Nadal Power

Reviewed by Kate Battersby

Unexpected questions of our time.... Having won a straightforward victory over Ryan Sweeting to reach the third round, Rafael Nadal was asked in his post-match press conference if he is "a man in decline". Yes, that Rafael Nadal. The No.1 player in the world, who earlier this month acquired his 10th Grand Slam title at the French Open. You could forgive the Spaniard for appearing politely startled.

"Me?" he queried, reasonably. "But I won Roland Garros two weeks ago. It's a little bit fast to say I am a man in decline. Next year maybe. But probably now it is a little bit dangerous to say that."

Apparently the question was prompted by the fact that Nadal must defend his Wimbledon crown if he is to stand any chance of retaining the No.1 spot, and will lose the top ranking in any case if Novak Djokovic makes the final. All the same, Nadal was slightly baffled.

"This is my seventh year in the top two," he pointed out. "That's a lot of years. Maybe they are right. I don't know."

His opponent Sweeting, probably would not classify Nadal as "a man in decline". The big news for the American was that he broke through the four-game barrier against the world No.1 in their second round match on the Centre Court. In their two previous career meetings, both this year, four was as many as he could amass on either occasion. By the time he equalled that mark, he was already a set and 4-1 down, but he knew its significance and whirled his arms in the direction of the crowd, to encourage them to applaud the moment all the more.

Incongruously, he seemed less excited by his ultimate acquisition of nine games in all, perhaps because he couldn't quite manage to gather enough at any one time to add up to an actual set. Instead the nine games were distributed throughout what was always going to be an entirely routine victory for the defending champion, with the scoreline eventually reading 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. Ah well.

For Nadal the chief novelty of the occasion was that it was the first time he had played under the Centre Court roof. In the event protection from the elements proved superfluous, as in fact there was no rain for the duration of the match. But when the encounter began showers were still forecast. In the British summer, it pays to exercise caution.

"With or without the roof, the Centre Court is the best court in the world," enthused the Spaniard diplomatically afterwards. "It's always a pleasure to play on it - but for sure I prefer to play with the roof off."

Nadal's second round match directly followed Venus Williams' enthralling win over the veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm. It takes an exceptional occasion for spectators to vacate their seats at the start of any match involving Nadal, and this was one of the few times when the Spaniard went into battle in front of a half-empty stadium. The die-hard fans who knew where their correct priorities lay included HRH the Duchess of Cornwall in the Royal Box, who nipped out for the briefest possible break between matches before returning to see Nadal. Clearly she was keen to make the most of her visit to SW19.

Federer beaten in grass court wins contest

Reviewed by Sally Easton

Federer has the most grass court titles in the Open Era - 11 in total: six from Wimbledon and five from Halle in Germany, which is held in the week before Wimbledon. He didn't play at Halle this year, which is regarded as a warm-up event to Wimbledon, having withdrawn with a sore groin after his losing Roland Garros final.

It is only the third time in his career that Federer has not played a warm-up event on grass before coming to London. But not to be daunted, the last time he didn't play a warm-up competition was in 2009, which turned into his sixth Wimbledon title.

In the Open Era, only six men have won Wimbledon without playing any grass court warm-up event: Stan Smith, 1972; Jan Kodes, 1973; Bjorn Borg, 1976 to 1980 (all of them); Boris Becker, 1989; Andre Agassi, 1992; and Roger Federer 2007 and 2009.

And of the 19 men who arrived at the tournament without playing any sort of grass court warm-up event before coming to SW19, only nine remain in the draw: Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, David Ferrer, Mardy Fish, Richard Gasquet, Fernando Gonzalez, Jurgen Melzer, Robin Soderling and Mikhail Youzhny.

But in terms of outright wins, the Swiss supremo is only the second most successful active player on grass, with a 98-14 career record. Australia's Lleyton Hewitt has the extraordinary career record on grass of 104 wins to 27 losses. His grass court title tally is four below that of Federer, with seven, which puts 30-year-old Hewitt at No.2 in the rankings of grass court title holders. His most recent grass court title was at Halle in 2010, when he defeated no other than Roger Federer in the final.

