Wimbledon 2003

Ouch, indeed.

Perhaps, it is. He should be saying something like, "Ooh, you're going to have a stretch a bit to reach my volleys" or "My first serve percentage has a tendency to rise as matches go on, so fear that" or "You have literally no idea how cross I can get when my backhand isn't working. Grrr."

Pathetic. He'll probably win it now.

Wimbledon 2001 - best Wimbledon ever?

He hasn't failed to realise his potential, I think he's partially exceeded it. Being the best British-born player in a generation still doesn't make him a world-beater. 1998 was his best shot: beating reigning GS champs Korda and Rafter en route to a genuinely competitive match with Sampras in supreme form.

2001 was great, yes - you can't really beat it when the last three men's matches all go to the wire. 1992, too, was pretty extraordinary.

Also Anna Kournikova is out - ALREADY - still it'll save the woman her usual embarrassment of being trounced by a Spanish 15-year-old in the first round

Actually, I can't remember whether or not he played last year, but hey, there was a World Cup on.

I may be going to Wimbledon next Tuesday, and will Report Back if I do.

Mark C: explaining them takes the fun out of it, but Victoria Wine = Liquorsaver = Likhvotseva. Lady P and I are also planning a post-5pm grounds visit, poss next Thursday.

Word from the Anti-Podes is that the Leyt who Greyts can look forward to spending at least the second half of week two sightseeing and working on his golf this time round, although there is still a good chance his slightly better-looking half won't be available to caddy for him.

Like Gorka Fraile, a 25-year-old Spaniard, whose career prize money amounts to $77k and who has an all-time win/loss record on the main tour of 1/1 (he went out in R1), or American Jack Brasington, who didn't turn pro until he was 24 and surely has some other form of income even now, or veteran Big Dick Norman, the six foot eight Belgian who wasted 12 break points vs Hewitt in the final set at Queen's last week, destined forever to be hovering on the fringe of the big party with a world ranking of 111. Or Marie-Eve Pelletier, a 13-11 deciding set loser in the opening round of the women's event, who'll be kicking herself all the way back to Quebec. Severine Beltrame, Aniko Kapros, Gisela Dulko... where will they be next week?

I think you should take your racket just in case.

Shame though. Perhaps next year?

Same cinematographer as Se7en and Delicatessen, so he should capture the incessant rain and gloom just right. Is Kirsten Dunst playing in it, or just the love (DO YOU SEE) interest?

It can't possibly be as good as Players from 1979, with Ali McGraw, the late Dean Paul Martin and Steven Guttenberg. Guillermo Vilas wins the title in that one (spoiler, sorry).

My players of the day (or, perhaps, yesterday) are:

Todd Larkham - 29-year-old Aussie whose career earnings are no more than mine would be in this job if I stuck at it for another 9 years, a ranking best of #168 for singles *and* doubles, but who has scrapped and scrambled his way into the main draw by way of a 5-set win over Harel Levy in Roehampton... and now faces James Blake.

Talking of On The Buses, Jim's unsister Maureen Blake, the Canadian veteran, has also edged a final round qualifier for a spot in the Merton Mains. She gave Venus a torrid time last year; surely worth another run to the last 32, where Chandra Rubin will clip her ticket.

"Ticket".

Men's QF:

Bjorkman-Ancic
Federer-Schalken
Henman-Blake
Arazi-Agassi

Greg R beats Roddick in their 2nd round clash (50 aces between them and a new world record serve), but falls to Ancic in the last 16. Lleyton loses to Bjorkman from two sets up in R4. Malisse-Draper in R3 is the longest men's match: Xavier wins it 15-13 in the 5th, then flops miserably vs Andre in the next round.

Women's QF:

S Williams-Myskina
Henin-Kuznetsova
Davenport-V Williams
Rubin-Sugiyama

Kim C has a nightmare v Pistolesi in R3 and slumps out; Venus given hellacious scare by Indonesia's teenage sensation Widjaja in same round but survives.

Can't say who'll win either event, though.

In the real world, you may or may not be aware that Kreaky, TonyLeMauresmo and Alex Corretjaja have pulled out. It's a bit of a shame.

I'll be lucky if I get the chance to say "doesn't she look mannish?" at Pam Shriver during the highlights programme

I find myself with stacks of annual leave owed to me, but little opportunity to take much of it for Wimbledon-watching due to everyone in our department having the same idea. I've left it a bit late to strategically chum up to the afternoon receptionist downstairs in an effort to steer her away from her daytime soaps, allowing us the occasional sneaky peak at the odd tie-breaker or two.

