Wimbledon: Afterword

If you'd like to read a good report (with great photos) on yesterday's Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, see this one at Craig Hickman's Tennis Blog. I'll highlight some of the points I'd like to comment on.

I remain surprised by how many players don't recognize Raja's tendency to serve flat out wide in the ad court on big points.

It is surprising, isn't it - even pros miss an awful lot of what goes on in the heat of the battle. Andre Agassi once said that people would be surprised to discover how little pros' play has to do with tennis, because they are so busy thinking nothing but, "Win the next point!"

It is the consequence of a noisy mind. Understandable on Centre Court during a Wimbledon final, but still a hindrance.

When your mind is thinking, it automatically distracts your attention inward, onto your thoughts. You WILL then fail to notice things out on the court. All tennis players struggle with this, even the pros.

I think that today's pro players aren't as good at controlling and quieting their minds as past tennis greats were. Why? Simply because they have a crutch = a coach. They expect their coaches to notice these things for them.

Unfortunately, your coach can't tell you that Raja serves flat out wide to the ad court on big points until the match is over. Besides, your coach is an aide, not someone you should depend on to do your observing and thinking for you.

How often does it happen that a player, even at this level, wins an intense tiebreak and drops serve immediately in the next set? I wish I had the stats.

So do I. It's the letdown that occurs in that situation. You must be ready for it, adjust you tactics (not strategy) accordingly, and mentally stoke your fire.

Then Hickman goes on to relate Federer's unravelling to the point that he asks for Hawk-Eye to be turned off. Of course the request was denied, so Federer started sarcastically whining as though Hawk-Eye and Company are "homering" him here in England, in favor of the guy from Spain.

I guess Andy Roddick is in the final, because Raja continues a dialogue with no one in particular, asking after a Rafa shot misses just over the baseline, "How was that one? Was that in?"

An unraveling that has silenced the entire stadium. The fans can barely applaud any of the points won or lost. Raja fights off a deuce after a double fault, and yet another flat serve ace out wide gets him on the scoreboard in the fourth set. Fans, still stunned, applaud tepidly.

Can you blame them? Atta way to take yourself down off that pedestal, Roger: act like a child.

Federer is on the verge of a breakdown, but guess what saves him at that very moment?


Hickman makes the crucial point that the rain delays are what caused unfairness - in Federer's favor, not against him. The rain delays created a final in which Federer was physically and mentally fresh, while Nadal was physically and mentally exhausted. Not fair.

Rafa's mental exhaustion showed through in the tiebreakers, where mental strength is most tested. And his physical exhaustion showed through in this inflammation of the knee injury.

True, this was no deliberate favoritism. But that doesn't make it any less unfair. Wimbledon should do everything possible to make sure that rain can't create such an unfair situation, especially in the finals, ever again.

Do read the rest.

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Roger Federer Wins Wimbledon Championship

Women's Singles Champion: Venus Williams (seeded 23) of the United States defeated Marion Bartoli (seeded 18) of France in yesterday's final.

Men's Singles Champion: Top seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland defeated second seeded Rafael Nadal of Spain in the final today.

This was before the match...

Kinda like Yin and Yang, eh?

Image, image, image. If you ask me, they're both a little silly. But, boy, can they play tennis.

Women's Doubles Champions: Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Liezel Huber of South Africa defeated Katrina Srebotnik of Slovakia and Ai Sugiyama of Japan

Men's Doubles Champions: Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra of France. Seeded 10th, today they defeated top seeded Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States in the final.

Mixed Doubles Champions: yet to be determined.

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Dona nobis pacem.

I think this post, Requiem for a Heavyweight, by Peter Bodo is an excellent piece of technical analysis. So, I'd like to highlight and carry further a couple of his main ideas.

First, this match between Andy Roddick and Richard Gasquet was a good match. Andy had a good strategy and played it well. In fact, as Bodo says, it was THE best game plan (though I don't like all those crosscourt approach shots), and Andy played it well. He just didn't win, that's all.

