The Times and Sunday Times for less Rachel Johnson Where am I It was the perfect day for pen-sucking and dreaming of sunny portents
because play at the Rome Masters was spoilt by winds that whipped clay into the eyes and nostrils, and one match on the Foro Italico’s temporary main court was completed in a torrential downpour that formed small puddles into which balls plopped and stopped. Work on the new Centre Court appears no more advanced than a year ago. A roof That was still up for discussion. Andy Murray lost a first-round doubles match yesterday with Ross Hutchins, his Davis Cup colleague, which is probably just as well because his second-round singles today against Juan Mónaco, of Argentina, will require every bit of the British No1’s powers of concentration. Lest we be accused of getting ahead of ourselves, the player himself said that he could have been No3 before now had he fulfilled his tour commitments last year – he withdrew from the event in Indianapolis, unaware of a new rule that condemned him to a “zero-pointer” on his ranking record that could have been retrieved had he flown to Indiana and carried out promotional work on behalf of the tournament. That is a long way to go to shake a few hands. He will not make the mistake of ignoring the fine print again. Murray, who has held the No4 spot for 32 consecutive weeks since September 8 last year, has made a career-best 29-3 start to the year to close quickly on Djokovic, who has been ranked No3 every week bar one since Wimbledon 2007. With last year’s Monte Carlo points dropping off from the player’s average next Monday, Federer loses 700 points, Djokovic 450 and Murray 150, which equates to a mere 110 points separating Serb from Scot as we start this championship.
At the very least, when the French Open begins next month, Murray, who reached the third round at Roland Garros last year, will be only 280 points adrift of Federer, who was the runner-up in Paris. Should Murray overhaul the Swiss – which is very much on the cards – Federer would have to hope the grass-court formula that Wimbledon figures into its seedings prevents him from being relegated at SW19 by virtue of the five-times former champion’s record of excellence there. That would be hard to swallow.