Given all the disruption to the scheduling due to the weather, and following a middles Saturday where they ontl completed a couple of singles matches, I found the decision to NOT play on the middle Sunday ridiculous. They were very behind scehdule, the forecast was dry and what weather did we have forecast for the second week? None other than rain!. :rolleyes: Now we have a packed shcedule as a result with 4th round matches and 3rd round being played at the same time. In fact we've got 4th round matches up before the 3rd is even decided. Anyway these means less matches overall are televised and us hardened fans who want to see as many matches as possible miss out. I'm sure the players woudl rather have got their 3rd round out of the way earlier so as they might get a rest between matches. As it was completely dry yesterday, I'm even more disgusted, I really am! roflmao

Anyone have an opinion? Sorry to sound like 'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' but I am rather appalled! :D

I find it incredibly stupid considering the forecast for this week is what it is...
Sunday should been just to complete the matches that are to finish to bring up to date today.
Pretty archaic that we don't play on the 2nd Sunday anyway

I've had this discussion with a number of people SB and I am equally appalled :P For a start I can't understand why Wimbledon didn't start compensating for the bad weather before today - why have they not started matches on centre court at 11am for the last few days? Then to not play the middle sunday when the weather forecast for the rest of the week looks appalling is just beyond belief.

And I know I have an odd obsession with doubles, but the doubles matches are well behind schedule, and I can imagine that that will be a problem for players still involved in doubles and singles (the Williams sisters, jelena jankovic is playing mixed doubles - i'm sure there's others.......)

Wouldn't be surprised if we see a few doubles withdrawls..

Good point re the doubles. I was just over on the Wimby site and looked at today's schedule and started to think the same. I can't remember all the names but Wayne Arthurs is supposed to play two matches today, and in fairness he has a decent chance in hsi men's doubles. Might be a different story if he has 5 sets with Jonas though beforehand. :rolleyes: There are a lot of people playing both this year and that is really good to see. They will be withdrawing if this carries on though and that is a shame for the doubles. :( :angry:

Yes I really don't get it with the weather forecast. It's tipping down in London already and there is no way today is going to be as good for play as yesterday would have been. Stupid, stupid people.

Yes, I'm all for the middle Sunday becoming part of the schedule. Not onyl does thsi give more flexibility, but it rewards the fans better and gives mor epeople acces to the sport. The average person can't get tickets, so watches on TV. Sunday is a day when many are at home and able to watch as they work in the week or whatever, or go to school. Thsi would give tennis a great chance to get more popular over here, they could go for a really impressive 'showcase' schedule on the Sunday and win over more fans of the sport. Geroge was pissed off, he was looking forward to tennis this weekend as he works. He saw hardly anything and now all he's likely to see is the finals.

Thought I'd put in my two cents of absolute amazement and disgust. The people who make the decisions at Wimbledon need their heads reading - more likely there's nothing there to read.... :angry: :yikes:

And yes, DJ, I've been wondering, too, why they haven't been starting earlier. Probably never get up themselves until midday (mind you, I sort of sympathise with that :D )-

From the BBC live updates thingy:

0850: The official weather forecast goes for an "80% risk of showers, likely to be heavy at times with a risk of thunder, easing by early evening perhaps". John Kettley is a weatherman, as the Tribe of Toffs pointed out in their 1988 single. He's just been on the excellent Radio Wimbledon and the only word that stuck out is "mayhem". Crumbs.

0845: Morning all. It seems like only yesterday we were sitting on Centre Court giving weather updates, but it wasn't. It was the day before. Having enjoyed an afternoon of bright sunshine in south London on Sunday, it's back to normal today. A bright, blustery and humid start to the day is already turning gloomy.

:angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

And it's now raining :angry:

Well, I don't actually have a problem with Wimbledon not *normally* playing on the middle Sunday. As I see it, the middle Sunday is there as an 'insurance' for when they're behind with matches. But that applies to this year, during which the weather has been bad. The decision not to play any matches yesterday was plain daft.

We're still only on 3rd round for both mens' and womens' singles, and as has been pointed out, a few of the players are involved in 3 events. Feel sorry for the doubles partners of Bjorkman, Mirnyi, Jankovic, to name but three...

