A marathon entry to focus on a marathon match and one of the biggest tests of endurance in sport took place over the last three days at Wimbledon. John Isner and Nicholas Mahut broke most of the tennis records as they spent over 8 hours serving and receiving as they reached 69-68 without a break before Mahut's resolve finally broke and Isner stumbled on into the next round.
Everything else that happened over these two days were overshadowed by the events out on court 18 with no shocks and the likes of Roddick, Venus, Djokovic, Clijsters, Hewitt and Federer all progressing without too much trouble.
On day 4, one person who did try to divert the attentions from court 18 was the Queen who arrived at SW19 with all the pomp and circumstance as she took her seat in the royal box for the first time since Virginia Wade won the Women's singles in 1977. She saw Andy Murray comfortably dispatch Jarkko Nieminen in straight sets. She took her leave of the Championships although Andy Murray will be hoping that she makes a return trip 10 days later.
If she had stayed she would have seen a great fight from Robin Haase on centre court as he made Rafael Nadal work for his win for the first 3 sets pulling out some great serves and some quite remarkable shots to stretch the French Open champion for 5 sets. Another man who was stretched to five sets was Jo Wilfred Tsonga as the exciting Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov made him struggle for his five set win.
Nothing that happened eclipsed the events on court 18 and the most remarkable thing was that Nicholas Mahut was still playing doubles on court 18 as the darkness fell.
Friday 25 June 2010
Wednesday 23 June 2010
Wimbledon Diary 2010: Day 2
After the drama of day 1, day 2 was business as usual in comparison. The three top seeds from the men's draw in action, Nadal, Murray and Soderling, all won pretty comfortably in straight sets. Indeed in Soderling's match he cared more about a butterfly fluttering around his baseline than he did for poor Robby Ginepri being pulverised at the other end of the court.
On the woman's side Sam Stosur followed her conquerer at the French Open final, Francesca Schiavone out of the tournament but Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki looked untroubled as the proceeded onwards. One to watch out for this year could be Maria Sharapova. It has been hard going for her in recent years with a procession of fairly serious injuries but could she finally be out of the woods? She won comfortably 6-1, 6-0 and will be hoping to make an impact on this years championships.
Focusing on the Brits and although Andy Murray provided Britain with it's obligitary 1st round win it was another bad day for women's tennis. Deja vu struck on court 12 when Anne Keothavong, as her compatriot Elena Baltacha did on the same court 24 hours earlier, grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory. Having won the first set but slipped behind in the second, Keothavong seemingly had control of the 4th with a 4-0 lead before losing 6 consecutive games to lose the final set 6-4. Scot Jamie Baker followed her out of the tournament in straight sets. But as with day 1 there was a silver lining and it came with another teenage Junior Grand Slam Champion. Heather Watson, the 18 year old US Open Junior Champion was up against the talented Italian, Romina Sarina Oprandi. Despite being ranked 139, Oprandi is clearly more talented than that ranking suggests but perhaps without the application to move up to the top 50. Heather Watson put in a good solid performance but just lacked the experience to win the important points and lost in three sets 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. It was a good solid debut in Grand Slam tennis and she definitely has the talent to move up the rankings. It will certainly be interesting for Britain to have potentially two top women in years to come.
Day 3 sees the demotion to court 1 of Roger Federer for the first time in living memory, or so it seems. He will probably relish the change of scenery after the scare he had on Monday. Novak Djokovic will be looking to put Monday nights late late show behind him and move forward against Taylor Dent while Heather Watson hopes to repeat the England cricket team's emphatic victory in a main draw doubles match with fellow Brit Jocelyn Rae against a pair from Australia.
On the woman's side Sam Stosur followed her conquerer at the French Open final, Francesca Schiavone out of the tournament but Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki looked untroubled as the proceeded onwards. One to watch out for this year could be Maria Sharapova. It has been hard going for her in recent years with a procession of fairly serious injuries but could she finally be out of the woods? She won comfortably 6-1, 6-0 and will be hoping to make an impact on this years championships.
Focusing on the Brits and although Andy Murray provided Britain with it's obligitary 1st round win it was another bad day for women's tennis. Deja vu struck on court 12 when Anne Keothavong, as her compatriot Elena Baltacha did on the same court 24 hours earlier, grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory. Having won the first set but slipped behind in the second, Keothavong seemingly had control of the 4th with a 4-0 lead before losing 6 consecutive games to lose the final set 6-4. Scot Jamie Baker followed her out of the tournament in straight sets. But as with day 1 there was a silver lining and it came with another teenage Junior Grand Slam Champion. Heather Watson, the 18 year old US Open Junior Champion was up against the talented Italian, Romina Sarina Oprandi. Despite being ranked 139, Oprandi is clearly more talented than that ranking suggests but perhaps without the application to move up to the top 50. Heather Watson put in a good solid performance but just lacked the experience to win the important points and lost in three sets 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. It was a good solid debut in Grand Slam tennis and she definitely has the talent to move up the rankings. It will certainly be interesting for Britain to have potentially two top women in years to come.
Day 3 sees the demotion to court 1 of Roger Federer for the first time in living memory, or so it seems. He will probably relish the change of scenery after the scare he had on Monday. Novak Djokovic will be looking to put Monday nights late late show behind him and move forward against Taylor Dent while Heather Watson hopes to repeat the England cricket team's emphatic victory in a main draw doubles match with fellow Brit Jocelyn Rae against a pair from Australia.
