By Liza Horan

Earlier today in today's edition of the weekly TennisWire Media Alert, which goes to 600+ verified tennis and sports journalists worldwide, I asked if anybody was skipping Wimbledon because of FIFA World Cup duties.
 
That could be the case at some top newspapers, as editors have had to appropriate resources for these two major sporting events. Despite tennis' deep roots all over the world, football generally trumps our sport for audience size, and the World Cup's cache is close to that of The Olympic Games. 
 
ESPN , which is the English-language broadcast rights-holder for the World Cup, told me how they went about handling the two events.

Host Chris Fowler is one of only two staffers to get routed to South Africa instead of Wimbledon this year. Minimizing the impact of the World Cup on the grass Slam was by design.

"In anticipation, we actually took extra folks to Melbourne (for the Australian Open) and Paris (for Roland Garros), and trained a few staffers to replace the two positions," says ESPN V.P. of Event Production Jamie Reynolds. "But, ironically, many of our tennis group helped train the group going to South Africa as we had most of the experience working with international feeds of this size and scope and fully optimizing the technology they'd be using on site.

"We have enough depth on our roster, staff and freelance, that we can flex pretty well."

ESPN is covering Wimbledon on TV (ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Desportes, ESPN Video-On-Demand; ESPN Interactive TV via DIRECTV, which offers the HD for the first six days of the tournament); online (ESPN.com; ESPN3.com for broadband video); and on-the-go (ESPN Mobile TV). 
 
Will the World Cup steal some of Wimbledon's fire?

Hard to tell. As certain countries fall out of the competition on the pitch—England, perhaps?—their tennis compatriots might be able to lift their spirits on the grass. Right now it looks like fourth-seeded Andy Murray has a better chance of reaching the Round of 16 at Wimbledon than England has at the Round of 16 in South Africa.

"It's obviously a lot of pressure on England to do well at the World Cup," Murray said Saturday at a pre-tournament press conference. "It's the same with the tennis players here—with a lot of sport in this country—because it gets a lot of coverage."

But Murray said the amount of media attention he's getting is down, likely owing to World Cup play. "It's not been quite as busy as last year," he admitted, "but I'm sure once the tournament starts, then it will pick up a lot. I don't think the World Cup will get in the way of Wimbledon too much."
 
Murray has more pressure to bear than his Lions footy cohorts: England last won the World Cup in 1966, yet the last British man to win Wimbledon was Fred Perry in 1936. Oh, and the Queen's visit on Thursday should coincide with Murray's second-round match. "It obviously would be a great honor to play in front of the Queen. I've never done that before, so obviously a little bit added pressure to play well," he said.
 
As both a fan and a professional athlete, Murray clearly appreciates the immense effort to win something as huge as either of these "big Ws." As he put it, "I think to win a World Cup is incredibly difficult. To win Wimbledon is incredibly difficult, as well. These are very, very, hard, hard things to do. There's been a lot of people that have come close the last few years—last 10 or 15 years with Tim (Henman), and myself last year. You know, we just need the (fans') support."

In three days, he'll have royal support.

A fun read: At the intersection of Wimbledon/World Cup, AP's Christopher Torchia covers how soccer is on the minds of the top-seeded players in London.

Please share how you're splitting your time between Wimbledon and the World Cup by commenting below.