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It rained again at Wimbledon, several times, and that is a challenge for everyone. Lleyton Hewitt finally finished his match against Guillermo Canas, and admitted it had been difficult to handle the situation.

“That's the longest and toughest rain-delayed match I've ever had to put up with,” he said. “To go on and off so many times, it was a mental battle more than anything out there. You just couldn't get down on yourself at all or get worried with the situation because it was the same for everyone. You know, I felt like I handled it exceptionally well. Just got to be prepared to do it. This is how you win majors. It's not getting frustrated with the situation. Whatever hand you're dealt, you got to deal with it, you know, keep positive.”

There is actually a positive side to all the disruptions for some. The match of the day was the clash between former champions Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova and, quite rightly, it was scheduled for Centre Court. But because of the delays and the need to get as many matches completed as possible, it was moved out to Court Three. Quite some bonus for those who hadn’t managed to secure tickets for Centre or Number One Courts! Except they saw only three points played before the sky leaked again and play there was eventually abandoned for the day.

Ana Ivanovic was another who’s match stopped and started several times before she could complete a victory over Nadia Petrova, but it didn’t erase her ever-present smile. It is important, if you have a chance, to get away from the tennis environment in order to relax properly, and on Sunday she took a trip to Wembley Stadium with Novak Djokovic, his manager and her brother to attend the Concert For Diana that was organised by Prince William and Prince Harry in memory of their mother.

“It was really nice experience,” said Ana. “I was there for a couple of hours and it was amazing. I enjoyed it a lot. Hopefully I will have chance to see some concerts soon again. I saw David Beckham. He was sitting quite close to us. That was exciting. And also Kiefer Sutherland. We just passed by him on the way to our box. It was exciting because I follow 24 closely, so it was exciting to see him. I was nervous. I wanted to have a picture with him but we were going in a different direction.

“A couple of people asked me for a picture and autograph. I was really surprised because it didn't happen much before in my career. So that was pretty exciting.”

While we look at tennis players as stars and some even camp out all night at Wimbledon to watch them, it is sometimes easy to forget that often tennis players have their own idols too.

While it doesn’t affect Wimbledon, there are changes afoot at the WTA. They are to adopt the same scoring system in doubles that has been used by the ATP this year, which means that after Wimbledon the women will now also use no-ad scoring and play a super tiebreak instead of a third set. Whether to adopt on-court coaching, which has been trialed at some tournaments, is still under discussion.

That’s one thing. But there will also be dramatic changes to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour itself, beginning next year and expanding in 2009. The players are finally having their demand for a shorter season satisfied, with the 2008 season ending after the Sony Ericsson Championships are played in Qatar the week of November 3, giving a seven week off-season. In 2009, the SE Championships will be played the week of October 26, giving the players a nine week break.

It is the 2009 season that sees the biggest changes. There will be four mandatory events, which every eligible player must enter, at Indian Wells (March 9), Miami (March 23), Madrid (May 11) and Beijing (October 5). Most of the Asian tournaments are being gathered into one period, to be played between the U.S. Open and the end of the season. Cities to stage tournaments then are Guangzhou, Tashkent, Seoul, Kolkata, two in Tokyo, the mandatory tournament in Beijing, Singapore and Bali.

During that period the European indoor season is reduced to just two events, as Stuttgart moves from October to replace Warsaw at the end of April, using an indoor clay court. Zurich, now a Tier one event, disappears entirely, leaving just Moscow and Linz. Two Asian tournaments are left in the early part of the year, with Bangkok staging a tournament in February during the week now featuring Pattaya, and Bangalore, oddly taking place two weeks later in March. I understand that the organisers of Bangkok were very keen to retain the Pattaya date for the Bangkok event, although the reason for that is a mystery. Equally, Bangalore also stands alone on the 2009 calendar.

Prize money will be $67 million in 2008, rising to $77 million in 2009. There will be two levels of tournaments, with 20 events plus the Grand Slams and Fed Cup (and including the four mandatory tournaments) in the ‘A’ group leading to the SE Championships in Qatar, and 31 tournaments in the ‘B’ group. The number of top players designated for each ‘A’ group event has not yet been determined.