WIMBLEDON 2013

It arrives amidst a FLURRY OF HEADLINES. Stepanek allegedly divorcing Vaidisova for - allegedly - KVITOVA. Tomic and his abusive dad. Serena coming over all rape apologist.

Also, Bethanie Mattek-Sands just turned up on the WTA party red carpet looking like this:

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BNOhER-CQAAWdor.jpg

I also went to qualifying yesterday and did a report: http://unforcederrani.tumblr.com/post/53445190672/wimbledon-2013-qualifying-report-19-6-2013

I look forward to these threads almost as much as I do to the tournament

unbelievably good draw for Novak. Enough to make him the strong favorite I think.

Rafa and Fed got screwed, obviously

Nothing much to stop Fed making his 37th straight QF. Where he'll either lose to Nadal or beat whoever took out Nadal.

he could certainly lose to Janowicz if he's in the zone

Murray ftw! ;-)

At the risk of incurring Lex's wrath, given that Wimbledon made a bunch of dick moves about seedings in the past, bumping Rafa to 4 would have improved the tournament if perhaps had some dubious optics. In any case, Federer definitely goes out a round earlier, he's got 900 slams, people will deal. That said, the "formula" has been a real band-aid solution that doesn't work because the grass season is too damned short. It'll get better in future years, though.

I didn't realise until recently Stuttgart was switching to grass for the 2015 season (dropping into the week following the French; it's a three-week gap between RG and SW19 in 2015, right? Not sure if Queens/Halle are going to be the week after.)

it's about time Rafa/Rog got relegated to QF status, it's not as if it's an enthralling match-up any more. Wimbledon fucking around with seeds in the past is a reason for them to STOP, not CONTINUE. People can just deal with bad draws tbh.

SOMEONE OUT OF CADANTU AND PASZEK WILL HAVE TO WIN A SLAM MATCH!

In an airport so those will be the extent of my thoughts until tomorrow

People can deal, of course, but really, the seed-dicking-around-with-formula, in an attempt to be "transparent" has, with the tiny grass season, the effect of doing sod all really. I mean, what's the point in bumping some flake like Youzhny? Remember when it bumped Tomic - Tomic ffs! with one QF to his name. TBH they should just scrap it.

(i.e. do it right or scrap it. The grass season is so short that you can get anomalous results, or if you get injured that is a much bigger handicap than it would be if you'd hurt your back during the clay swing.)

right, further thoughts.

You'd think the Ferrer/Pony section would be the most open, right? I thought Delpo's efforts at serve-and-ponying a couple of years ago boded well for his grass future but he lost to Ferrer here last year, IIRC. I trust everyone has learned their lesson about seeing Dimitrov's name in an open section but I could see Nishikori or Kohlschreiber come through.

Can't work out whether Haas is unlucky to draw Nole or the other way round.

God, how much do I want Vekic to avenge her AO loss and take Woz out in R2. That would be amazing.

Hampton/Stephens...I fear Jamie has tired herself out with her Eastbourne run, she's talented but not very physically resilient. Shame - that section of the women's draw is very open, she could have made the QF for sure. Well, OTOH, Vekic might be the beneficiary!

I hope Serena gets booed for her rape apologism and Jie finally gets a win against her after pushing her so many times. I guess the fallout from those comments might be the only vague question mark over her, though. It's not much of a straw.

LOLed when I saw a tennis journalist tweet that Robson, Kirilenko and Goerges in the same place = a stacked section. Gorgeous is completely useless on grass (and everywhere, these days), and Robson is in terrible form. If I was Kirilenko I'd do cartwheels at that draw.

Watson/Keys could be a pretty nice match. Winner gets Niculescu or Barthel - hey, prime opportunity for Mona to extend her Slam losing streak to, what is it now, seven? Grassonkova should strike against Chunkova too.

Li will probably find a way to lose to Halep, A-Rad for the SF?

If Petra dares lose to fucking Vandeweghe...if she DARES. SURELY she wouldn't do that to me. *places bet on Colleen*

I didn't realise until recently Stuttgart was switching to grass for the 2015 season (dropping into the week following the French; it's a three-week gap between RG and SW19 in 2015, right? Not sure if Queens/Halle are going to be the week after.)

I'm hoping Halle and Queens get bumped up to 500s and then after a couple years we can finally have a grass Masters somewhere.

btw I think it's a little premature to just book a Rafa win over Fed in the quarters. Let's see how they look first. Also they haven't played on a fast surface in 5 years (though by quarterfinals Wimby has slown down a bunch).

Petra needs to FIND SOME FUCKING FORM, stop fucking around with ugly men, and make it to the QFs so she can show Azarenka how to play on grass. Or just have a random run of good luck and play like shit and win anyway, whatever.

I fear Li won't be around the tournament very long and this is extremely sad. Halep's form, not just the wins, but the scorelines, has been pretty impressive. I would do cartwheels if Hampton made a nice run, I really like her and she's an unlucky draw for anyone given that she could be as high as #21 if she wins her next match (and it is against someone who has a dismal finals record!) and Stephens is just the kind of person who deserves it. GO JAMIE.

I haven't looked at the men's draw yet other than to say "Well, Nole, you got a shit draw in Paris. Here's your reward". Fed obviously got the opposite treatment at both Slams. I guess he could beat Nadal if they close the roof, he has beaten him on quick indoor courts a few times in the last few years.

Bethanie Mattick-Sands is where WTF turns into WGAF.

And while we're on WGAF, Bernie the FOAT already pre-emptive bleating, saying he'll do well v Querry 'if my leg doesn't play up'.

BMS spent a lot of her career playing like a total scrub but when she's on, she hits lots of winners and is a tiny bit awesome to watch. More interesting is that she's planning to wear Google Glass while playing.

BMS has been resurgent this year, she's a real threat right now.

Predix (plus actual analysis at http://unforcederrani.tumblr.com/ )

Serena Williams d. Sabine Lisicki
Maria Kirilenko d. Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Agnieszka Radwanska d. Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova
Roberta Vinci d. Daniela Hantuchova
Donna Vekic d. Sara Errani
Maria Sharapova d. Marion Bartoli
Ana Ivanovic d. Garbine Muguruza
Victoria Azarenka d. Kirsten Flipkens

Williams d. Kirilenko
Radwanska d. Vinci
Sharapova d. Vekic
Azarenka d. Ivanovic

Williams d. Radwanska
Sharapova d. Azarenka

Williams d. Sharapova
------------------------------------------
Novak Djokovic d. Tommy Haas
Tomas Berdych d. Richard Gasquet
Philipp Kohlschreiber d. David Ferrer
Juan Martin Del Potro d. Kei Nishikori
Rafael Nadal d. Stanislas Wawrinka
Roger Federer d. Jerzy Janowicz
Marin Cilic d. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Andy Murray d. Mikhail Youzhny

Djokovic d. Berdych
Del Potro d. Kohlschreiber
Nadal d. Federer
Murray d. Cilic

Djokovic d. Del Potro
Nadal d. Murray

Djokovic d. Nadal

In the Vinci section, I did that thing where I went, well, Halep will probably beat Li and has never lost to Hantuchova, who will upset Zakopalova. Vinci is pretty safe for the last 16 and Halep whomped her last week. BUTTTTTT Halep has played two weeks in a row and surely will be tired out at some point? She's not used to that many matches. Appropriately, the resulting brain freeze threw up Hantuchova.

As for Tomic...he's an asshole, yeah. But I feel more sympathetically towards him these days - like Dokic, he has an abusive father. It explains why he is the way he is, to an extent. And he's probably going through some shit at the moment.

I've prepared for this tournament very sensibly: 1. Play lots of Virtua Tennis (doubles: Wozniacki/Wozniacki v Wozniacki/Wozniacki of course), 2. Watch 2011 women's final highlights. 3. Quit job. ALL FUCKING SET.

well, here's some pre-Wim press conference drama.

Ben Rothenberg ‏@BenRothenberg 6m
Sharapova lashes HARD at Serena. "She should talk about her own relationship, her own boyfriend, *who was married and is getting divorced*"

tbh I'd completely forgotten Serena was mildly catty in that RS piece, it seemed rather insignificant in comparison. Wish a player would call her out on her rape apologist BS instead

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

but serena didn't mention maria, so she just comes off rather insecure. it wouldn't even make sense for the comment to be about maria, because i'm pretty sure maria/grigor were being "secretive" about their PR relationship back then and maria surely wasn't going on about it in interviews.

it would make just as much sense for the comment to be about wozniacki. especially the "she still won't get invited to the cool parties" bit lol.

I assume either Ma$ha hasn't deigned to read the RS piece and someone just asked her about "what Serena said about you", or she senses Serena's vulnerable media-wise right now and wanted to get her own dig in. I totally assumed the comment was about Wozniacki.

