Rain...still

©Colette Lewis 2007--
London--

UPDATE: as of 6:30 p.m. London time, all junior matches have been cancelled.

It's 4:00 p.m. on Monday at Wimbledon, and there has yet to be a ball struck by a junior. A junior match between British wild card Marcus Willis and Hsien-Yin Peng of Taipei actually was called to court 10, but a point has not been played, as the off-and-on showers continue. The TBA junior matches that had not been assigned courts were officially canceled over an hour ago.

I spoke with Faye Andrews of the ITF about possible scenarios for the juniors, and although it is the tournament referee that makes the decision, Andrews did relay that a change of surface (i.e. indoors) is unlikely, and short scoring in doubles could be the first concession to the rain. But once a round starts, all matches in that round are to be played with the same format, so once Willis and Peng begin with best of three, no tiebreak in the third, all 63 other singles matches must also.

I'm sitting next to Bonnie DeSimone, of espn.com, who on Sunday asked me for my observations on some comments made by Laura Granville and Andy Roddick on the state of American tennis. She did a masterful job of condensing and paraphrasing my response. Her story is here.

TAGS: tennis, Colette Lewis, junior tennis