Third in wins on grass amongst active players is Andy Roddick with 78-19. Of the top three, only Federer can still improve his record in this tournament.

Staying on the grass, out of the seven possible ATP tennis tour grass court tournaments (Nottingham, UK; Eastbourne, UK, Halle, Germany; Queen's Club, UK; Wimbledon, UK; s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands; Newport, USA), Wimbledon has been the location of the first career grass court title for just two men since 1968 - Michael Stich in 1991, and Andre Agassi in 1992.

Tennis Strokes

 Federer Forehand

Set up position is with the right foot behind and outside the front left footwith the hips and shoulders rotated so that your opponent has a good view of the back of your left shoulder. Your feet should be approximately at a 45 degree angle to the net.

Djokovic Backhand 

If you're a one-hander, you want your set up position to allow you to make contact with the ball with your arm in a comfortably bent (at the elbow) position. That is, on contact with the ball, you don't want your arm to be too bent at the elbow, or too straight.

For double handers, the right elbow generally remains more bent than for a one handed shot. At all costs, try to avoid hitting the shot with a straight front arm.

Nadal Slice

The swing itself should be very smooth, keeping the racket head above the wrist all the way through the shot. Don't try and generate pace by using lots of arm speed. Generate your pace with the timing of the shot. You should be leaning into the ball and hitting through the shot. Keep the wrist locked at all times, and keep the hand high in the follow through; i.e., don't let the hand relax and fall away with a subsequent drop in the racket head. At all times, attempt to keep your arm, wrist, hand and racket in line with one another. 

Service and smash

 You can hit the ball into the correct service square underarm if you want and it is a legal stroke. Your feet must be behind the baseline on the correct side of the court. If your feet touch the baseline or the centre mark it will be a foot fault. See court lines for further explanation. The serve is another stroke that has changed a lot in the last 20 years. Then, a player's first serve would be equivalent to the power of a player's second serve today.

Also the purpose of the serve has changed. It used to be just to get the first point before running in to the net and playing a volley.

Passing Shot – A Bit of Trivia

The WTA rankings have been updated following the conclusion of the French Open.  Not surprisingly, Na Li has jumped to a career high ranking of 4, and Andrea Petkovic is now knocking on the top 10 ranking door. Carlone Wozniacki still remains on top, notwithstanding her inability to secure a first grand slam title.  The blogger does view Schiavone’s decline of two places to number 7, somewhat unfair. Surely, if a player is good enough to reach the final of a grand slam (let alone the French Open) in consecutive years, she should not be penalised, under what is clearly a tortured rankings system.  It should be recognised as an outstanding achievement, rather than an inability of the player to defend “points”.  In one word, a “nonsense”.

What did catch the bloggers eye, was the fact neither of the Williams sisters’ names appear in the top 20 ranking.  Venus and Serena have been an integral make up of the women’s tennis elite for a long long time.  Unfortunately due to injury, and perhaps a lack of motivation, the sisters have not played on the WTA tour for some time.  In Venus’s case, not since the Australian Open this year, and longer for Serena, who last played a competitive game, when she won the Wimbledon final last year.

So, when was the last time neither Williams sisters were ranked in the top 20?  Answer – 1998.  Some 13 years ago.  It therefore goes without saying, the sisters, winners of a combined 20 single grand slam titles, and 12 doubles crowns, will be remebered as greats, and in the case of Serena, probably one of the greatest female tennis players, ever to play the game.  Can they return the top 20 ranking?  The word is, both sisters will make their return to the courts at the Eastbourne lead up event, prior to Wimbledon.  The blogger certainly isn’t ruling our successful returns for both, and another grand slam victory before the years out, let alone their careers.

