Wimbledon has finally agreed to equal pay. The NY Times reports:

- After years of holding out against equal prize money, Wimbledon bowed to public pressure Thursday and agreed to pay women players as much as the men at the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament.

The U.S. Open and Australian Open have paid equal prize money for years. The French Open paid the men’s and women’s champions the same for the first time last year, although the overall prize fund remained bigger for the men.

My views are pretty much uniform on the equal pay issue which I had expressed in a detailed post about a year back:

I scoff at the idea (of equal pay). The issue is not about women’s rights. The issue is not about equality. The issue is about market worth. If women’s tennis is more sellable, I would not grudge it even paying more than men’s tennis does. I do not like that the other 3 Grand Slams have succumbed to the pressure tactics in one way or another, at one point or the other other.

Women’s tennis and men’s tennis are different sports. So if one has more spectators than the other, one gets more revenue and distributes more to the players.

Equality in pay is not the right answer. If the women attract more money, pay them more; if they attract less money, pay them less. I don’t see why equal pay should ever even come into the equation in the given scenario.

Roger Federer is a kid at heart. Aren’t we all. But this regardin Federer is out of the closet now.

Federer and all Federer fans like me are very excited that Wimbledon will host the 2012 Olympics. Will it be the fitting end to a superb career, the crowning glory when Federer wins the Olympic Gold medal at 30 at then retires in 2012? There is a lot of time to wait but it is already the possibility makes it all very exciting.

More on Roger Federer. This blog is starting to look like The Roger Federer Blog rather than a sports blog but thats what is catching my attention more than the early stages of the Tour de France, more than the dull transfer off season with loads of newsprint consumed over speculation on where Gerrard will end up and the English media lapping up to every small player movement before the Ashes.

Sampras on Federer from BBC Sport:

I think he can dominate tennis for as long as I did. He can have an off day in a big tournament and be surprised but over the whole season, he is head and shoulders above the others.

That coming from Sampras, who does not speak as much as say McEnroe, is relevent. Not that we already knew about the fact that Federer is fighting with the history of the game as Becker put it a couple of days ago. But Federer can do one thing Sampras could not - win the French.

And it seems Sampras is not over that fact yet:

I regret that I never tried out a racquet with a bigger head at Roland Garros. “My racquet was almost like one of the old wooden ones - it was heavy and stiff. It took a lot of effort to make the ball move on clay. But I was really used to it and I never dared (change). I was too stubborn. I was scared of losing control, that it would take me too long to master it.

Come one Pete. You were a great player, the greatest since Laver without a shadow of a doubt. Your place is tennis history is assured.

When Roger Federer cried after sitting on his courtside chair after having won Wimbledon, that for me was the moment of the Championships this year.

Boris Becker on BBC Sport:

It was clear to everyone how much overhauling Roddick, and the championship, meant to him when he cried as he took the title for a third time.

He cried like a little child winning his first big tournament and it was so nice to see.

Federer is calm, Federer is composed while on court. It shows how much he has disciplined himself to play on court. He is composed because he has a game plan. He is calm because he has to relax and play if he wants to execute his game plan as perfectly as possible.

To me one point was very revealing in the match. Federer had not hit a particularly strong shot. So a possible winner from Roddick was on the offing. What does Roger do? He takes a calculated risk and approaches the net and hits the volley while on the move to get the point.

Pure brilliance.

Bhupathi and Pierce winning the mixed doubles title has been a fair reward for Mary Pierce for he improvement she has shown. One cannot but feel joy for Pierce. Bhupathi is such a solid doubles player which shows in the fact that he keeps winning grand slam doubles titles.

It was the last match in Wimbledon this year and Allan Mills just retires after 23 years, finally hangs up his boots. Well done Mr. Mills and a well deserved rest too.

This has indeed been a memorable Wimbledon. Venus Williams’ triumph, Sharapova’s performance and her golden shoes, Federer adding further pages to his story, the wheel chair tennis coming to Wimbledon, McEnroe and Navratilova still slogging it out and many more moments to cherish.

So we wait 50 weeks for strawberry, cream, the green grass and England All Tennis and Croquet Club and the magic of Wimbledon.

Federer disposed off the number 2 ranked Hewitt in the semis with comfort and the final, if any thing, looked a much more of a comfortable win for Federer. Now Roddick has not lost a single match in the past two and half years on grass except the 3 times on grass including today. So he is the indisputable no. 2 on grass.

What is astonishing is how much of a gap there is between the number 2 and number 1. Roddick certainly reckons the same :

He’s become such a complete player, even since he beat me in the semi-finals two years ago. He’s improved so much since then.

Federer is calm, he is relaxed and has all the strokes. There are already murmurs of comparison between Sampras and Federer. Sampras had to deal with great tennis players on grass – Becker, Ivanisevic, Agassi (no muck on grass), Rafter, Krajicek and others I might have left out.

Federer has had Hewitt, Roddick and no one really. Safin hasn’t ever been comfortable on grass but he showed some comfort level this time around atleast. Maybe he can improve. Ancic is a better hope but till he or any one else does show the required mettle, every thing is speculation.

McEnroe rightly says that the two may be compared after Federer wins as many Wimbledon titles as Sampras. Amritraj is more generous and says that he should win atleast half the titles. So we lay the comparisons to rest.

Coming back to this year’s Wimbledon, BBC Sport has an article on wheel chair tennis in Wimbledon this year. Certainly a positive addition.

From BBC Sport:

Although there have been exhibition games at Wimbledon over the past couple of years, this is the first competitive wheelchair tournament at the venue and the first grass-court tournament in the world

And the rules are the same except a slight alteration the ball can bounce twice - although the first bounce must be within the court confines.

