For tennis fans it’s the biggest two weeks of the year – and you could argue that it’s an absolutely crucial fortnight for the BBC’s sports department, writes Tim Walters.

Having lost many of its other ‘crown jewels’ Auntie relies now heavily on Wimbledon to bolster its summer ratings.

And boy do they throw the kitchen sink at it. Hours and hours – and then some more hours – of coverage spread across BBCs 1 and 2.

Big-name presenters and star guests, the latest technology and graphics – if you’re a non tennis believer it must grate a little that so much money is thrown at it, especially when the chances are we’ll be watching a Spaniard against a Swiss in the final with the (ahem) Scot having crashed out gallantly at some point before the final a week on Sunday.

But that would be slightly churlish because if a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing well.

The whole show is held together admirably by the fragrant Sue Barker who must be closing in on national treasure status.

She certainly knows her top-spin lob from her cross-court smash having won the French Open and getting to the semi-final at Wimbledon in 1977.

And she does has to keep an awful lot of testosterone in check.

John McEnroe and Pat Cash are no shrinking violets but again they’ve got the ‘been there, done that’ T-shirts in abundance, all of which adds credibility to the coverage.

McEnroe, in particular, is spot on. Not only does he have the knowledge but he knows how to get it across. That’s not an attribute that everyone who has made the transition from playing to commentating can really boast.

The coverage depends, to a certain extent, on there being at least one major story a day. Yesterday, if truth be told, there wasn’t.

Top seeds did what top seeds are supposed to do, Brits who were supposed to win won while the other Brits did what comes more naturally to them.

So all hope was placed on John Isner against Nicolas Mahut. They’re the pair that played the marathon match which went on for three days last year.

Amazingly they were drawn to play against each other in round one.

The Beeb even despatched the same commentator to cover the match and . . . Isner won in three sets in one of the most unremarkable matches you’re ever likely to see.

Still, Wimbledon lasts for two weeks so the Beeb will try again today – when a certain Mr Murray will hope not to be the story.