Oh! Nice story from the Dutch tournament - Nicolas Mahut won it. And it was indirectly down to losing the 70-68 Isner match - Wimbledon gave him a WC because of it, which meant he could play Rosmalen instead of Wim qualies this week => his first title. Glad that match benefited him eventually...

I'm sure the questions were formed with a purpose...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BNY_YwVCUAA8MY2.jpg

Indeed, but having watched the video, no way were Sharapova's comments off the cuff - the dig about Mouratoglou being married was premeditated.

Also more importantly, and this does reflect well on Sharapova, is that she said she was disappointed in Serena for the Steubenville comments. I wish Serena had delivered a half-sincere apology so we could move on but after that utter bullshit she still needs to be dragged HARD by the media and fans for it. I mean who cares about the high school ~drama~ really in comparison.

I reckon its Murray to disptach Nadal in four sets but then to yes lose to Djoko in four as well.

Puig killing Errani out there...

How did this player get bagelled by Oudin in Eastbourne qualies last week?!

Whoa. Errani tries to switch things up with the slice, Puig casually hits clean backhand slice winner in response

Elena B a set and a double break down. Panetta, aside from a semi in Strasbourg, where she qualified, has barely won a match in a year (I guess she was injured after August?).

She had wrist surgery, every time I've seen Flavia play this year she's been a shadow of her former self

Errani saves MP when Puig slips...

Lesia Tsurenko is your first winner of Wim 2013!

Puig missed three MPs in the last game, more through Errani battling rather than her own choking. Now she has to serve for it...

OK Puig now choking hard

Puig wins on her 7th MP! Well, we all knew Errani was vulnerable on grass - I just didn't realise Puig would play so well on it. Great performance.

No golden set for Errani this year. :(

Meanwhile, all Oz is in thrall as Wally Masur and co breathlessly describe Marinko Matosevich going 5-0 down to a Frenchman called Ruffian or similar.

Marinko is bog ordinary in all respects (except maybe his resemblance to Memo from Acropolis Now), we all know it, even he himself must strongly suspect it, amd why of all the 20 or 30 games going on ATM we are watching this one, is anybody's guess.

I met Benoit Paire yesterday btw, at some sunglasses brand-sponsored tennis clinic @ Wimbledon (I played on grass for the first time ever!). Nice to see him playing well right now. Ferrer and Robredo turned up too.

Kyle Edmund is on my TV. He looks about 12.

Eva Birnerova wins over Lepchenko! Heartwarming result. Her sixth win of the year, and first in a main draw.

watching federer dance through the first few rounds at wimbledon is still the best thing

Fed made mincemeat of Hanescu....meanwhile, Azarenka takes a tumble and is back on after a long time-out, but one knee is practically mummified and she can barely walk.

Koehler is pathetic so it probs won't matter. I'm trying hard to feel sympathy towards Vika but it's not coming.

If Azarenka had drawn someone with a good, reliable serve, maybe she'd lose.

LUCIC WON SO FUCKING HAPPY NOW

Why does SlamTracker think Hsieh's opponent whom nobody has ever heard of, is a seed?

SlamTracker has been getting progressively worse since its first introduction (2001 IIRC?)

Maria = Malek

Even if that's so, she's not a seed.

Come on Kiki! If only she'd been up against an Extremely Injured Azarenka.

Mladenovic's big wide serve and crosscourt FH : <3

Of course she's not a seed, just not completely unknown!

Mladenovic won't be outhit or outserved so this could be interesting. Doesn't seem remotely intimidated either.

Sharapova's footing on the grass on serve looked shonky earlier but seems she's righted that.

I predict like 7-5 6-1 though.

FUCK ME DEAD.

Love how pro-Mladenovic the crowd is!

What's the best web coverage in the States again? I've got the wimbledon.com video running (just got in at work).

Her BH tho.

Ah never mind, just saw the ESPN3 stuff.

Ruh-roh.

IN THANK GOD

Argument argument argument.

maria stfu

MARIA YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT THIS RULE SHUT UP

Does Maria not know the rules?

...How does Maria not know the rules of tennis?

SURELY Ma$ha knows that rule. Everyone does.

I love Davenport's commentary so so much.

Andrew Castle makes an equal pay joke.

can't watch at work, what happened and what's Maria complaining about?

Kiki had a second serve called long - just after another double fault. It was right on the line. She challenged. Umpire gave her two serves, correctly. Maria whined.

wish nadal was playing someone a bit more threatening here. he's already saved about 5 break points

These DFs are unforgivable. Sigh.

That drop-shot play shouldn't have worked once let alone twice, but...

I was side-eying that dropshot so hard. Nice volley tho! Now aces instead of DFs pls.

Ffs stop missing 1st serves.

WHERE HAS KIKI'S SERVE GONE???? COME BACK, ughhh

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

AAAARGGHHHHHHH that final pointttttt

why will Ma$ha never lose those points

Sharapova deserves the set for that last point, as much as it annoys.

Tune into Konta/Jankovic at 5-5. Konta hits three wild errors on the first groundstroke she gets after her serve to go down 0-40.

And a DF to get broken. What a match.

It's quite sad to realise (she's up 4-0 over lol Oudin), but Michelle Larcher de Brito could still happen.

darcis has converted 0/8 BPs. he's just getting sweatier and sweatier why am i even watching this die rafa

0/10 in a minute I bet.

hang on what Darcis is pushing Rafa what

LOLOLOLOLOL.

What's the bet he loses serve to... 15. or something here.

Kiki's serve's gone to bits.

There you go. Couple of shit forehands and a spectacular Nadal moonball and it's a tie-break.

I don't think I've EVER seen Rafa DF in a TB before!

Lololol how many chances does Darcis want

Can't stand Nadal early round matches

If the 6-5 game is any indication, he'll blow whatever chance you give him with a FH error.

Got to like how he moves forward at least, on a quick court, it works against Nadal.

Omg at that point tho! 3 SPs!

Shit that rally at 5-3 was outstanding from Darcis. Handled every angle Nadal could muster.

Lol. 1 gone.

what a TB from Darcis after choking the 6-5 game!

Nadal is going to have to up his serving in particular or he could be in trouble. Still expect him to win but still, this didn't look threatening on paper.

but the trouble with lower-ranked players winning the 1st set from Rafa in a Slam is that winning the next two still seems like an uphill struggle

I know it won't happen, but omg yes please @ Nadal going from losing R2 to losing R1. <3

That was an impressive hold to open though. But luck like that volley that just landed in doesn't last, perhaps.

Fair play to whatsername and all that, but C'MON MARIA!

That volley that just landed out that would've given Darcis three BPs :(

whatsername

MLADENOVIC. No disrespecting the lower-ranked players itt please.

Even Cadantu?

These authoritative Darcis service games :o

Especially Cadantu

I did see a few games of Darcis vs Berdych at the Olympics last year; even though he eventually won that match, he made no impression on me at all!

olivier rochus in his player's box :)

or is it christophe. yeah that would make more sense

That was a bit of a flop game

Darcis noticed Rafa was only slicing his BH, approached to it...and fucked up the smash -_-

Worst approach shot ever from Rafa

i really want Nadal to lose. Once a Fedtard, always a Fedtard.

DF from Darcis, upon which he made a grunt not entirely unlike Schiavone.

Most ridic run-around FH from Nadal, miles out.

Unfair side-line call there. Darcis was in control of that rally.

Wtf I turned the channel in a fit of frustration when Nadal broke lol

Needs to focus on his serve here; yes, he probably should be 5-2 up, but never mind.

Or focus on Nadal's serve and win off that... he's doing a great job getting returns in uncomfortable spots.

...Omg

This guy's LUCK ;_;

aargh that last SP on his serve

Chill, he just needs to get nine SPs.

PETRA IS ON ZOMG ZOMG. If I turn into that and it's a shitfest we are through Petra.

Nadal, you are getting so jammy now.

Can't watch this. Literally. Stream freezing mid-rally. Excruciating.

TEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE

oh shiii

hahahahaa

omg what a basic way to lose a TB like that!

Nadal picked up his serve a lot but man did he spray some bad UEs at crucial points.

Now, I shall turn to Shitra for a bit.

why's darcis's TB record so good? is it just one of those things?

Had to go to a work neighbour whose BBC feed was 30sec ahead of mine. Wow.

Rosol lost to "Julian Reister" btw

he got reister'ed

ZOMG BACKHAND VOLLEY BALLET

Maybe Nadal will take another 9 months off after this loss:D

Two consecutive Darcis shanks :/

Or not, that's two shanks in a row. Toni Nadal is covering his face and flicking his finger. CAUSING ERRORS THROUGH TELEKINESIS.

