Wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Wimbledon has been known for its dramatic matches this week, and by heck have we had em, three of them in a row! And last night's very nearly took the cherry pie, although I would still say Federer's was the most intense in terms of results, but I'll go onto all that in a minute. Yup it was a highly dramatic day 6 at Wimbledon as the last of the 3rd round matches were completed to complete the 4th round line-up starting on Monday.
Sooooooooooooooooo starting with the ladies as the usual formality, Serena Williams was up first on centre court and she played against the Chinese No.2 (or 3???) Jie Zheng. Naturally Serena was the hot favourite for this one, but Zheng was anything but a pushover, as she really pushed the 4 time Wimbledon champion to the absolute limit on centre court. After losing the first set tiebreak, Serena fought back in the 2nd set, breaking Zheng twice, taking the match into a dramatic decider where it went by serve all the way until they were 7 games all, and then Serena finally made the killer move to break Zheng, and after a bit of a tussle in her service game, she came through after a real battle, winning in 6-7, 6-2, 9-7 in nearly 2 hours and 30 minutes. Serena definitely was given quite a scare in this match but she once again showed her champion qualities to come through, combined with some superb serving, and full credit to Zheng for pushing her opponent as far as she could.
In other ladies matches we had by stark contrast Petra Kvitova absolutely scoosh her way through to the 4th round after gubbing Varvara Lepchenko, and conceding just one game, with a crushing 6-1, 6-0 win. Victoria Azarenka also had pretty easy passage into the 4th round as well against her opponent Jene Cepelova as she beat her in 6-3, 6-3. Francesca Schiavone, who has found some form again at Wimbledon also made it through to the 4th round as she beat Klara Zakopalova in convincing fashion with a 6-0, 6-4 win. And in considerably tougher matches, Tamira Paszek continued her winning run by defeating Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium after dropping the first set (she seems to do that alot!) claimed the next two sets coming through a real battle in 2-6, 7-6-,7-5. Tamira really has shown some great fighting qualities and next up she will play Robert Vinci, whom I think she will beat as well, after that thought it could get tougher, as she will play the winner of the Ana Ivanovic and Victoria Azarenka match. Ivanovic herself had quite a tough match with Julia Goerges as she too had to fight from a set down to win against the big hitting German with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory. However Sara Errani proved less successful in her 3rd round match as she lost emphatically to Yaroslava Shvedova in 6-0, 6-4, apparently Yaro's first set was perfect, or a golden set, as she did not concede one point on her serve! No bad eh??? So that sets up some fine matches for tomorrow.
Now onto the men's matches, starting with Andy Roddick who took on David Ferrer on centre court, and naturally this was expected to be a real tough match, and that it was. But it was Roddick who started out the stronger, as he blasted his way through Ferrer in the opening set, but in the 2nd after the two men shared breaks, it went to a tiebreak which after quite a struggle Ferrer claimed it to take the 2nd set. After this Ferrer found his form and range and started to outplay Roddick with some superb returning and fine serving, winning the 3rd set and in the 4th set he broke to claim his victory with a 2-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 win. This performance really does show that Ferrer is a threat now on grass as well and the rest of the draw should watch out, and it was a pity for Roddick who got off to such a good start, but Ferrer is a great competitor and he deserved his win.
So in other men's matches before I get to the very last one we had Mardy Fish take on the rising star, David Goffin from Belgium, but despite his best attempts, Goffin was unable to upset Fish, who was in good form and in the end the American's experience saw him get through with a 6-3, 7-6, 7-6 win. Juan Martin Del Potro also had a fairly easy passage through to the 4th round playing against the Japanese No.1, Kei Nishikori, whom he defeated in straight sets 6-3, 7-6, 6-1. And penultimately we had two giants take each other on with the big Croat, Marin Cilic, playing the big Yank, Sam Querrey. After taking the first two sets, Cilic was on the receiving end of a real fightback from Querry who went onto take the 3rd and 4th, and in the 5th they playing an epic decider, which ended with Cilic finally breaking Querrey's serve to close out the second longest match in Wimbledon history with an exhaustive 7-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 17-15 score. This match was quite long indeed and it clocked in at about 5 hours and 41 minutes, which was actually about half the length of the longest match in history between Mahut and Isner. And no doubt Cilic would have slept like a lamb after that one!
