Weather Puts A Damper On Wimbledon’s Third Day
It was almost the perfect ending to another imperfect day: a cloudburst that forced Monica Seles off the court just as she reached match point after two days and 4 hours of waiting.
Seles couldn’t have played much faster, though it seemed to take forever before she won.
She glanced at the sky as she walked on Centre Court at 5:57 p.m. Wednesday, saw how dark and ugly the clouds looked, then raced to a 6-0, 5-2 lead in 44 minutes against Australian Rachel McQuillan.
A minute later on McQuillan’s serve, the second-seeded Seles drilled a backhand passing shot to move within a point of victory. A sprinkling of rain began to fall, but not quite enough to stop with perhaps one point to go. Seles tried a backhand lob, but McQuillan caught it and put away a volley to bring the score to deuce. Now came a showery spray that made the court slick and dangerous.
Seles asked the umpire if they should stop, though she surely didn’t want to delay the finish. She knew it could take minutes or days until she and McQuillan would return. The forecast calls for spotty rain at least through Saturday, raising the possibility of play on the middle Sunday for the first time since 1991 and only the second time in history.
“I was debating if I should (stop) after I lost that match point,” Seles said. “But it was so slippery that I don’t think it was worth it to risk it. I was not so sure I did the right decision, but at the end it worked out.”
The fans groaned when the players left the court with the end so near. All the men’s matches had been canceled already, and the only other match being played was on the No. 1 court, where No. 3 Jana Novotna was playing Wiltrud Probst.
But the fans cheered again when Seles and McQuillan returned a half-hour later - for all of four points. McQuillan won the first point, Seles the next three as she closed out the match. for a 6-0, 6-2 win.
Novotna, meanwhile, finished off her match with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 victory and Natasha Zvereva and Elena Likhovtseva on Centre Court. But they had to stop in the second set with Likhovtseva leading 6-2, 4-0.
Everyone’s getting pretty weary of the wet weather, which could push Wimbledon into a third week.
“It was tough because I was supposed to play Monday, so I was here all day Monday, and then I was expecting to play yesterday,” Seles said. “Today I was lucky to be first, but it’s tough on all the players.”
Though Seles lost in the second round last year and missed the three previous Wimbledons after she was stabbed by a German spectator in 1993, Seles seems to be a threat to win this one in the absence of Steffi Graf or any other dominant grass court player.
But Seles wore a morose expression after the match. As her father and coach, Karolj, fights stomach cancer at home in Florida, Seles finds she can take little pleasure in small victories.
“Obviously, it’s a pretty tough time I’m going through right now,” she said. “I can’t say I’m in the happiest period of my life in the last five years. But I guess you go through stages, and it’s a tough stage for me right now. I’ve just got to stick through it.”
MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WIMBLEDON AT A GLANCE A brief look at what happened Wednesday, the third day of the Wimbledon championships: Weather: Chilly with rain until early evening. High temperature was 61 degrees. Play started 6 hours late; only 2 of 77 matches completed. Women’s first-round winners: No. 2 Monica Seles and No. 3 Jana Novotna. Stat of the Day: Seles lost only four points in three service games in the 19-minute, 6-0 first set. Quote of the Day: “It’s a game, a sport that I’m playing, and what’s going on outside my (tennis) life is much bigger than that,” Monica Seles, referring to her father’s battle with stomach cancer.