| | Associated Press
WIMBLEDON, England -- Venus Williams' run to the Wimbledon title drew strong TV
audiences for NBC.
Her straight-set victory over Lindsay Davenport in the singles
final Saturday drew a big-market overnight rating of 6.0.
That's an increase of 22 percent over a year ago, when
Davenport's victory over Steffi Graf, played on Sunday because of
rain, garnered a 4.9 overnight.
The final hour of the semifinal between Venus and her younger
sister, U.S. Open champion Serena -- a match NBC aired on tape-delay
Thursday afternoon -- pulled in a 5.0 overnight rating.
The matches helped boost NBC's overnight average for eight days
of coverage from the All England Club to 3.3, 18 percent higher
than the 2.8 earned to that point of the 1999 tournament.
Overnight ratings are based on the nation's largest cities and
cover about 60 percent of U.S. households. Full national ratings
will be released this week.
NBC said it will televise the Williams sisters play Julie
Halard-Decugis and Ai Sugiyama in the Wimbledon women's doubles
final Monday. The match, slated for Sunday, was postponed because
of rain.
Wimbledon goes mostly for the dry look
Except for the showers in Sunday's
final between Pete Sampras and Pat Rafter, this year's two-week run
at Wimbledon had been nearly rain-free.
Although this year has been relatively dry but with little
sunshine, the last several Wimbledons have been rain-soaked.
Last year, rain completely washed out play on the second
Tuesday. Two years ago, rain also plagued the fortnight. And 1997
went down in the Wimbledon record books as one of the wettest ever.
That year play was completely washed out on the first Thursday
and Friday. In 1996, rain on four days during the second week
pushed back women's doubles until Monday.
The forecast for Monday at Wimbledon also looks dubious.
"Monday should be fairly cold and blustery with afternoon
showers and heavier rain," said a spokesman for the Met Office,
Britain's weather service. "It doesn't look very promising."
Royal box needs addition
They were running out of room Sunday in the Royal
Box at Wimbledon.
Newly knighted Sean Connery was there. So was Australian Prime
Minister John Howard and American ambassador to Britain, Philip
Lader.
There were also a few tennis greats around: four-time
Wimbledon runner-up Ken Rosewall, 1960 champion Neale Fraser, 1949
champion Ted Schroeder, and 1952 champion Frank Sedgeman. Also on
hand was International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio
Samaranch.
Also on hand in the star-studded audience was Tom Hanks,
celebrating his 44th birthday. He chatted before the match with
former Wimbledon champion John McEnroe.
Looking up
This is how tennis is evolving. The two women's
finalists -- Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport -- were taller than
the two men's finalists. Pete Sampras and Pat Rafter are both
listed at 6-foot-1. Venus Williams is 6-1 and Lindsay Davenport is
6-2½.
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Is Sampras best ever? Too tough to call
Second-set tiebreak collapse sinks Rafter
Sampras tops Rafter, rain for historical title
Johnson-Po win mixed; Williamses' doubles final postponed
Washington: Summing up Sampras' Slams
Sampras' all-time Grand Slam singles results
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