Service

by: Jeff Cooper

The basic serve shown here is a complete tennis serve with all of the same elements that a top pro would use, except for intentional spin. Some players naturally hit spin if they learn the basic serve with a Continental grip, but many players find it easier to learn with an Eastern forehand grip, in which case they're more likely to hit the ball flat (without spin). At any given speed, flat serves don't have as much clearance over the net as do serves hit with some topspin, so it's worth trying to use the Continental grip first. If you take to it well, you'll be hitting a mixture of topspin and sidespin (slice) pretty soon, and you'll be well on your way to an advanced serve. If you find the Continental grip too awkward, though, it's okay to start with the Eastern grip. In learning how to serve, spin is much less important than the many other factors we're about to discuss.

Forehand/Backhand

By:  John the Coach

This is a great drill for practicing your strokes as well as "thinking" about the stroke your going to play.One player can only hit forehands, but they can hit the ball anywhere in the court. The other player must hit forehands crosscourt, and backhands straight down the line. In other words, they must always play to the forehand side of the other player. Any balls landing in the backhand side are out, and the point goes to the forehand player. Volleys can be played but the same rules apply, only forehands by the forehand player, and the other forehands crosscourt or backhands straight up the line. You play the first one to 11 points by 2. Thinking is really important, especially by the player only playing forehands, they must "think before they play the shot", what the best shot will be to play. Once 11 points has been reached, swop roles. Then play the same with backhands only. You need to play this a couple of times to get the idea, but its a great training game, for stroke production, movement and tactics. www.tennis4you.com

Reviewed By Chris Chase


A sampling of opinions about Serena Williams' comeback from injury:

• "I feel I have nothing to lose. There is only one way I can move and that's up." -- Serena Williams

• "Williams used to have control over wins and losses, but not these days. She might well win two or even three more rounds this tournament, considering her draw. If she somehow does win the title - with the aid of, say, a fast-spreading and debilitating disease in the women's locker room - it would be an indictment of the rest of the draw, not a credit to Williams. Nothing can change the fact that she remains less than half the player she once was back when she could scramble, charge the net, and hit fabulous winners from a full stretch. No one played quite like her before, and no one has since, but she doesn't want to be that player anymore." -- Tom Perrotta, New York Sun

• "I'm definitely looking at working my way back more than anything. I think about the opportunity that I have." -- Williams

• ''She's rusty.'' -- Serena's mother, Oracene Price

• "It's a far cry from the days when the sisters dominated the game." -- London's Independent

• "It was very difficult, to say the least. Some days you can get upset and be very discouraged. At this point, I was just excited to be able to make it all the way here after such a strenuous off-season mentally."-- Williams

• "I don't think she can come and go with this. If she's carrying too much weight, it will inevitably count against her in the end." -- Nick Bollettieri

• "My fitness is fine, I can definitely win. [...] My mom and my dad always taught me to think positive. For me to sit here and say no now, I just can't do that." -- Serena Williams

All these quotes are from January 2007, when Serena, ranked No. 81 in the world, came to the Australian Open rusty, struggling and overweight. She went on to win her third title in Melbourne, dismantling top seedMaria Sharapova in the final.

Reviewed by Tom Perrotta

Novak Djokovic, the No. 2 seed, who won his 38th-straight match of 2011 on Monday, called the balls "very, very fast" and "really difficult to control." Men's No. 3-seed Roger Federer, a 16-time Grand Slam winner, said they're "faster, indeed," especially when they're fresh. "That will be an issue," he said.

Samantha Stosur, last year's women's finalist, said that she thinks the new models are "a little bit harder."

A faster, harder ball, the thinking goes, could add a little zip to a serve or forehand, making it more difficult to return. "Maybe it's going to favor the servers and the big hitters," Djokovic said.

Mark Woodforde, the former doubles champ from Australia, peeled open a can of the new balls at a restaurant here Sunday evening. "Feel that," he said, squeezing the ball and indicating how firm it was. "They fly off the racket, and after you've played a bunch of games with them, they still don't seem to have much clay on them."

