Naked adulation -- Fan bares all for Anna

A young man took off his clothes and ran twice around Court 14 during a doubles match between Anna Kournikova-Natasha Zvereva and the US pair of Amy Frazier-Katie Schlukebir. The streaker had a sign painted on his bare chest that read `Only the balls should bounce', in reference to Kournikova's adline for a sportsbra. The streaker was escorted off the court by stewards to cheers and hoots from the crowd. He was not charged.

Kournikova, when asked later what she thought of the streaker, refused to comment, saying she had not seen him properly. ``I put a towel over my head during changeover,'' she said. ``I didn't see him and I don't know why he did it.'' She added this kind of exhibition had never happened during one of her matches before.

In support of his idol
Pete Sampras got support from an unexpected quarter his next opponent Jan-Micahel Gambill. Gambill, when asked if he thought that Pete Sampras would ever fake an injury, he came up with an emphatic no. ``Pete would never fake an injury. He will never say it hurts when it's not hurting. He'll go out there and fight. Even if he's got a broken leg and you've not won the match.''

`Let's go to the beach'
Asked about the number of American women left in the draw, Serena Williams replied: ``Maybe it's McDonald's.'' Asked what aspect of McDonald's helped American tennis, she continued, ``Definitely their cheeseburgers. Not too much of the fries but the cheeseburgers, yeah.'' She added: ``In our spare time, we don't say `Let's go play tennis'. It's more like, `Let's go to the beach'.''

Popp comes out THE British people and press here have tried their best to adopt anyone as their own and this has been on the increase as each of their players, the majority of whom are wildcards, drop by the wayside. German Alexander Popp, who has made the quarters here and holds a dual passport as his mother is British, has been adopted as their own in a way peculiar to the British. One enterprising reporter, who belongs to Birmingham near Wolverhampton where Popp's mother is from, asked Popp at the post-match press conference how long ago his mother left the town. ``Thirty years,''came the answer.

Asked about playing for Britain, Popp replied: ``It cropped up after I won my first round here. Got worse after I beat (Michael) Chang. But never before. Probably, if I had lost the first round here, nobody would have bothered asking me about it.''

No advice from Graf
Andre Agassi is not really getting any advice from girlfriend Steffi Graf, a seven-time champion here. He also doesn't think she's in any shape to win a big match situation right now. Asked if she could win here, if thrown into the quartefinals right now, Agassi looked a little reluctant to answer, but said she wouldn't. ``Well, I mean she's not a hundred per cent healthy with her knee. That's a problem. She'd have to be a hundred per cent fit. You've got to hit balls, if you don't play, it's difficult.''

He also made a significant remark in the course of his match about her watching the matches. ``It would not be easy for her to watch others play sitting in the stands. It kinds of speaks volumes for her interest in my game. If it wasn't for me, I doubt you'd see her in the stands watching Wimbledon.''

Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.