Weary Wimbledon

Rain...Rain...and more rain poured throughout the 1 1/2 weeks of The Championship. Now there's something the English haven't learnt. Tennis in London has always suffered the consequences of perennial rain, and still they go on as it is. I feel for these players even though I haven't played tennis.



Think of the inconsistencies. There was Federer, who lay in his hotel suite for around 5 days before he got to his Quarter-Final match. And Nadal swayed onto the court for 3 days to get his match completed. Sharapova lost all her control after a rain delayed match and she was over-run by Venus Williams. Serena Williams got a break during her big injury and came back to win. Djokovic has now played 2 long and hard matches in 2 days to now play Nadal on the 3rd day and go on to play the final on the 4th day. If he continues his form he will take Nadal to the final set and then all his energy will drain out.

My point is why haven't the English thought of something to prevent such drastic consequences of rain delays? Why don't they have retractable roofs when it rains? And this is not the first time such delays have happened. So many finals have gone to Monday and players have had to play too many games in too little days.

"It's tradition", they will say. But traditions don't mean to exhaust players and rob the people of competitive matches. Look at tomorrow's final. Bartoli has to play Venus Williams who had an easy semi. But Bartoli had to go through 3 sets to beat the No.1 Henin. How energetic will she be to face a strong Venus? I can see the scoreline as an easy straight sets win for Venus. Not fair really.