Tennis Wimbledon 2004It may have been the summer solstice three days ago, but yesterday at Wimbledon must have ranked as the longest day of the year. As clouds came scudding across London drenching SW19, the cathedral of blooming flowers and pristine state-of-the-art courts was reduced to a rat-run of cowering fans.
Stubbornly they held on though as Henman Hill remained a collage of umbrellas and waterproof covers. Tennis fans here are a durable lot.
"We must remain optimistic," announced the distinctive voice of Chris Gorringe as yet another shower lashed Centre Court. The fans were probably unaware that the depression hanging over London was reportedly one of the worst for this time of year since the D-Day landings 60 years ago. That, too, had to be rescheduled. Gorringe's Churchillian call to arms at least raised a few wry smiles. But tennis, that was a lost cause.
Not once did the one-ton covers come off any of the courts as the schedule piled higher. Today is not expected to be one of those bright playable summer days, rather more water and wind. But there is no panic yet. The ever-ready optimism of the organisers point to last year's US Open, where Andy Roddick defeated Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrera in the final. The Spaniard was asked to play four matches on four consecutive days including the final. The New York organisers were faced with water coming up through the drains where it was supposed to go down and at one point played just one complete match in three days. Not until Friday will the organisers here decide whether or not to play on the normally free middle Sunday.
But the scorelines still hang precariously and while the players lurked in the locker room fidgeting with their racquet strings, it was Argentina's Guillermo Corias, who must have rated as the hardest hit. The defeated French Open finalist, whose comfort zone is the baked hard clay and temperatures of 30 degrees, began his first round match against South Africa's Wesley Moodie early on Monday evening. He then returned to Centre Court on Tuesday in an effort to round off a five-set win only to be left frustratingly one game short before the rain arrived again. He sat out yesterday hoping to be offered a 10-minute spell to polish off Moodie but now faces a fourth day of waiting poised at 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, 6-7, 5-3 and 30-30.
American Taylor Dent is also waiting to finish his match against Paraguay's Ramon Delgado. Dent won the first two sets 6-2, 6-3 and is 5-4 up in the third. Today will be the players' third day to attempt to finish.
For the fans and organisers, if not the bar franchisees, the depressing scenario also has a financial implication. When there is less than an hour's play in the championships, everyone (over 30,000 people) is refunded and if there is less than two hours of tennis, fans receive a half refund. Given that the Championships had a surplus last year of £25,869,917, that should not be too stressful for the company that now runs the tournament.
The proposed roof on Centre Court has also come to the fore. The retractable addition is expected to be completed in fours years time and will guarantee at least four singles matches each day. It is unlikely that any more matches than that will be scheduled on the surface in order to preserve it for the two weeks. The roof has been designed to open or close in less than 10 minutes and will be used for both inclement weather and high temperatures.
The most immediate effects of the weather is that play will now start earlier than normal. On the outside courts matches will begin at 11 a.m., an hour earlier and on Centre and Number 1 courts, it will begin at 12.00 rather than 1 p.m. The men's doubles event has also been reduced to three sets up to but not including the quarter finals.
Today's order of play
Selected courts, Number denotes seeding
Centre Court (play starts at noon): Y T Wang (Tai) v (2) A Roddick (USA) (4) A Mauresmo (Fra) v J Kostanic (Cro) I Labadze (Geo) v (7) L Hewitt (Aus) K Sprem (Cro) v (3) V Williams (USA)
Court One (noon): (3) G Coria (Arg) v W Moodie (Rsa) G Rusedski (Brit) v D Sanguinetti (Ita) C Schaul (Lux) v (7) J Capriati (USA) (1) R Federer (Swi) v A Falla (Col)
Court Two (11 am): L Childs (Brit) v (12) S Schalken (Ned) (24) M Pierce (Fra) v V Ruano Pascual (Spa) G Ivanisevic (Cro) v F Volandri (Ita) A Kapros (Hun) v (2) A Myskina (Rus) Y J Cho (SKor) and L Granville (USA) v (2) S Kuznetsova (Rus) and E Likhovtseva (Rus)
Court Three (11 am): M A Hilton (Brit) v A Costa (Spa) (29) D Safina (Rus) v A Parra Santonja (Spa) S Koubek (Aut) v (6) J C Ferrero (Spa) G Dulko (Arg) v M Navratilova (USA)
Court Four (11am): P Starace (Ita) v (20) T Robredo (Spa) (21) J I Chela (Arg) v L Burgsmuller (Ger) (9) C Moya (Spa) v R Stepanek (Cze) (31) A Frazier (USA) v E Webley-Smith (Gbr) (13) F Cermak (Cze) and L Friedl (Cze) v J Gimelstob (USA) and S Humphries (USA)
Court Five (11 am) K Beck (Svk) v J Marray (Gbr) T Golovin (Fra) v A Jidkova (Rus) (9) P Suarez (Arg) v S Perry (USA) S Obata (Jap) v (12) V Zvonareva (Rus) A Svensson (Swe) and M Tu (USA) v (8) M Vento-Kabchi (Ven) and A Widjaja (Ino)
