Wimbledon: Oh No Arnaud


IT gets my vote as the worst question of Wimbledon 2008 – so far.
France’s Arnaud Clement had just lost a marathon five-hour quarter final against Germany’s Rainer Schuettler.
Their five set encounter over two days tied as the second longest singles match in Wimbledon history.
As you might imagine, Arnaud was not in the best of moods when he walked into the press conference room last night.
Which is when one of the foreign correspondents here asked him if he had a special plan for his semi final today against Rafael Nadal.
It did not improve defeated Arnaud’s mood.
“I’m not playing tomorrow,” pointed out the Frenchman, who had match point against his opponent before losing.
Day 11 sees Rainer – at 32 now the oldest swinger in town – facing Nadal for a place in the men’s final on Sunday.


He’ll do well to get out of bed this morning, let alone threaten Rafa.
That’s second match on Centre Court after Roger Federer v Marat Safin of Russia.
He says he has no chance against the Swiss ace.
But some think former world No 1 Safin may at least test Federer – with an outside chance of pulling off a real shock.
The bookmakers don’t believe we’ll have anything other than that dream men’s final.
Nadal is 1-29 to win today and Federer 1-16.

In action first on Court 3 is Britain’s Laura Robson, 14, in her girls’ singles semi final.
And those Williams sisters are first on Court 1 in their ladies’ doubles semi final.
You may also have heard that they have a little singles match to play here tomorrow
Todays pics show the early morning scene around Centre Court and Courts 4 and 5.
Wylie’s Wimbledon