Henman in Trouble, Flip in Danger of Getting Popped When Rain Halts Play at Wimbledon; Women's U.S. vs. Belgium Semis Today

ATP REVIEW/PREVIEW
After spitting for much of the day, the skies finally opened on Wednesday, cutting short the only two men's quarterfinal matches underway. When play resumes today, Brit Tim Henman will try and pry his hands away from his throat and put behind him his exemplary display of choke tennis from the day before. Facing Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, the Brit blew four set points before dropping the first set 7-6, including an easy volley chunked long and a tentative backhand slice from the baseline that he floated wide under no pressure. When the rains came for the final time, Grosjean led 7-6(8), 3-6, 6-3, 1-2 on serve. Henman will hopefully benefit from being chewed out by his coach in the interim for being such a whuss on the big points. Grosjean for his part will endeavor to continue with the pinpoint passing shots and unexpected net approaches that kept the Brit guessing. In the other quarterfinal, Mark Philippoussis looked like his previous fourth round encounter with Andre Agassi had taken it all out of him, moving sluggishly, stoning easy volleys, and quickly going down 0-2 sets to the unhearalded German giant Alexander Popp. But the Australian's game slowly came around, and when the rains came Philippoussis had evened the match at two sets all, and 2-2 in the fifth. Anyone notice how technically un-sound Flipper's volley is, with the big swing on the backhand and the weak poke on the forehand? Time for the Aussie to get some coaching on that, rather than the crawling-down-stairs-on-your-hands-and-knees and the other crazy-crap fitness stuff he's always going on about. But we digress.

Today's schedule features the resumption of Henman vs. Grosjean and Philippoussis vs. Popp, and the other rained-out quarters in Roddick vs. Bjorkman and Federer vs. Schalken (see yesterday's notes for head-to-head and other stats).

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
The women's semis are on tap today, featuring the U.S. vs. Belgium in (1)Serena vs. (3)Henin-Hardenne, and (4)Venus vs. (2)Clijsters. The Serena/H-H semi is a rematch of the semifinal a month ago at the French Open, where the Roland Garros patrons showed Serena they were tired of her French bashing and soliloquies on how no one could beat her, and H-H showed her what pinpoint accuracy and fitness can earn you. At the post-match Serena broke into tears, accused H-H of cheating, and essentially went into denial about clay being her worst surface. Essentially, Serena had her Martina (Hingis)-moment meltdown. But now we're on the lawns, arguably Serena's best surface, and H-H will be hard pressed to defuse the No. 1's serve and power baseline game on Centre Court. Serena leads the career head-to-head 4-3. In the other semi, Kim "Sting Like a Bee" Clijsters will try and keep this from turning into a blowout, facing the Wiliams sister who is also on her best surface, the ace slamming, dress-designing, nap-grabbing Venus. Lleyton's girlfriend got blown out in their last meeting earlier this year on the fast indoor carpet in the Antwerp final, and the waffle will have to dig deep, perhaps making a few more net forays than she is used to, to change things up and make this one competitive. Venus leads the head-to-head 4-2.
In completed women's quarterfinal doubles action Wednesday, (1)Ruano Pascual/Suarez beat (12)Mandula/Wartusch, and (4)Davenport/Raymond crushed (7)Husarova/Martinez.

DOING THE CLAY-GRASS DOUBLE
A surprising number of women have won the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year since the advent of the Open Era (since 1968):
(1) Margaret Court -- 1970
(1) Evonne Goolagong -- 1971
(1) Billie Jean King -- 1972
(1) Chris Evert -- 1974
(2) Martina Navratilova -- 1982, '84
(4) Steffi Graf -- 1988, '93, '95-96
(1) Serena Williams -- 2002

TOP FOUR IN WOMEN'S WIMBLEDON SEMIS
Following a long history of top-heavy play on the women's tour, the top four seeded women have advanced to the semifinals nine times in the Open Era at Wimbledon:
2003 -- Serena, Clijsters, Henin-Hardenne, Venus
1995 -- Graf, Sanchez-Vicario, Martinez, Novotna
1992 -- Seles, Graf, Sabatini, Navratilova
1988 -- Graf, Navratilova, Evert, Shriver
1980 -- Navratilova, Austin, Evert Lloyd, Goolagong Cawley
1979 -- Navratilova, Evert Lloyd, Goolagong Cawley, Austin
1978 -- Evert, Navratilova, Goolagong Cawley, Wade
1976 -- Evert, Goolagong Cawley, Wade, Navratilova
1973 -- Court, King, Goolagong, Evert

