Clinton Serves Up Comments at Wimbledon
July 7, 2001 -- -- Ex-President Bill Clinton held court at the Wimbledon tennis tournament in England today, telling a BBC reporter and the assembled crowd that he's enjoying life after the presidency.
"There is life after the White House," Clinton said, as the interview was shown on a television screen. "I miss the job, but I like being a citizen again, and I like having the opportunity to come to places like this and do things like this — things I haven't been able to do in years and years.
"I'm spending about half my time on public service, about half my time making a living, supporting my family," he added. "I'm about to open an office in Harlem in New York City. All of you are welcome to come and visit if you are in New York, and I'll be working out of there on a lot of the projects that I worked on as president."
On Tennis and Turning 50
Clinton was at Wimbledon today to take in the women's singles final match between Venus Williams of the United States and Justine Henin of Belgium, and the conclusion of a men's semi-final tennis match between Tim Henman of Britain and Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia.
However, rain caused those matches to be delayed. So while sitting in the royal box, Clinton chatted with the BBC reporter, offering up opinions on life, aging and tennis.
Clinton predicted Henman would defeat Ivanisovic in the semi-final match to become the first British man to reach the Wimbledon final since 1938. Henman led Ivanisevic two sets to one in a match first suspended because of rain on Friday.
The former president also pleased the crowd by saying although he has enjoyed the U.S. and French opens, Wimbledon is the best.
"This is still the greatest tournament in the world," he told the cheering crowd. "I mean there's nothing like it … and everybody knows it."
Clinton said he was never a good tennis player and "can't imagine what it's like to hit a ball coming at you as fast as those serves do" at Wimbledon. He admitted he plays more golf than tennis these days but even with golf, he said, age is catching up to him.
