Wimbledon Diary

A Dubliner who happens to get the offer of a pair of tickets for the women's final may have quite an expensive day ahead.

If they take the Tube to Southfields from central London, it will cost them £4 each way. An official programme will add another £7, while the Wimbledon luxury cushion, a must given the long hours spent waiting for play, is £15.

Given that you will spend many of those hours dodging rain, you'll also need a shower cape, which is £5, and perhaps a packet of sucky sweets for £2. With the tickets priced at £80 each, the all adds up to £117 per person before a sandwich or glass of "vino" has been taken (two glasses of wine £9). Converted to euros that's, eh, a lot.

Homer banned

Doh! Fans who were, this week, given posters of Homer Simpson outside Wimbledon had them confiscated as soon as they arrived inside the grounds. The organisers are fiercely protective of those companies who pay large sums to be associated with the championships, and the posters were seen to be an effort at "ambush marketing". The new Simpsons film is arriving in London soon, no doubt with Homer in a headband and mixing it up on the green sward. But hang on a minute, he was here a few years ago dressed as Jeff Tarango.

Not all a freeway

The punters that get off at the nearest tube station, Southfields, to the All England Club, have been spoiled over the years with the number of free items they are handed during their 15 minute walk to the club. They are given free yogurt, radios, chocolate, papers, juice, water, etc. As a result, the newsagent inside the grounds has had to take protective action, placing a notice on the newspaper stand out side the shop: "NOT FREE".

You always get one

Sitting around trying to kill time by watching the BBC and reruns of John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors has obviously had dramatic effects around the players' locker-room.

On Thursday the normally mild-mannered Swede Jonas Bjorkman finally cracked. Describing umpire James Keothavong, brother of the British player Anne, as worthless, Bjorkman continued saying, "You're a f**king maniac. I'm so f**king tired of you."

Unlike "Superbrat" Bjorkman had the decency to say it all in Swedish.

First serve in

You might wonder how difficult it is to win a game off Roger Federer when he is serving well. Juan Carlos Ferrero found out yesterday in the third set of his quarter-final match against the world number one.

Ferrero did well to take the second set but when the Swiss stepped it up he won 93 per cent of the points on his first serve.

Obviously opponents have got to try harder.