Bad news eclipses good at grand slams

LONDON, July 6: The people who run grand slam tennis will not look back too fondly on 2007.

Instead of spectacular action hitting the headlines, organisers of the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon have had to cope with unwelcome publicity.

Unbearable heat, unrelenting rain, security concerns, indecent assaults and brawling fans have all taken the spotlight away from the racket wielding feats of Roger Federer and company.

Disappointment has been a running theme at this year's blue riband tennis events and critics in Britain have been asking whether this has been the worst ever Wimbledon after a soggy fortnight and only a handful of standout matches.

If All England Club chief Ian Ritchie feels the rain over the past two weeks has caused him more headaches than he deserves, at least he has been spared the trouble faced by Tennis Australia CEO Steve Wood in January.

Six months ago Wood was struggling to salvage the image of the Australian Open after security at the event was called into question.

About 150 fans were evicted from the Melbourne Park grounds during the season's opening major after fighting flared between rival Croatian and Serbian supporters.

Such violence had been unheard of in more than 100 years of grand slam tennis and police said they were under-prepared to deal with the scuffling fans.

Days later, another controversy marred the Open when news broke that police were investigating reports that a five-year-old boy had been assaulted in the men's toilets alongside the Rod Laver Arena.

HEADLINE NEWS Such incidents were a far cry from the normal headline news at grand slam tournaments.

Usually the only unsavoury occurrences are when players engage in verbal spats with officials or smash their rackets in anger.

On a really bad day, over-zealous parents of young women players have also produced the odd headline.

The Australian Open's problems were compounded when its extreme heat policy was called into question after several players struggled to last the distance under a blazing sun with temperatures on the court soaring towards 50 degrees celsius. When the grand slam circuit rolled into Paris, the apparent effects of global warming also hit Roland Garros. The French Open was drenched during the first weak and fans and officials bemoaned the arrival of the dreaded English weather'.

But luckily for them, they did not have to deal with the kind of backlog faced by Wimbledon referee Andrew Jarrett, the worst since 1982.

With third round matches not finished until the second Wednesday of the championships -- four days behind schedule -- Jarrett has come under fire for not allowing play on the middle Sunday of the tournament, traditionally a rest day at Wimbledon.

By Tuesday, the backlog stood at 177 matches and players in the bottom half of the men's draw, including triple French Open champion Rafael Nadal, were facing the prospect of playing every day this week to reach Sunday's final.

The Spaniard lambasted officials for ''not thinking about about the players''.

While the bosses at Wimbledon keep their fingers crossed for a dry weekend, U.S. Open chiefs will be anxiously waiting to see what fate has in store for them when the season's final slam begins in August.

REUTERS>