If a player misses most of many break point or set point or match point opportunities, he has a problem in that department.

But to make a big deal of just a couple such lost points confesses both simplism and ignorance of the game. Since when has it become a sin to ever lose a break point or a set point in your favor? I say to the press, "Give us a break, please."

Why does it constantly try to make something out of nothing? As in this requiem for Roddick the press has composed in its "story" of this match.

This is what I mean when I object to the use of fiction writing techniques in journalism. Ever since the 1970's, "telling a story" instead of "reporting the facts" has increasingly become the name of the game in journalism. Why? To make the news juicier. And so we have infotainment. Rather like Verdi on steroids.

Why? To sell a product, mainly through its curiosity provoking, emotion provoking, and controversial entertainment value.

But this match was great. It makes a great story without doctoring the plot to make some magnificent theme of moral weakness in Andy's loss.

But mediocre writers find it much easier to tell a negative story, because anyone can make a negative story interesting.

It reminds me... There's Faure's Requiem and Mozart's Requiem, and then there's Verdi's. Which is a litmus test for good taste. If you understand the Latin, it cracks you up laughing at the "climax" in "passus...passus...passus et sepultus est!" when the extravagantly overblown melodramma makes that bass sound like HE's dying.

Of course the press isn't the only guilty party. The fans, where they get to mouth off on the web, do the same thing. I guess that giving people a bullhorn is what causes them to kinda make up and embellish the world as they go along.

Worse, the resulting meme is superstitious. It supposes that some incorrect choice or character weakness is to blame for every loss or failure. Baloney, that's no different than a mendacious preacher proclaiming that, if you are good and God likes you, you will succeed in business. Superstition be damned: bad things happen to good people, and sometimes you do everything right and still lose.

The converse is just as true: good things happen to bad people, and sometimes you do everything wrong and still win.

As Bodo says, that match "is what it is," not what anyone chooses to make of it.

Indeed. I will go further and be blunt. When fictionalizing nonfiction is done in sports, it is just aggravating. When it is done in global matters of life and death, it is unconscionable.

The press has also used the fiction writing technique of building suspense through foreshadowing by making a huge deal out of the bitter disappointment Andy suffered in this loss. The subliminal suggestion is clear: "Stay tuned, folks, we may be about to see a tennis god fall!" Why? Because that's how you make a page-turner out of fiction and sell tomorrow's newspaper.

(The press blows the same artificial gasp every time Roger Federer loses a match.)

Again, this is manufacturing something out of nothing. Andy's bitter disappointment is no big deal. It's no life-changing moment, for crying out loud. It's just what happens when you work and play your heart out for something and lose. It's perfectly natural. It's what you risk by competing in sports. It's just a feeling. And it passes.

You don't get to the top of this game if you can't handle defeat better than the press seems to think anyone capable of handling it.

It was a just great match. And Richard Gasquet had far, far more to do with Andy's loss than any failing or flaw in Andy or his play.

Poor Gasquet doesn't get his due. He wins and yet somehow it's all about Andy. Not about Gasquet's tremendous achievement – just about Andy's mythical fall. The vultures.

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Venus Williams Wins the Wimbledon Championship

Within a cloud of all the hype about her sister Serena, Venus Williams of the United States came out of nowhere at Wimbledon this year.

Yesterday in the semifinals, she defeated a game Ana Ivanovic of Serbia while Marion Bartoli of France stunned the world by defeating Justine Henin of Belgium. (Didn't I say that France has an awful lot of very good tennis players and many who love to play on grass?) Today Venus won her fourth Wimbledon title by defeating Bartoli 6-4, 6-1.

Bartoli herself said it best - that Venus "is the best player on grass in the world."

Venus handled the psychological impact of some wild errors, showing her maturity at the age of 27. I think the accomplishment is greater this year than in the past. When the Williams sisters brought the heavy-hitting game to the women's tour, the other players weren't used to it and could simply be overpowered on a day when Williams was making few errors.

