Irish serving well
Ireland may not have any players in either of the main draws but there is no lack of Irish input behind the scenes at Wimbledon.
Former Irish Federation Cup player Siobhán Nicholson looks after the IBM press information in the press centre, and Tom McGrath from Dublin is involved in the data entry for the IBM statistics. Ranked by Tennis Ireland at 18 in 2003, McGrath is connected to the Westwood Club in Dublin.
On the chair, Fergus Murphy took charge of two matches yesterday: Radek Stepanek against Robby Ginepri in the first match of the day and Andrei Pavel against Roko Karanusic in the third match of the day on Court 5.
Of all though, John Dolan from Waterford works closest with the players; he is senior manager in communications.
Mania rewarded
Whoever coined the word Henmania got it absolutely right. Tim Henman played his first match of Wimbledon 2005 yesterday against Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.
Some of the faithful who were able to get tickets for the match queued for two days for the pleasure of watching him lose the first two sets before struggling to victory.
Crowds stream in
Monday's attendance at Wimbledon was 38,228, which is up on last year by several thousand.
The total number of fans that legally came through the gates last year over the 14 days was 451,208, which was down on the 2001 all-time record of 490,081.
The main constraint in tennis generally is that spectators need to be within watching distance of the play. Centre Court at Wimbledon, which holds 14,000, is considered the optimum size for spectators. Any bigger and fans in the uppermost seats would be too far from the action.
Shoe-shine girl
Competing with the Williams sisters for "bling" levels, Maria Sharapova arrived on court for her first match yesterday with gold studs in her shoes. On Monday, the more restrained Roger Federer stepped on to Centre Court with gold laces in his.
"They're great shoes. But everyone's offering me a safe these days," said Sharapova. At least her opponents will know that when she puts in the boot over the next two weeks it will be 18 carat.
Making a bags of it
At Gate 5 of the All England club on Monday, a young, uniformed bag searcher insisted a lady going out could not leave her bag inside the gates while she handed a friend a ticket.
The lady didn't want to go through the whole search process for a second time, but there was no changing the security guard's mind.
And so it was that Virginia Wade, the last British player to win the women's singles at Wimbledon, was turned away by the gormless youth as another pesky punter.
Stich makes move
Former Wimbledon champion Michael Stich is trying to tempt reigning champion Maria Sharapova into being his mixed-doubles partner next year.
The German, who announced this week that he was thinking of coming out of retirement so that he could be the first man to win the singles, doubles and mixed titles at Wimbledon, asked Sharapova, during an interview on BBC Radio Five Live, if she would be willing .
"For sure, lets go. I would love to play with you in the mixed doubles," she said. "I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it."
Does everything happen that easily for former champions?
