Battle to beat weather delays

With 178 matches behind schedule — 64 in the main events — referee Andrew Jarrett said: "It is utterly ghastly, it's a situation of concern and we are continuing to look at it on a daily basis."

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Today should be quarter-finals day in the men's singles, but there are still two third-round ties to be completed.

Further showers are forecast before drier conditions tomorrow and Friday.

Despite the delays, play on Centre Court will start at noon today in an attempt to offer the same rest time to all the players.

Jarrett said: "Djokovic and Kiefer went home earlier than the others, while Nadal and Soderling were kept waiting quite a lot longer tonight. That's why we feel it's only right that they be given extra time to recover."

The rain forced officials to stage junior matches across the road at Southlands College with first-round matches having "super tiebreaks" of first to 10 points.

"We are trying to operate to maximum capacity and while we are reluctant it does help clear the backlog," said Jarrett.

Some players could be forced into action every day, which may just prevent a third-week finish.

One match that is proving particularly stubborn is that featuring Janko Tipsarevic who, a week after the mne's doubles tournament started, is still not through his first round match alongside Hyung Taik Lee against Leos Friedl and Frantisek Cermak.

One source of frustration to fans is the amount of dead time before play resumes.

Some players seem to spend more time warming up than playing due to the allowances they are given whenever there is a restart.

If the break is 15-30 minutes long the warmup is three minutes and if it is over half an hour, the large majority, the full five-minute preparatory period is allowed.

Add to that is the time the players often take to have a drink or remove their tracksuits after the warm-up and the fans' impatience under the rainclouds is understandable.