But the women are used to it now. The women's game is faster now. Venus had to play great all around tennis to win this tournament, and she did.


Congratulations!
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Wimbledon: Days 9 & 10

Yesterday Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic won their third round matches, while Andy Roddick and Richard Gasquet won their fourth round matches. (That's what a mess too much rain makes.)

Today Nadal, Djokovic, Marcos Baghdatis, and Tomas Berdych won their fourth round matches.

Yesterday Venus Williams upset second seed Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-3 in the fourth round. In the quarterfinals, Marion Bartoli defeated Michaella Krajicek, and top seeded Justine Henin defeated seventh seeded Serena Williams.

Today, in the quarterfinals, Venus defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Ana Ivanovic Defeated Nicole Vaidisova.

The men's doubles has been a hodgepodge of second and third round matches, with one more third round match remaining to to be completed.

The women's doubles likewise has one more third round match remaining.

The mixed doubles is still in the first round!

The results of so much rain delay can be pretty unfair. For example, Roger Federer, being the match on court in the first round and managing to finish before the rain delays, has had an extended vacation during the tournament, prompting all sorts of joking about where he is.

Richard Williams is desperate for attention and shouting anything he can think of to get it.

According to Serena Williams, Justine Henin had nothing to do with her victory over Serena yesterday. It was the thumb. Or the calf. Or the hamstring. Or whatever.

Apparently Richard never taught her that after a match, you should be honest about your play but should never make excuses and should give credit where credit is due - to your opponent for BEATING you.

Because it is unsporting, not to mention narcissistic, to devalue your opponent's achievement by saying that "basically all she had to do is show up" that day. We are getting really tired of hearing that.

Then Serena wonders why people react negatively to her. She ain't a teenager anymore.

She can play that game if she thinks to gain advantage through the mind games of gamesmanship that way. But then she will also have to pay the price in what people think of her for it.

Robin Soderling tried some psychological warfare of his own on Rafael Nadal, not that Rafa is a Wholly Innocent in that department himself. Soderling showed contempt for Rafa in every way possible.

Soderling even grabbed at his shorts in such a way as to imitate Rafa's well known habit of doing stuff like this...

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DW: Wimbledon's Special Friendship

By Dave Winship
OnTheLine.org

If it's true that individuals do more to promote peace than governments, the renewed pairing of Indian Muslim Sania Mirza and Israel's Shahar Peer in the Wimbledon ladies doubles event is a significant one despite the pair's insistence that they are not making any kind of religious or political statement.

"We've grown up together. We're great friends," explained 20-year-old Mirza, who was once the subject of a fatwa issued by radical Muslim clerics who took exception to her on-court attire. "So we said, why not? I have to keep saying this: I'm here to play tennis and so is she. That's the end of that. It has nothing to do with anything else." Mirza and Peer, seeded 16th, overcame Lisa Osterloh and Sofia Andersson in the first round. "We're just here to play tennis and we're here to perform and be the best we can be," Mirza added. "Everything we do or everything we say, we're normal human beings, and we're not here to make statements with every move that we make. We're just here to play tennis and we're here to perform and be the best we can be."

The two have been close friends since their junior days and played together at the 2005 Japan Open where they reached the semi-finals. However, Mirza got cold feet and broke up the partnership before the 2006 Bangalore Open, fearing a violent reaction from Islamic hardliners. "It's best that we don't play together . . . to prevent protests against my cooperation with an Israeli," Mirza said at the time. "There is no reason to arouse their ire." Peer is ranked just outside the top ten and could well qualify for the end-of-season WTA Sony Ericsson Championships next year when the event moves to Doha. Like other Arab Gulf states, Qatar does not recognise Israel.

