WIMBLEDON, England — This would be enough for any fan with a ticket to Wimbledon on Monday.
Serena Williams, the defending champion, is playing Maria Sharapova, a longingly eager ex-champion who at 23 desperately wants to be at the top again with her surgically repaired shoulder a mental hindrance but her fighting spirit still potent.
And Kim Clijsters is playing against Justine Henin. The two Belgians have combined for nine major championships, both took big chunks of time off and have been — at most — cordial and at times standoffish with each other.
It's only the fourth round at Wimbledon, and already these delicious matchups.
Seems plenty good enough for a single day, but that's only a tiny slice. Because Wimbledon keeps the middle Sunday a rest day, everyone left comes back on Monday — 16 men and 16 women will play fourth-round matches.
Is it too much?
Two-time U.S. Open champion and two-time Wimbledon semifinalist Tracy Austin, working as an analyst for the BBC, sees good and bad.
"It is a lot of great matches at one time," she said. "But then you miss some, which is a shame. I would like to savor each match."
Austin is right. Five-time Wimbledon champ Venus Williams, who is playing Australia's Jarmila Groth, is consigned to Court 2 and there was no room on Centre Court for Clijsters and Henin, who are on Court 1.
Andy Roddick, a three-time finalist here and a crowd favorite after last year's narrow loss to Roger Federer that went 16-14 in the fifth set, also is relegated to Court 2.
The wounded Rafael Nadal, second-seeded and the 2008 champion, won't play until after Clijsters and Henin and then third-seeded Novak Djokovic and 15th-seeded Lleyton Hewitt on Court 1.
"Normally Kim and Justine would be on Centre Court if they split this up over a couple of days," Austin said.
The hallowed court has been reserved for a pair of defending champs and Britain's lone hopeful.
"It is hard to pick one day over the other, but the feeling is special at Wimbledon on Monday," said Federer, first up on Centre Court.
Williams and Sharapova are next, almost squeezed in because fans here will most certainly be waiting to bellow for their fourth-seeded favorite, Andy Murray, against Sam Querrey.
Querrey, who lives in Santa Monica, Calif., knows full attention will be on him since all of Britain is rooting for Murray, who is from Scotland.
"Yeah, there is a little extra buzz for this day," Querrey said.
dpucin@tribune.com