Keeping Tabs: Schedule rage; Angie’s “fury”; Konta—darling of a nation

LONDON—Why does the All England Club schedule just three matches on its show courts on Manic Monday, when four would allow them to host more competitive, and presumably crowd-pleasing, women’s contests?

Is it old-fashioned sexism? Not according to tournament officials, who said there’s no “favoritism” involved. Is it because they want to save the grass? That’s a nice thought, but typically they have no trouble putting an extra match or two under the Centre Court roof when it rains, and the turf doesn’t seem the worse for it. Is it just tradition? This is a tournament, after all, that held onto its gentlemanly 2:00 P.M. start time for a century.

No, the explanation, according to Richard Lewis, the club’s chief executive, is probably not the one you were imagining. It’s about off-peak train tickets.

“It doesn’t work for us to have four matches,” Lewis said. “Even with a start time of 1 P.M. people find it difficult to make it to the stadium on time. They want to use their off-peak fares.”

On the one hand, as The Guardian points out, this is a laudable point of view. A show-court ticket already costs a proverbial arm and a leg. On the other hand, its seems a bit arbitrary. No other Grand Slam starts its early-round schedules so late. The Wimbledon fans with grounds passes are asked to be there by 11:30. And you would think that the prospect of seeing four matches instead of three would be enough to get people to set their alarms a little earlier.

As for the women players’ reactions to being pushed to the side courts on Monday, The Sun tries its best to bring their outrage to a boiling point:

KERBER GIVES BOSSES A VOLLEY
Top seed Angelique Kerber was furious over Wimbledon bosses denying her the chance to take center stage

I hadn’t heard about this—what did Angie say?

“I was really surprised I was playing on Court 2 again,” Kerber ranted, “...I was looking forward to playing on one of the two big courts. But the schedule was already out, and what could I do about it?”

OK, OK, I’m not sure I would call that a “furious” reaction, exactly, but it’s a start. Going by Wimbledon time, the issue will be resolved in another 50 years or so

It’s official: the London papers, and hopefully the people who read them, know who Johanna Konta is now. This is what happens when you become the first British woman since 1984 to reach the quarterfinals. It also helps if you add a little photogenic emotion to your celebrations, which Konta, despite her reputation for baking and blandness, seems happy to do. The newsstands in the Wimbledon village today are one long picture of her emoting after her fourth-round win over Caroline Garcia.

What’s nice, though, is how low-key the tabs keep their Konta coverage. No undue pressure on her; no hopes placed perilously high; no glorification of her game or personality.

Here’s The Mail’s eight-column banner headline on this shy Backstreet Boys fan:

ENTER THE ICE QUEEN
Ruthless Konta keeps her cool to see off Garcia

The Telegraph is equally level-headed:

POKER-FACED KONTA SHOWS THE STEEL OF A BORN WINNER

“There is an implacable calm about Konta. She likens herself to Jason Bourne...”

The Times keeps everyone’s expectations in check:

KONTA PROVES SHE HAS WEAPONS TO END 40-YEAR WAIT
Briton hopes to follow Virginia Wade

The Sun refuses to overplay Konta’s or Murray’s wins over two second-tier opponents from France:

FRENCH FRIED, NOW WE’VE GOT TWO QUARTER POUNDERS
Jo ‘n’ Andy in final eight

Leave it to The Sun to go the extra mile and stretch the metaphor over to its headline about Rafael Nadal’s loss toe Gilles Muller:

AND NADAL GOES OUT TO LUXEM-BURGER

How does Andy Murray feel about all this attention coming Konta’s way? The always-realistic Muzzard seems to be especially happy for his haters:

As Dan King writes in The Sun: “Andy Murray hailed fellow Brit quarterfinalist Jo Konta and claimed: It’s great for people who don’t like watching me.”

The Guardian reports that, in the confusion of Manic Monday, signals were crossed in Magdalena Rybarikova’s coaching box.

“Loose!” one of Rybarikova’s coaches shouted at her, trying to get her to relax.

His colleague shot him a look: “Lose?” he asked

“No! Loose!”

“Fortunately,” the man who overheard this contretemps, Paul MacInnes, writes, “it was soon agreed that both wanted their player to win.”

Who’s the newest sex symbol in tennis? A 41-year-old Frenchman who sits in a high chair?

“It’s not only the weather that’s been a bit hot this year at SW19,” The Sun asserts. “Honey-voiced umpire Kader Nouni is driving the ladies wild.”

“It’s a wonder his voice doesn’t put the players off,” one female fan wrote to the All England Club. “It’s really sexy and smooth. And I’m 82.”

Sex appeal—tennis-demographic style.

That’s it for the Tuesday papers. Enjoy the women’s quarters, which do, finally, take over the show courts today.

—GRAND SLAM WEEK: WatchWimbledon Primetime on Tennis Channel, and catch up on the other 2017 Grand Slams on Tennis Channel Plus

—Watch encores from the 2017 French Open and Australian Open on Tennis Channel Plus, including matches like the AO Final showdown between Serena & Venus Williams**