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi was threatened with suspension by the Pakistan tennis federation when he competed in the Wimbledon men's doubles with Israel's Amir Hadad in 2002. The pair were awarded the ATP Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award the following year. Like Mirza, Qureshi insisted he never intended to make a political statement with his choice of partner. He nevertheless believed he had delivered a positive message. "I have had quite a lot people come up to me at the airport or on the airplane and ask me when I was going to play with the Pakistani player again," he said. "I never heard anybody say: 'Don't play with him' or something like that. In Israel everybody is pretty supportive about it . . . It's good for the game. They were telling me to keep it up."

Uprooted people are the most vulnerable and desperate of all. Arabs will never accept that the dispossession of Palestinians was a legitimate price the world had to pay for Hitler's oppression of European Jews. A just solution continues to elude world leaders as political intransigence threatens to obscure any shared vision of a peaceful future. In the absence of such a vision, the only way tensions can be relieved is through the humanity of individuals.

If they continue to progress through the draw, Mirza and Peer will cause quite a stir at Wimbledon. Their first match attracted a throng of people wearing saris, turbans and headscarves and they were very warmly received. One can understand them wanting to distance themselves from any political or religious symbolism arising from their reunion, but their friendship is none the less gratifying as an indication that humanity will prevail.

Copyright 2007, Dave Winship -- all rights reserved worldwide
Dave Winship is an L.T.A. coach at the Caversham Park Tennis Club in Berkshire, England, and the author of OnTheLine.org magazine at http://www.tennisontheline.org/.

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Wimbledon Day 7

Rain again delayed play today.

Jonas Bjorkman, Marcos Baghdatis, Tomas Berdych, Mikhail Youzny all won third round matches. Justine Henin and Serena Williams won their fourth round matches. Venus Williams, Tamira Paszek, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic, Michelle Krajicek, nicole Vaidisova, and Nadia Petrova all won their third round matches.

Seven second round mens doubles matches were played. Winners were:

• Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan (1)
• Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra 10)
• Jaroslav Levinsky and David Skoch (13)
• Richard Bloomfield and Jonathan Marray
• Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov
• Scott Lipsky and David Martin
• Harel Levy and Rajeev Ram
• Wesley Moodie and Todd Perry

Four second round women's doubles matches were played. The winners are:

• Cara Black and Liezel Huber (2)
• Katarina Srebotnik and Ai Sugiyama (4)
• Alicia Molik and Mara Santangelo (6)
• Elena Likhovtseva and Tiantian Sun (10)

In mixed doubles, the 13th seeds, Rogier Wassen and Yung-Jan Chan advanced to the third round.

Serena seems to have had a fire lit under her. She really was injured today, but gutsed it out (with a little help from some timely rain). I love it, she said she'd rather die than lose. (I said that once :)

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Wimbledom Day 5: Laura Granville Upsets Martina Hingis

Surprise! Via On the Baseline:

With all the focus on Venus and Serena, fans in the United States might have missed another American player sneaking through the draw at Wimbledon.

That is until she took out Martina Hingis today in straight sets.

Hingis, who won the title at the Championships in 1997, went down in two sets 6-4, 6-2 to Laura Granville in the third round.

Off all the Americans residing toward the bottom of the top 100, Laura Granville was one of the last ones anyone expected to make waves at Wimbledon.

Read the rest.

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Federer - Safin Preview

While you're waiting for the outcome of the Federer Safin match, you can read this preview, Like a Kid in a Candy Store, at Craig Hickman's Tennis Blog.

I'm a Safin fan, ever since the moment I first saw him play. Besides, who else could do this to ya?

You know the story of the hippo? The hippo comes to the monkey and said, "Listen, I'm not a hippo." So, he paint himself like a zebra. He said but he's still a hippo. He said, "But look at you. You're painted like a zebra, but you are a hippo." So then he goes, you know, like "I want be a little parrot." So, he put the colours on him and he comes to the monkey and said, "But, sorry, you are a hippo." So, in the end, you know, he comes and said, "I'm happy to be a hippo. This is who I am. So, I have to be who I am," and he's happy being a hippo.

Only the one and only Marat Safin. (Sigh.)

Check out the great photos from Day 4, too.

