Six appeal?

Apparently, in this madcap world of ours, there is a 6 o’clock in the morning, as a troupe of some bleary-eyed ground staffers were all too keen to point out on day two from Edgbaston. That marked the start of their working day in a desperate effort to salvage at least some of the day’s play following incessant rainfall overnight and through the morning in the Midlands.

They swept the covers, sawdusted the damp patches and at one stage marched across a collection of towels on court 2, much to the crowd’s pessimistic amusement. Fortunately this was to deal with a single wet patch and not the entire court, otherwise the second round would not get underway here until around Thursday. Next Thursday.

If it is any consolation, along with the bacon butties that kept them moving as the sun categorically didn’t come up, a complete Tuesday washout was averted with play taking place on courts 2, 3, and 4. Cheers, guys.

Keep it tidy, King

The crowds were denied a look at Anne Keothavong, Laura Robson and Maria Sharapova, who were all scheduled to feature in Centre Court’s second day of first-round action, but some tennis survived the rain delays – and even saw a little sunshine.

Vania King made it difficult to avoid describing the rain delay as water off a duck’s back as she set about dismantling Kirsten Flipkens, who was left playing catch-up throughout the contest after conceding an early break in the first set and seem to have had enough of he game in the second, the Belgian going down 6-4 6-0.

Despite being the same height as Flipkens at 5’5”, King manages to look more petite than she may be – or Flipkens looks taller, it’s hard to say. The illusion is probably accentuated by her neat playing style, backed up by nimble footwork that put too many balls in court for the Belgian’s liking. She may not own a fearsome weapon of particular note, but intelligent defence on a slick grass court and a keen eye for sneaking in to volley a winner proved enough today.

She will face Alla Kudryavtseva in the next round, a player who will pose more problems than King faced today.

It's a magic number

The American’s victory was one of only three completed matches – along with a 6-2 3-6 6-2 win for Ayumi Morita against Italy’s Maria Elena Camerin and a solid 7-5 6-1 win for Aleksandra Wozniak over Alicia Molik – on another soaking day in Birmingham, which is really putting pressure on the tournament organisers to get through the fixture backlog.

As a result, Briton Keothavong faces the prospect of playing three matches on Wednesday. The winner of the former world No.48’s showdown with Pauline Parmentier will face Na Li on Centre Court later in the afternoon, with Keothavong pairing up with Melanie South to face Turkey’s Ipek Senoglu and Marie-Eve Pelletier of Canada in the doubles.

Weather permitting, of course.

Good day for: those with a ticket for Wednesday.

Bad day for: the young ball girl hit square in the face by a full-blooded warm-up serve from Karolina Sprem out on Court 4 as the day drew to a close. The Croatian immediately ran round the net to check on the girl, who, despite the shock, stood her ground and looked set to carry on. But Sprem asked the umpire to substitute her, presumably for a taller ball kid who would be less likely to take a direct hit to the face.

Tomorrow’s big match(es): With nothing doing on Centre Court on Tuesday, Maria Sharapova’s opening match is still topping the billing. She faces Bethanie Mattek-Sands before Laura Robson’s showdown with Yanina Wickmayer, who was watching Robbo from the stands on Monday.