Tennis: Wimbledon '93 / Wheaton powerless to rally against Becker

BELOW the order of play section in the programme, it said: 'Competitors would be grateful if spectators do not make a noise during a rally.' Rumour has it that a retaliatory notice is shortly to be pinned inside the men's locker-room. 'Spectators would be grateful if competitors would occasionally produce a rally while they are trying not to make a noise.'

There is currently a lively debate going on as to what exactly constitutes a rally in men's lawn tennis. Some would say that the receiver just managing to get a thick edge to the serve would qualify - a not entirely tungsten- in-cheek view held by those who mostly blame the new racket technology.

If you wanted to locate a wooden frame at the All England Club yesterday, a pounds 2 payment for entry to the Wimbledon museum would have been your best bet, and the rackets being employed in the actual tournament are a good deal more highly strung than John McEnroe ever was.

The net result is not a lot going over the net, and the St John's Ambulance tent is no longer littered with spectators suffering from tennis neck. In fact, the umpire's traditional cry of 'new balls, please' is now more likely to be a call for medical assistance to a player who has failed to react in time to a 140mph serve.

Officials are at risk, too, judging by a net-cord judge's decision to wear a helmet during the United States Open championships, although they are made of sterner stuff at Wimbledon, and the woman rostered for Boris Becker versus David Wheaton on Court One yesterday - a Scud meets Exocet encounter if ever there was one - did not even appear to have applied hairspray.

While Becker's sobriquet of 'Bonking Boris', awarded by a tabloid newspaper a few years ago, apparently had more to do with chalking up frauleins than service lines, it could equally apply to his power, and Wheaton is well up there in the mph ratings as well. Yesterday, the opening point took something less than one second. Ball leaves racket, ball hits backstop, 15-0.

This, though, turned out to be the high point of Wheaton's match. His serve might be almost as heavy as his wallet (he won dollars 2m for winning a one- week, four-match tournament in 1991) but it mostly thudded into the net yesterday.

It was so low-key that there was only one cry of 'C'mon Boris]' for one of the more popular competitors here. The key to popularity at Wimbledon is to be a character, of which the supply is rapidly drying up, and certainly does not include the likes of Wheaton. He has a graceful demeanour, but there is not much appeal about the clean- cut, all-American boy.

Becker finished 16-9 ahead on aces, but more importantly for his prospects of winning the event, he also played some beautiful touch tennis. However justified the fears that technology is robbing the game of artistry, Wimbledon has not yet been won by a big serve and nothing else.

Even so, it is becoming more and more difficult to locate a gentle match here. After Becker and Wheaton, it was off to Court 14 for a ladies singles, where a tall Dutch girl by the name of Brenda Schultz was delivering cannonballs. The one appropriate place for the 'no noise during rallies' request in the programme is underneath the 45-and-over gentlemen's invitation doubles.

(Photograph omitted)