Babolat and the French Tennis Federation say the new balls have the same performance characteristics as the old ones. "The laboratory tests prove that these balls have the exact same specifications as last year," said Christophe Hayaux du Tilly, the federation's sponsorship manager. "The same speed, the same rebound, the same size, all the same."

Of the four Grand Slams, the French Open has changed ball brands the most recently. It used Dunlop before 2001, Technifibre from 2001 to 2005, and Dunlop again from 2006 to 2010. Wimbledon has stayed with Slazengers since 1902—though it did change to yellow from white in 1986—and the U.S. Open has used Wilson since the 1970s. The Australian Open also uses Wilson, since 2006. Babolat's contract with the French Open is for five years.

The change itself seems to have inspired more complaints than the physics of the new ball. The clay-court tournaments leading up to the French Open used Dunlop balls and the players would rather not have to adapt to new ones for the year's most important clay event. "That, for us, is the most frustrating part," Federer said.

Babolat, which began as a string company in 1875 and started making balls in 2001, had just a few months to design the ball. It subjected it to a barrage of lab tests and gave samples to the French federation and to players—and not just Babolat players, said Jean-Christophe Verborg, the company's international tour manager. The federation also sent each of the Top 10 players on the men's and women's tours a box of the new balls this spring. Player travel being what it is, though, it seems the balls mostly gathered dust. Stosur's box was sent to Liechtenstein, where she stayed for a bit during the European clay-court swing.

"I was only there twice; practiced one time each," Stosur said.

David Ferrer, a top-10 player from Spain who reached the finals in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, looked miffed when asked about his delivered balls.

"I didn't see them," he said.

The bulk of Babolat's player tests were conducted in Europe last fall. Players were given several unmarked balls and allowed to hit with them for as long as they liked, Verborg said. He was present for some of the tests, including Rafael Nadal's, which took place in October in Manacor, Majorca. (Both Nadal and Stosur use Babolat rackets.)

"They didn't see a difference," Verborg said. Verborg and Hayaux du Tilly suggested other factors might account for the players' perceptions. One possibility: Paris has had warm and dry weather of late, so the courts are harder, which can make them faster.

Kai Nitsche, vice president of racket sports at Dunlop, said laboratory tests can't tell you everything about a ball—especially how it feels.

"There really would have been no way to duplicate our ball unless they had our formula," Nitsche said. "The core itself, while natural rubber is the main component, has 14 additional ingredients." Nitsche politely declined to reveal the ingredients.

"We've been making balls for over 100 years," he said. "That's certainly not something we're going to give away."

The International Tennis Federation regulates tennis balls and tests them for compression, mass, size, deformation, rebound, and durability. But as Jamie Capel-Davies of the ITF's technical department explained, the ITF doesn't analyze composition.

"You don't even need traditional rubber, if you have discovered something else," he said. "Our test is a performance test rather than a materials test. We see if it looks and behaves like a tennis ball, not how you achieved it."

Hayaux du Tilly says he isn't bothered if the players say the ball is different, as long as they don't say it's defective.

"The important point is, no one said it is bad," he said. "All the players say this is a very good ball."

Ferrer agreed. "It's faster than the Dunlop, but I have no problem," he said.

Tennis Player Daniel Koellerer Banned for Life, Fined for Match-Fixing

Daniel Koellerer, an Austrian tennis player once ranked No. 55 in the world, has been banned from the sport for life for match-fixing.

Reviewed By Danielle Rossingh

World Sports

The player, currently ranked No. 385 on the ATP World Tour, was also fined $100,000 for three offenses against the sport’s anti-corruption program, the London-based Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) said in an e-mailed statement today. The TIU was formed by the International Tennis Federation, the ATP World Tour, the WTA Tour and the Grand Slam Committee as part of the Uniform Tennis Anti-Corruption Program.

