Thursday 30 June 2011

SEMIS!!!

Gah, had severe internet problems...

Anyway we're at Semi-Final stage, ladies today and it's former champ Maria Sharapova against wildcard Sabille Lisicki, and Petra Kvitova against Victoria Azarenka.  I kinda hope for a Azarenka v Lisicki final, but former tennis champ turned lady pundit thinks it'll be Shara against Kvitova if she plays well, or Azarenka. 

On the mens side there was a shock when King Roger was knocked out by Jo Wilfred Tsonga (who reached the Australian Open final several years ago) in the Quarters, Rog was two sets to love up at the time and hadn't lost from that point before.  But still you have to ask how much of a shock is it to beat Federer these days?  Even Roger seemed to have accepted his fate in the fifth set, and didn't really look like he was trying that hard.  

Anyway Tsonga will take on Djokovic, and Murray will play Nadal.  Can't see past a Djok vNadal final really, and it would be interesting to see who won it.  Novak is only 65 ranking points behind Nadal...

Thursday 23 June 2011

Showered but not stirred...

Rain has interrupted and stopped play the past few days, but the roof on centre court has allowed a few matches to continue. 





Mixed fortunes for the British players- all the men went out in the first round apart from Andy Murray, Elena Baltacha, Anne Kepthothong, and Laura Robson all won their first round matches though.   Unfortunately for Heather Watson she hurt her elbow in the middle of her first round match, a real shame since she had been winning comfortably, but lost rather uncomfortably 6-2 4-6 4-6.  And Anne Keothothong has lost her second round against Kvitova, but Murray of course is through to the third round.  Laura Robson's match against Maria Sharapova was postponed due to rain until tomorrow when Baltacha will also play against Shuai Peng.  Jamie Murray also won her first round match in the men's doubles (which was reduced to best of three sets to get this damn grand slam back on schedule).

In other news there was a mega match between Lleyton Hewitt against Soderling, with Soderling winning 6-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4., followed by a cracker between this years French Open champ Li Na and German star Lisicki.  The young German got the quarter finals in 2009 but didn't play last and had dropped out of the top 200 with a bad ankle injury.  She's now up to number 62 and rising as she knocked out Li Na in a nail biter 3-6, 6-4, 8-6.  This was followed by a short regulation win for Federer against French Mannarino in straight sets. 




And a round up of other results:
John Isner (who beat Mahut in three sets this time around) lost to Almagro in the second round, Ivanovic won her match easily, as did Djokovic, and Nadal, Serena on the other hand needed another three sets to get through her match against Simona Halep, Schiavone won in two though, and Azarenka won 6-0, 6-3, Juan Martin Del Potro continued his come back with a four sets win over Olivier Rochus although the match was held over from last night and after Rochus had won the first set- Del Pot responded by taking off his shoes and throwing them into the crowd, which was odd, Fish, Gasquet, Roddick, and Berdych all won in three, but Stanislav Wawrinka isn't having a great grass season as he lost to Bolelli 6-7, 3-6, 6-7, big shock when Jelena Jankovic lost her first round match, and Zvonareva beat her doubles partner Vesnina in straight sets. 

Tuesday 21 June 2011

WIMBLEDON

Sorry chaps, I missed out Queens Club (Murray beat Tsonga in the final), Birmingham (Lisicki beat Hantuchova) and Eastbourne (Bartoli beat Kvitova) but I was working and missed most of the tennis.  Anyway, it's wimbledon now so wouldn't you rather hear about day one than tell me off for forgetting to blog?  I thought so...

Well much of the tennis was called off due to rain but the roof came into play and protected centre court (albeit with a 40min delay as they sorted out the atmosphere- as I understand it they maintain a certain temperature to stop the grass going gross under the roof.  That's a paraphrase of Sue Barker.  Anyway, Francesca Schiavone was playing Jelena Dokic- Schiavone who got to the French Open final two weeks ago, after winning the tournament last year. 
Dokic who plays for Australia and who has a turbulent personal life with an abusive father and depression, she stopped playing tennis for several years but is now back and back in the top 50 (highest ranking of 4 back in the early 00's).  She's not had a great year but played really well at times against Schivone in a highly competitive match, before losing 6-4 1-6 6-3.

After that match Andy Murray went up against Spaniard Gimeno-Traver (ranked 56 and the 11th highest Spaniard), Murray sat back and allowed Gimeno-Traver to overcome his nerves, and start to play really well and take the first set 6-4.  But Gim couldn't maintain this form and Andy got his act together to win it in four sets- 6-3 6-0 6-0.  So the papers are full of King Andy, but really will he beat Nadal playing like that- erm no.

And some other results- Venus Williams back from a long injury time out creamed Amanmuradova 6-3 6-1 wearing a loose white romper with open back, and gold-ish shorts underneath.  Always a trend setter eh V?
 
Defending champ Rafeal Nadal was down a break initially to American Russell before winning 6-4 6-2 6-2, wearing regular clothes as I understand.  Milos Raonic, a young Canadian who whizzed up the rankings last year when he won a couple of tournaments back to back, and is defo one to watch for the future won his first round against Gicquel in straight sets to get a third round meet up with Nadal (if Raonic beats Muller and Nadal beats Sweeting in the second round). 

Young American Christina Mchale took out number 28 seed Makarova 8-6 in the third, while Britain's Katie O'Brien was the first Brit to lose when she was beaten by the oldest competitor Kimiko Date-Krum (40 years old if you wondered).  There were wins for Fish, Gasquet, and Berdych, and tough wins for Zvonerava and Kuznetsova. 

Today Federer, Djokovic, S Williams, and Wozniaki may be playing but all eyes will be on court three when Nicolas Mahut plays John Isner, again!

Tuesday 7 June 2011

So, I've had some reformatting to do of my laptop, but while I was away Li Na won the French Open on Saturday making her the first Chinese woman to do so.  Li Na was this year's Aussie Open finalist and subsequently struggled to win any of her matches.  She beat last year's surprise winner Francesca Schiavone in straight sets and said it was 'dream come true' and has now risen to number four in the rankings.





And on Sunday, following the expected loss of Andy Murray to Rafa Nadal in the semi-final, and the surprising loss of Novak Djokovic (who injured his knee) to Roger Federer, Nadal and Federer fought for the men's title.  Although Fed took a set he's still no match for Nadal on clay.  Nadal won in four sets, and has now won 6 French Opens (10 Grand Slams in total) and is the second youngest man to do so (after Borg).  Nadal will now keep his number one ranking, although Novak is hot on his heels, until Wimbledon at least as Djokovic has pulled out of Queens Club.



Wednesday 1 June 2011

Semi Final Line Up

I made my own illustrated draw sheet to show the singles Semis:



Took me way too long to do this...and you can't even read the names properly, sigh...