The new look Wimbledon Centre Court

In 2006 I had a pair of tickets for Centre Court for the opening day at Wimbledon. As you can imagine I was looking forward to it for weeks, and the anticipation was heightened when we read the Order of Play over the weekend (Fed; home favourite Henman, among others).

Unfortunately, when we woke up that morning it was pouring with rain. It brightened up during the course of the morning, before chucking it down again. And so it went on for the whole day. Rain, no rain (but courts still damp so no play), and then rain again. Repeat for 8 hours. A hugely depressing day during which we saw NO TENNIS!!

In a way we were among the lucky ones. We also had tickets for ladies semi finals the following week. The weather wasn't great that day either but we got a full day's play (Justine v Kim in an all Belgium semi; Sharapova v Mauresmo, and then Bob Bryan and Venus Williams in mixed doubles on one of the outer courts) and it was Wimbledon at it's best.

So as someone who has seen the best and the worst and been burnt by the weather I'm all in favour of the new centre court roof. If you want to take a look here's a short film from the BBC

Word association with Federer

As part of the build up for the Indian Wells semi Sky Sport did a form of word association with Federer. Roger was asked a series of rapid fire questions by Mark Petchey.

Here's the highlights:

* Favourite tournament: Wimbledon

* Toughest opponent: Nadal

* Favourite womens player: Hingis

* All time sports hero: Becker

* Best match you've been involved in: Sampras at Wimbledon 2001

* Favourite shot: forehand

* Any superstitions: none

* If you could play doubles with anyone who would it be: Sampras

* If you weren't a tennis player what would you be: A football player

It doesn't get any better than this

While stuck in the traffic on the way home this evening my mind drifted back to last year's Wimbledon final between Federer and Nadal. In particular the two momentus games in the fifth set which defined not just the match but the essence of Federer's brilliance.

Firstly, Federer some how soaked up the pressure from Nadal and saved two break points to hold serve and go 3 - 2 up. And then he broke Nadal thanks to a net cord and 3 of the best points you are ever likely to see.

The down the line forehand passing shot on the run; the brutal forehand winner down the line; and turning defence into attack as he runs around the ball and unleashes a stunning forehand down the line. Genius.

Watch it again on youtube thanks to sysphy11.