Venus and Serena Williams are set apart by columnist

TODAY’S FEATURED MATCHES

Venus Williams (3), United States vs. Kateryna Bondarenko (73), Ukraine

Guest columnist Nick Bollettieri of the Independent called Venus and Serena Williams “the greatest female athletes in history.” And some obnoxious, oblivious reader probably e-mailed him accusing him of being one of those media guys who doesn’t know anything about sports.

Andy Roddick (6), U.S. vs.

Igor Kunitsyn (39), Russia

As Kunitsyn has reached the top 40 at 27, it’s impressive Allen Fox, the former NCAA doubles champion at UCLA who ranked in the top five Americans in the 1960s, coaches Kunitsyn mostly by telephone. You can slight that if you want, but you cannot argue it’s something Phil Jackson has never done.

Andy Murray (3), Great Britain vs. Ernests Gulbis (74), Latvia

The aftermath of Murray’s first-round scrape with Robert Kendrick revealed again that no tennis player undergoes such vigilant scrutiny. And he really screwed up that fourth service game in the first set.

Juan Martin Del Potro (5), Argentina vs. Lleyton Hewitt (56), Australia

It’s a young lion against an old rabbit. It could just be a zoological masterpiece.

ENGLISH BREAKFAST

A proper buzz ensued Wednesday after several newspapers reported that a first-round match had drawn unusual wagering patterns. Two betting houses closed down bets on the first-round match Tuesday between No. 30-ranked Jurgen Melzer of Austria and No. 109-ranked Wayne Odesnik of the U.S., which Melzer won in straight sets, because abnormal amounts of money shifted toward Melzer. A Betfair spokesman called it “a bit of a non-story” and “an old-fashioned gamble” in which the BBC had noted Odesnik’s muscle injury and attentive wagerers had pounced.

BRITMANIA

Question to the Argentine Gisela Dulko, who beat Maria Sharapova: “Maria has a lot of fans, not just because she’s a great tennis player, but because she’s very attractive and she does a lot of modeling. A few people have noticed you’re not so bad-looking yourself. How do you feel about being a pinup?” Dulko, a bit unsure, but polite, discerning just enough of her second language: “Thank you.” Part of the next question: “Our publication is making you the new pinup of Wimbledon.” Dulko, eventually, after translation into Spanish: “Oh, that would be nice.”

NEW ROOF UPDATE

Nope. Not yet.

ALSO WEDNESDAY AT WIMBLEDON

Piercing screams reverberated through the clear dusk of the All England Club at 9 p.m. After merely yelping with disappointing inaudibility through her first round, Michelle Larcher De Brito, 16, the ballyhooed “tennis banshee” (Daily Mirror) from Portugal, had pulled out the tracheal arsenal. Yet deep in the second set as she let out her much-anticipated shrieks -- sort of a “myaaaaahhhhhh” -- her opponent Francesca Schiavone of Italy tried gamely to match her with her own -- “ahoo!” -- grunting. With every winner, Larcher De Brito pumped her fist and acted as if she’d won a lottery, until Schiavone finally beat her 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4) and left Wimbledon in relative silence.

STATISTIC OF THE DAY

35 -- The number of straight-set wins among Roger Federer’s 41-1 match record (with one walkover) in his last seven Wimbledons, including his 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 stream through Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain on Wednesday.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Serena Williams, after a commanding second-round demonstration, on her new TV screenplay: “It’s a mixture between some of my favorite shows, like ‘Desperate Housewives,’ ‘Sex & The City,’ and actually ‘Family Guy.’ It’s kind of those put together in one, if you can imagine.”

-- Chuck Culpepper