Rain delays play at Wimbledon

Tennis:Heavy downpours arrived shortly before the 1pm scheduled start of play, and tournament officials announced there would be a delay of at least one hour. Covers went on the courts when the rain began, and the slow process of closing the Centre Court roof began.

Unseeded German Sabine Lisicki was due to play French ninth seed Marion Bartoli, Serena Williams’ conqueror in the fourth round, in the first match on Centre.

That was scheduled to be followed by Russian fifth seed Maria Sharapova’s clash with Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova, who knocked out top seed Caroline Wozniacki yesterday.

With the roof being closed, those matches were guaranteed to be played, but the Court One action was under threat due to the wet weather. The Court One programme began with Czech eighth seed Petra Kvitova’s match against 32nd-seeded Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova, with unseeded Austrian Tamira Paszek second on against Belarusian fourth seed Victoria Azarenka.

Andy Murray was today given the backing of a man who knows what it is like to win one of his sport’s four majors as he prepared to continue his bid to do the same.

The hottest ticket in town at the All England Club was the Aorangi practice courts as Murray was introduced to golf’s new US Open champion Rory McIlroy, the Scot enjoying a lengthy chat with the Ulster star and John McEnroe.

McIlroy said: “I’m a big tennis fan. I grew up watching Tim Henman here at Wimbledon and cheering him on every summer. And now that’s passed over to Andy. We’re all behind him and hopefully he can win his first grand slam.”