Wimbledon Tennis Tournament

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

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.

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Top-seeded Monica Seles has withdrawn from next week's Wimbledon tennis tournament after a minor accident, losing her chance to win tennis' Grand Slam, tournament officials said Friday.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.

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.

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."

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.

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 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.

A fresh star blasted in Monday at Wimbledon, all gaudy and outsized and extravagant like most stars but with the quirk that this one happens to be inanimate. The new Centre Court roof unfolded itself for its first real performance on Monday evening and within six bold and brassy hours already basically had harrumphed that it plans to spend the 21st century as a major player throwing its considerable weight around the Championships.

The rain-plagued Wimbledon tennis tournament that some thought might never end goes into its busiest--and probably most exciting--day today. The women will play the semifinals, with Steffi Graf meeting Mary Joe Fernandez and Jennifer Capriati facing Gabriela Sabatini. The women's final will be Saturday. The men will play the quarterfinals, with Stefan Edberg going against Thierry Champion, Jim Courier against Michael Stich, Andre Agassi against David Wheaton and Boris Becker against Guy Forget.

For 3 hours 17 minutes Saturday, Ivan Lendl stood toe to toe with his own vision of Buster Douglas. But every time he threw a Tyson-like punch, the young contender, MaliVai Washington, connected with a roundhouse of his own. Finally, after struggling from two sets down and a service break down in the fifth set, third-seeded Lendl advanced to the fourth round of the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

World rankings in parentheses: Venus Williams (3) vs. Ana Ivanovic (12), Serbia In advance of this starry matchup between former No. 1s, Williams has won an astounding 29 consecutive sets at Wimbledon dating to 2007. This has presented a major problem to opponents as time has proved it's very hard to beat the other player if you cannot win any sets. -- Serena Williams (2) vs. Daniela Hantuchova (32), Slovakia As she passed career Grand Slam match No.

If you cupped your ear toward Atlanta in the wee hours this morning, you almost might've heard some exuberance and maybe even some hollering. That rare entity known as the 7 a.m. party would have commenced. The kitchen staff of a tennis club in Norcross, Ga., would have arrived. And if it resembled Saturday, a throng might have yelled toward a big screen even if they couldn't see anything up there but a mostly static web page.