Day One Wimbledon - part two with the rain

The second match I chose to watch was on Court 12 so I moved from Court 8 to see Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova against Zhang Shuai from China. Could I knock out two seeds in a row? It seemed on the cards after Svetlana was slow out of the blocks losing the first set 4-6.

I actually like watching Kuznetsova play - she is feisty, has beautiful shots and is passionate on the court without being objectionable. So I had my concerns and asked Sveta if she could kindly get her backside into gear and display some of the tennis that has her standing as a dual Grand Slam tournament champion. She reacted well, serving wonderfully, and playing wrong footing forehands and impossible to reach backhands in a set of tennis almost the opposite of the first one.

The decider was decided rather early as Zhang folded like a pack of cards after playing good tennis up to the end of the second set. As the first sprinkles of rain threatened, Sveta, with two breaks of serve, was broken, and we wondered whether the match may be completed before the rain threat became a reality. This time my request was more explicit - next service game 4 decent first serves please. She delivered 3 and that was enough to sew the match up in three sets 6-3 3-6 6-4.

The final piece of tennis was an epic encounter between Ivo Karlovic and Janko Tipsarevic which lasted one game and one point before the novelty of rain at Wimbledon occurred for me. This was a novelty that remained as such for about five minutes. If I don't see another cover rolled out this week or next then I will be happy. (no hope of that!) No more play on outside courts for the rest of the day.

So roof on Centre Court and once things were ready to resume there I positioned myself in the rain with a good view of the large screen to watch Jelena Dokic resume at a set all with Francesca Schiavone and proceed to a loss. Then I battled the weather with a small umbrella back to the hotel via the Charles Dickens Tavern where I watched Andy Murray who was on Centre Court at that stage. As I reach the end of my trip the Dickens is an appropriate venue for me - not just because free WiFi and plenty of screens showing tennis and other sport - but because soon I will only be able to afford gruel in the Dickensian tradition.