Overflowing with confidence :D

best backhand winner, A+++ would gasp again

Faux-humble press conference where he says there's no excuse but mentions his knee multiple times coming up :D

Darcis hasn't had a peep at the Nadal serve since breaking him at the start of this set. Starting to get nervous now.

Incredible get!

:O

but how did Rafa tap the reply midway up the net!

Oy vey -_- getting a bit overexcited.

ONE GAME AWAY

FIVE-THREE.

This set has been entirely about Darcis - Rafa's barely having a say any more.

Now I mostly need Darcis to win this because there's been so much enjoyable, bold shotmaking that I couldn't bear it to end up 6-7 6-7 7-5 6-2 6-0 with a whimper.

LOL!

Closing it out with a break would nicely prevent the no-doubt tragicomic 5-4 attempt to serve it out.

Nadal's never lost R1 of a slam

I guess this could still be his Emilie Loit

Needs to channel a bit of Rosol-under-the-lights here.

Holy shit

Gccygugyfggbnfuygret!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoa

POINT OF THE MATCH. DEAD. DEAD.

THAT POINT

Closes with an ace!!!

AWESOME

Phew.

He played well. He was the favourite, no?

What a glorious last game.

I can't wait for the highlight reel for that to hit Youtube.

Lol this hasn't eclipsed the Rosol upset

holy crap. RIP nadal

"real 4th seed"

David Ferrer laughs in your faces

^^^^^^^^ :D

:))))

53-24. That's an outstanding W/UE ratio. And 79% of returns in is excellent too.

Fuck is Petra doing against Vandeweghe

Vekic flopping

Wawrinka looks really pissed off and uneasy... and playing like it too. Down two breaks to Hewitt. No doubt one will come back, but he'll have to improve.

goddamnit, Donna - Cetkovska was always going to be tough on grass though :(

Fucking hell, Petra

Petra served for the match. Broken on a DF. UGHHHH

Why does she insist on making life hard for herself? :/

oh god petra

I can't even @ that stupid last game. Go away, Petra. BUT YOU STILL NEED TO GET RID OF COCO FIRST.

rusty resurgence!

I still loathe Hewitt so much. So disappointing from Stan.

At least Petra rid us of Coco. No way is she getting past Shvedova.

Sadly expected loss for Hampton, she looked totally out of gas in the Eastbourne final.

Putintseva: why exhort yourself with just one "c'mon" when you can do it with two or three?

Quite surprised that Day 1 only gave us one five-setter (Reister/Rosol) and one match in overtime (Jovanovski d. Tomljanovic 9-7) so far...

Mrs Krumm absolutely ripped apart Witthoeft with her old-skool game - Witthoeft couldn't cope with how early Kimiko took the ball at all. Oldest player in the draw vs. the third youngest there!

As for Watson, with her game she can't afford to be playing with so many errors or unintelligent, purposeless shots.

james blake on course for his first win here since 2008

kohlschreiber :(
i had high-ish hopes for him here

Holy shit, Mona won a Slam match! And over Niculescu!

Jie continues to be in terrible form, she can only beat really bad players these days, like Wozniacki. I guess it's nice to see Garcia finally stepping up.

Kohlschreiber just retired 1-2 in the fifth, just after getting broken - it came out of nowhere and he just said he was tired, but I guess it lends credence to him being ill on Sunday. Inside info coming through.

Morita just got bagelled by her bitch Erakovic...

SimO_Ona dropped a set to Govortsova, a moronic basher. Maybe she won't beat Li after all!

Del Pony and Haas doing well :D :D :D

If Duque-Marino can beat Goerges I won't be exactly happy but I will laugh.

tomic falling apart against querrey

Morita just got bagelled by her bitch Erakovic...

And Erakovic won!

Paszek - hero last year for beating Woz, zero this year losing to Cadantu. She'll fall out of the top 100.

Harrison two sets to one down to Chardy - the last game of the third set was soooooo bad.

tomic falling apart against querrey

bernie doing it the hard way

GOERGES LOST! To Duque-Marino who sucks sucks sucks, that's so hilarious. Stacked section my ass. Alas, if Robson wins this Jankovic is probably top ten soon. Gross.

Robson doing her flop-everywhere-peak-at-Slams thing again...

LOLOLOLOLOL @ Goerges!!!! I saw Duque Marino in qualies though, she's not that bad.

hit the ball in the court cibulkova

Mattek-Sands' outfit - no. No. No. She looks awful.

Robson is suddenly out of the zone.

And Robson wins.

With Robson, I'm learning to remember her big stage peaking rather than just go on her form.

She's almost bound to go out to Duque-Marino in the next round now :-(

Beth/Angie is fun! Good grass-court fun, Beth smacking the crap out of the ball (though she's hit some great droppers too), Angie redirecting it for some fun winners and making hilarious faces.

Yes, fun fun fun fun.

It's good stuff.

A work colleague has just made an anti-Istomin hay fever joke.

Sort of surprised Kerber is winning! But pleased!

Even so, I hope she loses to Kanepi. Nothing personal, Angie, it's just that it's Kanepi.

Haha, that lob BMS saved MP with!

Then the overlong kill-shot she set up another with!

Then the amazing BH winner she saved that with, and the terrible terrible dropshot she eventually lost the match on.

Meanwhile, highly relieved to see Drug Cheat Odesnik fail to win his five-setter against Jimmy Wang.

Pironkova 3-0 up on A-Pav in the blink of an eye. The Grass GOAT is grazing

she is hilarious

5-0. Amazing

6-0! A-Pav reallllllly sucks.

lol i wonder what hingis is thinking right now

LOL @ that Pironkova BH slice lob winner that confounded Pav completely. LOL @ the Pav volley straight into the ground.

Grass GOAT FH slice, Pav runs into it like she's never seen a FH slice before and sprays it into the stands.

pav is in pain, apparently

not sure that MTO had the desired effect

0 and 1. Ended on a FH slice, appropriately!

Oh Kanepi how are you in a third set battle with Tara Moore

PironGOATva <3

Straight sets win for Berdych, whose twitter makes him seem far funnier than I ever imagined

Given the amount of time I've spent watching Simon and Lopez over the past few days, it's lucky I like them. Great TBs!

Great facial hair too. Best looking match I've seen so far.

dimitrov-bolelli are a good looking pair too

lol at serena's interviews/press conferences at wimbledon this year, she's on her best behaviour & is putting on this weirdly polite and sweet demeanour

Wimbledon have called a foot fault on their most illustrious member Roger Federer and demanded that he changes his grass court tennis shoes for his second round match this afternoon.

The seven-time champion has fallen foul of the All England Club’s clothing police by wearing orange soled shoes that contravene strict rules about players being clad from head to toe in gear that has to be almost totally white

lta wanks

is that even true? players have been wearing non-white accoutrements for years, i can't imagine the soles of your shoes suddenly cross the line.

lol at serena's interviews/press conferences at wimbledon this year, she's on her best behaviour & is putting on this weirdly polite and sweet demeanour

cf going all out to win over the RG crowd, she's weirdly concerned with being "likeable" these days. or maybe she knows she has to be given her recent nonsense. i see she FINALLY made a proper apology re: steubenville smh, that only took her several days and about three goes

DUSTIN!!!

Yeah that dive volley on SP was epic. Hewitt getting feisty now tho.

feisty hewitt is the most punchable thing ever to have lived

Darcis withdraws, Isner retires in the third game vs Mannarino.

Most emphatic break-to-love to win a set you can imagine. Huge FH shank into tramlines, double fault, two massive returns.

(That's Dustin 2-0 vs Lleyts, btw)

Vika withdraws.

Wow, in the past half hour while I was on the phone, Azarenka, Isner, Darcis and Stepanek have all w/d or ret.

if puig wins this she plays the winner of tsurenko/birnerova. great opportunity that

I love this Dustin guy, btw. Not so keen on the section of the crowd singing for Lleyton, wtf is this "let's go Lleyton, let's go" shit?

they're his australians

They're really fucking annoying.

Brown takes the ball so ridiculously early. Which means a lot of daft misses but also some unplayable returns. He just needs another four of the latter here.

One screamer, two slammed into the net, one ace. If Hewitt starts to come back, it will be unwatchable with the sound up.

Vika withdrawiwng is not upsetting me unduly

they're his australians

― cerealbar, Wednesday, June 26, 2013 12:21 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They're really fucking annoying.

― ailsa, Wednesday, June 26, 2013 12:22 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they take after him

I love Brown but he basically can't rally. Two decades ago he'd've been a star.

