Wimbledon Digest

A round up of today's other Wimbledon stories in brief...

Sponsors foot Nadal's fancy

TOMORROW'S men's singles finalist Rafa Nadal is seeing to it that time does not become too much of a drag between matches. His sponsors Nike have fitted his rented house in Wimbledon with a football table to keep him and his team amused over the two weeks.

Court jester unable to court access

ILIE NASTASE remains a familiar sight around the Wimbledon campus. The court jester, however, has left the tournament early this year. According to Barbara Wancke, of Tennis Today: "He was upset that his accreditation did not give him access to the locker room."

New rules this year have come in to prevent many people being in the locker room at one time. Players are allowed only their coach or physiotherapist to be there before a match. The rules have apparently been devised to counter dodgy gambling, which has hit tennis in the last year.

Council promise camp concert

THOSE PEOPLE who camp over night in Wimbledon Park are to have their own entertainment in the years to come.

Merton council have decided they will organise a concert each year to keep the tennis rockin'. Just imagine what the line-up will be for middle-aged men and women.

Welcome back Cliff Richard.

Comedy in commentary

EDDIE IZZARD was spotted getting off the tube at Southfields to make his way to what they call here the tennis championships.

Izzard's style of comedy is described in Wikipedia as being "heavily influenced by Monty Python, especially in his use of a stream-of-consciousness delivery that jumps between topics as he free-associates onstage. He does not generally work from a script. Instead, he interrupts himself with new joke ideas, the characters he portrays turn into other characters, and he nonchalantly leaps from historical analysis to musings about household appliances."

Sounds like Boris Becker's BBC commentary.

Robson keeps British flag flying

LAURA ROBSON kept the British flag flying as she booked her place in the girl's final. The unseeded 14-year-old demolished Romana Tabakova 6-2 7-5 on a packed Court Three to continue her remarkable progress.

Bad weather set to reign

WIMBLEDON ORGANISERS are bracing themselves for the prospect of play extending into next week as heavy rain is predicted for tomorrow - the day of the men's singles final.

The official forecast gives a 90-100 per cent chance of rain for the day, with showers expected to last throughout the afternoon.

Bookmakers have slashed the odds on there being no play at all in the men's final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to just 6-4 - the shortest yet for a last-day washout.

Bad blood carries over

KEEPING WITH the frequently amusing Boris, the former champion pointed out yesterday during Rafa Nadal's match against Rainer Schuttler that if Nadal was playing soccer he would not have been allowed to carry on after cutting his left knee.

Becker pointedly referred to the Euro 2008 final where Michael Ballack was told to get off the pitch while a head wound was cleaned up and bandaged.