Tennis Chatter

Sunday is traditionally a day off for Wimbledon play, and today is no different. Only three times in the past (last one was 2004) has weather forced matches to be played on the Sunday of week one. Yesterday all but two matches were suspended until Monday due to rain. It’s a little surprising with all the rain, that matches aren’t being played today. Instead, Wimbledon will start earlier (at 11:00) Monday to compensate.

Mauresmo and Sharapova were the only winners Saturday, Mauresmo over M. Santangelo 6-1, 6-2 and Sharapova over A. Sugiyama 6-3, 6-3. Sharapova has an interesting fourth round match-up against Venus Williams, if Venus holds on to win over A. Morigami. Venus was up 6-2, 1-4 when play was suspended. The rain delay probably helped her, because she was playing pretty bad in the second set.

Federer was guaranteed a quarterfinal berth when Haas pulled out of Wimbledon today. Haas cited a torn abdominal muscle as the reason for his withdrawal. I don’t really know how Federer’s draw could have gotten much easier. His first two rounds were against nobody special. Safin was the Safin of 2006 and 2007, and not the Safin of 2000 US Open or 2005 Australian Open, when he played Federer. Federer played his match last Friday, whereas players on the other side of the draw have to play their third round matches Monday. And, Federer gets another day off by not having to play a fourth round match. If he makes it to finals, his oppenent will have had to play five matches in seven days, while Federer will have had to play three matches in nine days.

Last week Safin was quoted saying he hated Wimbledon because of the prices (primarily of spaghetti) and the security. Link I’m not going to lie, but both complaints seem rather trivial. Security? Who needs that? Especially in London. Prices? It must be tough when you’ve won millions in your career. But, he’s not alone in his complaints of Wimbledon. His fellow countryman Davydenko stated today that Wimbledon is too boring. Davydenko even went as far to say that:

There’s hardly anything to do apart from tennis. You constantly find yourself yawning, there’s no entertainment here

Well…its really unfortunate that a tournament of Wimbledon’s class hasn’t established some form of entertainment for the competitors. Apparently hosting a tennis tournament isn’t enough, Wimbledon needs to set up some carnival to please the Russians (neither of which have been any good at Wimbledon).

More news:

Wimbledon tightens security in response to Friday’s attempted car bombings

Wimbledon is going to refund fans who missed action on Saturday due to rain delays