Sports in brief: Murray, rain raise roof at Wimbledon
Tennis: They played into the night on Centre Court, later than anyone ever had in Wimbledon’s long history, and they played indoors, the first match contested entirely under the new roof.
And at 10:39 p.m. Monday, when No. 3-seeded Andy Murray of Britain finally finished off a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory over No. 19 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland to reach the quarterfinals at the All England Club, the partisan fans celebrated their guy’s victory with quite a roar.
“It was pretty special,” said Murray, who dropped to his knees when the match ended, then stood and swatted a ball straight up so hard it hit the roof.
No man from Britain has won Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936, and, like his countrymen, Murray — a 22-year-old from Scotland — is more interested in that sort of history than the sort he and Wawrinka made Monday.
Still, these circumstances were rather extraordinary, what with Centre Court’s roof shut, the lights on and a chance to play the match until its rightful conclusion, no matter how late. That’s never before been the case at Wimbledon, where unlike the U.S. Open, there never has been lighted courts, and matches often are stopped in progress because of darkness. Previously, no Centre Court point had been played later than 9:35 p.m.
At a tournament that began in 1877, not a single point had been contested indoors until earlier Monday, when a light sprinkle interrupted No. 1-ranked Dinara Safina’s 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over 2006 champion Amelie Mauresmo. After the fifth game of the second set, the translucent roof above the main stadium was closed, and Safina and Mauresmo finished up underneath — even though by the time they resumed, the rain had stopped.
Five-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer won easily, as did two-time runner-up Andy Roddick and No. 4 Novak Djokovic. Venus Williams, like Federer chasing a sixth title at the All England Club, was way ahead when her opponent, former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic, quit with a thigh injury. Williams’ younger sister, Serena, herself a two-time Wimbledon champion, and No. 4 Elena Dementieva were never challenged in their straight-sets victories.
One surprising run ended in the fourth round. Melanie Oudin, a 17-year-old qualifier from Marietta, Ga., who never won a Grand Slam match before last week, lost to No. 11 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-4, 7-5.
•U.S. Davis Cup team set: James Blake is joining Andy Roddick and the Bryan brothers on the U.S. Davis Cup team that will play Croatia in next month’s quarterfinals.
U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe has picked Blake over Sam Querrey and Mardy Fish.
This is the 12th time in the last 13 Davis Cup contests that McEnroe is using the same quartet of players.
The best-of-five quarterfinal will be July 10-12 on an indoor clay court in Porec, Croatia.
Mourners remember slain coach
Football: Thousands of mourners gathered Monday in Parkersburg, Iowa, to remember a slain high school football coach as a man of faith who believed in leading by example.
Family, friends and former players packed into a church, community center and parking lot for the funeral for Ed Thomas, the 58-year-old longtime coach at Aplington-Parkersburg High School who was gunned down Wednesday in the school weight room.
The number of mourners easily topped the roughly 1,800-person population of Parkersburg as people filled the church, watched a broadcast of the funeral in the community center and spilled into a parking lot to listen to the service.
Thomas worked as a head coach for 37 seasons – 34 of them at Aplington-Parkersburg.
He was named the NFL’s 2005 high school coach of the year and over his career amassed a 292-84 record and two state titles. He coached a number of players who went on to the NFL, including Green Bay Packers linebacker Aaron Kampman, Jacksonville Jaguars center Brad Meester, Detroit Lions defensive end Jared DeVries and Denver Broncos center Casey Wiegmann. All four served as pallbearers.
Authorities have charged Mark Becker, a 24-year-old former player at Aplington-Parkersburg, with first-degree murder. He remained in the Cerro Gordo County jail on a $1 million bond.
NASCAR reveals another Mayfield test
Auto racing: NASCAR filed court documents Monday night that show an independent laboratory found an illegal substance in the urine sample that led to Jeremy Mayfield’s suspension for a failed drug test.
The documents, part of NASCAR’s response to Mayfield’s lawsuit to have his indefinite suspension lifted, show that Medtox Laboratories in Minnesota tested both his “A” and backup “B” samples last week and “confirmed the presence” of a substance that is blacked out in the filing.
Both sides are due in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, and Mayfield is hoping a judge reinstates him in time to travel to this weekend’s race at Daytona.
NASCAR, which is countersuing, argued in its filing Monday that the “safety risk is simply too significant to let Mayfield back on the track.”