Wimbledon Tennis Tournament

Ken Flach and Wendy Turnbull received wild-card berths in the singles competition of this year's Wimbledon tennis tournament.

A large part of the tennis world will be rooting for the grand champion, 30-year-old Roger Federer, to win one more title, to reclaim greatness even if it's just for a day. They'll back the player who is already considered the greatest ever -- if only because he has won more major singles titles, 16, than any man -- to have one more large and shining moment. And then there's Britain. In the country where Wimbledon is as major a sporting event as the Super Bowl in the United States, there has not been a men's homegrown champion since 1936 (Fred Perry)

It was a gentle drop shot that finally made Serena Williams raise her arms in almost-triumph Saturday in the Wimbledon championship match against Agnieszka Radwanska. Williams had dominated most of the tournament with her percussive serve. She hit 24 aces in one match, 23 in another and a record-setting 102 in the tournament. But that drop shot, on a break point in the seventh game of the final set, it was the winner. It allowed Williams to feel free in her final service game and it helped send her to a fifth Wimbledon championship and 14th major title with her 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 win. The victory was the first major for the 30-year-old Williams since she won here in 2010.

As sometimes happens here in the Wimbledon tennis tournament, a woman's underwear became somewhat more interesting than her game Friday. How else to account for the men hanging in the cherry trees along Somerset Road. "Quiet in the trees," the umpire on Court 6 kept demanding. How else, for that matter, to account for the cluster of photographers, the clatter of their high-speed cameras perhaps more bothersome than even the young men. It was Barbara Potter, this time.

Top-seeded Monica Seles has withdrawn from next week's Wimbledon tennis tournament after a minor accident, losing her chance to win tennis' Grand Slam, tournament officials said Friday. No information was available on the accident. "It is a complete mystery," Wimbledon referee Alan Mills said after getting the news only hours before a meeting to arrange the first day's order of play. "It came as a great surprise to me."

It just keeps raining and raining and raining, so the London newspapers don't know what to do. With no Wimbledon tennis to report, all they can do is keep creating bogus scandals: UFO Refuses to Release Monica Seles Aliens, not ailments, have turned out to be responsible for Monica Seles' sudden withdrawal from the Wimbledon tennis tournament, the London Daily Slime has learned. "It's that new haircut," one alien reportedly said. "We assumed she was one of us." The women's No.

Dan Maskell, 84, the former BBC tennis commentator known as the "Voice of Wimbledon." He retired this year after 42 years at the BBC, where his name and understated commentary became synonymous in Britain with the prestigious Wimbledon tennis tournament. He was made a member of the Order of the British Empire in 1982 for his contribution to tennis. On Thursday in London.

A quiet day of tennis turned bizarre Saturday, when American Jeff Tarango was defaulted after walking off a court during his third-round singles match, then later accused an umpire of fixing matches for other players. In a remarkable postmatch news conference, Tarango, of Manhattan Beach, made several serious and at times rambling accusations against chair umpire Bruno Rebeuh of France, whom Tarango called "corrupt."

Serena Williams prepared for her Saturday women's singles final by pairing with her sister Venus and upsetting the top-seeded (and fellow American team) Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber on Friday. Agnieszka Radwanska prepared for her first major singles final by staying away from the All England Club, issuing a statement because she was too sick to talk. "She's resting up for tomorrow," Serena said after she and Venus had won, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, and stayed alive for a chance to win a fifth women's doubles title.

It was as if Petra Kvitova owned Centre Court, as if she was planning to make this a habit. Kvitova, 6 feet tall and left-handed and playing in her first Wimbledon final, straightened her shoulders, bounced the ball three times and without any uncertainty went big. She blasted an ace, right in the middle of the service box past a former champion, Maria Sharapova, who had no room to react, or do anything except drop her racket and shake hands...

TODAY'S FEATURED MATCHES Men's semifinals. World rankings in parentheses. Andy Roddick (6) vs. Andy Murray (3), Britain (Murray leads head to head, 6-2, and 1-0 in Grand Slams.) Europeans long have noted that American tourists are loud and annoying. Well, here's one case in which an American tourist will note that Europeans are loud and annoying. Roger Federer (2), Switzerland, vs. Tommy Haas (34), Germany (Federer leads head to head, 9-2, and 3-0 in Grand Slams.

Nine bustling years ago, after an awkward Wimbledon semifinal, two under-21 sisters met at the Centre Court net and the winner, Venus Williams, put her arm around the loser and said, "Let's go, Serena. Let's get out of here."

Had you attended the top American male tennis player's melancholy post-loss news conferences at the last three Wimbledons, you might have wound up needing a pep talk, an ice cream cone or maybe even a hug. Had you listened to him on Wednesday night at Wimbledon, you might have wound up chortling, giggling or maybe even laughing.

TODAY'S FEATURED MATCHES Women's semifinals; world rankings in parentheses: Venus Williams (3) vs. Dinara Safina (1), Russia Williams has played a brand of grass-court tennis so superb there have been moments when the stadium speakers ought to have played Mozart. Safina has conducted trademark raging battles with herself such that there've been moments when the stadium speakers ought to have played AC/DC. (Williams leads head to head, 2-1, with no previous Grand Slam meetings.

What: Wimbledon Web site The time difference between the United States and England makes it difficult to keep up with the Wimbledon tennis tournament as it unfolds. Once again, however, the Internet has come to the rescue of fans, providing coverage that TV doesn't. Live coverage. With current match updates every two minutes, http://www.wimbledon.org is the tennis fan's best friend. The site also has schedules, previous scores, current statistics and seedings. Then there's the good stuff.

Pete vs. Andre just wasn't happening a couple of years ago due to a lack of Andre Agassi. So, things were getting rather dull in men's tennis and, well, if Patrick Rafter was willing to take shots at Pete Sampras, the media was willing to make the most of it. The feud, if you can call it that, lacked the bite of John McEnroe vs. Jimmy Connors. But Rafter and Sampras--who play in today's men's final at Wimbledon--had a long stretch of tension, starting in 1997 and running through 1999.

TODAY'S FEATURED MATCHES Men's quarterfinals; world rankings in parentheses: Andy Roddick (6) vs. Lleyton Hewitt (56), Australia Awww, remember long ago when they were up-and-comers and they played that raucous nighttime 2001 U.S. Open quarterfinal and Hewitt won and Roddick lost his mind after that overrule of a line call in the fifth set?

In a women's game supposedly savaged by anarchy, ailing as a hard-to-market hodgepodge with the No. 1 ranking passed around like a relay baton since Justine Henin retired in May 2008, well, look here. Somehow, after the ruthless process of a Grand Slam with all the masses who can blast tennis balls and grunt like wounded hyenas and beat the stuffing out of most everybody, Wimbledon has churned out semifinalists with seedings Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4. Why, it's a pillar of form.