TOUR NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
French Open winner Justine Henin-Hardenne says forget the dirt, grass is her favorite surface...Today, having already snapped Serena's 21-match win streak and her 33-match slam win streak, Henin will now try to end Serena's 12-match WImbledon win streak...Jennifer Capriati alluded to being fat and out of shape as a possible reason for losing to Serena: "I got a little bit tired there because she started moving me around. And after not playing really difficult matches, and when all of a sudden, you're just having to run side to side, of course you're not used to it, so it's gonna take the wind out of you a little bit."...During her match Jen had the support of "Friends" star "Fat" Matt Perry in the stands...In the "Say It Enough Times and It Will Come True" category, can Juan Carlos Ferrero shut his noise hole about becoming No. 1? We know you want it, we know, but in every interview, damn, just write it on your hand or something...Ferrero is one player who's happy that Wimbledon officials have changed the grasscourt texture so it plays like a green claycourt: "Yeah, that's new because the other years, I didn't feel so, so well. But this Wimbledon, I feel well. I feel great. And I think in the future I can play good here."...Silvia Farina Elia was a slogan machine after her loss to Kim Clijsters -- on getting better with age: "All the time, believe in yourself, and that you always can improve." Write that down, on your hand...Lindsay Davenport, not too happy about being left off the Fed Cup team by captain Billie Jean King, sounds like she is about to "Andre Agassi" the whole Fed Cup experience: "You know, I think I was more disappointed in the amount of years I've put into Fed Cup and how many ties I've put in and how many times I've asked for special favors, which is about zero, and one that I think is pretty understandable. You know, I'm obviously not going to miss being with my mom when she needs some support. So I'll think about it harder the next time."...Sebastien Grosjean was asked if he had noticed all the pasty Brit girls watching him practice and discussing his sex appeal: "I don't know. Ask my wife, I don't know if she will be happy."...Damn, Kim Clijsters is white-bread boring, her post-match conferences are like listening to someone read a technical manual...The currently-in-production Wimbledon movie "Two weeks in love" is going to be along the lines of the dreaded "romantic comedy," according to star Kirsten Dunst, with a character that seems to be based on...Jelena Dokic? "She's very dedicated, doesn't have many friends, has a very controlling father. She very sexually aggressive, very tough. They fall in love, he helps her and she helps him, it's very romantic comedy. My character is very feisty, very angry, I have a lot of scenes of my yelling at the umpire. She's like a female McEnroe. That's what I want to be." The movie is being produced by Working Title films, which produced "Notting Hill," "Bridget Jones' Diary" and "About a Boy." The film is due out late next year...Last year's Wimbledon final between Lleyton Hewitt and David Nalbandian was the All England Club's first men's final between two baseliners since Bjorn Borg beat Jimmy Connors in 1977 and '78...This year is the first time in the Open Era that both of the top two seeded players (Hewitt and Agassi) failed to make the Wimbledon men's quarterfinals...None of Wednesday's men's quarterfinalists had ever won a slam, with Philippoussis the only slam finalist...After Sunday's men's final, seven different players will have won the last seven men's slams, one short of the Open Era record of eight, which happened from 1975-77, and from 2000-02...Talk about extremes, in the men's game you've got anyone that can win anytime, and in the women's game you've got no one that can touch the top eight players...The Americans may have repelled the Russian women in singles, but the Russkies struck back in doubles -- defending Wimbledon doubles champions Venus and Serena were beaten in the third round by Russians Elena Dementieva and Lina Krasnoroutskaya...Another American doubles team was shown the door as brothers Bob and Mike Bryan lost in the quarterfinals to Leander Paes and David Rikl...As of Wednesday, the Brit oddsmakers had Andy Roddick as the 6-4 favorite to win the tournament followed by Roger Federer (7-2), Mark Philippoussis (11-2) and Tim Henman (9-1)...The British tabloids are calling Andy Roddick "Yankee Doodle Andy"...How about those make-up people at ESPN? Mary Carillo actually looks hot...Which Williams sister to like nowadays? First Venus blew on the scene all pompous and distant, then Serena came on all bubbly, fresh and friendly; now Venus is all approachable, laid-back and smartly philosophical, and Serena is the pompous one who spends all her time trying to be intimidating and incessantly blowing her own horn...From the WTA: "The last time the Top 4 players advanced to the semifinals of a WTA Tour event was Wimbledon 1992." We don't think the ITF would agree that Wimbledon is a WTA Tour event girls...The WTA finally figured out that for Serena to keep her No. 1 ranking, she has to finish ahead of Kim Clijsters at Wimbledon -- someone buy the WTA media staff a calculator for Christmas...Of the four women semifinalists at Wimbledon, Henin-Hardenne has the worst 2003 and career win-loss records, worst grand slam semifinal record, and worst Wimbledon record...Why is the WTA constantly pumping the fact that the top three women have earned more this year than the top man on the ATP Tour, which just reinforces the fact that the WTA Tour has no depth? Doh...Grosjean's coach, former player Thierry Tulasne, needs to find a hat; the shaved-head-look only works when your head is not shaped like a road cone...Don't expect Andy Roddick to suddenly transform into the serve-and-volleying Pete Sampras at Wimbledon, according to coach Brad Gilbert: "I have so much trouble getting his (expletive deleted) serve back in practice. He's not nearly as good from the net as he is on the ground."…According to reports, pressured by clothing and equipment manufacturers and agents, players are shying away from the ATP's boycott threat…WEATHER: More rain expected, on and off…STAT OF THE DAY: There have been 9 rain delays up to this point in The Championships.