Bud's 2004 Wimbledon Diary - June - July 2004

Wimbledon - FIREWORKS FROM ANDY, FINESSE FROM ROGER - July 4 , 2004
The Lone Roger rides again.
Into a green gulch called Centre Court he galloped, firing accurately, decisively and rescuing a priceless trophy that a troublemaker named Andy Roddick was trying to steal from him. >>>MORE

Wimbledon - WE JUST MET A GIRL NAMED MARIA - July 3 , 2004
“Maria...we just met a girl named Maria...say it loud and there’s music playing...”
OK, so it wasn’t the Maria of “West Side Story,” who had a lousy backhand anyway. But the Maria we’ve just met, brings the music of a Dixieland band to town – loud, brassy, confident. >>>MORE

Wimbledon - BACK TO THE DAY OF WATER CLOSET-GATE - July 2 , 2004
No surprises here: more bloody rain, preventing Andy Roddick and Roger Federer from completing semis in which they lead. Roddick, is ahead of the dangerous and daring 20-year-old Croat, Mario Ancic, 6-4, 4-3, but would have to sleep on a break point at 30-40 when the day-finishing downpour arrived. Federer was in clearer control of Sebastien Grosjean, 6-2, 6-3, 4-3. >>>MORE

Wimbledon - JUVENILE LEAD - July 1 , 2004
Today the juvenile lead, Maria Sharapova, showed she was ready for the Big Babes. She went against a champion and walked off Centre with the biggest souvenir of her brief career: a 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, decision over her biggest opponent, 6-foot-3 Lindsay Davenport, the 1999 victor. >>>MORE

Wimbledon - 3 BALLS IN THE AIR – WHICH TO SERVE, SERENA? - June 30, 2004
The only way that Serena can win is to win the whole thing.
That’s the proposition at Wimbledon for the champion of tennis, who thinks she can be the champion of juggling, too. Her critics wonder. But Jennifer Capriati is not one of them. Not after what happened to Jennifer during the lunch hour. She was lunch, and Serena Williams looked like the cat that swallowed a southern fried canary with biscuits and gravy. The gravy was thick and tasty. Capriati must have felt enmeshed in an upside-down scenario with a script warped and all wrong: Tweety Bird gets caught. >>>MORE

Wimbledon - BABES WITH STRONG ARMS - June 29, 2004
They found a new baby. Two of them, actually, and the 13,808 parishioners at the first church of tennis -- Centre Court, Wimbledon – nodded their approving amens, feeling they’d had a vision of the future in the female precinct. >>>MORE

Wimbledon - THE LILLIPUTIAN ESCAPES GULLIVER - June 28, 2004
Gulliver looked down at the Lilliputian, raised his club and bashed the little ball past the little man. It was his last destructive act in what the Lilliputian called his “scary” presence in London. >>>MORE

Wimbledon - A PARTY FOR THE PEASANTS - June 27, 2004
It’s Peasants Sunday, thanks to the raid god, Jupiter Pluvius, and anybody can get in if they line up soon enough.
Now, who is that man on Centre Court impersonating Quasimodo?
Why, it’s Tim Henman with the Rock of Gibraltar on his back. >>>MORE

Wimbledon - DRIP...DRIP...DRIP...IN RECORD QUANTITIES - June 26, 2004
Rain and Wimbledon go together in the moisture league as familiarly as gin and vermouth. But, as with Martinis, if you get too much it drives you cuckoo. >>>MORE

Wimbledon - LIFE IN THE GRAVEYARD - June 25, 2004
Ah, Ye Olde Burying Ground.
Andy Roddick had heard the tales of ghosts, goblins and glitches. But he paid his first visit to Wimbledon’s scary Graveyard of Champions just the same because, “It’s part of tennis. It’s fun experiencing everything.” >>>MORE

Wimbledon - VENUS, ALAS, DESCENDING - June 24, 2004
Are we witnessing the Decline and Fall of the Williams Empire? There are signs – certainly of Venus descending. Maybe Serena will be able to retain her title in a watered-down field, but she hasn’t been impressive during her comeback that began in March with a title at Key Biscayne. By that I mean Serena-style impressive with a capital I to which we’ve become accustomed. Regardless of the rankings – she is No. 10, though seeded 1st -- Serena may yet be the best on the planet. >>>MORE

Wimbledon - AND THE RAINS CAME...BUT IT’S THE BIG W- June 24, 2004
That well known rain forest in southwest London, formally entitled The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, has been wet – that’s no upset – but somewhat wetter that usual. When the showery and cold third session, Wednesday, was “abandoned,” the official term used here, at 6:45 PM, not a single ball had been struck. Now that’s extraordinary. Despite the traditional rainy interruptions, it was only the 14th total washout in 45 years. >>>MORE

 

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