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Wimbledon Day 5 Live

Janko Tipsarevic, Tommy Haas, and Paul-Marie Mathieu all won their third round matches at Wimbledon today.

James Blake just lost to Juan Ferrero 6-3, 3-6, 3-6, 6-7. And Roger Federer has just taken Centre Court with Marat Safin.

Serena Williams just won her third round match roundly 6-1, 6-0. Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Michaella Krajicek, Patty Schnyder, and Marion Bartoli also won their third round matches.

Martina Hingis is still out there against Laura Granville, losing 4-6, 2-3, deuce.

The women's doubles got underway yesterday, and the first round of the men's doubles and the mixed doubles got underway today.

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Why do tennis players let their opponent into a match?

In her second round match today against Vera Dushevina, Justine Henin rolled to 6-0, 3-1 ... and then let Dushevina into the match!

That isn't like Henin.

So, what does this mean? What can we learn from it?

The first thing to learn is that anyone can have a letdown. It's a HUMAN thing, not some moral failing in "weak" and "loser-type" people.

This is why letdowns happen.

First, notice WHEN they happen. They happen when pressure has been relieved. Most commonly letdowns happen at the beginning of a new set. The pressure of the final game of the previous set has been relieved.

This happens because pressure cranks up our nervous system into a state of hyperactivity and hypervigilance. A myriad of changes throughout the body occur. They include changes in our emotional state as well as our physical state. For example, digestion stops, and muscles get extra blood supply diverted from the gut. Adrenaline flows. Remarkable changes like this occur throughout the body.

In effect, the body and mind are operating in Emergency Mode now. Altogether the phenomenon is often called the "fight or flight" response. It is Nature's way of making an animal fit to deal with a life-threatening emergency.

Great. But if Emergency Mode persists as a permanent state, it does great damage to the body. Then you get stress related illnesses.

To prevent this, the nervous system has built in reflexes to dampen the fight or flight response the moment psychological pressure is relieved.

We can't help this. It's a reflex. It's automatic. It's for our own good. But it is a problem in a tennis match. You need to keep that intensity, that state of arousal, going till the match is over. That is very hard to do.

Especially when you are winning so easily as Justine. She has been sailing through her matches like a breeze and was doing so again today, against an opponent choking on top of it all. Who wouldn't have a letdown at 6-0, 3-1 under those conditions?

This doesn't mean you need to suffer the ill effects of letdowns on your play. There are things you can do to minimize them.

First, know when they are going to happen. At the beginning of every new game and every new set. Especially if you're ahead or have won the last one. They will happen when your opponent is beating herself for you, when everything you try works.

Learn to know when you are going to experience a letdown, and do things to combat it.

Often, your opponent will be having one at the same time, such as at the beginning of a new game or set. Capitalize on that. Points are cheap during letdowns. That's the time to get ahead.

If you have a letdown at the beginning of a game, before you know it, you have squandered two cheap points and are down 0-30. Now you have very little chance of winning that game. So start every new game firing yourself up, telling yourself not to go down 0-30, but to get up 30-0, while the points are cheap, before your opponent is really serious about the game.

You can't get too fired up about a set that's just beginning, so set a short term goal of getting up 2 games to none in the new set. Really fight to accomplish that goal.

Don't change your strategy for a second, but do tweak your tactics. Use percentage tactics to reduce your likelihood of error during a letdown. Because you WILL make more unforced errors during a letdown.

What happened today is that the crowd felt sorry for Vera and tried to encourage her by applauding her winners.

Well, eventually she strung together a few in a row, won a couple games, and started to become confident, playing much better.

Justine Henin wasn't right there to bar the door and close out the match. She let Vera into it.

Like I said, that isn't typical of Justine Henin. So, it goes to show that anyone can have a letdown and let an opponent into the match.

Henin still handled the situation better than many players, however. She didn't panic when she saw her opponent breathing down her neck.

The last few games were closely contested, but Justine still won the match and in straight sets. Didn't even need a tiebreaker. 6-4.

