Oh well I'm now onto part 4 of my coverage of the Wimbledon Championships, which saw the round 3 matches get under way and there were some apt moments of real drama today as well.
Sooooooooo in fine tradition starting with the ladies, the feature match of the day was the British No.3, Heather Watson, who made impressive progress in reaching the 3rd round of Wimbledon, which no female British player has managed for the last 10 years. However Heather had a big task ahead of her in trying to make it into the 4th round, as she faced the World No.3, Agnieszka Radwanska, who has been playing the best tennis of her career this year. So did Heather manage to pull off the miracle and get past the tenacious Pole????? Well the short answer is no, as Heather struggled badly to get anything going against Radwanska at all. Radwanska isn't the most powerful of players, as she is counterpuncher, but what she lacks in power she makes up for with guile and ingenuity in her game, and Radwanska completed outclassed Heather throughout the match. But Heather also gifted many free points to Aga as she made quite a few careless unforced errors, so in a way she was engineered her own downfall in the match, and she simply wasn't aggressive enough against Radwanska either, which saw Radwanska take a very easy win in 6-0, 6-2.
Well as usual that's all the Brit players out of Wimbledon except Andy Murray, and despite James Ward's gutsy performance against Mardy Fish, it has to be said the ladies in their last matches all played very poorly, and they were beaten way too easy. And while Heather Watson was by far the best out of the four female players, she too fell way short of the mark on this occassion. But it was a real step up in terms of the quality of opponent, as Radwanska is a world class player and is one of the most consistent players on tour just now as well, so it was too much to really expect that Heather could beat her. Regardless of that, Heather did a great job in getting as far as the 3rd round of Wimbledon, and she is still young, so in a few years time she could even become a top 50 or top 20 player, and with time she might come that much needed spearhead figure for British ladies tennis.
So briefly in other ladies matches we had Maria Sharapova who safely made it throught to the fourth round by defeating Su-Wei Hsieh, defeating her in straight sets 6-1, 6-4. Kim Clisters also made it through after Vera Zvonareva was forced retire with an injury, with a 6-3, 4-3 ret score. This will set up a rather mouth watering match between Kim and the in form German player, Angelique Kerber, which promises to be quite a belter, especially if Kim maintains her good form.
Right onto the men's matches of the day, starting with Novak Djokovic who was up against the Czeck player Radek Stepanek. Stepanek proved early on in the match to be problematic for Djokovic as he broke Djoko to take the first set, however from there onward Djokovic took control of the match, breaking Stepanek twice in the second three sets, which saw him come through finishing strong with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 win. This was an enteratining match, and despite Djokovic dropping the first set, you knew that he would take control of it sooner or later and he certainly did, but there were quite a few enjoyable points, and Stepanek's net play was very enteratining as well. But Djokovic is safely through to the fourth round where he will next play his compatriot, Viktor Troicki, which could well be an easy match for him, but we shall see, its hard to tell in this event!
So onto the match of the day, which saw No.3 seed, Roger Federer go up against the talented French player, Julian Benneteau, who seriously gave Federer a run for his money. And despite starting off the tournament so strong, dropping only 9 games into this match, Federer dropped a whole lot more. Benneteau came out strong off the blocks as he blasted powerful serves and winners past Federer, and after taking the first set, Benny continued his fine form in the 2nd set, which he won on a tiebreak. In the 3rd however, Federer finally found form and secured a double break to take it into the 4th set, which was a real nerve shredder and featuerd a terrific tiebreak, which Federer ultimately won to take the match into a decider. In the 5th set however, Benneteau's legs were starting to feel the strain as he called the trainer on after the first three games, after this Benny had nowhere to go as his injury caused his game to capitulate and before we knew it, it was Federer with another double break who secured an epic victory in 4-6, 6-7, 6-2, 7-6, 6-1.
After Rafa's shock exit, I thought for a short while that Federer's number would be up next as Benneteau played so well throughout the first two sets, and in the fourth set he could have taken his chances to win the match in the tiebreak. But in the end it just shows that the players ranked outside the top 10 or morely the top 5 don't quite have the same level of endurance and fitness as they do, and Federer ultimately outlasted Benneteau, in the same way like he did with Del Potro at the French Open. But for the most part it was an enthralling and highly entertaining match, and once again the atmosphere on centre court was terrific, as the crowds once again really got their money's worth. And in the end it really showed once again Federer's champion qualities and his ability to battle through any situation, so in the end I was kind of relieved that Federer didn't go out, as it would have sent a message to the other players that the top seeds can all be beaten, but then Benny was playing the greatest player of all time.
However this match did show that Federer was making alot of unforced errors and his game had fallen below par and it made him look less than convincing in his pursuit to win a 7th title there. Unlike Djokovic who so far has looked the best out of the top three, and Andy so far has looked possibly 2nd best overall, if you take Federer's match into account tonight.
Soooooooo after all that Day 6 awaits, which will have the other half of the draw on court, and for once there is no Rafa, but the British No.1 is still in action and he will take on the talented Cypriot, Marcos Baghdatis, which will prove to be a stern test for Andy, but hopefully one he shall get through. And thankfully the draw could start to open up for him a bit more, as he no longer has to worry about Milos Raonic who went out to Sam Querrey, who I would rather see him play. But there are still some real troublesome players in Andy's draw such as Cilic, Del Potro, Roddick and Tsonga. And it really is a cruel draw, but giving the way Federer was playing tonight, his draw doesn;t appear to be as kind to him as I thought, so it looks like things might even out. The main thing is that Andy get's through to the 4th round, so he will take match by match, and I wish him the best of luck that he does.
As for the ladies tomorrow there will be the other half of the draw in action, which includes Serena Williams taking on China's Jie Zheng. Sara Errani will play Yaroslava Shvedova, the French Open finalist and quarter finalist respectively, and Francesca Schiavone will play Klara Zapokalova. Petra Kvitova, the defending champion will take on Vervara Lepchenko of the USA, and the former World No.1, Victoria Azarenka will play Jana Cepelova. So it all looks good!
Right so i will report back once tomorrow's potentially dramatic matches have finished.
And that'ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss it.
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