Yeah physically can't stand those obnoxious, boisterous, "quirky" Aussie fans. They were singing "that's the way I like it" earlier and it was depressing.

we're not all like that, honest

jesus christ lleyton shut the FUCKING FUCK up

I don't understand how Hewitt is one of the greatest competitors the game has ever seen, as the commentator just said. Does he come back in matches that often? And if he's so competitive why hasn't he taken any measures to expand his game as he dwindled into irrelevancy?

Puig makes R3 in both her first and second Slam MD - impressive.

LMAO @ Ivanovic losing to Bouchard. Her continued show court treatment is a sad indictment of the way in which female tennis players are still judged primarily on their looks.

What a spectacular return game by Ivanovic to lose the set, lol.

they're his australians

last time i was at wimbledon there was a repeating chant at one match of "if you're aussie and you know it clap your hands" - *clap, clap*.

Ivanovic's game today = panic! hack! flail! whimper!

Dustin!

DUSTIN!

Tears of joy as he walks off! <3 <3

Dustin calls the Aussie fans "amusing" lols

WTF, Cilic w/d now? Five injury pull-outs and it's only 2pm.

ESPN (US sports news source) headline made me lol: "John Isner, Steve Darcis and Victoria Azarenka all walked away from Wimbledon with injuries, shaking up both draws". Yeah that's right, ESPN, keep telling yourself that Isner dropping out shakes up the men's draw (John Isner has never made it out of the second round).

Bouchard, who looks generally quite average, attempts to choke. Ivanovic responds by becoming completely inept.

www.dustinbrown.de

Website offline, contact webmaster
Ceep calm and try again later.

Wozniacki falls; nobody cares.

Commentator in the Woz match (is this Davenport?) saying our cold "spring" means the grass hasn't hardened enough (?) and is unusually slick

So impressed with Dustin B. He's barely been getting out of the qualies for Challengers this year. Three Q wins and a first-round defeat in Rome-CH for 330 euros in May, for example. His biggest payday in 2012 was Wimbledon R1. He's guaranteed £63k now.

Gawwwd, please let every point in this Tsonga / Gulbis match be like that first one

massive lol @ ESPN's Howard Bryant; here was his predictive article for today's round of play:

http://espn.go.com/tennis/wimbledon13/story/_/id/9420310/wimbledon-hole-rafael-nadal-created

Cetkovska just casually hitting dropshot winners from behind the baseline out here. This is how you play an injured player - Koehler, look and learn.

6-2 6-2 loss for Woz lol

LMAO @ the Wozniacki overhead.

Why are commentators pretending Woz's "injury" had anything to do with that loss. That was so NID.

Cetkovska confidently closing out that match was so obvious that I didn't even wait for the match to end before gloating

WHAT was Tsonga thinking tapping that volley right back to a down-and-out Gulbis in that point?!

Really happy for Birnerova, reaching the 3R! I feel nostalgic about her, dunno why. She's been hanging around for so long.

He's taking a MTO for his leg now. No, Jo, it's not your leg that's the problem, it's your BRAIN.

Some beautiful rallies early on in this Sharapova/de Brito! Obvs the discourse surrounding the match is just "lol grunting" tho

Why the FUCK can I watch Robson playing doubles on my TV but not Maria being down 4-1 in (from what I saw before the twats turned off the match) a great match????

^
quite enjoying stephens petkovic tho

I'm watching Muguruza/Makarova! Lasted two points of Stephens/Petkovic, both random Petkorazzi errors.

Oh gawd. SHVEDOVA W/D.

Larcher de Brito playing GOAT, up 6-3. Maria not happy about the court. Wimbledon organisers have a lot to answer for with all this slipping.

Tsonga quits. What is going on?

What the hell is happening?

Climate change and its effects on British grass

THESE WINNERS. Michelle o_O

Tsonga was really struggling in his match. There'll be no tournament left at this rate!

Tsonga retired?! Jeez.

When did MLDB get good again?!

A set and a break, oh my.

MLDB has got in touch with her inner Pierce. It's kind of insane.

(make your own pun on "piercing" here)

weird that she's still only 20

Another slip. It's not just the reported ones - I've seen slips in every match I've watched, most luckily not serious.

Sue, stop pretending Bruce Forsyth is hilarious. He's not.

http://imageshack.us/a/img545/5218/8vgq.jpg

I won't even say what this looks like.

Though there's no way Sharapova could have missed, the umpire could have called hindrance on MLDB on that last point.

Sharapova keeps complaining about the court (what does she want the ump to do, rip it up and reseed it?) but I have to point out that MLDB has not slipped once

Never thought I'd be cheering this vociferously for Micaela Carolina tbh

Have there been more falls on No. 2 than elsewhere? I have to say I have mostly been watching matches on 1 or 3!

Nice to see these crazy Fed fans on the telly again. I took this photo on Henman Hill a few games from the end of Fed's whipping by Murray in the Olympics.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7122/7720908102_17d1e1f759_z.jpg

yasss Ma$ha DF

MP #2 for MLDB...amusing that she's getting through this game with big serving

FIGHTING ARGH

Hi-intensity point to save BP...

FUCKING FIGHTING SPIRIT UGHHHH

Sharapova out, and a couple of quid in my pocket (took MLDB @ 11/4 after the first set, get in!)

How about that. What a crazy first three days.

PRAISE EVERYONE

Supporting MLDB is kind of indefensible so hopefully she doesn't go too far. BUT OMG SHE IS HAPPENING.

Serena sends her regards. *mouratoglou slits maria's throat*

Was only supporting her for the money, honest...

Serena hopefully goes the same way vs Garcia or Date-Krumm

Don't want to get crazy here or anything but Fed isn't exactly fluid today.

How hilarious would a Serena/Stephens final be? Sloane just gagged serving for it, though.

Petko picks up drop shot with ease :D :D :D

How hilarious would a Serena/Stephens final be?

omg lol

Gutsy, gutsy, great hold for Andy!

Petko that is, who cares about Murray.

Watching Stephens/Petkovic...as with every other time I've watched Sloane, her game looks like that of a decent top 30 Tour player. But anyone who can see a potentially elite champion in that is fucking nuts.

Fabulous point there, though, at 5-6 15-0.

Eva Asderaki with a brilliant overrule! God she's awesome.

GOAT overrule from Asderaki!

wha'happen, I can't watch????

oh the ball was called out, Asderaki overruled, Hawkeye showed it in by millimetres

Tame capitulation by Petko :( :(

looking at that sharapova azarenka half now. bartoli-kvitova semi final please

Feel like Kvitova will go out to Makarova :(

I left the room for 10 minutes and McEnroe is STILL wittering on about serve-and-volleying aargh

lollll Fed lost a set to Stakhovsky

it's CAKE time

aaaaaah JaJa missed some truly tragic SPs at 5-2 up and now she's 5-6 down and Dolonc will serve for the set

Shankerer arrives, and means Stakhovsky will serve for the 3rd set...

It's been that kind of day...

IS FEDERER REALLY GOING TO LOSE TO STAKHOVSKY LOLLLLLL

I love it!

does virginia wade spend all day drinking wine or something. shut up ffs

virGINia wade

Maddest. Day. Ever. Chucked a jokey 20p on Stakhovsky @ 10/1 for lols after Mike said "Don't want to get crazy here or anything but Fed isn't exactly fluid today", wishing I'd had more faith in the madness continuing now :(

(I've won every single bet I've made today, but am only betting less than a quid per bet. For comparison, if I'd been able to get all the same bets at the same in-play odds simultaneously and put a pound on an accumulator on them all to come in, I'd have over £100. As it is, I've got made a tenner. I'm never going to become a professional gambler. No bottle. Unlike Virginia, ho ho)

And Fed broken.

Wow. Massively tentative Fed volley => Stakhovsky with the break

Massacre!

Mirka is pisssssed off.

Wtf is this why did I go out and play tennis
I'm pretty sure Stakhovsky is an awful person so erm go fed

And Fed breaks back.

Wait, no he doesn't. Ignore me.

Good hold! But he has to do that a few more times...

Good sign that he held firm after gagging a bit in that game...

I don't think I mind if Fed loses, but damn shame about that QFs streak though.

If Fed goes here, could we lose Djok and Murray before the end of the week for maximum wtf-ness?

Another BP Fed, certainly not over.

On the 7th break point!

i'm a murray fan but finding it pretty hard to root against fed. just gonna carry on watching the bartoli game

I don't really want Fed to lose, just enjoying the madness.

Should they meet, Murray will dispatch Fed w/ease - not even a closed roof will save him.

I want all the upsets now. All of them. Federer, Murray, Djokovic, Serena, everyone needs to be out out out out and we get Dolonc and Paire as champions

^^lol this. Also I forgot to note earlier but omg Ernie Gulbis is in a third round of a Slam.

