Well ok now we are onto Day 3 of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, which saw more exciting tennis take place with most of the 2nd round matches taking place, while some of the 1st round matches were still to to be completed.
So starting with the ladies, the first result of the day was a great one for the Brits, which saw Heather Watson, the fast rising young player from Guernsey make further headway at Wimbledon, as she put on another a very impressive display in defeating her opponent, the American Jamie Lee Hampton, to reach the 3rd round, with a 6-1, 6-4 win. This was another great win for Heather Watson, and it was something of a landmark in that she became the first British player to reach the 3rd round of Wimbledon since Elena Baltacha back in 2002. It really does show that Heather is fast becoming a star in her own right, and she will only get better and better as her career progress. In fact I think she has the chance to become the female equivalent of Andy Murray in terms of success as a player, and surely it won't be too long before she starts winning titles on the WTA tour. However Heather's next opponent will be a very stern test as she will play the World No.3, Agnieszka Radwanska, although Pole came into 2012 in top form, she has been in and out of form a little bit of late, having exited early both at Eastbourne and the French Open. So just maybe if Radwanska doesn't play as well then Heather will have a chance, but its a pretty tell order to get past Aga if she is on form.
Which brings me on to the match of the day, ladies or mens, which was between the former World No.1, Caroline Wozniacki, and the current Eastbourne AEGON International champion, Tamira Paszek. Tamira actually came into this match as the slight favourite, mainly because of her excellent run of form at Eastbourne, which incredibly prior to the event, she had only won two matches all year. However Tamira had a far from easy encounter with Caroline, as the two of them battled it out for well over 3 hours, with Caroline going a break down in the 1st set, she fought back to level at 5-5 and then went on to break Tamira to take the first set 7-5. The second set saw the two players trade breaks until it went to a tiebreak, but this time it was Tamira who had the edge and sealed the breaker to level the match. And in the 3rd despite going a break down, Tarmia broke back and made the final decisive break, and sealing Caroline's fate and probably her toughest loss of the year, as Tamira's fine run continues onto the 2nd round of Wimbledon, winning after an epic 5-7, 7-6, 6-4 battle.
This was easily one of the best matches of the tournament so far, and it was a shame that one of them had to lose as both players played some terrific tennis for the packed crowd on centre court. And Tamira Paszek definitely deserved her win, and it was great to see her maintain her excellent form that won her the Eastbourne title last week, so I hope she continues to have a good run at Wimbledon. Tamira also comes across a really nice bright girl and its really encouraging to see someone be so positive in victory and also have a gutsy positive attitude out on court to go with it.
As for the Wozzer, well this is another tough loss for Caroline Wozniacki to deal with, and its a great shame, as only a year and a half ago she was on fire, playing some of her best tennis. But already at this time last year, we could see the cracks in Caroline's game, and this year there have been so many players that have beaten her that she is looking too vulnerable, in fact her 2012 record so far stands at 22-11, which isn't too great, and as the stats show she has literally lost half of her matches this year!
So what is behind her drastic dip in form??? Well to be honest its hard to say, other than there are so many players that can hit her off the court with power and pace and weight of shot such as Serenia Williams, Sharapova, Kvitova, Azarenka, Kerber, Goerges and quite a few others, and her forehand is still suspectible to error. Caroline recently changed coaches as her current coach is Thomas Johanssen who is a former Australian Open champion, but she is yet to see any benefit in the change from that. And this marks the first time she has lost in a grand slam open round since about 2007, which is a really poor result and quite worrying.
But it seems almost like both Caroline and her beau Rory McIlroy's careers have both taken a bit of a dip just now as Rory has been struggling in some of his golf events, particularly at the US Open this year, which he was defending the champion as he went 11 over par, and failed to make the cut. So something bad is rubbing off on both of them! (or perhaps they have been rubbing off each other a little too much! Dirty joke I know!). Also Caroline has been without a title since August last year when she won the New Haven Open at Yale, which she has won the last four years running, but something tells me that someone else will win it this year. But I hope she does one day soon pick up her game and get back on track, she showed a glimmer of hope with her excellent performance in Miami earlier this year in reaching the semi finals and defeating Serena Williams enroute before losing to Maria Sharapova. But if she can at least pick up another title somewhere along the way this year, then it will hopefully give her game the confidence it badly needs. One way or another I'm sure this will be one grass season she will want to forget, and at this rate 2012 as a year to forget as well in her career.
Anyway quickly onto the mens today, which saw Roger Federer in action against Fabio Fognini, who he demolished in straight sets, in just a mere 74 minutes, yup that's right! And once again we saw Roger in spellbinding form, just taking his opponent apart and giving the Italian hardly anything in return. In fact it was remarkable the Fognini managed to take as many as games from Federer, given the maestro's form, who raced to a 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 win. So far its been a dream draw for Federer but sooner or later it will get tougher for him, especially in the second week, but so far in the first, its been a cakewalk. Later on in the day Novak Djokovic was in action as he took on the young rising star from the USofA, Ryan Harrison, who gave a very good account of himself in playing a very high quality match against the World Numero 1. However despite Harrison's valiant attempts, it was not enough to take it to Djokovic, who made a decisive break in each set, winning in 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Regardless of his loss though Harrison put in an excellent performance and he has shown great promise for the future.
And finally another update on another British player today, Jamie Baker who took on the 3 time Wimbledon finalist, Andy Roddick. Their match was postponed from yesterday due to bad light, but overall it was a very good quality encounter as well, with Baker make a very impressive stab at taking the game to Roddick. But ultimately it was Roddick who managed to come through, albeit in a very tight straight set win, 7-6, 6-4, 7-5. Regardless of his loss, Baker showed great promise as well for his future, and its good to see him back on tour after suffering from so many injuries and having had numerous srugery over the years.
Sooooooo that's that tomorrow we will have the remaining second round matches, with Andy and Rafa in action. Andy has the sterner test of the two as he will play the giant 6ft 10 Ivo Karlovich, with his massive serve, but hopefully if the Muzza maintains his fine form from the first round the he should come through. The other brits will be in action as well, as we James Ward take on Mardy Fish, which should be a real test for the British No.2, and unfortunately its one he may not come through, but you never know, he could go on a little run this year at Wimbledon, like he did last year at Queens (but he won't reach as far as the semis for sure!). Anne Keothavong will play Sara Errani, the French Open finalist, which should be another tough test, but again I would have to favour Errani to win, because of her pedigree and form this year. And finally Elena Baltacha will probably have the toughest test of the lot as she is playing the defending champion, Petra Kvitova, and to be honest you can only see one winner there, and its not Bally. So its a tough testing day ahead for the Brits tomorrow, but you can live in hope that at least one or two of them get through.
Plus briefly Maria Sharapova is still in action and to complete her 2nd round match against the former Wimbledon semi finalist, Tetsana Pironkova from Bulgaria, who after a tight first set, which Sharapova won on a tiebreak, she looks to be in the driving set in the 2nd with a 3-1 lead.
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrright well that's it for now.
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