In with a shout...

'A HUGE step up' Greg Rusedski called it. Others, secretly, might well have said it was a mis-match.

But, as she tends do at least once a tennis year, Heather Watson played the match of her life at the US Open this week in no less an arena than the Arthur Ashe Stadium, Flushing Meadows' equivalent to Wimbledon's Centre Court, only much bigger.

'Would she freeze?' quizzed the Sky Sports commentator before the Guernsey girl had struck a ball in anger and, on the other side of the net, Maria Sharapova cleared her throat and served notice to the thousands in this cavernous arena, that even if she might not be at her best she certainly would be at her noisiest.

I don't know about you, but it brought a lump to my throat to see a Guernsey player battling away so bravely and with such decorum in the face of outrageous grunting, screams and squeals from the world No. 4.

If only Sharapova had a lump in her throat, one that shuts her up.

This is not sour grapes because our girl ultimately lost, but the Russian glamour-puss should have had points docked for the racket she made.

You wanted someone, just one person in the crowd, to stand up and shout very loud: 'Shut the hell up, you are giving me a headache'.

It's gamesmanship surely?

It must be hugely disconcerting to play against someone who supports the thwack of every ball she hits with a grunt, scream or squeal.

But nobody said a word, not least the woman umpire who had a mike the size of two tennis balls so was amply amplified to tell Sharapova what she thought.

Ultimately, it was another early exit from a Slam for Watson, but the signs remain that she has the potential to enjoy decent runs in events of this calibre.

If only she didn't draw someone with a name ending in 'Ova' so often.

Before Flushing Meadows it was Petra Cetkovska, who put out our Heather in qualifying and then breezed through to the final where it took the world No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki, to stop her.

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FIVE Live's football people put out a superb show this week.

They went in search of the Perfect No. 10, and asked various football celebs not only who they considered the best No. 10s of all time, but why the UK struggled so badly not only in unearthing the playmaker No. 10, but never seem to build their teams around one in the manner Continental sides have over the decades.

The pundits quickly concluded it was not about the shirt, but more of the role. The No. 10 had to be the star player, the one who made the team tick, like a Zidane, a Maradona, a Zola, a Hoddle, a Matt Le Tissier, a Gascoigne, a Scholes.

And it all got me thinking, who would be Guernsey's finest No. 10, the ultimate playmaker?

I thought long and hard about the great Guernsey club sides of the past 50 years and considered if they benefited from mercurial No 10s. And, do you know, I don't think they actually did.

There was no such player in the great Saints sides: great wingers, strikers, class players everywhere – but not a No. 10 in the playmaker mould.

The Vale Rec side that dominated the seventies and again in the eighties, oozed quality and had skilful players, but not a No. 10 as such. And the same could be said for Sylvans in their decade at the top, although some might argue that Grant Chalmers fulfilled such a role and they may have a case.

Carl Le Tissier, too, probably played the playmakers' role in his latter years, but he will be best remembered as a winger, will he not?

I quizzed Henry Davey on the issue and he agreed. We just haven't had any, not in his time anyway, until now that is and we should celebrate him because he is a one-man entertainment show.

I just happen to think that the new Glyn Dyer fits the Five Live Perfect 10 role to perfection.

He's no longer just a winger, he plays a free role and makes the Green Lions tick in and around the penalty box, like no other Guern has done for a very long while.

The mercurial Freddie Willcocks was a No. 10 back in the fifties and, suggests Davey, so too was Alan Hunter, the great Rangers and island player, who scored goals inbetween spraying glorious passes.

Before him, Johnny Martel, another Rangers legend, might be considered a No. 10 as the BBC saw it.

If you have any thoughts on Guernsey No 10s, please email yours truly at rbatiste@guernsey-press.com.