Aaaaand JaJa's gone. Dolonc!

can we get Goran Ivansevic to jump into this thing somehow

that volley to save SP!

Super gutsy stuff from stakhovsky

OMG Stakhovsky BH winner! Mini-break! C'mon!

Fed fails to make the BH pass - MP!

Omggggg

Unbelievable

WOW

Bloody hell, tennis, eh?

Awesome - had excellent touch at the net.

Is Michael ok? :)

wowowowowowow

yaldi

What is this empty feeling inside me?

This has been soooome day.

Meh. I wanted a 5th set. And just saw a girl in all-Federer gear crying her eyes out in one of the front rows. :(

Waoooooooo shit. Everything is crazy, Ivanišević is gonna walk this tournament.

I mean the greatest record in any sport in our lifetimes has just been broken, or should I say, set.

36 fkn straight grand slam QFs.

What a day. Hope no one here has week 2 show court tickets ;)

Crazy times! Sad about Fed but it's 10 years since that first title so let's move on. Also: bottle of wine to the good in Gordon's.

Seeds remaining in the Fed/Nadal so-called quarter of death: Paire, Almagro, Janowicz

What a day. Hope no one here has week 2 show court tickets ;)

you'll be seeing players I was watching for free in qualies if so!

Amazing performance by Stakhovsky, basically only choked on one point

That Fed/Nadal QF they were hyping up, lolololol

Also: I kinda called it at 5-5 in the first. I knew smthg was up.

And just saw a girl in all-Federer gear crying her eyes out in one of the front rows. :(

you misspelled ":D"

pumped for the Gulbis-Janowicz semi

Lol at how chilled this guy is

match was very very similar to the Falla match imo

Falla and Stakhovsky both played pure old school grass court tennis

Yeah didn't think it was possible! It lives!!

I kinda called it at 5-5 in the first. I knew smthg was up

You did, and I'm now £2 richer :)

Yep Federer just didn't know what the fuck to do once Stakhovsky got to the net, which was all the time

some of the volleys Stak hit were incredibly tough. The low pick ups, the angled volleys that were unreturnable, he had it all cooking. And the volley on Fed's set point was a serious pressure shot.

btw Toni Nadal is claiming that Rafa didn't have knee troubles in the Darcis match, which just seems bizarre to me

Why? Didn't look like he had knee trouble imo... Rafa just hadn't had enough preparation on grass this year after skipping all the warm-up tourneys.

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BNssW6UCAAAWPGQ.jpg

Falla and Stakhovsky both played pure old school grass court tennis

as did Dustin Brown to beat Hewitt

xpost looool yeah that was clever before the match started but now seems like a case of Nike jinxing themselves

BTW with these results your new World No. 3 is...

David Ferrer. WHO'S THE REAL TOP 4 SEED NOW!

Why? Didn't look like he had knee trouble imo... Rafa just hadn't had enough preparation on grass this year after skipping all the warm-up tourneys.

― Roz, Wednesday, June 26, 2013 7:37 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he was limping badly and literally grabbing his knee after points

ivo karlovic ‏@ivokarlovic 4m

Finally the grass seems fast and im not there. Shiiii..

Go Sergiy! So pleased we won't have any more of Federer's socks-pulled-up, apple-for-umpire, creepy mummy's boy vibe this tournament, tbh.

as a Fed fan I feel that this was probably a fair trade for the Falla/Benneteau/Roddick '09 miracles

I feel like these need to be typed out in full.

Women's bottom half:

Monica Puig vs. (Q) Eva Birnerova
(17) Sloane Stephens vs. (Q) Petra Cetkovska
(15) Marion Bartoli vs. Camila Giorgi
Karin Knapp vs. (Q) Michelle Larcher De Brito
(8) Petra Kvitova vs. (25) Ekaterina Makarova
(19) Carla Suarez Navarro vs. Eugenie Bouchard
Vesna Dolonc vs. (20) Kirsten Flipkens
(29) Alize Cornet vs. Flavia Pennetta

Of the remaining seeds, I could easily see Stephens, Bartoli and Cornet all losing R3.

Men's bottom half:

Lukasz Kubot vs. (25) Benoit Paire
Adrian Mannarino vs. (Q) Dustin Brown
(15) Nicolas Almagro vs. (24) Jerzy Janowicz
Jurgen Melzer vs. Sergiy Stakhovsky
Ernests Gulbis vs. Fernando Verdasco
(22) Juan Monaco vs. Kenny De Schepper
Viktor Troicki vs. (20) Mikhail Youzhny
(32) Tommy Robredo vs. (2) Andy Murray

Damn, I just got back from lunch and missed this. Crazy.

Thinking about Agassi and Sampras losing early in 2002 and how that was definitely the end for one of them and kind of the end for the other. Here we are again. And ILX spans it all! Use the search function!

imo Sampras had more slam runs in him

altho maybe he saw the new slower grass at wimbledon and was like fuck this

Birnerova in the F! <3

Ataraxis ‏@Ataraxis00 1h
Roddick is sitting at home pacing back and forth and thinking .... "just one more year, all I had to do was wait one more $(r#$&$)$%! year."

Lisicki playing GOAT at Wimbledon, as always. Vesnina's grunt is so fucking irritating.

Missed all yesterday's carnage, woke up to hear that Fed AND Madam Shriek AND Tsonga AND Isner AND Ivanovic AND Woz were all out and wondered if I'd missed April Fools Day....

Li blasts through Halep in set 1, then cops a dodgy time-out and has barely won a point since. Stose similarly carving through her game but we know how THAT's going to end, don't we?

isner :D

Llodra's chucked it :(

Li finally on the board in set 2 after Halep went 5 up. Halep has been playing against a cardboard cut-out this set.

Cake about to join the exodus v Madison Keyes.

lisicki through in about 10 minutes. kimiko a set up. things looking good

Yay for Llodra withdrawing! One less racist in the draw.

Nah that's Barthel that lost to Keys, not Bartoli, Fred.

kimiko serving for the match

...and fluffs it totally.

gets broken. eesh

Li now 4-0 up in the decider. Stosur thru with very little drama v Pushkova. Still watching Li despite Tomic having started - a first for Channel 7 since about 1962.

Sorry - my mistake re Barthel. In my defence they do look a bit alike as well as the similar names (discards shovel just in time).

kimiko serving for the match again

(y)

Cept of course I'm watching on Foxtel not 7....

Li Na 6-0 in the third. Suppose there must have been womens' three-setters with less than 21 games sometime....

oh, cibulkova won 6-0 6-1. completely missed that one

Get your money on Levine for the next upset.

Already on it :)

And then he drops his serve at 5-3 in the 2nd, despite bizarro BP save.

Tomic has just made a pigs ear out of serving for the match.

Serena pushed by Caroline Garcia (who, obviously, is French) but safely through

I hope you didn't put too much on Levine, Ailsa, as he blew his various chances to level the match and will probably slip meekly away now.

Yeah, I'm watching it now. Only put 50p on him, don't worry. I'm not a very gambly gambler. His shot selection has been a bit iffy to say the least.

Just saw Del Pony win -- what good matches are going right about now?

This Dimitrov v Zemlja one's not bad.

Also half-watching Roberta Vinci v Cepelova, neither of whom seem to want to hold their serve in the final set.

it's like dimitrov doesn't want to happen

What the fuck is A-Rad even doing!

Dimitrov is throwing some massive misfires here.

Rain can basically fuck off

this is very tense

Rain has forced me to watch Gasquet. Up a break in the 4th. This service game has involved 3 wild BH errors and a DF. This guy is such a loser.

reynolds channelling roddick here

Did anyone see the projected men's top ten in 2018 that ran in L'Equipe recently?

1. Dimitrov
2. Paire
3. Murray
4. Raonic
5. Djokovic
6. Nishikori
7. Tomic
8. Gulbis
9. Janowicz
10. Sock

That gives an average age in the top 10 in 2016 of 27.9; thought that was a little high given that the average of the current top 10 is 27.5 and this seems like an ageing crop. Janowicz seems very good indeed.

(in 2018, I mean)

haha I will giggle for years if Jack Sock becomes the #1 American because mentally I am 12

is there any chance at all there could be play on the middle sunday? i'll be in london then

I would be very surprised if Paire and Sock are in the top 10 in five years' time. I'd also be surprised if Raonic got as high as 4, ever. Janowicz and Gulbis could very easily never make it either (though I love Janowicz, I mean, duh, he's a flashy moron, how can you not?).

I'll say right now Dimitrov will never get to #1.

I expected (feared) Raonic would be a lot better than he is, when he first broke through he really seemed like he could handle all but the very best but he's really stagnated at big-serve-little-else level.

