Neil Harman

Harman started his career in journalism at the Evening Echo (Southend) and later worked for the Birmingham Evening Mail. He joined the Daily Mail in its Manchester office in 1981, was appointed tennis correspondent in 1986 and became football correspondent in 1990, spending seven years in the role before departing the paper after 16 years' service in 1997. In 2002, he was appointed tennis correspondent for The Times.[1] In 2007, he became the first tennis journalist to be awarded the Sports Journalists' Association's "Sports News Reporter of the Year" award.[2] Harman was also the recipient of the ATP's Ron Bookman Award for Media Excellence in 2005 and is a past chairman of the Lawn Tennis Writers' Association and a former president of the International Tennis Writers Association.[3]

Harman has also written for ProTennisCoach.com, the tennis coaching website of Roger Rasheed, Paul Annacone, Brad Gilbert and Darren Cahill.[4]

Harman coined the term "Spice Boys" in a Daily Mail piece published in March 1997 to describe a group of high-profile footballers playing for Liverpool F.C. in the mid-to-late 1990s.[5]

Since 2004, Harman has written the Wimbledon Annual: the official publication of the Grand Slam tournament.[6] Harman co-wrote the Davis Cup The Year in Tennis publication until 2006. In August 2020, his story of a season with Wycombe Wanderers, Close Quarters [An Extraordinary Season On The Brink] was published.

In 1999, Harman published an account of the rivalry between Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski over the preceding year. With David Beckham, and wrote Beckham's official biography.[7] Harman has also written Court Confidential, an 'insider' account of the tennis world, published in 2013. Neil also assisted Andy Murray in the publication of his biography Andy Murray: Seventy-Seven: My Road to Wimbledon Glory.

In July 2014, it was revealed that Harman had plagiarised material for the official Wimbledon yearbook, which he had written since 2004, in the editions of 2011 through to 2013. He was asked to step down from the role in early 2014.[8] Ben Rothenberg of the online Slate magazine identified dozens of apparent examples of plagiarism.[8][9]

Harman admitted the allegation and subsequently resigned from the International Tennis Writers Association.[10] Harman was suspended from The Times in late July 2014.[11]