All I can say is Bravo :bow: I take a week off work, and after no play yesterday
was really looking forward to a full day (even without Fed) and guess what RAIN again :(
I really think we should start up an 'Arsder of the month' competition .
One or two strong candidates among Wimbledon organisers...

I know, I feel sorry for people like you who have taken time off for this. And those who can onyl watch evenings and weekends :(

Arsder of the month - definitley the Wimby Committee and John Inverdale, I can't stick him. And the other day he was talking about a second round match that was actually a third or fourth round match. :rolleyes:

The most annoying thing is, why didn't it rain on Friday? :devil:

:giggle:

If theres a lot of disruption today, they'll find themselves in a spot of bother.



Forecast:- http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/today....pcode=wimbledon

exactly :angry: :angry:


and bad on wimbledon organizers for not taking advantage of middle sunday :doh:

Well after today's washout, they will be regretting their decision I am sure. Rain is prevalent for the whole of this week, so they are effectively screwed methinks.

The only good thing about the rain is that I am getting to see quite a lot of the great Bjorn Borg. What a star he was. :bow:

Do the organisers not realise that daylight is at its longest this time of year? Why don't they start at 9 a.m. - that's the time a lot of people start work, some start earlier. Why should tennis players be any different?

Actually I know the answer. It's so that the corporate "fans" aren't upset. 1 p.m. starts are perfect for them. Leisurely lunch at 12 noon and enough time to trundle to their seats for the 1 p.m. start.

Sometimes it's really sickening that tradition gets in the way of a bit of common sense.

Definitely looking like an appalling decision now.

Yeah all those corporate people, debenture holders and other such priviledged folk make me sick. Most of them are there for a day's jolly rather than to see tennis. They want to be able to arrive late, have their lunches and drinks, and cherry pick the best matches while they sleep off their over indulgence from the hospitality. B*stards! roflmao

all this rain reminds me of when I went to Wimbers (with the then Mrs Lex to be) in 1983. We had a seat on No1 court, saw some great tennis and then on the way home it started absolutely welting it down and we got soaked to the skin. We ended up dancing on and off the pavement à la Gene Kelly, twas jolly good fun

Ahhh nostalgia ain't what it used to be

:rolleyes:

Superb decision from the Wimbledon officials. I've always wanted to see the face of Havoc, which was successfully masked in last year's US Open.

Just thought i'ld add my voice to the general consensus that it was an appalling decision-and it was so b*****n obvious that they should have played Sunday given the weather predicted for the rest of the week.
And why don't they start play earlier in the day to catch up too?
:angry:

A few quotes from Rafa's interview:

In the interests of fairness - a few other player's quotes:

I think I'm correct in saying that the current Wimbledon "referee" Andrew Jarrett is fairly new to the job, taking over from Alan Mills who I believe had been referee since the early 1980s.

If he was interested, it would be good for Mills to act as an "as and when" consultant to advise on such issues. His experience is invaluable to the tournament. After twenty odd years, he's probably had enough though!

Scheduling has been p*ss poor to be honest. I know there has been a lot of rain but I can't imagine it being this bad if Alan Mills were still in charge.
Yesterday we were on court 1 at about 16:00 watching a doubles match. Bearing in mind there were 2 4th round mens matches ready to be played - Berdych v Bjorkman and Baghdatis v Davydenko I was pretty disappointed that they were not played. We had only had the end of Nadals match and the Gasquet 4th round played already so it seems nonsense to not schedule another. Instead they were both played today on courts 18 and 15. Hardly seems right to me.

To be fair WA, we've been saying how awful it is that the doubles matches are ridiculously far behind, and players are having to play two matches in 1 day. bearing in mind that the men;s doubles are also best of 5, it's pretty bad how far they are behind.

However, I agree that some of the scheduling has been appalling and some of the decisions made just don't make sense. And apparently Wimbledon think this is going to finish on Sunday :o

I remember a few years ago, or was it in another GS, they shortened the doubles to best of 3. This shoudl apply now, bar the Final I guess.

