesmen, you had to pick up your own balls and all matches were the best of five sets. That year I also played doubles and mixed and one day ended up playing 13 sets.' He is not, though, a them-were-the-days type. It is now even more of a minefield due to more intense competition, he said.

'There is no question of an easy game any more. The depth of talent is unbelievable. There are guys who are ranked 600 on the computer who can get through. They are no different to those at 200, they just play fewer tournaments.

'There is really no such thing as a seed here. The guy who hangs tough is the one who is going to get through to next week,' he added.

One from that twilight zone of the rankings who will not get the chance, however, is James Baily, Britain's Australian Open junior title winner, who had a wasted trip around the South Circular Road, the last wild card going to another promising British teenager, Jamie Delgado.

At the opposite end of the tennis spectrum, Amritraj, aged 41, will contest the over-35s doubles with brother Vijay at his 25th Wimbledon, and he had some comfort for the youngsters and organisers: it has rained in all but one of those and somehow they have all been completed.

Now the owner of a health club in New York, Anand believes that this country is at her best at this time of year. 'June is for England,' he said lyrically, a smile clearly showing that he has acquired a Masters degree in Hanging About. And you try and tell the kids today. . .