Grab your strawberries and cream, it’s Wimbledon time!
Wimbledon is my favorite of the four majors, and I wish I was watching more of it this year, but I work early in the morning. But there’s a doozy of a match going on right now! Women’s #1 Ana Ivanovic is being taken the distance by Nathalie Dechy - it’s 9-8 in the third set right now. They split the first two sets in tiebraks, although Invanovic looks like she’s finally going to close this one out now…
Ivanovic held on, but now I see Novak Djokovic is gone! Marat Safin got him in the second round. That’s a brutal draw, but Safin’s never played well at Wimbledon and he’s said he hates it. Talented as he is, for him to beat Djokovic there now is a huge surprise.
I’m a fan too but the time difference usually keeps me from watching. By the time I get home from work the matches are all over.
Safin’s one of those guys who is always dangerous – he’s just so inconsistent. Surprising he got Djokovic, because Novak has looked so incredible in the last year, but not shocking to me.
Even though I think of Safin as close to washed-up, I see he’s continued to threaten and even beat some top players this year.
Marat Safin was pretty much washed up when he won the Aussie Open a few years back wasn’t he?
I dunno, he seems to do this every once in a while. Does anyone know if Safin won it or did Djokovic lose it?
Safin was 25 when he won in Australia. Had he somehow miraculously gotten his head together at that time I think he would have been a top five player for a couple of years. If he did it once there wasn’t any particular reason he couldn’t do it again, and he’s such a physical specimen that you could see him at least competing with Federer in finals. Obviously the bigger gap was between his U.S. Open win in 2000 and that Australian title.
:o :o :o
AUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!
I didn’t get to see the final of this match this morning. (I was headed out to the courts to play) I just sat down, turned on ESPN2, saw that it was on and was all set to watch if Ana could hold on or not.
“I wonder if there is a thread about Wimbledon on the Dope?”
I didn’t get to see the final of the Safin/Joker match either!
Now I will have to go pay attention to my kids, or clean the house, or something like that!
Down goes Sharapova! Down goes Sharapova! This is shaping up to be a wild Wimbledown. James Blake also lost today, although - much as I like him, and as well as grass should play to his strengths - I’m never too shocked when he loses early. Nadal also got a decent test today, although I don’t think he was in serious danger after the first set. Still, Gulbis is a very promising player. He beat John Isner in the first round, which is a hell of a thing to do on grass.
Andy Roddick lost, too. He got janked by Janko Tipsarevic. It’s tempting to read this as yet another sign of Roddick’s decline, but sight unseen I can also believe that he was just unlucky today.
It was so nice to see Maria get taken out. Besides all the shrieking, I just don’t like watching her game. I will give her a little respect for how gracious she was in her post match interview. She gave her opponent all the credit for the win.
I hated seeing Roddick lose, but I really like Tipsarevic. He has a very well rounded game and can hit a nice variety of shots. Its not all baseline bashing.
I love Blake, but he is just so darn streaky. You really never have any clue which Blake is going to show up.
All in all, I think this has been a good Wimbledon. Lots of top players getting challenged in the early rounds. Makes for much more interesting matches.
Who are you picking to win it all?
I’m still picking Federer on the men’s side. Since about his second year on top, people have been sure someone was about to come along and knock him off, and I still don’t think this is the year. He was great in the warmup tournament and looks great so far. With Djokovic gone, one of the biggest threats is already gone, and even Roddick had a better chance against him on grass than most- but he’s gone, too. I don’t know who has the best chance to win outside of him and Nadal… it might actually be Safin! Or Berdych or Ancic.
On the women’s side, Ivanovic is going to lose before I finish this post. So I’ll hit send now!
ETA: And not a second too soon! Unseeded Jie Zheng thumps Ivanovic 6-1, 6-4 in the third round. Last year’s runner up, Marion Bartoli, also got bounced. Wow. I know that some of the top players just can’t handle grass, but I can’t remember a Wimbledon that started like this. In a world without Federer, Roddick would have won this tournament a few times and Sharapova’s won it in the past. But they’re dropping like flies on both the men’s and women’s sides. I think the safest call is for one of the Williams sisters to win it. I’m not feeling it for Jankovic or Kuznetsova or Safina, although I haven’t seen them play yet.
