Rain not the only Wimbledon certainty

RUMOUR had it over the past few days that an entirely dry championships would cost the bookmakers a fortune. Rain was a racing certainty at some point over the space of the two weeks, the odds clearly said and, if they were wrong, the word was that there were going to be a few fingers burnt. Then, shortly after lunchtime, it began to bucket down over south west London and, as usual, your average punter was looking like a mug.

After rain, the next hottest favourite at this event is Steffi Graf who was three to one on to retain her title before she so much as lifted a racket in anger here.

Yesterday, the German was herself ahead of her third match with Nicole Arendt the US but, in her absence, was precious little on display in the other half of the draw that bookmakers had got their sums wrong on her prospects either.

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario made it safely through to the last 16 but, even without the obstacle of Monica Seles to cope with at the semi final stage, the 24 year old from Barcelona made fairly heavy going of the early stages of her Centre Court clash with Naoko Sawamatsu of Japan.

The Japanese woman has never beaten the Spaniard in their four meetings, while on only one occasion has one of their matches required a third set, but she made a positive start to her assault on the fourth seed this time around. After she had allowed a four games to two lead to be transformed into a 6-4 first set loss, however, her head went down and there was only the slimmest of chances that she would fight her way back into the proceedings.

The 23 year old right hander certainly had some useful shots in her repertoire, particularly a good passing forehand which repeatedly caught her opponent out, but she had a tendency to stand back and admire her handiwork which, as Sanchez Vicario gradually began to push herself, proved to be a costly flaw in her game.

A couple of snort breaks due to the rain also seemed to help settle the former French Open champion who admitted afterwards that "I think I concentrated better from then on, I started to try to be more aggressive and to go for more shots, especially after missing so many in the first set."

The improved approach par off for last year's runner up who wrapped up the match for the loss of just one game in the second set after just over 80 minutes on court.

As in the men's event, the bottom half of the draw, in which Sanchez Vicario resides, continued to thin out yesterday with the removal of the women's game's biggest server, the 25 year old Dutch player Brenda Schultz McCarthy.

At one stage during the 11th seed's marathon battle with, Sabine Appelmans the tournament organisers looked like having to shell out for a new scoreboard after one of Schulz McCarthy's powerful serves sprayed bits of the one being used in several different directions.

That sort of power alone seemed likely to be enough to dismantle the game of her Belgian opponent. Appelman's record of late would hardly have inspired any great confidence in her ability to add her name to the tournament's ever growing list of giant killers, but her performance at Linz in March, where she beat first Jana Novotna and then Helena Sukova in straight sets, suggested that she knew how to handle pressure.

She displayed that talent early on with a fine service return and a willingness to move in to the net herself when required. Schulz McCarty's game, meanwhile, was riddled with errors although she did battle her way back from a set down to level the match at 7-5, 3-6 and force the decider.

In the third, though, it was the Belgian who actually looked the more secure on her serve but while she continued to find cracks in the 11th seed's game she didn't seem able to find a way to exploit them.

She held three match points at 7-6 and 0-40 up, only for the Dutchwoman to survive the first due to a strange looking line call that went her way, the second thanks to a fine back hand drop volley at the net and the third, more predictably, by way of a big serve for deuce.

The pattern persisted for some time with the seed repeatedly having to work her way out of trouble but still Appelmans held her serve (and her nerve). She eventually ended a run of 28 games without a break to clinch the match 12-10 in the third after her opponent had played a weak volley from the net and allowed her a great deal of time to pick her spot with a forehand pass.

It is, one hopes, just the sort of resolve that might trouble Sanchez Vicario.