Monday, July 08, 2002
Streaker shakes things up at men's championship match
The Associated Press
WIMBLEDON, England — He danced and pranced on Centre Court, somersaulted over the net and bowed to the crowd.
No, not men's champion Lleyton Hewitt.
The streaker.
For the second time in six years, the Wimbledon men's final was interrupted by a naked prankster.
In 1996, a young woman wearing only a tiny apron dashed across the court just before the match between Richard Krajicek and MaliVai Washington.
On Sunday, it was a 37-year-old man — a self-described “serial streaker” — who enlivened the proceedings during a rain break in Hewitt's three-set victory over David Nalbandian.
With Hewitt leading 6-1, 1-0, the man jumped onto the court, shed all of his clothes, kicked off his shoes and did a little dance at the net. As spectators laughed and cheered, he did a pirouette, bowed, flipped over the net and flexed his muscles.
It took about two minutes before security officials reacted. The man hopped over the net to evade two male guards, before he was caught from behind by a female guard and escorted away with a red sheet around him.
Police identified the man as Mark Roberts, of Liverpool.
Roberts, who boasts of 150 streaking “performances” over eight years, was taken to Wimbledon police station for questioning.
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