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Groundhog Day again at Wimbledon. A bit of sun, a bit of rain, a bit of tennis, just like yesterday and the day before. But a bit of spin was put on the tournament being 177 matches behind, because only 13 of those were singles. Not that big a deal, really.

There has naturally been talk about the scheduling. There was no play on the middle Sunday, and it was clear and sunny for an hour after play was abandoned on Tuesday evening, making it appear strange that there was no play. Certainly, Rafael Nadal was not happy, after taking more than 92 hours to play his third round match against Robin Soderling... “I didn't understand some things, no? I didn't understand why we didn't play on Sunday. The weather was okay, so much better than yesterday, Monday and today, too. I didn't understand why they cancel yesterday when at 8:10 the sunshine is here for one hour so we can play one hour. I didn't understand when we are going to the court for play 15 minutes and they know because they have the meteo. That's very tough for the players, no? They don't think very much about the players here maybe.” But the grass had become slippery in the chilly, damp evening, so there was logic in not playing then. And Sunday play? It isn’t that simple. The forecast was not very promising, and it did rain in some areas of London. At Wimbledon? I don’t know. I was out of there. No play = no me. But it did rain in the city. More than that, it takes enormous organisation to arrange the extra day, with staff, catering and the consideration of neighbours all needing to be taken into account. So playing on the middle Sunday is only considered in extreme circumstances. They didn’t apply this year.

How about shortening the matches? Wimbledon plays the final set to advantage, others don’t. But that’s okay with Andy Roddick.

“I like the mix, to be honest,” he said after beating Paul-Henri Mathieu. “I don't know if it's really that much of an advantage either way. If I'm in a fifth I got to feel like I'm going to hold serve more than most of the guys I'm going to play against. In a tiebreaker it's a little bit more of a crapshoot, for lack of a better term. “I kind of like it the way it is. I feel like the tiebreaker in the fifth set in New York kind of fits the tournament with the big lights and the music and everything. All of a sudden it's kind of all or nothing there in the last three or four minutes. I like that. But I also like the tradition here of playing it out. I feel like it fits the tournament. I feel like there's the right balance there.”

Things can go to extremes, though. Surely, five set doubles is too much. It hardly encourages the top singles players to play, does it, especially with Wimbledon’s rain delays.

On Wednesday, the Brazilian pairing of Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa won their second round doubles match against Aussie Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe 5-7 7-6 4-6 7-6 28-26 to set a new record for the longest men’s doubles match in Wimbledon history in terms of games played (102). In terms of games played (54), the fifth set is also the longest in Wimbledon history. The match lasted 5 hours 58 minutes. Who watched the entire match? Probably one man. The umpire.

Last year a match lasted 6 hours 9 minutes, when Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor defeated Simon Aspelin and Todd Perry 5-7 6-3 6-7 6-3 23-21. In case you were wondering, the longest final set in any event at Wimbledon was 29-27, set in a mixed doubles match in 1985, when Michiel Schapers and Brenda Schultz defeated Tom Nijssen and Andrea Temesvari 6-3 5-7 29-27. Make a note of it in case anyone asks.

Roger Federer, as the Associated Press pointed out, has not played since last month, after receiving a walkover against Tommy Haas. Does that give him an advantage?

“There's no question he's probably not going to be as sharp coming off of a five-day layoff than playing every day,” said Roddick. “But, you know, fortunately for him that five-day layoff came at the best possible time. It's not like it's been sunny and we've all been getting practice in. We've been stuck in a locker room for nine hours a day, and he's been chilling out taking the red double-decker bus tour thing maybe. Given the choice, I'll take a living room over a locker room.”