Dimitrov will never be No 1 lol. Paire will definitely never be No 2 or top 5. Really though the men's game in five years' time = if not them then who? UPCOMING VOID ERA. Who will be our male Safina/Wozniacki/Ivanovic? Gotta say I increasingly have faith in Tomic: he's gone through a lot of shit and a lot of slumps but he seems to resiliently bounce back a lot.

I went to Wimbledon yesterday btw. Generally an uneventful show court day ie a good time to have a ground pass; if I'd been stuck on the outside courts while the carnage was happening yesterday it would've been awful. Increasingly ground passes are annoying though - I really hate the redesign of the grounds which has given us more outside show courts, because that just means there's an hour-long queue to get into many of them - which is a bit much to ask of people who've already queued all morning. Obviously the answer would be to pick a court and stay in it but the beauty of a ground pass always used to be how you could just casually wander around and peek into whatever took your fancy. I overheard a LOT of complaints about queueing, too. In general Wimbledon seems more rammed than ever, I'd be interested to know if they've upped their capacity - and this year it's been extra-popular as a sort of Olympics replacement I guess? Plus the Murray as Slam champion effect. In years past getting to the queue at 8am or even 8.30am would have been easily fine to get a ground pass, this year we were advised to get there before 7am - and a latecoming friend who got there at 7.30am didn't get in until about 1pm.

Started with Madison Keys vs Mona Barthel, which on paper was one of the most attractive R2 match-ups: a teenager who's as dead cert as you get for future Slam champion versus one of the most talented shotmakers on tour. IT WAS DREADFUL. Neither of them could get the ball over the net other than their big serves. Keys still has no idea how to move or stay low on grass. Barthel...I just don't know what the fuck she thinks she's doing on court or with her career except drifting around aimlessly and listlessly. So much talent being wasted with her. Absolutely no question of staying beyond the first set.

Attempted to get into Court 12 to see Date-Krumm...queues round the block. Attempted to get into get into Court 18 to see Tomic...queues round the block. Fuck a queue. Decided to get over to Court 10 where Pironkova was playing later, caught the last set of the Sandra Klemenschits/Romina Oprandi vs Catalina Castano/Katalin Marosi doubles. This was actually quite fun! I impressed (bored) all my friends by telling them Klemenschits' tragic back story (her comeback from the cancer that killed her twin sister and ex doubles partner). Oprandi's ridiculous shotmaking talent and lazy, über-casual attitude (her return stance = no pretence at bending her hips or knees, just stands there slouching with her racquet in one hand) was as entertaining IRL as it's been on TV all these years - sad to hear a shoulder injury will probably force her to retire (re-retire? IIRC she quit for a year or two as a teenager because she wanted to party). As for the other team, they were obviously the lessers in terms of both talent and likeability. Marois seemed like a decent sort and I liked her purple-red dyed hair. Castano giving her opponents the middle finger after watching a winner go past her was not impressive, though.

We had prime seats for my favourite match of the day - Tsvetana Pironkova vs Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova. I knew this would deliver and it did - definitely made up for Keys/Barthel earlier. (Funny, on paper Pironkova and BZS are by far the lesser players - but their match outstripped Keys/Barthel in every way.) Pironkova was in supreme Grass GOAT mode: forehand slices, that wicked flat backhand taken from below her hips, her smooth movement on the surface (no cow-on-ice slips here: Sharapova, watch and learn), her weird confidence that belies her lamentable record off grass for the past two years. She really is a transformed player on grass and it's a lot of fun to watch.

Unlike Pironkova's R1 opponent Pavlyuchenkova, who she pretty much slaughtered, BZS is no grass slouch - she's got a ton of variety and resourcefulness to call on herself. She's an underrated retriever, scrambling for every Pironkova shot she could; her dropshots were frequently beauties that just died on the grass and she showed a lot of moxie by serve-volleying at crucial points, including to save a bunch of SPs in the first set. And she came through with her antics, too: once she started with the stream of stroppy Czech it pretty much didn't let up. Peak BZS moments included sarcastically cheering towards some Bulgarian supporters who'd clapped for a Pironkova winner too early, banging her head against the backstop and a mighty racquet throw after losing the tight first set.

After this I went to meet some people in the press centre, from where I saw Vinci finishing Cepelova off (if I'd been keeping track of the score I'd have probably rushed over to this match, didn't expect it to be so close) and the start of Chardy vs Struff. Was shown this amazing room in the media centre with about 20 screens showing EVERY COURT - this is where I saw the tight third set between Dimitrov and Zemlja. IIRC Zemlja blew a couple of MPs with pretty basic errors. I like Dimitrov but I really hope Zemlja finishes him off tomorrow. After Black Wednesday I'm in favour of all the carnage possible from here on in, resulting in Date-Krumm/Dolonc and Dolgopolov/Paire finals.

Grigor Dramatov. Falls at 30/30, declares court unplayable in rain (probably correctly). Play stopped on match point.

Dimitrov 2/17 on break points. Imitating the recent-model Federer with that GOAT stat.

What a power couple! Grigor and Maria both lose R2.

Thanks for the report btw, lex!

Great last couple of points in Dimi/Zemlja.

I've never seen Kaia so fit! She looks terrific!

God, Zemlja was so tight and yet Grisha ended up being the one to crumble, so embarrassing for him. Very happy for SLO though!

Wonder who he was modeling his first serve % on. Possibly Shoulderpova.

Pressure impressively handled by Robson there.

Kaia.. went up 3-0 in about two seconds and then fell apart. So many errors! A flubbed smash that brought to mind Peak Djokovic! Oh well.

Yeah, I thought she was nailed on for an upset there, but it's all gone a bit wrong. My telly doesn't appear to have Meltzer v Stakhovksky on it, so I'm now watching that on the internets while trying to work out which'll be better out of Ferrer v B-G or WangHaas.

Does Kanepi not know how to lob or something?

Rooting hard for Kaia. I want a dramatic 3 setter to brighten this day up.

This is a woeful tie-break from Kaia. But Kerber is amazing, if she'd peaked in the Woz years I reckon it'd have been her at #1 or #2, except she can do the wall stuff on grass too.

KAIA!!! DO THIS!!

And she did.

they're still faffing about on centre court

http://www.wimbledon.com/images/players/wta110536.jpg

Wimbledon need to update their photo. She doesn't look like this! She's all slim and hot now!

I was ready to throw things at Kaia at 1-5 in the TB but omg omg omg <3

Kaia :D :D now if you win this do NOT dare lose to Riske or whatever.

<3 you random GOATING Kanepi, but you're getting lots of help now. Kerber's serve, temperament, movement...

kerber is so moody

That was a huge fail serving for it, though. That failed smash was probably on a ball that would have gone out.

TAKE ALL THE POINTS KAIA!

52/27 and 42/17 for Kanepi and Kerber respectively. Another good match!

almagro-janowicz has been a fun slugfest so far

The second set of Kanepi/Kerber was very good until Kaia suddenly went very bad and then very good in the TB, then SarcastiKerber kicked in for the final set, but not in the good way. Kaia gagged hard at 5-1 but crawled over the line at 5-3.

Impressed by Bautista pushing Ferrer - a net-rushing, flat-hitting ESP! - but he screwed up the TB somewhat.

Melzer/Stakhovsky is a surprise excellent match.

allez marion obviously but camila giorgi is a pretty stylish player + i fancy her a bit

The Cornet/Pennetta match, my god. Cornet went up 6-0, 1-0. Then Flavia won five games in a row, then Alizé won five games in a row, then shanked a FH which would have given her MP, then went 3-0 up in the TB then lost seven of eight points. Third set!

What this tournament does not need is further participation by psycho idior Cornet. FORZA FLAVIA.

Love watching Almagro get progressively more pissed at Janowicz, who is scoring extra points for the pink strapping on his arm.

Am guessing we'll be seeing a few more scorelines along the lines of Pennetta's 0-6 7-6 6-2 win over Cornet in that wide open bottom half…

So that's probably it for today outside of Center. Not that much of a backlog, all told, and tomorrow looks pretty good but Sunday - rest day - is 27C! How often does this happen...

jesus https://twitter.com/tennismagazin/status/350653684922851329

Marijan Batinich Maali has some serious issues

I've been seeing a lot of really abusive posts (some of it purporting to be ADVICE) on Kvitova's FB too, though the stuff Gajdosova got on Twitter took the cake in that regard.

Awful. A pal of mine had some money on Kerber today, so he's gutted by her defeat and I was going to encourage him to send her a nice message considering the abuse she's getting, but he's deleted his original post.

So - if the AELTC decided to squeeze another R3 singles into the Centre Court schedule today, say around 8pm (they won't, cos it's an "outdoor" tournament and deliberately scheduling indoor matches under lights is not what they do), what should it be?

