I know Wimbledon has had a hell of a time with the rain disruptions and that would have challenged any scheduler. It has IMO made some bad scheduling decisions though like Middle Sunday, but I'm putting that aside for now. I do think they have paid the price fo their hectic catching up schedule though and shoudl have accepted by last Weds that they needed to extend the tournie by a day at least and planned accordingly. They didn't and whilst they have caught up, players have been forced to play too many matches in such a short space of time. That has taken it's toll and today we had a huge anti climax with 2 men's semis and a ladies final that were less than electric. Gasquet was flat and tired after his five setter that did not finish until the early hours of the evening, Bartoli was tired and the biggest sad thing and casualty in all of this was a semi final ending in retirement as Djoko was injured after all those hours on court in the last few days.

I know Gasquet was not expected to win, nor Bartoli, but I feel their matches would have been better had they both had a chance to recover. Djokovic did have a chance of making the finals and he must be really pissed right now. What a sad anti climax after such a great championship so far. :(

:) I do agree SB.... especially the no play Sunday fiasco. I mean traditions are traditions but sometimes you bite the bullet to make things happen smoothly ..life is not always perfect and written in stone....

On the other hand .... you must admire the athlete who came through it...
Venus won in straight sets day after day after day.......now that is mental grit..... Nadal's match played over close to 5 days ...but he comes back wins and is in the finals all over again......talk about "balls" he has......

An injured Serena ...albeit overly dramatic battles past a resurgent Hantuchova who should have easily punished Serena. Sometimes it is mind over matter ...just get the crappy thing over with...

It does hurt the overall feel of the tourney when the competition is weak .... and why cant they put roofs on all the courts...albeit even temporary plastic roofs.... some traditions...hmmm you have to take one look and then go :doh: it is the 21st Century.... :blink:

My thoughts exactly (the roof thing) Even the bloody Coloseum had canvas sun- and rainblockers that could be opened out at any time. Why none of this at wimbledon? It's only a matter of installing a large umbrella. The new roof on centre court is a step in the right direction but surely we can do better. Are we really going to let the romans beat us at stadium-design? Sadly the answer seems to be yes :doh:

Ive been looking forward since Wimbeldon started to a potential Djoko/Nadal Semi.It could have been the match of the tournament .
As it was, a huge disappointment ,and thats only one example .Shame on the organisers for having so many matches on consecutive days. :wacko:

Shame on Wimbledon organisers...you cannot expect players to play 4 matches in a row on 4 consecutive days - look at Djokovic, had to play tough matches against Kiefer, Hewitt, Baghdatis and then Nadal on consecutive days.

Credit to Nadal - he deserves his place in the final, but as I expected, the mens' semi-finals were anti-climatic. Gasquet was playing until after 8pm on Friday in a long 5 set match, yet had to come out and play at 12pm. As for Djokovic, I'm full of admiration that he actually bothered to turn up considering his previous schedule, and especially in that he took the first set against Nadal.

Yes, you can say that Federer and Nadal would *probably* have won their semi-finals anyway, but I really feel that Gasquet and Djokovic, who've achieved so much this tournament, deserved a rest day after their respective efforts.

At least both Federer and Nadal should be reasonably fresh for the final today, but shame on Wimbledon for not being bold enough to make the right decisions.

Exactly, I don't see how 1 roof over Centre Court is really going to help matters either? It will only give advantage to the players that are able to get on there and we all know who they will be.

Indeed a rest day and we may well have had a different final line up. It's such a shame that these guys had nothing left in the bag to give after all their efforts to get that far. I feel really sad for them. Shame on the organisation, they really should have more respect for the players.

Gasquet was kept hanging around from Monday until Wednesday to play his 4th round. Then again he had to wait around all Thursday. After completing his marathon on Friday he was then pushed on early on Saturday, poor guy he couldn't believe it. The organisers have played to their own tune that's for sure.

I agree with all of the above.