The roof will be set in Wimbledon finally in 2009. Amritraj points out that the roof should be allowed on all courts or to all matches in a specific round. Else it is different conditions for different people which easily isn’t the way to go.

Wimbledon is not over yet as Bhupathi and Pierce have won their mixed doubles match and are playing the final in a center court far more empty obviously. So if you have not managed to get a seat in center court all fortnight and still wish to do so, now is probably the easiest opportunity. It is also one of the last times you will be able to see proper doubles rule scoring in a tennis match. The scoring system changing to reduced games in sets and reduced matches is madness.

So we are all set now for the finals. Roddick versus Federer. Second year in a row.

From the Wimbledon official site:

Should he fulfill his personal pledge, Federer will join an elite group of m`n to have won teree Wimbledon titles in a row. Both Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras(have scored the hat-trick; Borg in fact won the Gentlemen’s Singles five times in a row (1976-80) while Sampras managed the feat twice (1993-95 and 1997-2000). Prior to the open era, the great Fred Perry won three on the trot from 1934-36.

Federer is on the brink of history and the question on every one’s minds is can Roddick stop the man who has looked invincible on grass for the past three years to create his most memorable moment in tennis yet or will he be just be another road in Federer’s path to greatness.

BBC Sport gives some relevent stats. Federer has a 8-1 record against Roddick, has 29 career titles to Roddick’s 18 and has won 4 slams compared to Roddicks lone US Open triumph. Roddick has been eliminated the last two times in Wimbledon by the eventual champion, Federer himself.

Federer has won, hold your breath, 20 consecutive finals he has appeared in. Surely dwarfs the recent run of the Australian one day cricket team in finals, put to an end by a tie yesterday. Federer is also chasing Bjorg’s record of consecutive wins on grass and no one would be surprised if he beats that mark eventually.

In this Wimbledon itself, Federer has lost just 1 set (7-6) to Nicolas Kiefer. Roddick on the other hand has had a rough road, stretched to 5 versus unfancied Bracialli in round 2, Sebastian Grosjean in the quarters and 4 sets against Thomas Johansson.

The match to watch first will be the mixed doubles semi finals on court 1. Jonas Bjorkman and Lisa Raymond versus Mahesh Bhupathi and Mary Pierce. An Indian winning grandslam ‘doubles’ title would be a happy thing but why I have keener interest in this is as it can lead to a delightful win for Mary Pierce and even though a mixed doubles victory is nothing compared to a singles victory it will be sweet if she does manage to win the mixed doubles this year in Wimbledon.

On another note, Todd Woodbridge, one of the most prolific doubles players and very much under rate singles player retires. ATPtennis has a nice interview and a PDF stats file on the man. It was great to see him play but I would have liked him to concentrate more on the singles but you cant have the best of both worlds in tennis I guess.

Wimbledon has been witness to so many nostalgic moments. Some which I have witnessed over the last almost a decade and a half I have followed the sport (title moments)

Sampras winning his final WImbledon with tears in his eyes and the light fading
Ivanisevic finally coming out 3rd time lucky
Agassi’s wimledon triumph
Federer winning the title for the first time

Add to this list the win of Venus Williams, 9-7 in the final set against Davenport. Now Davenport winning would be nostalgic too considering no one though she could win it, 5 and half years after winning here in 1999, despite being No. 1, in probably her last attempt.

Venus Williams winning is sweeter though for me than a win for Davenport would have been. Williams has had a rough road the last couple of years and it was time for redemption for the now 3 time Wimbledon Champion.

She is quite simply the best womens grass court player I have seen ahead of Graf.

Here is hoping she comes back for more and has some memorable battles with a more experienced Sharapova in the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

from BBC Wimbledon Blog

Wimbledon referee Alan Mills, speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme
I think grunting spoils the spectacle of the game, certainly for television viewers and also, you know, for spectators here. I personally would love the players to stop doing it.

I’m not sure whether it is necessary or not, but I know with Maria (Sharapova), she is saying that she started grunting or screaming when she was four-years-old and she actually hates herself when she watches it on television.

Sharapova says her grunting is involuntary according to this article . So it is indeed out of her control. So should it be allowed or what should be done regarding it? The player facing Sharapova with her atleast 4 different grunts can ofcourse lose focus. Looking at recent tennis history, Monica Seles used to grunt a lot too.

Comparing the grunts Seles’ grunts are a mere shadow of the power that is Sharapova’s screamers. The grunts are okay till they dont affect the concentration of the opponent. If the grunts continue when the opponent is about to hit the point, it is likely to affect the shot making. So even though it is involuntary, it should be made sure the other player is not affected. In other words, I feel Sharapova should modify this aspect of her game, reduce it perhaps before a tennis player objects to it with media decibels and causes unnecessary chaos in womens tennis.

For Sharapova is brand tennis herself. Any damage on Sharapova is a damage on the tennis industry.

When Venus won two consecutive Wimbledons, there was no stopping her. She was near perfect on grass. What always came to mind was how would Venus vs Graf, both in their prime, match up. Venus then declined and Sharapova emerged last year, a breath of fresh air, to grasp the title.

Sharapova is strong, both mentally and physically, and overpowers every one she faces. Against Williams though, she found some one who matched her power stroke for stroke. What ensued in the Wimbledon semi finals was a power hitting display I have never seen in womens tennis.

Williams is the more experienced player and Sharapova, for all her calmness, couldnt get the best out of Williams. Williams at her best over powered the defending champion to reclaim her spot as the ‘Queen of Wimbledon’.

Sharapova will be disappointed but she will be bcak stronger and tougher for another battle. She truly is a champion herself and will show that by winning many Wimbledons in the future hopefully.

Venus will win many more too I hope, and have some memorable battles with Sharapova. With a possible final vs Davenport in the offing, tennis fans couldnt have asked for more.