Forever on a Sunday, says Henman

Crowd favourite Tim Henman says its time to make it "People's Sunday" every year at Wimbledon.

Crowd favourite Tim Henman says its time to make it "People's Sunday" every year at Wimbledon.

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Henman was delighted with the support he got from a flag-bedecked Centre Court crowd who had queued all morning to secure their places after the Wimbledon organisers had opened their doors for only the third time in the competition's history.

This year they had little option after two entire days' play was lost to rain during the first week, and Henman says that maybe it's time to make Sunday play a fixture.

"I'm not in any way criticizing the fans that come and support the other 13 days," he said after defeating Hicham Arazi of Morocco in four sets to reach the last 16.

"But when you give those people the opportunity and they've queued like that, they are obviously passionate about the game and supporting me, I think it's something that could be capitalized upon.

"When I'm chairman (of the All England club) I'll bring it in."

That may not be music though to the ears of the tradition-entrenched hierarchy at Wimbledon who have zealously preserved the middle Sunday of the tournament as a day of rest.

Putting a brave face on things Saturday, the present All England chairman Chris Gorringe said that Sunday play was good at times for Wimbledon "because it so often brings a different type of person to the Championships."

It introduced, he said, "a new type of person."

But he held out no prospect of regular Sunday play as is the case at the other Grand Slam events in Australia, France and the United States.

Not satisfied with tweaking the Wimbledon worthies over Sunday play, Henman said that other initiatives would be welcome, pointing at the example of Roland Garros in Paris.

"They have a "kids' day" on Wednesdays and they get a phenomenal turnout," he said. "I'm sure it's a good thing for the game over there. Perhaps this is something that we could use."