News from Day 4 of the Wimbledon Championship from the Irish Times sports desk.
Nicholson going strong
Tennis fans of the 1980s should remember one of Ireland's top players, Siobhán Nicholson. The former Federation Cup player is part of the IBM statistics team at Wimbledon and has worked at the championships for the past nine years.
But the former Irish number one has not stopped playing. Now living and working in and around London, she has played her way onto the Britain Over 35s side and for the past two years has competed with Britain in the World team championships. The team of three came ninth in Florida in 2001 and fifth in Austria last year.
On the Irish Federation Cup team for a decade from 1983-93, Nicholson is also one of the few who arrive at Wimbledon each year who can actually boast of being a member of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
Remember, this is the club that refused 1981 championship winner John McEnroe membership because they considered him just not the right type. After all, the queen is a patron and the Duke of Kent is the president. Vice-presidents include Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burnett, the Rt Hon Lord Carr of Hadley and the Duke Of Devonshire. They don't list the annual subscription.
Baby Henman backed
British bookmakers stand to lose £1 million if Tim Henman passes on his tennis prowess.Henman's baby daughter, Rosie, has been so heavily backed at odds of 250-1 to win Wimbledon that London bookmaker William Hill faces a huge pay-out.
"Our greatest Henman liability is on daughter Rosie winning the tournament maybe 18 years down the line," said spokesman Graham Sharpe.
But she is not the only generation gap to attract punters. The odds on Jaden Gil, son of former champions Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, growing up to win Wimbledon have been slashed from 500-1 to 100-1.
"With a pedigree like his, punters are convinced that a Wimbledon win is a formality eventually. We just hope that Rosie and Jaden don't win in the same year - that would really be an ace result for long term speculators," Sharpe said.
Agassi counts blessings
At the ripe old age of 33, Andre Agassi treasures every time he steps out onto the centre court at Wimbledon, the greatest stage in tennis.
After blowing kisses and bowing to fans, he said after his 2003 debut on the hallowed turf: "For me at this stage of my career, it's quite a feeling to be out there.
"You never really know how many chances you are ever going to get again. I just feel like as I get older I have more sort of capacity to embrace these moments. It's just sort of a little thing I do to show my thanks."
Shouter says sorry
The man whose untimely outburst led to Greg Rusedski losing his temper and a sizeable chunk of his bank balance has vowed never to return to Wimbledon.
Zilioni Ivaldes claimed he began to shout out of turn during a Venus Williams match, claiming he induced a double fault from the American, and encouraged by that attempted to do the same in Rusedski's clash with Andy Roddick.
Ivaldes - who apologised for his actions - told BBC News 24 how he intended to help Rusedski's cause by wrongly shouting "out" at a Roddick shot when the American was on serve.
Ivaldes now claims he will "never, never" return to the All England Club and intends to "lie in shame" for the near future.
He also revealed the crowd around him showed little irritation at his outburst at first but then turned on him when the magnitude of his actions became apparent.
He added: "It wasn't a huge reaction but when Rusedski lost his serve they started shouting 'you moron, what have you done?' So I started shouting 'Come on Greg'."
