Sunday, June 24, 2001
Cable viewer's guide to Wimbledon
By Neil Schmidt
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Welcome to Wimbledon, the only tennis tournament of note that requires a lawnmower. It's played at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, where the croquet tourneys don't seem to be as big a draw.
Wimbledon is your cue to get up to speed on men's tennis, for Tennis Masters Series Cincinnati begins four weeks after this ends. And it's a great time to get re-acquainted with the volatile women's circuit, which lately has seen more sniping than an artillery range.
So round up some strawberries and cream, pay your cable bill (the weekday matches are on HBO) and hit the couch Monday for a fortnight.
Things to look for
1. Pete Sampras kicking butt. No, he hasn't won a tourney yet this year, but this guy is mayor of Wimbledon. He has won it seven times and is 53-1 here the past eight years.
2. Jennifer Capriati winning the third leg of the Grand Slam. If it happens, expect some big-league hype for the U.S. Open come September.
3. A Williams sisters resurgence. You can get only so much bad publicity before getting motivated to win some big matches. (Venus and Serena wouldn't face each other before the finals.)
4. Lindsay Davenport. Remember her? The American is ranked third in the world but is no greater than the fourth-most popular player in her own country, after Capriati and the Williams sisters. But she usually cranks it up here.
5. Belgian teen-agers. Specifically Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, both 18-year-olds with top-eight seedings. Clijsters scared the bejesus out of Capriati in the French Open final.
6. On the men's side, rising stars Lleyton Hewitt, 20, and Andy Roddick, 18. Hewitt, the fifth seed, is a trendy pick after beating Sampras en route to the Queen's Club title last week.
7. Want fun names? Try top-100 women's players Tamarine Tanasugarn, Ana Isabel Medina Garrigues, Ruxandra Dragomir Ilie, Lubomira Bacheva, and — our favorite — Lina Krasnoroutskaya. (That last name, in case you're wondering, is just 13 letters shorter than the longest word in the English language, antidisestablishmentarianism. That is, unless you're counting pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which shows up only in medical dictionaries.)
8. Bud Collins' super-loud pants. Turn down the volume! But they're handy for adjusting the Technicolor on the telly.
9. Fast points on the men's side. Returning serve is like playing tennis on a Slip 'n Slide.
10. Thirty-two seeds in each draw. That's up from 16 — not that you were counting.
Things not to look for
1. Spaniards. Of those who didn't boycott Wimbledon, just one — eighth-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero — is among the top 20 seeds.
2. Happy clay-courters. If you are from Sweden or France, you probably agree with Chile's Marcelo Rios when he said of Wimbledon, “Grass is for cows.”
3. Anna Kournikova, who's not playing. However, you will see Anna Smashnova, who has a much better tennis name.
4. Other big names: Monica Seles, Mary Pierce, Gustavo Kuerten, Alex Corretja, Mark Philippousis, Richard Krajicek and Rios. All withdrew.
5. Tim Henman winning. Britain's great hope will lose to Sampras in the quarterfinals; he is 0-for-3 against Sampras here.
6. Martina Hingis winning the tourney. The world's No.1 women's player is becoming its No.1 choker; she hasn't won a Grand Slam event in more than two years.
7. A surprising women's champion.
8. For that matter, a non-American women's champion. Of the top five seeds, the only one not from the U.S. is the underachieving Hingis.
9. Crazy outfits by the Williams sisters. Gotta wear white, ladies.
10. Streakers. Those pasty Brits love to traverse Centre Court in the altogether. But you won't see them being tossed in the paddy wagon until NBC allows daytime nudity.
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Cable viewer's guide to Wimbledon