I think that the organisers have been misguided in their priorities. All they seemed to care about was whether the tournament finished by the Sunday, regardless of the scheduling needed to achieve that.

It's a shame, as certainly on the men's side, the semi final lineup looked so promising..

I thought that they should have decided that they were going to have to run on a day. You had the 2 men's semis yesterday, when really everyone needed a day's break. You have a mixed doubles semi being played this morning, and the final being played this afternoon - and Murray/Jankovic had to play 2 matches yesterday :shrug: And even if they couldn't have given them a days break, check out what gasquet had to to say after his match with roddick:

Could they have found a better way of scheduling the semis, so that Gasquet and djoko got longer breaks???? :shrug:

What was wrong with having the final on a Monday? :shrug:

Because then they would have had to do more work - perish the thought! No lets get it finished on time and put exhausted players out to play, regardless of the quality of tennis. Then we can all enjoy our pimms and put our feet up on Monday. It really is a disgrace.

A slight case of inverted snobbery there WA..? :huh:

Of course, having the final on the Monday means rubbish viewing figures for the beeb, comparatively speaking too.

Would have had a great atmosphere with the crowd if the 2001 final is anything to go by..

It's just times like these that show up why there is still a lot wrong with Wimbledon. I'm all for tradition and all but the class divide sickens me. It's time the organisers came down to earth.

perhaps that'S the Wimbledon version of Round Robin

:blink: :whistle:

Boris mentioned a re-think of the middle Sunday in his post match interview

You can just imagine the retired Majors choking on their port can't you!

Totally agree :bow:

Gasquet being scheduled at 12 noon too after coming off court at 8pm. :rolleyes: Federer himself said he felt sorry for Gasquet and felt that his tiredness was a factor, he said eh saw Gasquet in the locker room limping around and hardly able to bend down and tie his shoe.

Just think what woul dhave happened if we'd had a finalist in that state today. they were lucky that Fed and Nadal had a realtively easy time in thier last couple of matches or else the five set classic would have been a damp squib.

The crazy thing is people keep saying how well they did to get the championships finished on the right days......AT WHAT COST?

Gasquet i felt really sorry for and Rafa at the start while Rog had an easier time...

Bartoli i feel was disadvantaged too, but after beating Justine maybe she had nothing much left anyway, possibly she'd won her final psychologically(sp).

If global warming is a reality and is going to affect the weather so much, the powers that be have to consider all options to keep the championships going tidily.

Maybe 3 week Wimby????

Covering all the outside courts is not going to be feasible, even at the other slams. With Wimbledon, the additional problem is that it's difficult to cover the grass courts because they need whatever sun they can get, as far as I understand. It took them a long time to even design the roof for CC.

I certainly agree to some extent about the grass needing sunlight...rightly so ..but I think the traditions are a part of it..

There are huge soccer stadia oll over the world with roofs.....although I admit not all the grass are real, some synthetic.....but how special is the grass at wimbers. I know to some Fed may have walked on it..so that probably certifies it as "God" grass....but still........

And truthfully they dont necessarily show all the matches from all the courts so at least the the 5 or 6 that they know they will be showing games from they could try something....

They should just wait for tennis to explode in China...or Dubai ...they will build a 5-star tennis complex with some retractable uv cutting roofs and all.... plus even hotel complex and spa.... and then we will all become tourists there and be say ing "wow".

Woe be tide us if it is a GRASS court :coffee:

Hey Styeffo :hug:

Agree entirely. Gasquet was unlikely to beat Fed bu tthose two in a semi was a dream coem true. Fed said he was dissappointed because Richard was exhausted. Bartoli was theoutsider but who knows what she would have produced had she had a rest as is the norm. A better match for sure. And poor Djoko too. Well I know a lot say Nadal was supreme came through etc but he is one of the fittest on tour. Credit to him for that, but that is NOT what the game is all about. The playing field was made unlevel by tall of this and both players and fans were deprived a sa result.