Roddick, Gilbert Form Winning Pair

Raider Nation is going to love this one.

The Sunday Times, the Sunday Times of London to be specific, ran a photo of Brad Gilbert wearing a floppy, black hat with a Raiders logo. Next to Gilbert in the picture is the second-ranked tennis player in the world.

Sure it sounds like the punch line of the joke. “I know Brad Gilbert, but who’s the guy with the baseball cap turned backward?” That’s almost the situation with Brad and his protg, Andy Roddick.

Roddick didn”t have a bad afternoon on Wimbledon’s third so-called People’s Sunday, the “makeup game” to borrow a baseball phrase, because so many matches had been rained out earlier in the week officials grudgingly scheduled competition when there was to be none.

Only three times in 118 Wimbledons has this sort of nonsense been allowed, 1991, 1997 and now in 2004. And since, unlike the normal 13 days of play, there was no advance sale, tickets were sold at the gate, to the proles, if you will, the people.

Roddick didn”t have a bad afternoon, defeating American Davis Cup teammate Taylor Dent 6-3, 7-6, 7-6, in a third-round match. Gilbert, Roddick’s coach, had a great day.

In one Sunday Times, the one over here, there’s that article on Brad, who grew up in Piedmont and lives in San Rafael, headlined, “BIG BROTHER.” In another Times, the one in New York, the Sunday magazine was carrying a 4,000-word piece titled, “Brad Gilbert Talks a Great Game.”

As opposed to Andy Roddick, who plays a great game.

On People’s Sunday, Roddick and Dent went against each other on a rather unpeopled Court 1, the fans choosing to pack adjacent Centre Court, because England’s hope, Tim Henman was there. And winning.

But the crowd, or lack of same, didn”t bother Roddick any more than Dent.

“The people who were there really wanted to be there,” said Roddick. “They were pretty loud. By the end (of the match) it was a little better. That’s not something I’m concerned with. I mean, this whole week’s been wacky, why not today, too?”

Why not start the day with Gilbert complaining to Roddick about the Oakland Athletics” relief pitching, grumbling that the A’s on Saturday night were ahead, 7-3, over the despised (to Brad) San Francisco Giants; moaning how the new reliever, Octavio Dotel, blew the lead.

“No,” said Roddick, “he would never mention that. But they won. He’s upset with the situation, blah, blah blah. Who cares?”

It’s that sort of needling and joking that has enabled the 42-year-old Gilbert, the one-time eighth-ranked player in the world and then the one-time coach