Tuesday 22 June 2010
Wimbledon Diary 2010: Day 1
The 124th edition of the Championships at Wimbledon began with the fleeting trumpeting of Vuvezelas and truly lived up to that fanfare with the two top men in action being drawn into five set thrillers.
First Roger Federer, the reigning champion, came out against Alejandro Falla, a man he had beaten comfortably in his two previous tournaments, it was not however the cakewalk many anticipated. Falla matched him and stole the first two sets through hard work and good application of his game. However, as has happened many times during Federer's career, in five set matches he always finds a way of wearing down his opponent and this was no different with Falla eventually succumbing 6-0 in the final set, not a true reflection of how close this match was for much of it's course.
Novak Djokovic delivered a patchy and unconvincing win against perrenial also-ran Oliver Rochus competing in his ninth consecutive championships. The match swung this way and that and neither player seemed to deserve nor indeed want to win the match. There was an astonishing 16 breaks exchanged throughout the five sets with an even more amazing 21 break point chances squandered by the two players. The match had to be completed under the roof and lights of centre court for only the second time since the roof was operational last year. By the time Djokovic finally hit the winning match point the clock had struck 11.59 and it was officially the latest ending to a day of play at Wimbledon in it's 124 year history.
Another man held to an epic five setter on day one of the 2010 Championships was Nikolay Davydenko who, on his comeback from injury, eventually prevailed 9-7 in the fifth.
On the women's side, the biggest shock of the day was new French Open champion Francesca Schiavone losing in three sets to world number 56, Vera Dushevina while the comeback Belgian's were both assured on their respective returns to SW19. Kim Clijsters, the US Open champion comfortably beat Maria Elena Camerin 6-0, 6-3 while Henin made short work of beating Sevastova of Latvia 6-4, 6-3.
It was a bad day for British tennis on day one with four British women in action on day 1 and all four being knocked out of the singles draw. Baltacha was perhaps the most disappointing when despite all the progress she has made over the last six to nine months, she threw away a winning position to lose in the third as her debilitating fear of closing out matches returned at the most inoppurtune moment. Katie O'Brien and Melanie South soon followed but the most positive of the opening day defeats was Laura Robson's straight sets defeat to former world number 1 and 4th seed here, Jelena Jankovic. The former Girls champion started badly, gifting Jankovic a break in the first game but played altogether better once she had settled down and almost took the second set in a tie break having already broken back and saved numerous match points. There were many positives to take from her showing, particularly in her serve, and should develop into a fine player in the coming years.
From a British point of view tomorrow brings the much brighter chance of a win through the world number 4, Andy Murray opening his Championships second on court 1 however, another one to watch tomorrow is Heather Watson who was handed a much easier draw than her fellow Grand Slam Junior Champion and should give a good account of herself in her Grand Slam debut at senior level. Tomorrow also brings the return of Nadal for the first time since THAT final and Soderling also starts his campaign. What is for sure, if Day two is anything like Day one, we're in for a hell of a ride, more tomorrow.
First Roger Federer, the reigning champion, came out against Alejandro Falla, a man he had beaten comfortably in his two previous tournaments, it was not however the cakewalk many anticipated. Falla matched him and stole the first two sets through hard work and good application of his game. However, as has happened many times during Federer's career, in five set matches he always finds a way of wearing down his opponent and this was no different with Falla eventually succumbing 6-0 in the final set, not a true reflection of how close this match was for much of it's course.
Novak Djokovic delivered a patchy and unconvincing win against perrenial also-ran Oliver Rochus competing in his ninth consecutive championships. The match swung this way and that and neither player seemed to deserve nor indeed want to win the match. There was an astonishing 16 breaks exchanged throughout the five sets with an even more amazing 21 break point chances squandered by the two players. The match had to be completed under the roof and lights of centre court for only the second time since the roof was operational last year. By the time Djokovic finally hit the winning match point the clock had struck 11.59 and it was officially the latest ending to a day of play at Wimbledon in it's 124 year history.
Another man held to an epic five setter on day one of the 2010 Championships was Nikolay Davydenko who, on his comeback from injury, eventually prevailed 9-7 in the fifth.
On the women's side, the biggest shock of the day was new French Open champion Francesca Schiavone losing in three sets to world number 56, Vera Dushevina while the comeback Belgian's were both assured on their respective returns to SW19. Kim Clijsters, the US Open champion comfortably beat Maria Elena Camerin 6-0, 6-3 while Henin made short work of beating Sevastova of Latvia 6-4, 6-3.
It was a bad day for British tennis on day one with four British women in action on day 1 and all four being knocked out of the singles draw. Baltacha was perhaps the most disappointing when despite all the progress she has made over the last six to nine months, she threw away a winning position to lose in the third as her debilitating fear of closing out matches returned at the most inoppurtune moment. Katie O'Brien and Melanie South soon followed but the most positive of the opening day defeats was Laura Robson's straight sets defeat to former world number 1 and 4th seed here, Jelena Jankovic. The former Girls champion started badly, gifting Jankovic a break in the first game but played altogether better once she had settled down and almost took the second set in a tie break having already broken back and saved numerous match points. There were many positives to take from her showing, particularly in her serve, and should develop into a fine player in the coming years.
From a British point of view tomorrow brings the much brighter chance of a win through the world number 4, Andy Murray opening his Championships second on court 1 however, another one to watch tomorrow is Heather Watson who was handed a much easier draw than her fellow Grand Slam Junior Champion and should give a good account of herself in her Grand Slam debut at senior level. Tomorrow also brings the return of Nadal for the first time since THAT final and Soderling also starts his campaign. What is for sure, if Day two is anything like Day one, we're in for a hell of a ride, more tomorrow.
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