Which brings me onto the last match of the night on centre court, and the last two nights at Wimbledon prior to this were real drama fests and this one proved to be no different, as Andy Murray took to the court against the Cypriot player Marcos Baghdatis. Baghdatis is a dangerous player, and a former slam finalist at the Australian Open, so his game wasn't to be taken lightly, but it was Murray that managed to get off to the better start taking the first 7-5. However in the 2nd set, Andy took a tumble and partially injured his knee, he also struggled to even hold onto his tennis balls, as they kept dropping out of his shorts! This cost him a couple of points and pretty soon Baghdatis seized the initiative in taking a break of serve to win the 2nd set. After this due to light, the roof was closed, and about 30 minutes later the players came back out on court to restart play, but Andy, now with taping on his knee, got off to a bad start in dropping serve to go 3-1 down. However Andy soon found his form again and broke Baghdatis to level 4-4, after this he got back into the match pretty soon he broke Baghdatis to go 2 sets to 1 up. In the 4th set more drama ensued, not so much in the play, but as play on the centre court can go on no later than 11pm, so this left Andy with a small window of opportunity to close out the match. And against all odds Andy did exactly that as he raced to a 5-1 lead, and at 11pm on the dot, despite the supervisor coming onto the court to call play, Andy played a quickfire final game to win the match after a highly dramatic 3 hours in 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Well if late night drama is what the crowd wanted that is exactly what they got in this match. And after getting off to a strong start in the tournament, Andy showed the usual signs of frailty that creep into his game, in this match. And the old demons came back to haunt, with his poor 1st serve percentage, dropping serve and so on, and at one point even his shorts let him down (although his shorts didn't fall down, that's not what I meant!). It was almost like this match was another bad omen for Andy, and as we all know he can put his audience, his team and his family through the ringer in any given situation on court, but this really almost takes the biscuit tray. However I have seen Andy in more dire situations score wise than in this match, particularly at the French and US Open last year when he was two sets down, one set all and a break down is and was recoverable. In the end however, the dropping balls, so to speak, didn't hamper his chances, and he still won the match, so perhaps he needs a silly sign like this in each match to keep him going! ;-)
But Andy had his fair share of dramas to contend with in this match with his tumbles on the court, getting tape put on his knee, tennis balls dropping out his shorts, its like there has to be a real Murray dramathon in at least one of his matches! But he did very well to recover from the break down, and as soon as we saw how pumped he was to get back into the match, you then knew that he would come through the match, and to do it just over the nick of time was also remarkable, with playing being curfewed at 11pm, Andy managed to finished off at 11:02pm. And the atmosphere at the end of the match reached fever pitch as the whole crowd got behind Andy's incredible efforts to win, and while he put's you through an ordeal just watching him, you kind of know he will usually find a way.
Soooooooooooooo that's the 4th round set up complete for the men and the ladies, which starts tomorrow on Monday, as Sunday is a day off for the players (only at Wimbledon this happens!). As for Andy Murray what are his chances of reaching that final now that Rafa has exited the tournament??????? Well it really isn't easy to tell, as Andy still has a tough draw to deal with, and Marin Cilic is up next tomorrow, however I can see Andy beating Cilic, especially as the big fella played such a long and exhaustive match, this might just work in Andy's favour, and he has a very good head to head 5-1 in his favour over the big Croatian. But as he admitted himself he will need to play a whole lot better this week to have any chance of getting to the final, and with Rafa out, its a big opportunity for the rest of Andy's draw as well, as none of them have made the Wimbledon final.
So a lot is at stake this week for Andy Murray, and should he beat Cilic, next up he could face either Ferrer or Del Potro in the quarter finals, and maybe Tsonga or Fish in the semi finals, so it doesn't get any easier from here. And looking at the head to head stats, Ferrer leads Del Potro by 4-2, whereas Murray leads Del Potro 5-1, but with Ferrer is an even 5-5. But if Andy can raise his game and play to his ranking he will have a chance of reaching that Wimbledon final, and he has said himself in his BBC column that he will try to do everything possible to do that and win the title (if possible!). And you sense there is almost an inevitability about Andy reaching the final this year, like it is his destiny to do so.
However when you do go out and see him have a sub par day like he did against Baghdatis, it still raises fears that he will come up short once again, or fall at an early hurdle before he even gets a sniff at the final. But on the other hand, it is Wimbledon, his home slam, and yep Rafa is out, and he is the highest ranked player in his half of the draw, so the chances are there and he will be determined to take them, and he will need to.
OK so that's it for week 1 of the 2012 Wimbledon championships and it must rank as one of the most dramatic weeks in the tournament's history. And if week 1 was that dramatic, just how much more dramatic will the second week be????? No doubt we shall soon see!
Till then ta ta the nooow.
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