WIMBLEDON, England -- Queen Elizabeth - yes, that Queen Elizabeth - is scheduled to show up Thursday at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, her first appearance in 33 years.

Not to play, though she might not do worse than most of the entrants from her country. To watch.

But she'll be a day late. On Wednesday, two kings - a kid from the University of Georgia, John Isner, and a young man from France, Nicolas Mahut - made history, even without a result.

They're playing a match that is longer than any ever played. Ten hours. They're playing a set, the fifth - and there's no tiebreaker in fifth sets at Wimbledon - that already is longer, at 7 hours 6 minutes and 118 games, than any previous match.

The score is Isner 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-5, 59-59.

After that, what does Queen Liz do for an encore?

A royal appearance, and jolly old England can use it. Things have not gone well for the little island, starting with that leaking oil well over in our part of the world - BP, after all, used to stand for British Petroleum.

Then there's the very unroyal case of Vanessa Perroncel. She apparently was the cause of the troubles with the English soccer team, which had been a sporting version of the BP well, although Wednesday it did advance in the World Cup.

"England unrest is all about a girl,'' was the headline in the Times of London. And under it was a story beginning, "England's World Cup campaign encountered fresh turbulence amid the threat of mutiny ...''

Mutiny? Over a game? Or over a woman?

Perroncel, a lingerie model, was the partner of English player Wayne Bridge until she had an affair with Bridge's teammate, John Terry, who subsequently was stripped of his captaincy by manager Fabio Capello for his indiscretion.

The unrest was heightened when an English fan somehow entered the team's locker room in the Cape Town stadium and began berating the players. Pavlos Joseph, a 32-year-old mortgage adviser, was hauled into court, fined about $30 and banned from attending any more games.

And from getting into locker rooms, presumably.

Awful. But across the Channel, it's worse. The French club went on strike and then went out of the tournament, after Nicolas Anelka was booted - a perfect soccer term - from the team for an obscenity-filled outburst at the coach, Raymond Domenech.

Sort of makes the days of Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner seem like a frat party.

The reason the queen is attending Wimbledon after a very considerable absence, indeed providing royalty in the royal box, is a matter of debate. She's never been a fan of tennis, but, hey, with that mess in the Gulf of Mexico and that mess in the World Cup, maybe she decided on option No. 3.

Wimbledon is a joy, a survivor from another age, tennis on grass, players attired in white. The appeal is so pronounced that fans queue overnight just to get grounds tickets.

Just the name, Wimbledon, gets people excited. "Someday I'm going to get to Wimbledon,'' is a mantra heard in places as varied as baseball clubhouses and NFL locker rooms. For good reason.

When the sun is shining, as it has been, and the courts are filled, it's as much a festival as a sporting event. Strawberries, straw hats and forehands.

But understandably at the moment, Wimbledon pales next to the World Cup. Soccer is the common man's sport, and on the streets cars are decorated with the Cross of St. George, the red cross on white English flag.

Some of the English smart-alecks said a red cross is perfect for a nation desperately in need of help, but England did beat Slovenia 1-0 Wednesday to advance, as did the U.S.

No Englishman, or woman, advanced even to the second round of Wimbledon. The lone Brit remaining is the Scot, Andy Murray, and he is in the first match Thursday. One hopes the queen is not fashionably late.

British tennis is unfashionably bad. Neil Harman, the longtime writer for the Times of London, said to Andy Roddick, the American who lost in last year's final: "You may have noticed that Britain had its worst-ever Wimbledon this year. Does it strike you as odd or amazing that a country of such wealth in the sport cannot be able to produce players?''

Roddick, a winner Wednesday over Michael Llodra, began, "I'm not going to sit here ..." Then he sat there and said very little.

There wasn't much to say about the John Isner-Nicolas Mahut match except, "Wow.''

They had stopped Tuesday because of darkness. They returned Wednesday and had to be stopped again because of darkness.

They're playing the longest match in history at 10 hours. Their fifth set already is longer than any match in history.

"It was impressive,'' said Roger Federer, who watched for a while on TV after winning his match.

That's more than impressive. That's amazing.