Maria Kirilenko ‏@mkirilenko 18m
Wimbledon is boring this year so many injures and falling ... I pulled out from my doubles match as I also injured! Going HOME!

yes wimbledon is so boring without kirilenko ;_;

Oh, pleasant surprise to see tennis back on the outer courts!

Watching Puig/Birnerova and Makarova/Kvitova :D

Kvitova wins the first set and goes up a break and then, of course, loses 8 games in a row

Birnerova playing so aggressively and confidently right now! LOVING this.

what the hell happened in Stephens/Cetkovska: 7-6, 0-6????

Oh my, just saw that! Here for another bagel in the 3rd! <3 Gonna have to tune into that as well now! 3 interesting matches on the go

Oh it was just suspended due to bad light. Yawn -____-

I'd be surprised if Janowicz never wins Wimbledon

Huh I didn't realise play resumed after I went out! Stupid scoreboard. Cetkovska bagelling Stephens is less surprising than Stephens winning the first set - Petra C's game is so effective on grass.

OMG, if Birnerova reaches R4 of a Slam...

Now that CAKE has navigated the Giorgi obstacle, she should be a lock for the SF.

This is Janowicz's first time in week two of a Slam right? I don't like him at all.

oh, and LOL @ Pretty Girl Fanboys who thought Bouchard had any chance vs CSN - who has now reached the second week at every Slam.

So annoyed I made plans for today :(

Bouchard seemed kinda mediocre from the couple of times I've seen her play. :/

Yeah that's my impression too. She's had some very favourable draws this year. I include Ivanovic in that.

That was one incredibly clean set from Kubot. Paire is not looking good at all. Well, he is, but not in the tennis sense.

Yeah, L'equipe future top tenners flopping badly so far today.

I'd be surprised if Janowicz never wins Wimbledon

― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, 29 June 2013 01:00 (12 hours ago)

this is another reason wimbledon is not my favourite gs

Kvitova doing well today! Though Makarova is making it easy by, er, never going to the net, ever, even when it would win her the points no sweat.

good win for kvitova, but her progress is still so so disappointing

Anything short of the final would be disappointing for her. I'm prepared for her to probably lose to Flipkens.

Birnerova just hit the most perfect FH dropshot ever played

Erakovic is making Robson look like a complete fool for the most part. Robson's movement looks particularly lead-footed and she seems to be completely surprised by the fact that Erakovic gets to her not-that-good-shots, and then goes for too much on the cross-court.

Cetkovska smh smh smh
Lol @ Robson :(

Birnerova flopping as well now. This day sucks.

I'm keeping an eye on Keys/A-Rad as I think this could be an upset possibility.

oh dear @ that df
erakovic choking hard!

robson getting RIDICULOUS luck with some of these linecalls. and ridiculous luck with erakovic's dfs. two in a row to lose that set.

Ben O'Connell ‏@popsky96 7m

Don't care for tennis but I like Laura Robson. It's 1 set all & now its game on Go on gal show some more British Bulldog spirit !!
from Wakefield, Wakefield

Samuel Hodge Samuel Hodge ‏@shodge91 7m

Laura Robson... Bulldog Spirit. Stiff Upper Lip. Lion Heart. Pride of Britain. #Wimbledon

David MacLennan David MacLennan ‏@DmacL61 13m

@Robbie9Fowler she might just turn it around! Bulldog spirit might just be mentioned!

god that challenge

erakovic keeps stopping rallies to challenge and being wrong, it's really embarrassing. she's mentally gone.

Kiwi no match for a bulldog

wow. erakovic hasnt won a game since serving for the match.

'she will be dangerous for next 10 minutes'

guessing this is over in like 4 minutes

Laura's really stepped up a gear, and Erakovic has completely lost her way. I'm going to stick my neck out and say she won't be that dangerous.

A-Rad got very lucky to win that set. Keys outplayed her.

And as if by magic, Laura's started to look a bit jittery.

Switched to Pironkova just in time to see her chase down a really good Martic drop-shot and steer it up the line to go up 3-1 in the second. Go Cveta!

bad juju

PIRONKOVA IS SO FUCKING GOOD RIGHT NOW.

And now she's shit.

Lol @ Erakovic :)

Laura!!!! :D

PironGOATva losing both breaks in this set. :/

Gasquet looking in a bit of trouble against Tomic

is there any chance kimiko troubles williams

That was such a huge slow train wreck from Pironkova. PironCHOKEa.

x-post not in the slightest but it'd be an amazing story.

winning >4 games would probably be a story

Losing in four while winning 13 more points. Aside from doing it in the fourth round, is there anything more quintessentially Wussquet than that?

Teehee
Bernard :D Aggressive hitting in the TB, not giving in to Gasquet's wussy pushing.

is tomic retarded

Time to switch back to watch Keys close out in 3 what she probably should already have!

he thought the english tv interviewer was referring to the queensland lions, who appear to be a team from the brisbane regional football (soccerball) league

anyway, i dislike the assumption professional sports players are obliged to give a fuck about other sports

how is serena going to play her match today
berdych is about to go to a 5th set. then we have ferrer/dolgopolov which will take 4 hours. like, when is she supposed to play. fucking schedule. if she has to play 3r and 4r on monday and the qf on tuesday...
hopefully lopez/haas goes fast so she can play on court 2

Berdych made such short work of Anderson in Melbourne this year, he should be ashamed of himself.

Still got Keys/Rad on stream and TV is showing Bine/Stosur. Stosur hits three well-placed returns (two of which Lisicki hits way wide) and a brilliant backhand volley, breaks to love, and she's up a break wtf?

oh my @ that game from keys. saving 4 MPs and blasting huge aces and FHs in the process.

When Keys gets her game completely together, watch out.

Yay A-Rad!

i'm so aggravated with this scheduling. how do they justify putting serena on after two men's matches, when women have to play QFs on tuesday?

It's really not as if putting Serena on would delay the men much, is it.

hopefully haas rolls over lopez in this 4th set and then maybe serena can play on court 2 :( fucking mens tennis. MAKE SLAMS FEMALE-ONLY!

poor serena

Maybe she could play under lights on Center after Djokovic?

this match should be finished around 8:15pm or so right

maybe a bit later

Time to switch back to watch Keys close out in 3 what she probably should already have!

hang on in what way "should" Keys ever be beating A-Rad on grass at this stage of her career. Come back in two years, maybe.

Been out all day - only result that surprises me is Cetkovska over Stephens, who is truly blessed by the draw/weather gods.

haas finishes! :D NOW GET SERENA ON COURT 2 POST-HASTE

HAAS FUCK OFF STOP SIGNING AUTOGRAPHS -___-

Favorite shot is serve; favorite surface is hard. Favorite food is ice cream; favorite drink is peach iced tea. Favorite actor is Julia Roberts; favorite movie is Titanic. Favorite singer is Taylor Swift; favorite types of music are hip-hop, pop, rap and country. Favorite author is Stephanie Meyer. Also enjoys baking, seeing friends, watching TV and shopping. Favorite place to visit is Paris. Most memorable experience is playing a match in an earthquake in Costa Rica. Goal is to work hard and be the best she can be. [3]

her favourite singer is taylor swift? ok keys is my new favourite up-and-comer :D

hang on in what way "should" Keys ever be beating A-Rad on grass at this stage of her career. Come back in two years, maybe.

I love A-Rad. But Keys was clearly better in the second set and had lots of chances to win the first set. It was really her fitness, not her actual game, that lost the match for her in the third.

omg
they've put robson's doubles match on court 2
is this real life

lol

bulldog spirit from the schedulers

did Keys magically learn how to move on grass in the last two days then? because she was hopeless at that on Thu and at Edgbaston. I'm sure she could look the better player if A-Rad was failing to move her around but that's really all it should have taken to beat her.

woof

I assume Serena goes on CC under the roof and lights after Novak? I know, I know, never assume anything so sensible with the AELTC.

I think A-Rad was a bit below par.. she flubbed a few drop shots and netted some forehands that would certainly have jerked Keys around a bit. Keys' movement looked fine.

Shuffling Serena out to Court 2 worse than 8:30pm on Center, surely? Kimiko pretty good in the fading light, recalling '96. Not so good when the match resumes the next day.

xp

Wimbledon still needs you Na! BREAK!

so we have to operate under the assumption that djokovic will beat chardy in 3 easy sets, and that they'll close the roof, and that serena can get her match done against an extremely tricky grasscourter (on indoor grass even moreso), all by the 11pm curfew. top mens players would NEVER be treated like this.

GOAT DOWN THE LINE FROM NA TO STAY IN IT FUCK YEAH!!!

