Wimbledon Diary

Doubles pair on a roll:Out on Court 16, people were wondering why the Brazilian pair of Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa were rolling around on the grass. Looking at the scoreboard they then realised why. The two had just won their second-round match against the sixth seeds, Australian Paul Hanley and Zimbabwean Kevin Ullyett, 5-7, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 28-26. Yes, 26-28.

But that wasn't the record for the most games in a set at the championships. That record belongs to Mr Olmeda and Mr Segura playing against Mr Forbes and Mr Segal. Olmeda and Segura won 32-30, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 back in 1968 in what were called the Gentlemen's Doubles.

Becker chooses words

This year's repeated rain delays in Wimbledon have meant much time spent watching television, and TV itself is having difficulty, in the absence of live action, filling the hours scheduled.

Boris Becker and John McEnroe, among others, have been put in front of the cameras and told to talk. And Becker has attributed much of his fluency to his old rival; he said his English vocabulary expanded hugely when as an 18-year-old he first played the American.

"I have to remember that children may be watching," said the German. "So I don't use any of the words that I learned from him that day."

Still falls the rain

Rain has fallen on eight of the nine days so far, the only dry day being the middle Sunday, when traditionally no tennis is played. It has been the wettest championships since 1982. At the end of play on Tuesday the organisers were 178 matches behind schedule - 64 in the main events.

Referee Andrew Jarrett said, "It's utterly ghastly. It's a situation of concern and we are continuing to look at it on a daily basis." The rain, he means.

Natives not revolting

Wimbledon's relationship with the neighbours around the leafy suburb of SW19 is the best it has been for more than 10 years. The All England club has been very careful to cultivate understanding, especially as work over the next two years will see a new roof go on Centre Court.

The club are no doubt mindful of how they angered residents 10 years ago when they tried to register the word Wimbledon as a trademark, to be used specifically for tennis purposes.

Thar lear agus thar barr

TG4 have been covering Wimbledon for three years and yesterday were negotiating for another term in Centre Court. The network also covers the second week of the French Open at Roland Garros and the Tour de France, which gives an international dimension to their coverage from late May right through to the end of July.

Speaking Irish clearly doesn't mean being parochial in outlook.