London: Roger Federer's twin daughters, Myla and Charlene, rode their identical pink-trimmed scooters around the All England Club on Sunday in a state of complete relaxation with their surroundings ' very much daddy's girls.
The two-year-olds had obviously been read the order of play for Wimbledon's Magic Monday with their father's pursuit of his seventh title bolstered by the kind of helping hand the world's schedulers regularly offer him.
On the five show courts on which women's fourth-round matches have been scheduled Monday, only one, Centre Court, has a men's match first where Federer opens the show against Belgium's Xavier Malisse, ranked No.75 in the world but a much better performer than that. And if the day's forecast is anywhere approaching accurate, the roof will be engaged again and only Centre Court will complete its programme. That could be a big leg-up.
Andy Murray's reward for hanging tough against Marcos Baghdatis, of Cyprus, in four intoxicating sets that finished two minutes past the witching hour of 11pm on Saturday night and attracted 8.5million viewers at its peak, is a No.1 Court date with Marin Cilic, the recent champion at Queen's Club.
Cilic won the second-longest singles match in Wimbledon history when he overcame Sam Querrey, of the United States, 7-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 17-15 in five hours and 31 minutes, although such has been the drama-fest of the first six days it would surprise no one if that was seriously challenged this week.
It is right that Murray should have to play at least one match on No.1 Court during the tournament as Federer did in his opening round against Albert Ramos, of Spain. But are we supposed to think Viktor Troicki will seriously trouble his Serbian compatriot, Novak Djokovic, the defending champion and No.1 in the world, in a match on Centre that pales in interest when placed alongside Murray's contest with Cilic?
This was a day to help out Murray and ignore wails of favouritism. Any other host of a Grand Slam event would look after their own, wouldn't they?
Tim Henman, a member of the Championships' management committee ' as John McEnroe reminded him over and over again in commentary on Saturday ' has bitter experience of how Wimbledon's "fairness" worked against home chances. His semi-final against Goran Ivanisevic in 2001 was second on court when the forecast was for heavy downpours, which duly arrived as he had the match on a plate.
Monday's is an unbalanced order of play which, on the face of it, assists one player more than anyone else and given the confusion over the protocol in the use of the pounds 100million Centre Court roof in the first week, is bound to lead to increasing scrutiny and pressure on the tournament administration as the event builds to its crescendo.
One former champion said that the greatest event in the tennis world was leaving itself open to ridicule with its handling of the roof operation and that an 11pm cut-off time for matches to be finished was "a joke".
Richard Lewis, the Wimbledon chief executive, said on Sunday that the atmosphere had been particularly tense in the referee's office in the past 72 hours with so many elements needing to be taken into consideration.
The All England Club has a safety certificate from the London Borough of Merton and unless all its articles are adhered to, including the abandonment of play at 11pm (within reason) it could be revoked, which would lead to all sorts of operational dilemmas.
The most delicate decision was made on Thursday when the roof was closed just before 1pm when forecasters predicted a 70 per cent chance of rain that did not, in fact, materialise. Then, the winds picked up and were thought likely to reach speeds of over 40mph when there is the potential for the roof structure to grind to a halt. To avoid that embarrassment, it was thought best to keep the roof closed all day.
Even Federer was slightly critical. "I would hope in future that the roof would stay open if it wasn't raining, which it wasn't (on Thursday). There were a lot of gusty winds outside and there was sunshine. Shutting the roof created a completely different atmosphere. They expected showers, but they didn't arrive. I do hope we stay with an outdoor Wimbledon. I know that's the goal of the organisers. But, sometimes, you have a mix-up."
Lewis was asked if the Centre Court lights could come on without the roof being closed but stressed that Wimbledon would then be into the realms of night play which was not a consideration. But the roof was being closed in poor light rather than for rain and that is not part of the protocol, either.
"The lights themselves attract heat for a start, so you have to have the air management system on to deal with that heat," he said. "Believe me, it is a complex engineering project."
There is a concern among tennis officials with the amount of time players take to come back to the court to re-start their matches. Rafael Nadal, notoriously a slowcoach, was asked to be back on court for a 9.10pm resumption of his second-round match against Lukas Rosol on Thursday and did not come out of the locker room until 9.20pm and was in a foul mood.
As Andrew Jarrett, the referee, cognisant of the time running out, was rushing to get Murray and Baghdatis back on court on Saturday evening, the British No.1 returned to the locker room to have more strapping applied to his left knee. Sometimes, but not always, the players only have themselves to blame.
