Wonderful World Of Wimbledon / Barry Millns / 02 July 2008 / Leave a comment

And if the rain does come, spare a thought for the Order of Play Sub-Committee says Barry Millns

There is no doubt that the fine weather of the first eight days at Wimbledon made scheduling matches a seemingly straightforward task for the Order of Play Sub-Committee. But with the forecast for the remainder of The Championships looking far less settled they may have their work cut out to complete the tournament on time and, as we saw on Monday, even when the sun shines it is hard to keep everyone happy.

While the Williams sisters, who have won six of the last eight women's singles titles between them, had to play their fourth round matches against un-seeded opponents on Show Court 2 (rather than Centre Court or Court No.1), world No.2 Jelena Jankovic found herself consigned to Show Court 18 to face the Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn.

As things turned out the Williams sisters moved on comfortably without succumbing to the 'graveyard of champions', but Jankovic, struggling with a knee injury from the previous round, became another major casualty and was clearly upset about it.

"I don't know what they are doing to put Venus (Williams) on Court Two and I'm on 18, especially having an injury and asking for a favour to play a little bit later on in the day. They didn't do it. So it was quite hard. I was almost playing in the parking lot. I almost need a helicopter to go to my court. I think the scheduling is not right. I think the number one and two seeds should always be on the top show courts. The rankings show who deserves it."

Jankovic is not the first big name to fall on an outside court. Past champions such as Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Michael Stich and Conchita Martinez all came a cropper on Court 2 at certain times in their careers, with Sampras' second round exit at the hands of unheralded Swiss George Bastl in 2002 a particularly painful one as it proved to be the seven-time champion's last appearance at the All England Club.

"Wasn't happy about it," Sampras said at the time. "You know, much rather have been on one of the Show Courts. Court 2 is a very small court and, you know, just not quite as comfortable. But with that being said, it's still a match I should come through and win, no matter what court I play on."

The official Wimbledon website www.wimbledon.org lists no less than 28 different points in describing how the order of play is drawn up, but as Referee Andrew Jarrett explained the main factors taken into account are as follows:

"I think the first priority would be to look at Centre and No.1 Courts and to try to choose the matches we feel that the public watching those matches and also the millions watching on TV would like to see and obviously they are our show courts. We then look at the other show courts around the grounds and try to give the thousands of people coming in the showcase players on the major courts.

"We're aware of which countries are playing on which courts and we have an obligation to certain broadcasters to try to show their players where possible and we take that into account. We also look at lots of other factors. There are players playing in multi events, so people playing in singles and doubles would obviously expect their singles to be played before their doubles, we'd probably play doubles before mixed, so in some cases there is something of a Rubik's cube to try and sort out to get a good schedule."

But bearing in mind what happened to Jankovic on Monday are the players' wishes taken into account?

"If we can we will and certainly in an injured player's case we will try to accommodate that if possible. The fact is though that on second Monday we are playing the last 16 of the men and of the women and crucially the women have to come back the next day as they are today. So it is very important that all the women's matches are early on the Monday.

"There are 16 singles matches to be played, six of those can go on Centre and One, that leaves 10 to go elsewhere so whichever players would not be on Centre and One obviously once they have reached the round of 16 they probably feel they should be on a higher court and I understand that but if hadn't have been any particular group of players it may have well been the others."

One solution to the second Monday 'problem' would be to play on the middle Sunday. But unless the weather has being especially bad in the first week that remains a traditional rest day and while pleasing everybody all of the time is virtually impossible I think it's a case of 'rather them than me' when it comes to being on the Order of Play Sub-Committee.

Tags: Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt, Marat Safin, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Wimbledon betting