Wimbledon: Day One — Talk of illegal gambling, strawberries and the roof

By James Borg

Monday, June 23, 2008 | 3:08 p.m.

LONDON -- Wimbledon 2008 got off to a good start today and all the talk -- apart from who would dethrone Roger Federer -- was related to three main topics: illegal gambling and match-fixing; the price of strawberries; the return of the fixed roof (in preparation for the sliding retractable one in 2009).

Gambling -- There's alarm among the crowd on the green and pleasant well-manicured lawns of Wimbledon that illegal match-fixing may have infiltrated the 122nd Championships. Foreign gangsters, working in syndicates, are suspected of planning tennis gambling coups by bribing certain players to throw games. In last year's tournament eight matches were deemed suspicious with four involving male players who lost in three straight sets. Cashing in on match-fixing has grown in the past few years as betting websites now allow customers to "lay" or bet against players winning matches. This is in addition to traditional type of gambling where you back a player to win.

Strawberries -- The real horror of the tournament is that those folks munching strawberries will pay more for them this year. Wimbledon's strawberries always arouse passion, whether it be for the quantity offered in a "punnet" or the price per strawberry. These are no ordinary strawberries after all; picked the night before for freshness, they are delivered to the All England Club at 5:30 the following morning where they are sorted and graded. But they're up in price this year - defended by the authorities as "the first price increase in five years". The reason? The UK "credit crunch" resulting in rising prices which in turn was caused last year by the U.S. "sub-prime" crisis.

The roof -- Finally there's the roof of the Centre Court. Wimbledon's showcase arena has a roof once more after going "naked" last year, which left the spectators alternately drenched and fried. This was necessary to accommodate the much-anticipated retractable translucent roof to be finally put in place for 2009. The end of a Wimbledon tradition after 122 years. Visitors can now admire the white movable crossbeams which are already in place. In addition it's an opportunity for increased seating and new and bigger seats for all 15000 lucky ticket holders from next year.

As for the actual striking of ball and racket on this first day of the Championships, all eyes were on the first match on Centre Court where defending champion Roger Federer faced 30-year-old Slovak, Dominik Hrbaty, playing his 44th Grand Slam in a row. In addition a proud boast - never lost to Federer: played 2 won 2. But the last of those wins was four years ago. Also, he'd been out of the game with two elbow operations since the U.S. Open in 2007. The match was won by Federer 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 who was 4-1 ahead after just 10 minutes. Hrbaty put up a good fight but the first set was over after just 25 minutes and Federer never faced a break point against his serve. There was a nice touch at the changeover before Federer was serving for the match, when Hrbaty broke convention by going to sit alongside his opponent for a friendly chat. Didn't help the scoreline. Federer won the final game to love!

The 20 year old Serbian and hot favorite for the title, Ana Ivanovic (fresh from her Grand Slam win at Roland Garros) made light work of the 32 year old Rosanne de los Rios from Paraguay. After an opening set of just 24 minutes she finished off the match 6-1, 6-2.

Elsewhere Serena Williams was arriving on court dressed in a double-breasted white raincoat (in 74 degrees) - come on Serena, the weather at Wimbledon doesn't change that rapidly from a locker-room walk to the courtside chair! This was in stark contrast to her Estonian opponent, Kanepi, who walked on in sunglasses. The scoreline was 7-5, 6-3 to Serena - her opponent had a chance of a break at 5-5 - and provided her with a good workout in her quest for a third Wimbledon title. You can't write off the Williams sisters at Wimbledon. her sister Venus claimed a fourth title last year and in the last eight years - yes, it's easy to forget - they've taken 6 of the titles between them. With Justine Henin out of the way this year, the field is open. The top eight women in this year's draw are two from Serbia, four from Russia and the two Williams sisters.

Novak Djokovic disposed of the German player Berren, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 and he's regarded by many, along with Rafael Nadal, as one of the favorites to depose Federer this year. Another former champion Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 winner, scraped through in five sets, 6-7, 6-3, 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 against the Dutch player Hasse. On evidence, the much-awaited operation for his nagging hip injury, beckons shortly.

James Borg, a freelance journalist, has covered the All-England Lawn Tennis Championships for 31 years. He lived briefly in Las Vegas and worked at Caesars Palace. He lives in London.