Enjoying the Rain

The 2008 Wimbledon Championship has been remarkable for a number of reasons. There is the complete collapse of the top four seeds in the women’s game and the likelihood of an all Williams final yet again. There is Murray’s come back against Gasquet in the darkness of a Monday evening that produced probably the finest atmosphere anyone can remember. Then there is the complete and utter absence of rain until the second Wednesday.

Wimbledon is all about rain; it’s the thing that the tournament is best known for – apart, I suppose, from being on grass. Everyone remembers and still mentions that time back in whatever year it was when Cliff Richards entertained the crowd in Centre Court during one particularly heavy rainstorm.

Anyway, this year might be the last year that Wimbledon, or more accurately the Centre Court programme experiences delays due to rain. A plan is currently being carried out to place eight enormous white girders on the roof of the stadium that will allow for a removable roof to be put above the Court in the event of rain. Each girder, apparently, weighs about seventy tonnes, so we must all live in hope that whoever worked out the weight that the roof could handle got their calculations right.

The adding of a roof on Centre Court is undeniably a great decision by the Wimbledon organisers. Particularly bitter British tennis fans will remember how if it weren’t for a rain break we would almost certainly have seen Tim Henman play a Wimbledon final. We would almost certainly have seen Tim Henman lose a Wimbledon final as well but that is neither here nor there.

So for the moment the players must endure rain breaks, though one cannot imagine it will make much difference to the outcome of the tournament. Part of the reason why Federer and Nadal are by far and away the best players in the world is because of their incredible mental fortitude, and a little bit of a rain break now and then won’t disrupt either of them all that much. Whilst it might cause a bit of stiffness every now and then it will almost certainly do more damage to the opposition than it will to either of the top two players in the world.

When it comes down to it, in fact, Nadal may be looking forwards to the rain for the rest of this Championship. Having sustained that injury to his right knee any opportunity to give it a rest and to get some treatment on it may come in more than useful.

As much as it would be nice to imagine Murray getting through to a Wimbledon final, it’s highly unlikely to happen unless Nadal’s injury is much more serious than we have been led to believe. According to the online bookies Blue Square Murray is 7/2 to win the match, whilst Nadal comes in at 6/1 on. If I were into sports betting I know where my money would be.

Sports Betting Odds provided by Blue Square.