I've been wanting to post all week about Wimbledon, but I've been in too deep a news blackout to risk going online. As is traditional, there is no play today, the middle Sunday, so I am safe. The week started out with Roger Federer coming close to losing in the first round. If you heard the score of his match against Alejandro Falla (5-7, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6, 6-0) after the fact, you might have thought gee, that was tough, but of course Roger pulled it out. Yet it really looked like he was going to lose. In fact, the announcers were referring to it as an upset before he turned things around in the third set. There was no way I'd be able to avoid the news if he lost. So I did what any self-respecting tennis fan with nothing urgent waiting in the office would do: I took the morning off.
When on Wednesday I heard rumblings that something historic was going on at Wimbledon, I avoided email, news headlines, my car radio, and even skipped getting my mail in case there was someone in the lobby looking to ruin my day. I didn't find out until after watching seven hours of tennis that American John Isner and French qualifier Nicolas Mahut had still not finished the match that had been called for darkness Tuesday night. That meant I had to stay in a deep news blackout all day Thursday as well. As you know unless you've been in a news blackout of your own, Isner finally won the match on Thursday, 70-68 in the fifth. I was surprised: Mahut looked fresh as a daisy in the longest match in history, while Isner seemed like he might need to be carried off the court. Not surprisingly, Isner was too spent to put up a fight in the next round, losing to Thiemo De Bakker (6-0, 6-3, 6-2). Will Wimbledon break with tradition and add a tie-breaker at some point in the 5th? I sure hope so. No one should have to play 183 games, as they did, in one match.
The best news of the tournament (for me) was that I've been watching it on MY BRAND NEW 46" HDTV. I am deadline driven in all things, and Wimbledon was my deadline for getting a new TV. I bought it Saturday, and a friend came over to set it up Sunday (thanks Ken!). Now I can even watch two matches at once. You can find American TV listings here, with no risk of spoilers. In addition to ESPN2, this week NBC is also carrying matches for a few hours in the middle of the day.

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