WIMBLEDON Rain washes away Saturday's action

The tournament's third People's Sunday will be played today.
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- With time to fill during two all-day rainouts that forced Wimbledon's third People's Sunday in 127 years, the BBC showed old matches from such rivalries as John McEnroe vs. Jimmy Connors, and Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova.
If, as planned, the All England Club has a roof in place over Centre Court in 2009, the network will be able to broadcast live tennis when the inevitable showers come.
And that means future generations probably won't get to see archived tapes of matches between two players who could be the sport's next all-time greats, two players whose contrasting styles and personalities appear to set the stage for a career-defining series of showdowns: Andy Roddick and Roger Federer.
As McEnroe, working for the BBC, put it: "A Roddick-Federer rivalry would be sweet for the men's game."
Neither Roddick nor Federer got a chance to reach Wimbledon's round of 16 Saturday. Off-and-on drizzles prevented any action on courts -- other than the removal of tarps during breaks in rain, and the replacement of tarps when drops returned.
It looked almost as if a video were being shown, then rewound, shown, then rewound, accompanied by loud applause or boos, depending on which way the tarps were rolled. Play also was washed out entirely Wednesday.
Tickets on sale
By 3:30 p.m., organizers decided to scrap the traditional day of rest on the two-week tournament's middle Sunday. Instead, 28,000 tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 9 a.m., with no reserved seats.
Within about two hours of that announcement, more than 500 people were queued up outside the grounds. The only other times a backlog of matches led to People's Sunday, in 1991 and 1997, fans who rarely get into the All England Club brought flags and face paints, creating a livelier atmosphere.
Top matches today
Among the matches on Sunday's "Intended Order of Play," as Wimbledon calls it: defending champion and top-seeded Federer vs. 2002 Australian Open winner Thomas Johansson, and No. 2 Roddick vs. U.S. Olympic teammate Taylor Dent.
Roddick, 21, bases his game on his serve -- the fastest in tennis, it's been clocked at 153 mph -- and big forehand; his volleys and backhand are improving. He can be loud and witty, on the court and off.
Federer, 22, is as comfortable at the net as along the baseline, equipped with a strong serve and wonderful returns. He's generally reserved, on the court and off.
Stars tend to be associated with a particular shot (Pete Sampras' serve, say, or Andre Agassi's return), but Federer receives praise for how well-rounded his play is.
He dropped just nine games through two matches, stretching his grass-court winning streak to 19, the longest since Sampras took 23 straight from 1998-00.
"Now things will get tougher, but I think Roger Federer is going to be picking this Wimbledon title up on more than a few occasions," McEnroe said.
Federer on hot streak
The Swiss star is 41-4 overall in 2004 with a tour-leading five titles, including a second major at the Australian Open in January.
"Federer is the biggest talent from all the players I ever play in my career," 2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic said. "When you look at him, you think tennis is a very easy sport, but it's not."
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