“This is a massive shock,” Manfred Nareyka, Koellerer’s manager, said in a telephone interview. “This investigation has now been going on for a year and a half. It has affected him making a living. There is no proof. I distance myself from any form of match-fixing.”

The 27-year-old player was found guilty of “contriving or attempting to contrive the outcome of an event; soliciting or facilitating a player not to use his best efforts in an event; and soliciting, offering or providing money, benefit or consideration to any other covered person with the intention of negatively influencing a player’s best effort in any event,” the TIU said. The violations took place between October 2009 and July 2010.

Nareyka said Koellerer has 20 days to appeal the decision.

“We’re looking into it now,” he said. “He isn’t sure if he can afford the legal costs. He is going to become a father in July. It is very difficult.”

The TIU, headed by former Scotland Yard detective Jeff Rees, was founded in 2008 after suspicious betting on a match the previous year. More than a dozen players said publicly that they had been approached to throw matches and the tour banned three Italian players for betting.

Review of Wimbledon 2010

Around The Grounds

Photos by © Professional Sport

The 124th Championships, a Royal tournament thanks to the first visit to the All England Club by Her Majesty the Queen for 33 years, was also a record-breaking occasion in many ways, most notably in that unforgettable first round men's singles between John Isner of the United States and France's Nicolas Mahut, which smashed every existing record in the sport. Then there was the wonderful weather, which ushered the tournament to a prompt conclusion and was described by the All England Club's historian, Alan Little, as "the sunniest I can remember". And finally, there were the champions, Rafael Nadal clocking up various new marks by winning the men's championship for a second time, and Serena Williams, who rounded out in thunderous fashion a decade in which she and her sister Venus have utterly dominated the women's singles.

In defeating the 12th seed, Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 Nadal confirmed his clear status as world No.1. He became the first Spaniard to win Wimbledon twice and he again matched Bjorn Borg's 1980 mark and Roger Federer (2009) by coming from triumph at the French Open on clay to capture Wimbledon on grass, just as he had done two years ago. Nadal had been unable to defend that 2008 title last summer because of knee problems but his return to action this year has been sensationally successful as he swept unstoppably through the clay court season and then won the world's premier prize and the one he covets most of all, Wimbledon.

Nadal needed only two hours 13 minutes to do the job, the quickest men's final since Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick in 2005, and Serena Williams did an even more rapid job in the women's final on the preceding day. She dismissed Russia's Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2 in 67 minutes to complete an astonishing decade of Wimbledon domination by the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus. Between them they have captured the women's title nine times in the 11 years since the Millennium and, says Serena, they intend to be back next year to carry on the good work.

In stark contrast was the Isner-Mahut first round marathon, which stretched over three days, lasted 11 hours five minutes and totalled 183 games before Isner staggered away the winner 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68. The final set alone lasted just over eight hours. Both men shattered the record for aces in one match, previously held by Ivo Karlovic at 78. Isner delivered 112 and Mahut also cracked the century with 103. An exhausted Isner crashed out to Thiemo De Bakker of Holland in the next round, collecting just five games.

The tournament was notable for the number of men's five-set matches in the early rounds. Nadal himself survived two of them, against Robin Haase of Holland and Germany's Philipp Petzschner, and another, between the third seed Novak Djokovic and Olivier Rochus of Belgium, saw the only occasion on which the Centre Court roof was closed, due to lack of light rather than the threat of rain. That five-setter also produced another Wimbledon record, the latest-ever finish to a day's play at 10.58pm.

The top six men's seeds all survived into the fourth round, the first time this has happened at Wimbledon since 2001 but then the unexpected happened to several of them. Andy Roddick, seeded fifth and three times a Wimbledon runner-up, crashed out in the fourth round to Taipei's Yen-Hsun Lu, ranked 82 in the world, in another five-setter.

