Serena unhappy with locker room restrictions (Wimbledon Diary)

Serena Williams finds herself a bit peckish over the restriction on carrying food to the Wimbledon locker. If that is the case, the American complains on her website, then why are bananas and energy bars offered to players inside the locker room?

"I'm an athlete and my diet is very important during a tournament," said the 10-time Grand Slam champion.

"Before a match, I eat in the locker room, it's a part of my routine," Williams said that when informed she could no longer nosh in the zone, "I was in shock."

"I'm a member of the All England Club. As I am looking around the locker room a bit upset I must admit, I notice someone placing bananas and health bars into a basket for the other players and myself.

"Why have food in a room if we aren't allowed to eat in the locker room. This rule is unfair and new. There was no warning that this new rule would be implemented and I don't agree with it.

"I totally dislike rules that do not make sense."

The club said Williams got the wrong end of the stick on a regulation which has been in place for nearly a decade since the opening of the new Millennium complex in 2000.

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Retirement of Safin may save company racket budgets

Marat Safin left Wimbledon this week for the last time as a player, with his career-long trail of smashed rackets soon coming to an end.

The personable - yet mercurial - Russian who retires at the end of the season takes the prize for destruction of tools, with his racket company Head surely ready for some relief after a decade or more of shipping in replacements.

Safin reckons he's gone through nearly $150,000 in broken rackets, crashed and smashed in the heat of the moment on court.

"Breaking all those rackets, it was worth it. I'd guess I've smashed 700 in my career, maybe more. That's not so many. The rackets probably cost about $200 each, so 700 rackets, not so much really."

The $140,000 comes in addition to nearly $100,000 in disciplinary fines for the two-time Grand Slam winner and former number one.

Last updated on Jun 27^th, 2009 at 17:40 pm IST--DPA