Will they finish the match tomorrow? They don’t usually schedule any play on the middle Sunday unless they are really behind.
The match is finished, Murray won just in time (well, 11:02). They would have had to wait until Monday to finish it otherwise.
And Bernard Tomic has received a warning about his "destructive" behaviour.
I wish he was a Kiwi.
If Andy Roddick never wins a major again(looking likely), will he be the best player ever that only won one? Any better players who managed to win only one?
This has been a great tournament so far. Serena Williams was pushed deep into a third set and served a women’s record 23 aces. Cilic beat Querrey 17-15 in the fifth in a match that would have set a record for longest in Wimbledon history if not for the Isner-Mahut Death March a couple of years ago. (Cilic-Querrey lasted 5:31. Isner-Mahut went 11:05.) David Ferrer beat Roddick pretty easily. I heard reports before the tournament that Roddick was telling people this was probably going to be his last Wimbledon. He did everything he could to win this tournament short of having Federer kneecapped and it just never happened.
This was true in 2005 or 2006. 
That’s a tough one, but I think Roddick might be the winner. Michael Chang might have the best argument. Thumbnail comparison here (and I’m most familiar with Roddick): Roddick was #1 in the world, has 31 career titles and reached five major finals. He was ranked in the year-end top 10 ever year from 2002 to 2010. Chang lost in three major singles finals after winning the '89 French Open (one in '95 and two in '96), was ranked as high as #2 in the world, won 34 singles titles, and was in the year-end top 10 ever year from 1992 to 1997. If he hadn’t gotten hurt he could’ve added to that. After that you get down to Yannick Noah and Pat Cash and Michael Stich - guys who were really good at their best, but if look at how long Roddick remained one of the 5 or 10 best players in the world even after Federer and Nadal took over, you have to be impressed.
As tradition dictates, everyone gets Middle Sunday off and the round of 16s start tomorrow. But I forgot about something else bizarre that happened yesterday: Yaroslava Shvedova won the first set against Sara Errani (#10) without losing a single point. She hit 14 winners and won all 24 points in about 15 minutes. It’s the first time in WTA history that this has happened. One male player did it in 1983. Shvedova has been ranked in the top 30, but she got into Wimbledon as a wild card. She went on to win the match in straight sets. Interestingly I see Shvedova also won 23 points in a row in a match in 2006, and that was the old record. I’m not sure that was in a single set, but apparently once in a rare while she’s just untouchable.
You may forgot it but I didn’t. Post 196
Dreary day, and they are closing the roof on Centre Court. There has been some mist in the air.
Round of 16 matches have started. Serena has won and will face defending champion Kvitova in the Qtrs. While Serena’s match was being played (on Court 2), I swear I could hear Sharapova shreiking on Court 1.
Yesterday morning, ESPN’s Outside the Lines did a story of the Grunting and Shreiking. There was an allegation that Sharapova’s shrieking is definitely “gamemanship” as they pointed out she does not shriek in practice and the decibel level is noticeably higher when she hits winners (or what she thinks is a winner.
That allegation has been made against a lot of players, and I think it’s true for many of them including Sharapova. People have been complaining about the shrieking for years and the WTA seems to be looking into doing something about it, although I don’t know what that would be. I do say shrieking and not grunting because I think you’d picture a grunt as a short and involuntary noise, and a lot of these sounds are deliberate, long, very loud screams.
Speaking of which, Sharapova is out. Sabine Lisicki got her in straight sets. Serena won another three set match. Federer won the first two sets against Malisse, but Malisse came back to win the third. He got a break early in the fourth, but Federer just evened it at 2-2.
I’m sorry about that. I just missed your post.
First Nadal, and now Maria is out. This is turning into my ideal Wimbledon!
Agreed! Any credit Maria gets for being easy on the eye is instantly drowned out by her being the opposite of easy on the ear.
Federer has survived an injury scare to come through in four sets - it looked serious at one point but he doesn’t seem too bothered by it. No doubt it will put some extra pressure on him to win in 3 (or 4) rather than 5, though. I suspect his comment that “it got better as the match went on” is mind games, to try to persuade his opponents it’s a bit less of a problem than it really is.
Azarenka is absolutely crushing Ivanovic, wonder if they will move the Murray match to Centre Court to catch prime time viewers? No, Azarenka through 6-1, 6-0 and Novak is next on Centre. Given the weather here today I’d be amazed if any of the other courts see more play today.
That actually does happen sometimes. I am not sure what was bothering him, but the result suggested that it did get better. During the part of the match I saw, he looked fine and Malisse seemed to struggle now and then with his balance or the court. I wasn’t sure what the problem was.
The problem with scheduling all the round of 16 matches on one day, of course, is that if it rains a lot of big matches get delayed and the schedule can get really screwed up. The women’s matches are all done but Murray/Cilic, Gasquet/Mayer and Tsonga/Fish are being delayed. Djokovic/Troicki should start on Centre Court soon, but Del Potro/Ferrer and Baker/Kohlschreiber haven’t even started. Federer and Youzhny are set for the quarterfinals, though. And the women’s quarters look like this:
Sabine Lisicki (15) vs. Angelique Kerber (8)
Agnieszka Radwanska (3) vs. Maria Kirilenko (17)
Serena Williams (6) vs. Petra Kvitova (4)
Tamira Paszek vs. Victoria Azarenka (2)
Sure, I didn’t mean to imply he was necessarily lying, just that there was a plausible interpretation that differed from face-value. I hope it was just the truth though, as a fan of his (though I would have to root for Murray if they met).
Hard to bet against Azarenka looking at that women’s draw and her performance yesterday.
That’s how it is with back injuries, though. I saw some more of the match on replay and I felt there were some points where Federer conserved his energy by letting shots go - just ones he probably would not have reached anyway, or ones where was likely to lose the point even if he got back one more ball. In any case it worked out, and as he said, he had last night and tonight to rest his back before he plays Youzhny. Elsewhere Ferrer beat del Potro easily. I worry JMDP is not getting his confidence or his health back for whatever reason. I really think he should be in the top five, and while his ranking has improved, he’s still not at the upper echelon. Murray beat Cilic in straight sets and Tsonga got by Fish in four. Serena pulled off a very impressive win over Kvitova. This looks like it’s Serena’s to lose, but lately it seems like every time someone says that, she loses. 
Youzhny is having a terrible time with Federer. He just asked Agassi for help(Agassi is in the crowd).
Wow, Federer is just blowing out Youzhny. This is going way quicker than expected.
OK, so make your predictions. Fed. vs Djoker for the semifinal, and most likely for the entire tournament, as the winner of that semi will be heavily favored.
I’m a Fed fan, so I will make the biased pick and say Fed wins:
Fed wins over Djoker: 6-4 6-7 7-6 6-4
Federer goes to his 32nd major semifinal, passing Jimmy Connors for the most all-time.
Incredible. Also incredible how good Connors was.
Federer’s semifinal streak and his quarterfinal streak at the majors are probably up there with the greatest streaks in all sports, especially considering the fact that Roger has literally never sat out a major during the last, I think, 52 majors that have happened. It’d be an impressive couple of streaks even if he had sat out a major here or there, but the fact he has never has sat out or pulled out makes it even greater.