Then in the biggest shock of the whole fortnight, the No.1 seed and defending champion Roger Federer was overpowered in four sets by Berdych,, the first time in seven years he had failed either to win the title or reach the final. Berdych next took out Djokovic in straight sets, while in the bottom half of the draw the rapidly-improving Nadal saw off sixth-seeded Robin Soderling and then the home hope, Andy Murray, in the quarters and semis.

In the women's singles Maria Sharapova, the only other former champion in the draw besides the Williams sisters, was unfortunate to find herself in the same quarter of the draw as Serena Williams, and paid the price of not yet having fully recovered her form following shoulder surgery last year. Though Venus Williams, a five-time champion, fell in the quarter-finals and Kim Clijsters, winner over Justine Henin in the all-Belgian clash between two women who had retired from the sport and then decided to return, was also a shock loser to Zvonareva in the quarter-finals, Serena Williams powered on irresistibly. She served 89 aces, beating her own record set last year.

In the doubles, the men's title went to an unseeded pair, Austria's Jurgen Melzer and Germany's Philipp Petzschner, playing only their seventh tournament as a team. In an event which lost its top seeds and two-time defending champions Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic as early as the second round (to a British team, Chris Eaton and Dominic Inglot), Melzer and Petzschner defeated the 16th seeds, Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Romania's Horia Tecau 6-1, 7-5, 7-5.

The women's doubles was won by an American-Kazakh combination, Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova. Also unseeded, they overcame the Russians, Elena Vesnina and Zvonareva, 7-6, 6-2. For Zvonareva, it provided the second Centre Court disappointment in the space of a few hours following her singles loss to Serena Williams, and came after the Russians had caused the surprise of the event in the quarter-finals by eliminating the top-seeded Williams sisters 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The mixed doubles championship, at least, fell to a seeded combination, Leander Paes and Cara Black, the second seeds, This India-Zimbabwe combination beat Wesley Moodie of South Africa and Lisa Raymond (United States) 6-4. 7-6.

The boys' singles was captured by Hungary's 13th-seeded Marton Fucsovics 6-4, 6-4 against Benjamin Mitchell of Australia, and the ninth seed, Kristyna Pliskova, won the girls' singles title in impressive fashion, dropping just one set on her way to a final against Japan's Sachie Ishizu. The 10th-seeded Ishizu, who had put out the British hope Laura Robson at the semi-final stage, provided stiff opposition before Pliskova came through 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

There was also Hungarian success in the girls' doubles for Timea Babos who teamed with Sloane Stephens of the United States to beat Russia's Irina Khromacheva and Elina Svitolina, the top seeds, 6-7, 6-2, 6-2. The boys' doubles, an all-British final, was won by the wild cards Liam Broady and Tom Farquharson 7-6, 6-4 against Lewis Burton and George Morgan.

Reviewed by Ron Atkin

Photos by © AELTC

Chalking the Lines

A groundskeeper grooms the court.

Photos by © AELTC

Bird's eye view

General Over View over The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club from the BBC Crane/Hoist in 2010.

Photos by © AELTC

Sun set on court

Sun set over court 5 during Mr Mark Knowles & Miss Katarina Srebotnik Vs Mr Kenneth Skupski & Elena Baltacha

 Photos by © AELTC 

Nadal on Centre

Rafael Nadal (ESP) plays against Robin Haase (NED) on Centre Court 

125th Wimbledon Championships to be first 3D broadcast on the BBC

The All England Club is pleased to announce that the Men's and Ladies' singles finals of The Championships, Wimbledon 2011 will be broadcast live in 3D to homes across the UK for the first time, via the BBC's HD Channel.

To mark the staging of the 125th Championships, the free-to-air broadcast of The Championships in 3D on Saturday 2 July and Sunday 3 July will be available to anyone who has access to a 3D TV set and to HD Channels, regardless of which digital TV provider they use.

The All England Club is working in partnership with the BBC and Sony Professional, and the coverage will also be available in a limited number of cinemas across the UK. The BBC is offering a small number of 3D screenings which will be free to members of the public. Visit (www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/) for more information. Tickets will be available between Wednesday 8 June and Monday 13 June.

