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Wednesday, June 28 Updated: June 29, 3:50 PM ET Morariu out of Wimbledon doubles Associated Press |
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WIMBLEDON, England -- Corina Morariu and Lindsay Davenport will not repeat their doubles title this year at Wimbledon. Morariu injured her shoulder and elbow Tuesday, forcing her to quit her singles match against her double partner. On Wednesday, she withdrew from doubles. Davenport is not allowed to pick up another doubles partner, but said she might play mixed doubles. Morariu slipped near the baseline in her match with Davenport and fell heavily on her arm and shoulder.
Brits in the pits again Greg Rusedski's upset loss in the first round means that only two-time semifinalist Tim Henman has any real chance of reaching the second week, which at least one British player has done every year since 1991. With losses on Wednesday by Louise Latimer and Martin Lee, only three of 15 Britons survived three days of singles play -- Henman, Lucie Ahl and Arvind Parmar. The Sun newspaper runs a daily graphic called "Flying the Flag," which shows who's in and who's out. After only three days, the Union Jack was well below half-staff and ready to be retired and folded up for another year. Without a men's singles winner since 1936, the British press plays up any victory -- even Henman's struggling win Tuesday over unknown Thai Paradorn Srichaphan 5-7, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 to earn a second-round match with France's Arnaud Clement. Henman lost both of his grass-court warmup matches before Wimbledon and tried to stay calm after dropping the first set to Srichaphan. "He played better than me in the first set but I wasn't pressing any panic buttons."
Magnus and Martina "Martina is my rock, she is very supportive," the 24-year-old Swede said. "We are good for each other as we both have similar pressures," he added. "But we don't talk about tennis that much. We have better things to do."
Father doesn't know best After his daughter's victory Tuesday over German qualifier Greta Arn, Damir Dokic kept butting into her interview telling his daughter what to say. Officials finally stopped the interview. "It feels good to get past the first match," said Jelena Dokic, her father promoting her in her native language. "Considering the pressure I've been under ... I've done well." The 17-year-old player was born in Yugoslavia and is now a naturalized Australian. Damir Dokic was ejected from a tournament in Birmingham, England, a year ago for making a nuisance of himself. Subsequently, he has accused officials of rigging draws against his daughter and has threatened to pull her off the Australian Olympic team.
Duchess of Kent returns The duchess is a big tennis fan and famous for offering Jane Novotna a shoulder to cry on after her loss in the 1993 final to Steffi Graf. She was angry when Wimbledon officials refused to let the son of a murdered school principal sit beside her in last year's men's final. Apparently, relations have been patched up, although in a hush-hush Wimbledon way.
Out-foxed on Centre Court Wimbledon's head groundsman Eddie Seaward discovered three days before the tournament that a stray fox had wandered onto Centre Court late at night and urinated. Seaward called in a specialist to dye the soiled patch of the world's most famous turf. "It was definitely a fox to blame," Seaward said. "A lot of them live around the area and have caused us similar problems in the past. But not on Centre Court of all places, and not just before the start of the championships." Colin Hood, a spokesman for the company Superturf, called it the "most important cover-up job we've had to do."
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