That's another lesson: no need to panic if your opponent comes roaring back. Don't get mad at yourself. Give THEM credit for rising to the occasion and making you have to beat them to win. Then, just do.


P.S.
Not that Henin shows the same common sense and wisdom in every department. She just can't keep her mouth shut about some things she thinks she should show off.

I’m not a great fan of England but everyone’s really nice here. In Paris, the public tens to warm to me a lot more and it’s like being at home.The US is the toughest. People seem to turn up to do anything except watch the actual tennis…

Woahhh! Poor England. Justine is not a great fan of England. My dear English friends, you have my deepest sympathy for failing to please Justine.

What's wrong with England? (Besides the lousy weather!) Oh, so Parisians are good just because they like French speaking Belgians? No matter how rude and even downright mean they are to players of other nationalities, right?

Clue: Cut the snooty Continental "we're-better-than-you" airs with their anti-Anglo/American geopolitics, and you might be liked more by the tennis fans in the countries you look down on.

You are not the fans' judge. They do not have to conform to your specifications. (New Yorkers get on our nerves too, you know.) What you think about England is irrelevant. Nobody cares to hear it.

You are the fans' servant. A perfomer they're paying to perform for them. Remember that.

And guess what, if you just stick to tennis, people won't be morally obliged to answer you in defense against your slur on their kind. Things are so much more pleasant that way.

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Wimbledon Day 4: Ah! Summer in Merry Old England!

At lunchtime, rain delayed play for 40 minutes. Then at 4:45 PM, the rains began lightly falling and stopping, but never for long enough to let play resume, though the covers did come off the courts a couple of times. In addition to the dampness, the evening also brought a chill. Then, at 7:45 came a deluge.

Less than half the day's matches were completed.


Kate Battersby writes:

For domestic fans, the rain could not have arrived at a crueller moment. Just six minutes before the late afternoon showers began, home hero Tim Henman began his second round encounter against the Spaniard Feliciano Lopez on the Centre Court. Excitement was feverish after the Briton’s epic win over Carlos Moya in the preceding round, and today’s encounter had offered extra promise as Lopez is that rarest of things – a Spaniard who loves to play on grass. They got to one game all, 15-all, before the heavens opened. Exasperating for all concerned. The match will resume on Thursday.

Nonetheless, a few matches were completed. Serena Williams, Andy Roddick, Justin Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Richard Gasquet, Martina Hingis and Ana Ivanovic all managed to record victories before the rain stopped play.

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Wimbledon Day 2: The Women

First round winners in the women's singles at Wimbledon today were: Amelie Mauresmo, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova, Jelena Jankovic, Venus Williams, Katarina Srebotnik, Yvonne Meusburger, Bethanie Mattek, Eleni Daniilidou, Samantha Stosur, Sania Mirza, Agnes Szavay, Olga Govortsova, Tatiana Poutchek, Daniela Hantuchova, Alize Cornet, Michaella Krajicek, Anna Chakvetadze, Jarmila Gajdosova, Nadia Petrova, Elena Vesnina, Elena Likhovtseva, Milagros Sequera, Hana Sromova, Emilie Loit, Nika Ozegovic, Katie O'Brien, Ai Sugiyama, and Alona Bondarenko.

The defending Champion, Amelie Muresmo of France, said afterwards that she feels better playing here - as the defending champion on grass at Wimbledon - than she did in France.

I think it's more than the surface and the confidence that comes of winning the championship before. I think there's much less pressure on her when she's not carrying the dreams of the French fans for a French woman to win the French Open.

By the way, there are other French players, like Nicolas Mahut, who actually prefer the grass and like the serve-and-volley game.

Go figure: the red clay of Roland Garros is legendary, but it doesn't help the French players. It's made to order for the Spaniards though ;-)

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Wimbledon Day 2: The Men

Mostly matches in the bottom half of the draw, and the matches delayed by yesterday's rain, are being held today at Wimbledon. Poor Mardy Fish drew Rafael Nadal in the first round.