Coverage of The Championships' Finals will also be available in Standard Definition (SD) on BBC One and in High Definition (HD) on BBC One HD.

by AELTC

A new Show Court at Wimbledon

Reviewed by Alexandra Willis,
Source:© AELTC, Wimbledon.com





The Championships 2011 may prove to be the domain of a Rafael Nadal triumph, a Kim Clijsters slice of history, the return of Roger Federer, or another rising star, but this year's Wimbledon will also herald the opening of a new Show Court at the Church Road grounds in the form of the new No.3 Court. 

"We are delighted to welcome a fantastic facility in the new No.3 Court, giving us four great stadium courts to play tennis in, all with Hawk-Eye electronic line calling" commented Championships Referee Andrew Jarrett. 

The 2,000-seater construction has been built on the site of the old Court 2, 'the graveyard of Champions', and is nestled to the south of the Players' balconies. 

One of the final pieces in the jigsaw of the All England Club's Long Term Plan, launched in 1997, the new No.3 Court pairs up with the new No.2 Court - the former in the north-west of the Southern courts, the latter in the south-east of the Southern courts. 

The design of the new No.3 Court is very similar to that of No.2 Court, opened by the Duke of Kent in 2009. An unfurling concrete flower bowl, No.3 Court is fitted with the new and improved padded green seats that feature on Centre Court and No.2 Court, and, with its high walls and enclosed setting, not to mention Hawk-Eye capabilities, is sure to provide an excellent atmosphere for both players and public. 

"In fact, if you stand by Court 9, there is an optical illusion," explains Jarrett. "No.3 Court looks bigger than No.2 Court, even though No.2 Court is twice the size, 4,000 seats, because it is sunk into the ground."

There is of course another new court to be opened this summer, Court 4, which sits directly underneath the umbrella of No.3 Court. Like its bigger brother, Court 4 is in full view of both the Player Areas and also the Members balcony, making it another prime location for spectators. 

No.3 Court will be officially opened by the Duke of Kent, President of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, ahead of the first scheduled match on Monday 20 June, the first day of The Championships. The Duke will perform the coin toss for the opening match, and unveil a commemorative plaque. 

There are three other plaques situated around the Church Road Grounds, one on Centre Court commemorating the new roof, one on the new No.2 Court, and one at Court 18, celebrating the record-breaking 11 hour 5 minute match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon 2010.

SUNDAY PREVIEW – TSONGA LOOKS TO END FRENCH DROUGHT, MURRAY EYES SECOND TITLE

Reviewed by Greg Sharko,
 Source:  © Getty Images, atpworldtour.com

Fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsongaattempts to become the first French champion in the history of the Queen’s Club (since 1890) as he takes on No. 2 seed and 2009 winner Andy Murray in Sunday’s AEGON Championships final. Both players, who have dropped one set en route to the title match, are appearing in their second final of the season. Tsonga was runner-up in Rotterdam in February and Murray was a finalist at the Australian Openin January. Tsonga is trying to become the first player to defeat the No. 1 & 2 seeds en route to the title since Tim Mayotte in 1986. The Frenchman defeated No. 1 Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals Friday.

