Answering more of your Wimbledon feedback
Thanks for all the feedback we've had on so far. I will continue to answer some of the questions that you've been sending in:
Did the Ö÷²¥´óÐã have any say as to whether there would be play on the middle Sunday of Wimbledon?
Decisions about extra day’s play are purely down to the discretion of the club and the decision not to play on Sunday was theirs and theirs alone.
In hindsight, if they had known Sunday was going to be such a pleasant day and has they realised how bad the weather was going to be in the second week they may well have arrived at a different decision.
The weather information they had on Friday suggested no play was likely to take place on Sunday, so that was the main reason why they opted to leave it as a rest day. Also they were well up with play on the Friday in regards to the draw and only slightly behind on the Saturday, so they had no real concerns or requirement for an extra day’s play.
Have you ever worked on a Wimbledon with so many rain delays?
I certainly haven’t worked on a Wimbledon that’s been as bad as this. Speaking to some of the commentators, they can recall some pretty bad years but the worst I can remember is in 2001, where we went into a third week and played the men’s final between on a Monday.
It turned out to be an absolute classic, we got a tremendous crowd on Centre Court from London based Croatian and Australian fans and it was probably one of the most colourful finals in history.
Did you have a contingency plan for so much rain? Are you prepared to continue into next week?
We always plan for the worst. Wimbledon lasts for two weeks so we obviously don’t plan in absolute detail what is going to happen on every day if it rains, but we certainly go into the first couple of days prepared for inclement weather.
Based on that we make relevant standbys available, be it features or anniversary material like the package we had to commemorate 30 years since Virginia Wade won the Ladies’ Singles and 20 years since Pat Cash won the men’s title.
We have worked through a number of contingencies if required to take our coverage into a third week. These range from covering men’s and Ladies’ singles finals right through to the junior finals. If necessary we are able to maintain our output right up till Wednesday.
Why are you using outdoor heaters on 'Today at Wimbledon?' Shouldn't the Ö÷²¥´óÐã be leading the way in saving energy?
The Ö÷²¥´óÐã is very green and it’s always our policy to be environmentally friendly. By staging the highlights show outdoors we are actually managing to save quite a bit of energy by not being in the studio, which requires a lot of lighting. So by not using the studio we are being even more environmentally friendly.
Why haven't you shown more doubles?
We have showed a certain number of doubles matches this year, but not many on Ö÷²¥´óÐã ONE or TWO. Because we are showing the highlights at 2000 BST this has taken the slot where we traditionally showed coverage of the majority of our doubles courage. However, on Ö÷²¥´óÐã Interactive we are screening lots of doubles action so just hit the red button.
I'm sick of certain players grunting and shrieking their way through games. Is there anyway you can make them quiet?
The really highlighted the problem of grunting in the women’s game.
There is nothing the Ö÷²¥´óÐã can do other than reducing the levels of the effects on the court.
It’s a fine balance, because obviously you want to maintain the level of crowd noise and atmosphere around the court as well as hearing the impact of the ball hitting the racquet.
If you reduce these levels too much then there is a danger of neutralising the overall commitment of the players.
So whilst it is disturbing and it can become quite relentless, it is an integral part of the game and I think people get used to it to a degree - but we do recognise that it is annoying for a lot of viewers.
But we don’t think that we can go to the lengths that one viewer suggested and bleep out all of the grunts!
Are you pleased with how Greg Rusedski has done in the commentary box?
and we are delighted that we have managed to get him on board.
He has been a fantastic team player for us and is a great observer of the game. His pedigree as a player is really showing through with his observations.
Whilst he is fresh to the world of commentary it has been a stunning debut and we just hope for bigger and better things for Greg going forwards.
Were the Ö÷²¥´óÐã commentary team biased towards Serena Williams in her match with Daniele Hantuchova?
We’ve had a few complaints about the way during her match with Daniele Hantuchova.
We’ve had comments both ways, some saying that the Ö÷²¥´óÐã was too harsh towards her or that the Ö÷²¥´óÐã was too lenient, both on television and on the radio.
Like with most of these complaints we have hopefully reflected both side’s of the story and by using people like John McEnroe, Tracy Austin, Boris Becker and Martina Navratilova to put across the players’ point of view we are getting a real players’ insight into the situation.
Serena is a unique case and history has shown that she can be prone to very emotive outbursts on court. This can be great at times as people complain that we are lacking characters in the game and I think Serena brings a lot of extravagance to tennis and that can only be a good thing.
If there are any claims of gamesmanship etc then hopefully we have explored those issues and people can make their own mind about it.
Who is the man in the hat with the goatee beard who always sits in the Players’ Box? Do you know who he is?
We have had hundreds of emails about the man in the hat with a goatee beard who sits in the Players’ box.
His name is and it is his 34th year of being at the Championships. He lives in Abu Dhabi for the majority of the year before coming over to take up his position in the box. His job is to make sure everybody is in the right place and assists the players’ representatives.