The other victors: Chris Guccione, Kristof Vliegen, David Nalbandian, Frank Dancevic, Lleyton Hewitt, Simone Bolelli, Max Mirnyi, Guillermo Canas, Nicolas Kiefer, Fabrice Santoro, Amer Delic, Nova Djokovic, Tomas Berdych, Michael Llodra, Hyung-Taik Lee, Augustin Calleri, Jonas Bjorkman, Yeu-Tzoo Wang, Wayne Arthurs, Tommy Robredo, Michail Youzhny, Jarkko Nieminen, Robin Soderling, Sebastien Grosjean, and Werner Escauer.

A few matches are still out there: Top seed Nikolay Davydenko has his hands full with Evgeny Korolev, and Gael Monfils looks to be closing out his match with Thomas Johansson.

Oh, yes! And Tim Henman won! He did! He really did defeat Carlos Moya. Rain delay and all. Okay, so it was on grass, but get a load of the score: 6-3 1-6 5-7 6-2 13-11. After blowing match points.


Maybe there's some fight in the guy after all.

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Wimbledon Day 1

They got more matches in today at Wimbledon. Since the last report Tomas Zib, Michael Berrer, Janko Tipsarevicz, Danai Udomchoke, David Ferrer, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Serena Williams, Alicia Molik, Patty Schnyder, Marion Bartoli, and Vera Dushevina have also advanced to the second round of the singles.

Richard Williams got attention by announcing that Serena has a pulled hamstring. Asked about it in the presser after her match, Serena said it was just a little tight but getting better.

Throw the dogs a bone!

But the press hounds weren't satisfied with it. So she had to reiterate that another 16 times in answer to the 17 times they questioned her about it.

Boy, when they reject an answer, they reject an answer. You'd better give them the kind they want, or they'll never stop.

How many things that we really would like to have learned, did they pay no attention to and NOT ask about in order to squabble over that bone instead? Trying 16 times to extort a different answer from her. One more exciting than the plain old truth?

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Wimbledon Day 1: Live - Sort Of

Roger Federer, Tommy Haas, Andy Roddick, Florent Serra, Fernando Gonzalez, Allejandro Falla, Martina Hingis, Kaia Kanepi, Roberta Vinci, Aiko Nakamura, Laura Granville, Sybille Bammer, Shahar Peer, Lucie Safarova all won their first round singles matches today before play was suspended due to rain.


The suspended matches may get back on court yet this evening, but the delay will spill over into tomorrow's schedule.

OK, OK, Tim Henman is up 5-3 against Carlos Moya. But don't blame me then.

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Wimbledon Day 1: Watering the Lawn

First round play begins at Wimbledon at noon today GMT (the crack o' dawn here). Many big names have matches scheduled.

Roger Federer will be going for his fifth consecutive title. Justine Henin will be going for a career Grand Slam (winning all four major titles at least once over the course of the career).

The Brit-o-meter is in the doldrums, because Andy Murray has had to withdraw from the tournament due to a a wrist injury that hasn't cleared up in time.

The Draws (in PDF format) - Right-click and choose "Save target as..." in the popup menu.

• Men's Singles
• Women's Singles
• Men's Doubles
• Women's Doubles

The mixed doubles draw will be done later.

And here now is the weather forecast for southern England. As if I need to tell you ;-)

"Often cloudy, rain or showers, some heavy."

But here's my favorite part:

Heavy rain at times in the north and west. Any bright or sunny intervals elsewhere will lead to scattered heavy showers developing, some with thunder and torrential downpours. Showers merging to longer spells of rain later, some heavy.

Do you think that got the point across?

Passing over the tone (which makes Tim Henman sound like an optimist), did you notice the second sentence? According to it bright skies and sunshine "lead to" rain.

One can see how one could come to think like that from living in a climate like that. But don't worry, I assure you that sunny skies do not cause rain. (Psst, it's all them clouds.)

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