International Rankings from June 6, 2011

Source: sport.yahoo.com

Rank	Previous Rank	Name	Country
1	1	Rafael Nadal	Spain
2	2	Novak Djokovic	Serbia
3	3	Roger Federer	Switzerland
4	4	Andy Murray	Scotland
5	5	Robin Soderling	Sweden
6	7	David Ferrer	Spain
7	6	Tomas Berdych	Czech Republic
8	9	Gael Monfils	France
9	10	Mardy Fish	United States
10	11	Andy Roddick	United States
11	8	Jurgen Melzer	Austria
12	15	Viktor Troicki	Serbia
13	16	Richard Gasquet	France
14	14	Stanislas Wawrinka	Switzerland
15	12	Nicolas Almagro	Spain
16	18	Gilles Simon	France
17	13	Mikhail Youzhny	Russia
18	19	Florian Mayer	Germany
19	17	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	France
20	34	Juan Ignacio Chela	Argentina
21	22	Alexandr Dolgopolov	Ukraine
22	26	Juan Martin del Potro	Argentina
23	20	Fernando Verdasco	Spain
24	23	David Nalbandian	Argentina
25	24	Michael Llodra	France
26	28	Sam Querrey	United States
27	21	Marin Cilic	Croatia
28	27	Milos Raonic	Canada
29	30	Nikolay Davydenko	Russia
30	25	Thomaz Bellucci	Brazil
31	32	Janko Tipsarevic	Serbia
32	29	Marcos Baghdatis	Cyprus
33	33	Guillermo Garcia-Lopez	Spain
34	31	Tommy Robredo	Spain
35	49	Fabio Fognini	Italy
36	36	Sergiy Stakhovsky	Ukraine
37	37	Ivan Ljubicic	Croatia
38	38	Albert Montanes	Spain
39	35	Kevin Anderson	South Africa
40	40	Xavier Malisse	Belgium
41	41	Feliciano Lopez	Spain
42	43	Juan Monaco	Argentina
43	45	Ivan Dodig	Croatia
44	44	Andrey Golubev	Kazakhstan
45	39	John Isner	United States
46	47	Marcel Granollers	Spain
47	46	Potito Starace	Italy
48	48	Pablo Andujar	Spain
49	42	Philipp Kohlschreiber	Germany
50	50	Jarkko Nieminen	Finland
51	51	Andreas Seppi	Italy
52	52	Pablo Cuevas	Uruguay
53	56	Yen-Hsun Lu	Chinese Taipei
54	53	Adrian Mannarino	France
55	61	Jeremy Chardy	France
56	55	Daniel Gimeno-Traver	Spain
57	57	Radek Stepanek	Czech Republic
58	62	Mikhail Kukushkin	Kazakhstan
59	54	Robin Haase	Netherlands
60	59	Kei Nishikori	Japan
61	58	Denis Istomin	Uzbekistan
62	60	Victor Hanescu	Romania
63	63	Santiago Giraldo	Colombia
64	64	Grigor Dimitrov	Bulgaria
65	65	Pere Riba	Spain
66	70	Ryan Sweeting	United States
67	66	Somdev Devvarman	India
68	69	Carlos Berlocq	Argentina
69	68	Benjamin Becker	Germany
70	74	Dmitry Tursunov	Russia
71	80	Philipp Petzschner	Germany
72	75	Igor Kunitsyn	Russia
73	67	Lleyton Hewitt	Australia
74	81	Julien Benneteau	France
75	84	Maximo Gonzalez	Argentina
76	82	Blaz Kavcic	Slovenia
77	78	Frederico Gil	Portugal
78	83	Ernests Gulbis	Latvia
79	95	Michael Berrer	Germany
80	71	Thiemo De Bakker	Netherlands
81	86	Alex Bogomolov Jr.	United States
82		Alejandro Falla	Colombia
83	92	Igor Andreev	Russia
84	72	Juan Carlos Ferrero	Spain
85	88	Andreas Haider-Maurer	Austria
86	73	Filippo Volandri	Italy
87	77	Olivier Rochus	Belgium
88	76	Tobias Kamke	Germany
89		Lukas Rosol	Czech Republic
90	89	Ricardo Mello	Brazil
91	93	Michael Russell	United States
92	99	Matthias Bachinger	Germany
93		Gilles Muller	Luxembourg
94	91	Dudi Sela	Israel
95		Lukasz Kubot	Poland
96	87	Robert Kendrick	United States
97	79	Richard Berankis	Lithuania
98	100	Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo	Spain
99		Rui Machado	Portugal
100	97	Mischa Zverev	Germany