Thank god Kookie is krumbling. I have so little faith in Na.

Becker used to complain about being treated like this on a regular basis. Federer has led a charmed life at AELTC since at least '04 however.

Ferrer-Dolgo and Silliams-Date obviously should've been reversed. If I remember rightly they won't start a men's match after 7:30 or a women's match after 8 (except under lights).

Zakopalova served for the match against Li in Shenzhen this year, too. No wonder she's pouting

I don't care about whatever slights to top players, they ALL lead charmed lives and are treated like royalty compared to everyone outside the top 5.

That said if they don't put Silliams on CC tonight it's pretty outrageous.

Na survives. Oh na na, please play better.

LOL, Zakopalova tried to leave the court the wrong way!

djokovic so absurdly good that he relented in the third set and still williams/kimiko following before 8pm

Serena-Kimiko will be on Centre.

Chardy won six return points all match, so pathetic

needless to say Ferrer/Dolgopolov is just a very entertaining match, great stylistic contrast

Bit of a genius-flake, Dolgo, isn't he? Reminds me of Leconte.

I enjoy watching him so much that I lose track of whether he's actually winning or losing. When I snap back to the score he tends to be losing. I wish he wouldn't make so many needless basic errors (as opposed to needless cutesy errors).

Your men's last 16:

(1) Novak Djokovic vs. (13) Tommy Haas
Bernard Tomic vs. (7) Tomas Berdych
(4) David Ferrer vs. Ivan Dodig
(23) Andreas Seppi vs. (8) Juan Martin Del Potro
Lukasz Kubot vs. Adrian Mannarino
(24) Jerzy Janowicz vs. Jurgen Melzer
Fernando Verdasco vs. Kenny De Schepper
(20) Mikhail Youzhny vs. (2) Andy Murray

Can't believe we get Kubot/Mannarino instead of Paire/Brown :( Well, actually I can well believe it, but it's still saddening.

did i just see natasha bedingfield in serena's box

please win games, Kimiko :(

god Kimiko's game is so much fun to watch though! the way she just darts into net <3

Break point! Hoping for an Ashe v Connors here. No longer break point.

If only Mrs. Krumm had a serve.

Perhaps it's for the best that I'm going out now.

I love indoor grass, I love Date-Krumm's game and most of all I love Serena. So yeah, loving this match!

was that Grace Jones?!

god how I hate big serves zzzzzzz

nice

Kimiko is literally winning EVERY RALLY except this comprises 2% of the points which are mostly either Serena aces or Serena bashing returns :(

enjoying the antediluvian stylings of barry davies, kdk = 'the japanese'

And Barry Davies with the very controversial opinion that Graf is one of the best players of all time.

Krumm cheated by the linesman :(

that was sweet

Sad for Kimiko in the second set :(

Your women's last 16:

(1) Serena Williams vs. (23) Sabine Lisicki
Laura Robson vs. Kaia Kanepi
(4) Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Tsvetana Pironkova
(11) Roberta Vinci vs. (6) Na Li
Monica Puig vs. (17) Sloane Stephens
(15) Marion Bartoli vs. Karin Knapp
(8) Petra Kvitova vs. (19) Carla Suarez Navarro
(20) Kirsten Flipkens vs. Flavia Pennetta

Kimiko is literally winning EVERY RALLY except this comprises 2% of the points which are mostly either Serena aces or Serena bashing returns :(

Yeah, despite the score line this felt like a close match because of this.

Serena 'bashing' returns right on the line repeatedly is a beautiful thing <3

she's still going for humourless, sickly sweet interviews with the media i see

Serena 'bashing' returns right on the line repeatedly is a beautiful thing <3

that match was sort of a reminder that I fundamentally don't really like Serena's game :(

bummed that Dolgo couldn't finish it off :(

that's a really likeable and exciting women's last 16

Yeah, for all the WIPEOUT WEDNESDAY stuff, this tournament still has the favourite (Serena), the hometown favourite (Robson), plus (for me anyway) its most likeable players (Li, Kvitova, A-Rad, Bartoli, Kanepi), some players with great histories at Wimby (Pironkova, Lisicki), a nice comeback (Penetta) and a match between two up-comers (Stephens, Puig - GO MONICA!!).

yeah, tons of good matches tomorrow as ever on Manic Monday - the women win over the men (I count 6 exciting WTA match-ups to 3 ATP ones). Tomic/Berdych the pick of the men, probably Robson/Kanepi for the women. Half-expect Vinci and Pironkova to come through with the upsets...

as always all the interesting matches will be played at the same time. god, how I hate this tournament's idiotic scheduling.

CONCENTRATE, Petra. That volley -_-

jesus christ that return off a CSN second serve at deuce -_-

And why is Flavia approaching off nothing to the Flipkens FH -_-

lmao CSN misses 3 straight returns from 15-30, then Petra misses 4 straight returns

This match is actually getting WORSE as these two useless women stumble and hack their way towards a TB.

hahahahhahahahahahah NID that Petra would be broken to love when serving for the set. Actually good tennis from CSN though.

B2B DFs from each in the TB!

Petra stumbles through the TB, wins it with a CSN netted BH. Sigh.

This is really not a good match in any way at all.

Pennetta choked twice for the set, which Flipkens won in a TB.

Underdogs ahead in both men's matches - first sets to Dodig and Melzer.

Is Melzer that much of an underdog? I gotta admit I thought he'd be slight favourite - more experience, has been top ten, good returner.

Petra just hit her first wow shot at 7-6 3-2. TAKEN A BLOODY WHILE.

Melzer is definitely the underdog on grass and in his current form, but not so much that his lead a surprise. (I still expect a Janowicz win.)

Underdog Mannarino also won the first set but Kubot looks on his way, he's serving and volleying well now.

Remember when Dodig beat Nadal 1-6 7-6 7-6?

Now, time to watch Petra fuck up serving for the match like she did for the set! Or not I hope.

Gah, of course, Mannarino-Kubot on a court no longer designed as a show court, hence non-appearance on my app! (I filtered to lose the noise from seniors and juniors).

More hapless returning from CSN sends Petra through.

CSN has now reached the second week of every Slam, so a good event for her any way. Solidifying that top 20 spot.

Mannarino/Kubot was pretty dull tbh, I didn't last long.

Two awesome volleys from Flavia to break Flipkens as she was serving for the match, the first a clever approach off a mishit return.

Duh, Flavia broken in next game. Flipkens into her first QF and in tears. Deserved for her pretty stunning comeback over the past 12 months and funky, grass-friendly game.

Lisicki's holding her own, strokes look actually controlled!

Li doing well :D :D :D

Kaia dealing as well with pressure as ever, I see. What are some of those errors. Robson dealing as well as she usually does with pressure, too, ie quite well.

maybe not

Except when the attempt to serve out the set brought rise to the usual batch of groundstroke errors we've come to expect from women's tennis at times like this.

lawl i love her outbursts

LOL @ that Serena smash.

Good hold from Kanepi. Got that on the TV while streaming Lisicki/Serena. Liscki will be lucky to scrape out of this game.

Surprisingly, Robson and Kanepi have played 11 games in the time Lisicki and Serena have played 5. And it's not like Serena and Sabine are rallying!

Lisicki breaks off LOL error from Serena. Really liking her demeanour on-court.

Lisicki breaks as Serena sprays a BH wide!

Dare I hope for Li or A-Rad to make the final after Sabine does her usual flop-after-big-win if she pulls this off?

(I won't even talk about the other possibility that would be amazing. Serena will still win, you know it and I know it.)

Ugh I hate Manic Monday, everything happening at same time, multiple good matches I can't even concentrate on the scoreboard for

Serena is completely in pieces, lol

that set point play was clinical

That was a fucking imperious game from Lisicki. 6-2! Serena really must hate herself for those two sitters.

PEAK KLUTCHNEPI! Great defence! Down from 2-5 to win! LOVE YOU KAIA.

It will never cease to amaze me how randomly Kaia can swing between klutch and kollapse.

This is pretty standard tie-break practice from Kaia, right? Wins from 1-5, wins from 2-5... That DF from Robson, though, jeez. Park tennis stuff.

Lisicki was a ridiculously long-odds outsider for this, why didn't I have a flutter? Oh, because I never do, that's why.

I had a flutter, though I might also have another flutter on a Lisicki choke shortly.

Get in quick or the odds are going to plummet.

lol. someone's 'ring of fire' ringtone spurs Robson into action.

So, yeah, 3-1 to Serena in the 2nd. Shouldn't have switched over...

Oh dear. Lisicki can't hit the ball in court now.

Wow, hardcore choking vs hardcore pushing in Puig vs Stephens - Puig finally converted her 4th SP. Sloane was pretty much channelling her inner Wozniacki.