Yep, Ana is gone. I wish I could say I was really surprised, but she just hasn’t been on at all this tournament. I think she is still trying to adjust to having reached #1 and winning the French.
Despite not having such a great year, I know Federer is going to win this year. He has to do it against Nadal too.
Nothing against Sampras, he was fantastic, but I want to see Federer beat his record.
People rightly go back and forth about this a lot, but I still say I’m more impressed with what Federer has done in his four-plus years at the top than Sampras did in his six years at number one.
You may be right that Ivanovic is struggling with the pressure of being number one. She’s gotten there in a big hurry, but I’m guessing she falls out of the top spot after that loss. If Jankovic hangs around a few more days she should get the top spot- if not I guess the top few players will all just get closer to the pack.
I mentioned Ancic by the way, and he pulled off an upset of David Ferrer. No such luck for Berdych, though.
I guess I am a sucker for the underdog, but I am really enjoying watching a bunch of relatively unknown players do so well.
They have slowed the grass down, it seems that favors the weaker hitters. I’m curious if they will change it back for next year.
I agree with you on the Fed v. Sampras discussion. I think Federer is truly in a class all his own. I hope that his winning Wimbledon will get his confidence back and he will be back to his true form.
Venus is through to the next round. Hopefully NBC will switch over and show the end of the Haas/Murray match!
I think they were saying that Jankovic will take over the #1 ranking if she makes it to the semis. I am not positive of that though.
Just a question (since this doesn’t warrant its own thread). I don’t know exactly when the gradual move away from the traditional aggressive, fast-paced serve and volley grass game began, but it’s been happening for some time, and I’m frankly amazed by what a Wimbledon match has become. Yesterday I watched a good portion of a women’s match and not only were at least 95% of the shots right at the baseline, I didn’t see ONE volley or smash (and there were several chances). Furthermore, nearly all the dead grass is behind the baseline, so I’m certain this style of play has become the standard.
Haven’t decided whether or not this is a good thing. I’m just curious as to how exactly this happened. Even if the the Wimbledon organizers slowed the grass down to discourage boring acefests, it wouldn’t make the bounces any higher or footing any surer, and in any case, this minor change can’t be responsible for the clay court game taking over Wimbledon.
Haven’t seen any other grass court events recently, so I’m not sure if this is a sportwide phenomenon.
How does one slow down grass, anyway? Nature is notorious for it’s indifference to the desires of man.
I had thought they changed the type of grass recently, but I can’t find anything to back that up. It’s generally agreed that the grass is playing slower lately.
The main factor in what you’re seeing is just the evolution of the game: as racquets have gotten more powerful and with bigger sweet spots, it’s easier to hit a strong shot when you’re returning a serve. That makes it more of a risk to serve and volley and gradually the players have stopped doing it. Since there are very few grass events these days (really just Wimbledon and two or three warmup events) and the grass has slowed down, there’s also not much point in learning a strategy that will only pay off on grass.
Everybody in both singles draws is playing this morning, and already Jankovic is gone. Venus cruised through her match.
I just walked in the door from playing. Who did Jankovic play? How did Safina do? I was really impressed with her at the French. I want to see her get deep in the draw this time too.
Jankovic was injured in her last match and she lost to Tamarine Tanasugarn, who usually plays well at Wimbledon. Safina’s already gone; she lost a tight three-setter to Shahar Peer of Israel on Saturday, 8-6 in the third. Kuznetsova lost today, so the top four women are already gone and we’re only at the quarterfinals.
Some great matches today - Ancic beat Verdasco 13-11 in the fifth set, which is the longest I’ve seen since that match between Roddick and El Aynaoui in Australia a few years ago. Of course, ESPN was showing Serena’s already-concluded, undramatic match against Mattek. And Baghdatis was taken out in a long fifth set, too, by Lopez.
Sorry to hear that Safina is out. I hope we see more of her in the upcoming seasons. Kuznetsova is out too, so I have no idea who is going to take over the number one spot.
I would love to have seen the Ancic match. It must have been awesome.
Tipserivic is out too. He lost in four sets to Schuetter. Pretty sure we are headed for another Nadal - Federer final and most likely an all Williams final on the women’s side.