Bernard Tomic is through to the round of 8.
Good for him.
Marion Bartoli beats Serena in straight sets. She was hammering the tennis ball. She lost concentration a couple times, but she really kept Serena off balance.
That was a very good match between Bartoli and Serena. Bartoli had enough consistency and depth on her shots to get the job done. Meanwhile Cibulkova has just upset Wozniacki, so the top three women’s seeds are now out. Venus is down a set against Pironkova.
Wozniacki loses and Venus is down a set. #4 Azarenka and #5 Sharapova are the two highest seeds left on the womens side.
Venus now out in straight sets.
The women’s draw is opening up as a result - Sharapova is through. Anyone backing her now? The odds must be shortening considerably.
Yes, it looks great for Sharapova at this point. She’s the only player left who has won a major before, and of the others, only Bartoli has even reached a final.
The draw is:
Cibulkova (24) v Sharapova (5)
Lisicki v Bartoli (9)
Paszek v Azarenka (4)
Kvitova (8) v Pironkova (32)
You’d think Sharapova has a great chance now but Bartoli would be a tough semi. The names on the other side of the draw are an utter mystery to me - not being an avid follower of women’s tennis (I tend to watch the blokes). I will say that Venus was error strewn today and couldn’t put it right at any point. Pironkova had to put her away of course, but this was not a good performance from Williams which aided a player who didn’t look all that fantastic to me. I doubt Pironkova will face too many more players who meltdown. As a result, the furthest I can go on the bottom of the draw is that the finalist probably won’t be her.
A couple of the remaining players are highly ranked, Cumbrian - four of them are in the top 10, including Sharapova - but they have not had a lot of success in the grand slam events. Here are everybody’s best results at slams.
Sharapova: won Wimbledon ('04), won U.S. Open ('06), won Australian Open ('08).
Cibulkova: French Open semis in 2009. This is her best Wimbledon result.
Lisicki: second Wimbledon quarterfinal ('09), no other major quarterfinals
Bartoli: lost in Wimbledon final in 2007. Made the semis in Paris this year.
Paszek: this is her best Wimbledon and grand slam result.
Azarenka: second Wimbledon quarterfinal ('09), three other major quarterfinals.
Kvitova: semifinals at Wimbledon last year.
Pironkova: Wimbledon semis in 2010, never reached the third round at any other major.
That’s kind of amazing from Pironkova. If she’s good enough to make the quarters at Wimbledon twice, you’d think she could win two matches in a row at at least one other big event.
Welp, that shot Nadal just hit is going to be on some highlight reels. It was an over-the-shoulder volley winner as he was running away from the net and Del Potro was trying to close in. Del Potro won the next point with an outstanding lob. He covers so much terrain with that height and the long arms. Anyway they’re on serve, 5-4 Nadal in the first set. Djokovic is through to the quarters (he’ll play Tomic) and Fish won the first set against Berdych in a tiebreak.
Ladbrokes odds on the womens draw:
M Sharapova 2/1
P Kvitova 5/2
V Azarenka 4/1
S Lisicki 7/1
M Bartoli 9/1
T Pironkova 16/1
D Cibulková 20/1
T Paszek 100/1
I like Bartoli at 9/1 based on how I saw her play against Serena.
Highly ranked they may be but, as I said, I’ve not seen them much of the bottom half of the draw - I vaguely know Kvitova and Azarenka but today was the first I have ever seen of Pironkova (missed last year’s Wimbledon completely).
It’s one of the things people have been discussing in the press in the UK - how come there are loads of highly ranked female players with few slams to their names? (The journos seem to be saying, basically, because the Williams sisters and Clijsters are generally good enough to not play tournament events to keep their ranking in the top 5 and still turn up at the slams and beat the rest - I imagine that there is an element of truth but how far it goes I can’t really say). Anyway, the quarters are going to a bit of an adventure for me - new people to look at and get to know. Good times.
BTW was that a time violation called on Nadal..I missed it. Is that why he got upset?
Nadal is sat on his chair being tended by the trainer. Injury to his heel. It is taking a long time to sort out. He doesn’t look happy at all. Winning with a knackered foot would be one for the history books. 1st set now going to tie break.
Yes, a warning I think. They don’t super enforce that rule, but he must have been repeatedly dilly dallied.
My NBC affiliate is on Tornado alert. No tennis.
I don’t have the sound on, but I thought Nadal had a blister on his foot. That’s a pretty common problem for him, but he seems to be struggling with it here. Struggling is sort of relative here since Nadal just won the first set in a tiebreak when Del Potro double faulted. Meanwhile Youzhny took the first set from Federer in a tiebreak.
It wasn’t a blister, it was by the bone. No idea what it is.
Fed has won the 2nd set.
That would explain why it would be a bigger problem. Del Potro took the second set 6-3. Youznhy apparently just made Federer angry, as Fed is pushing for a 4-0 lead in the third. And the last U.S. player in the Wimbledon draw, Mardy Fish, beat Berdych in straight sets to reach the quarters. He’ll play the Nadal/JMDP winner. Lopez came back from two sets down to beat Kubot, so he gets Murray next.
Nadal does not look comfortable at all to be honest - he’s made a few un-Rafa like errors for starters. I reckon the ankle must be giving him some problems and Del Potro is not going away. Worried looks amongst the Nadal camp abounding at the moment.
Mind you he’s just haired around the court to retreive a Del Potro volley, so he can still get around.
And now Del Potro has gone down and called the trainer out. It’s almost like a heavyweight title fight.
Del Potro left the court to go to the trainer’s room, and now he’s back. He looks OK right now and I hope he can pick up where he left off. This was looking like a very good match. Federer won the third set against Youzhny and immediately got a break to start the fourth. In the other unfinished match, Tsonga is up two sets to none on Ferrer.