What court is this?

I'm currently avoiding comment on play at Wimbledon as I lost two of my players yesterday, Safina and Mirza, and I prefer to sulk! (Although Henman went out too - every cloud has a silver lining.)

However, I got the last of my birthday cards yesterday and found this excellent one waiting for me at the bar where we collect our post, thanks to Tortoiseshell and K.

Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to what court it is? After careful study I've decided to plump for court 13. It could be court two but I think it's that fake grass wall at the end of court 13 that's pictured and not the big plastic/metal (?) one on court two. I can't remember what side the umpires sit on on either court so I could be wrong. I think the artists has been very generous to the female line-judges and put them in flattering skirts instead of those horrible billowy ones they make then wear - why not just give them trousers and have done with it?

A inauspicious start

After a busy weekend I had to make my the choices for my Wimbledon team on Monday morning before play began.

A quick half-hour scan of the draw and I elected the following players:


Henin, Ivanovic, Safina, Bartoli and Mirza.

Federer, Berdych, Gasquet, Nalbandian and Stepanek.


It was a tough choice between Sharapova and Henin, and Gasquet and Ljubicic but time was against me and I was forced to pick one without too much oohing and aahing.

The men's unseeded caused me much trouble. I'd had Mahut or Clement in mind, and what happened, yes of course, they were drawn against each other in the first round. I'd been in a similar situation at Roland Garros in 2004 when I spent ages deliberating as to whether Cañas or Gaudio would win their first-round encounter. In the end, I plumped for Cañas and then Gaudio went on to win the tournament - typical. So this time I avoided making such decisions and decided on Grosjean instead. Then I glimpshed Stepanek in the draw and changed my mind. If I'd not been in such a rush and looked more closely I would've noticed he was playing Mathieu in the first round and would've stuck with Sebastien. It's easy to say now. Bah, one player down already. The really annoying thing is that I rushed to get my players chosed before Wimbledon started at 11am UK time, announced them to Tortoiseshell and K, and then play was delayed by rain.

Player of the Week

It's always tempting to go with Henin, but we'll wait and see if she finally gets her Wimbledon trophy first.

So my player of the week this week is Ivo Karlovic. He's also always so self-effacing ("To tell the truth I didn't really expect to win," said Karlovic. "I came here to play a few matches, I was the last player in the draw") that I do like to see him win.

Seedy fiddling

Looking forward the Wimbledon draw later today. However I did get slightly grumpy yesterday when I saw the seedings. Do they really have to manipulate the rankings that much? It happens every year and I should've expected it, but there I was hatching my plans for Wimbledon triumph, carefully selecting players, and what does the LTA (or whoever is responsible for deciding the seeds) go and do? Fiddle with them, that's what they do and spoil my careful planning. I am not amused.

It's that time of year again...

..and I'm getting excited. I'm not sure why since I can't a) go to Wimbledon or b) watch it on my non-existent TV. Even if I had one it's not shown on terrestrial Spanish channels and I can't get cable all the way up here. But still, I'm getting a tingly feeling of anticipation.

I put this down to memories of my visits to Wimbledon (more on them in a later post), memories of all the good times spent in front of the TV watching Wimbledon, and the fantasty tennis competition that Tortoiseshell, K and I take part in during every Slam (The Aus Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US), in its seventh year now (maybe one day we'll beat Ferreira's 55 consecutive slams record). K has been our reigning Wimbledon champ for the last three years and I'm plotting to swipe the crown. Winning Wimbledon would be extra welcome as I've has a dry year so far - K took the Aus Open and Tortoiseshell Roland Garros (beating me by only eight points, serves me right for picking Petrova).

Here's how it works in case anyone else would like to proffer a team. You pick ten players, five women and five men. You can have one top five seed, one top 10 seed, two other seeds and an unseeded player. If a player goes out in the first round that's zero points, second round, 5 points, then 10, 15, 20, 30 with 40 for the runner up and 50 for the eventual winner. Also, if your unseeded player knocks out a seed you're awarded giant-killing points, which can greatly boost your final score, if you choose your player wisely. For example, if you knock out the 32nd seed, you get 1 point, the 31st seed, 2 points and so on, all the way up to 32 extra points for beating the number 1 seed. We also used to have 10 points for knocking out Henman, although we've scrapped that since it became a forgone conclusion and isn't so much fun anymore.

Anyway, time to get back to my scheming and tingling. More later.

Player of the week

It has to be Mahut for getting to the final at Queens. Having beaten Nadal on the way, he almost, almost beat Roddick in the final, and on grass too. He had me squealing at the livescore web page, egging him on. I shall be keeping an eye on him during Wimbledon.