Burying the past

The All England Club has been receiving strange requests from ardent fans these days. The fans, primarily members of theexclusive club which runs the Championships, want their ashes to be scattered somewhere in the club premises. It is not known whether any of those requests have been granted but the consensus is that the most unlikely place for that should be the courts. As a spokesman of the Club, ``You wouldn't want the players losing their footing on someone's granny, do you?''

Parental pressures

Behind every top player these days there seems to be a pushy parent lurking in the dressing room. Post-match news conferences kick off with the odd question about a squandered break point before conversation turns to the real issues - which parent was at the match, did they behave, is there a boyfriend the world should know about?

Even the older players, whose personal lives have been picked clean by the press over the years, still get grilled about their home life.

Boris Becker told how he had to urge his heavily pregnant wife to calm down in the middle of a five-set thriller, worried she was going to give birthright there at courtside.

Black or white?

Racism and prejudice are rife in women's tennis, according to the mother of rising US star Alexandra Stevenson. Stevenson, who officially will only turn professional after the tournament, reached last 16 with a superb straight sets triumph over French 11th seed Julie Halard-Decugis -- but the classy teenager has had to be even harder off court than her blistering returns to combat racist hostility.

Stevenson faces fellow American Lisa Raymond in the next round -- but the 18-year-old qualifier's mother Samantha, a writer on the New York Times, says every time she steps on court is a battle. ``Women's tour is a nightmare largely because the women don't seem to have gotten it into their heads that they are in a professional sport,'' says Samantha, who is herself white.

``The only thing that kept us sane was the attitude of the American men players -- they were friendly and supportive. The women seem incapable of adopting that kind of attitude,''Stevenson told the Sunday Times.

Outfitting tradition

The outfits worn by the umpires and linejudges have undergone their first change in a decade. Over the past nine years, the players' clothing has become more hi-tech with lightweight, absorbent fabrics being introduced. But until now, the 330 match officials have not swayed from their traditional uniform of trousers or pleated skirts, shirts, ties and blazers.

The special uniform - originally dark green jackets and light green trousers or skirts - was introduced in 1981. But it has finally been brought up to date with new designs. One of the main complaints came from chair judges, who turn their heads around 280 times during each match. The collar and tie caused sore necks, so designer Wood Harris came up with a new softer shirt using jermyn street methods.