Yesterday's details
RESULTS: Men's Singles, Round 2 (+) (6) D Nalbandian (Arg) bt A Sa (Bra) 6-2 7-5 6-2, K Kucera (Svk) bt T Suzuki (Jpn) 6-3 7-5 6-2, R Soderling (Swe) bt G Elseneer (Bel) 2-6 7-6(10-8) 6-4 6-3, (+) (10) T Henman (Gbr) bt M Llodra (Fra) 6-4 6-4 6-3, (+) (13) S Grosjean (Fra) bt W Arthurs (Aus) 6-3 6-4 6-7(12-14) 6-3, W Moodie (Rsa) bt F Niemeyer (Can) 7-6(10-8) 4-6 2-6 6-1 7-5, S Sargsian (Arm) bt (+) (26) J Blake (USA) 6-2 7-6(7-3) 6-2, (+) (3) J C Ferrero (Spa) bt N Escude (Fra) 6-7(5-7) 6-3 6-3 retired, O Rochus (Bel) bt A Dupuis (Fra) 2-6 6-3 4-6 7-6(7-5) 6-4, (+) (30) J Nieminen (Fin) bt S Galvani (Ita) 6-4 5-7 6-4 7-6(7-3), A Popp (Ger) bt R Sluiter (Ned) 7-6(7-4) 4-6 6-3 6-7(5-7) 6-2, (+) (11) J Novak (Cze) bt D Ferrer (Spa) 6-2 7-5 6-3, M Philippoussis (Aus) bt C Saulnier (Fra) 6-3 6-2 7-6(7-2), (+) (35) R Stepanek (Cze) bt S Draper (Aus) 7-6(8-6) 6-3 6-1, (+) (27) Y El Aynaoui (Mor) bt N Massu (Chi) 7-6(7-5) 3-6 7-6(7-4) 6-4, (+) (2) A Agassi (USA) bt L Burgsmuller (Ger) 6-3 7-6(7-4) 6-3
Women's Singles, Round 2 (1) S Williams (USA) bt E Callens (Bel) 6-4 6-4, (+) (28) L Granville (USA) bt T Perebiynis (Ukr) 6-2 6-3, A Kapros (Hun) bt M Sucha (Svk) 6-0 6-4, (+) (15) E Dementieva (Rus) bt A Parra (Spa) 6-1 6-1, (+) (10) A Myskina (Rus) bt L Krasnoroutskaya (Rus) 6-1 6-4, (+) (18) C Martinez (Spa) bt B Schett (Aut) 6-2 6-4, A Morigami (Jpn) bt K Sprem (Cro) 6-3 6-3, (+) (8) J Capriati (USA) bt M Mikaelian (Swi) 6-2 6-1, (+) (3) J Henin-Hardenne (Bel) bt F Pennetta (Ita) 7-6(7-2) 6-1, A Molik (Aus) bt (+) (31) E Likhovtseva (Rus) 6-3 6-4, (+) (23) L Raymond (USA) bt M Weingartner (Ger) 6-3 6-0, M Pierce (Fra) bt (+) (14) E Daniilidou (Gre) 6-4 6-1, (+) (11) J Dokic (Yug) bt E Gagliardi (Swi) 6-1 6-3, M Sharapova (Rus) bt (+) (21) E Bovina (Rus) 6-3 6-1, E Loit (Fra) bt M E Camerin (Ita) 3-6 6-2 6-3, (+) (33) S Kuznetsova (Rus) bt Y Cho (Kor) 7-6(7-2) 6-4
SINGLES: ORDER OF PLAY: Centre Court (1pm start): (25) Tommy Robredo (Spa) v (5) Andy Roddick (USA), (29) Nadia Petrova (Rus) v (4) Venus Williams (USA), (4) Roger Federer (Swi) v Mardy Fish (USA). Court 1 (1pm): (12) Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha) v Rafael Nadal-Parera (Spa), Samantha Reeves (USA) v (2) Kim Clijsters (Bel), (7) Chanda Rubin (USA) v (27) Silvia Farina Elia (Ita) Court 2 (noon): (9) Rainer Schuettler (Ger) v Todd Martin (USA), (5) Lindsay Davenport (USA) v Cara Black (Zim) Court 3 (noon): (16) Vera Zvonareva (Rus) v Iroda Tulyaganova (Uzb), Jonas Bjorkman (Swe) v Justin Gimelstob (USA) Court 13 (noon): (13) Ai Sugiyama (Jpn) v (22) Nathalie Dechy (Fra), Ivo Karlovic (Cro) v Max Mirnyi (Blr) Court 14 (noon): Doubles match, Francesca Schiavone (Ita) v Shinobu Asagoe (Jpn), Flavio Saretta (Bra) v Feliciano Lopez (Spa) Court 18 (noon ): Victor Hanescu (Rom) v (8) Sjeng Schalken (Ned), Maja Matevzic (Slo) v Paola Suarez (Arg)