In fact, besides playing the "middle Sunday", Winmbledon, with its history of bad weather, is the GS that ought to start/play the "1st" Sunday as well.

Its so frustrating that after so little play all week, we're now getting so many great matches at once . Reminds me of waiting for a bus... ;)

Some more thoughts. the finalists have to play 7 matches with the later matches theoritically tougher. So in fact, they shoudl play 4 the first week (easier rounds) and three in the second week as the matches get tougher and more rest is needed, balancing the effort over the 2 weeks. This, with a roof, would mean the end of 3rd Monday Finals.

Does anyone know whether the Final being Monday has been confirmed?

This is the latest report posted on the BBC which was at about 9.30am today.

Wimbledon officials are confident they will finish the tournament as planned on Sunday - but they are ready to extend into a third week if necessary.

The competition is behind schedule after eight days of rain interruptions and no play on the middle Sunday.

But tournament referee Andrew Jarrett told BBC Sport: "We are where we'd like to be in terms of the schedule.

"At the moment we can finish on Sunday and that is what we are planning to do - but obviously that can change."

Before play began on Thursday, the tournament was running 36 matches behind schedule, although most of those were in the mixed doubles.

"We are obviously playing catch up as best we can and will press on given any sort of decent weather," said Jarrett.

"I can only pay tribute to everyone involved, we got over 100 matches completed yesterday and that's fantastic.

"All we can do is try to make the most of the cards we are dealt weather-wise and yesterday was a very good day, which even included a rain break."

The weather forecast for the next four days has given hope that the tournament will finish on time.

But All England Club chief executive Ian Ritchie said it could be extended if the unpredictable weather returns.

"It's a possibility," Ritchie told BBC Radio Four. "If it happens, so be it.

"We're ready for it, we're prepared for it. If we have to play a tennis match on a Monday, it's not the end of the world."

Players, among them Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, have criticised the decision not to play on the middle Sunday.

But Jarrett responded: "When that decision needed to be taken, we were exactly where we wanted to be, singles-wise.

"We couldn't have played another singles further ahead than we were at the time.

"We were also faced with a weather forecast that was less than promising for Sunday, there was no justification for it.

"What has hurt us is having a subsequent bad Monday and Tuesday, that's given us the backlog.

"Then you can apply hindsight which certainly didn't apply on the Saturday."

The last time Wimbledon failed to finish on schedule was 2001, when wildcard Goran Ivanisevic's five-set win over Pat Rafter was completed a day late.

The current backlog is the worst since 1982, when more than three times the average midsummer rainfall forced third round matches into the second Wednesday.

In total, Wimbledon is due to stage 734 matches in 13 events across the 13 days of the Championships.

Thanks Dinky. That answers my/our question.

I personally woudl prefer a Sunday final, even if for the players that means more fatigue.

I know, I am fuming! We can't get them all on TV at the same time. I feel like I am really missing out this Wimby. There are so many great matches but we hardly see any. Even if we taped them all it woudl eb too much to see in one day. I enjoy the traditional build up over the rounds, it's awful when we are having matches form different rounds at once. Ruins th ebuild up of each stage.

I find what the ref is saying about being exactly where they wanted to be is odd - i wonder how far in advance they have to make the decision to play on the middle sunday?

'cos by the end of saturday they still about 7 3rd round men's matches to be played and 6 women's 3rd round matches :blink: and plus all the doubles matches, which appear not to matter when it comes to making that decision - i suppose it's down to money and getting people to go to Wimbledon on that middle sunday :wacko:

The way things are going I'd prefer them to committ to extendign the tournie for at least one day. Then we'll get to see more matches and nto feel liek we've misse dhalf the tournie. And it's nto fair on the players either. Ridiculous.

so would i - i'm gonna be at home with my folks and they have a tv. I'll miss it if it's on monday :angry:

i'll miss it too-back at work.
Bloody organisers, wonder how much these half wits get paid to make these decisions.

Too much. No doubt they will be waffling and giving each other a hearty pat on the back that they managed to finish on time. But the quality has been damaged. Mens semis were a huge anticlimax, mostly due to unnecessary fatigue. Hope he bucks his ideas up next year.