The Jones Kiss of Death is about to strike on court six: projected quarter-finalist Mario Ancic already two sets down to somebody called Nadal. Bugger. Roddick-Sanguinetti is a very watchable affair, A-Rod (what *does* that mean, btw?) playing with some flair to season the powerstrokes, Davide S a strikingly handsome greying chap, with more fire in his veins than his name suggests. The Roddick speedometer has touched 141mph so far today.

The Croat giant (he's 6'10"!) facing the Defending Ball of Hate seems to have got his act together - he conceded his serve three times in the opening set, on each occasion with a double fault. The Centre Court crowd looked away and shuffled its feet.

Ooh, ooh, Lleland a mini-break down in the 2nd t/b...

Lleylo's vein is *this* far out of his forehead now.

I'm taking a day off too (along with all the other days off unemployment affords me) and I'm very much enjoying it. When I lived with my parents we would be besieged by thousands of tennis tourists (and most of them did seem to be foreign) for a fortnight a year - they live just next to Southfields station. I kind of miss the bustle and the feeling of smugness that I actually *lived* there and had a perfectly good drive to park in, hahaha. I was less pleased when I was going out of an evening and had to queue behind 2,000 to get the tube.

there was an article in the observer yesterday where b*ris b*cker said he thought federer might win, haha, he's your best mate jonesy :)

As for me as Mr Predicto, I'm typing this from inside the paper bag I got into last year, and the imminent demise of Ancic means I have little chance of immediate escape.

Is Hewitt going out here or WOT?

SUCK IT YOU (mildly) RACIST BASTARD!

hey, mr jones, that is rafael nadal, a 16 year old from mallorca (nephew of miguel angel nadal, infamous football player from fc barcelona). don't miss this kid, he'll be up there soon.

and, hmm, the spanish tennis player from the 70's is manolo santana.
carlos santana is someone else ;-)

No adverse reaction from Mrs Lleyla - Kimsters followed the fallen champ on court and won 6-0 6-0 in fourteen seconds. Big Karlovic was just interviewed on the Beeb - the guy has a serious stammer but coped admirably with the horror of the Inverdale Q&A. I think I've watched a few too many episodes of Open All Hours recently - I needed to be jolted out of my comedy speech defect mindset.

Unluckiest of the day: Jon van Lottum, playing brilliantly for a set and a bit vs Kuerten on Centre, gets injured, retires, weeps in his chair at the calamity of it all.

Greg R through in three tight sets, looking good for a battle royale with Roddick on Wednesday. Easy for Venus, bit of a struggle for Lindsay.

(Joan: I know Manolo... "Grass is for the cows", etc)

I'll be the provincial Americain here and say I expect big things from Roddick and (ok, not really) Dent.

*holds breath*

You've really got in it for Patsy ClimbIntoThePlayersBoxAndHugYourDad, haven't you?

PC reached the Aussie finals in '87 and '88 (Kooyong and Flinders [as was] Park, grass and Rebound Ace*), losing to Edberg and Wilander in five. Great matches they were too - in fact, I don't there's been an Aussie final to touch the Wilander match since. I think he also got as far as match point in a US Open semi vs Lendl in '84: up 6-5 40/30 in the 5th he hit a perfect fading volley only for old skullface to loop a gobsmacking topspin lob. Ivan the Lovable won the breaker.

(* - I do like the way the name of this surface combines a physical prerequisite with something you'd hope to achieve. I believe the track at Monza has been relaid with Griptyre Notcrash.)

I'd say something about the women's final but I was at Ikea while it was on.

Also, MP seems to send down a whole lot more untouchables; Roddick's celebrated WR-equalling 149mph delivery at Queen's last month was straight into Agassi's hitting zone and came back fizzing. I still think Federer in four, but Scud has this whole IronMind thing going on which scares me. It could be an excruciating two and a half hours of fleeting break point opportunities earned by free-flowing genius obliterated by an ace machine and then horrid Swiss mental collapse in tie-breakers.

Nice to see Bjorkman/Woodbridge win the doubles again; Todd W's got a busy day tomorrow - a maximum possible three matches if it stays light till late and he and Kuznetsova reach the final.

Should I be alarmed by Sue Barker's claim that wheelchair tennis is Britain's fast-growing sport?

the williams sisters => didn't watch first two sets, watched bits of the third but you it was just a bit dull from what i saw.

I remembered the Wilander game five minutes after posting (just hoped like hell it was a semi not a final) and the Edberg match when you mentioned it. So chalk up one unforced error to Nerk.

Yes, it's true that Pat Cash has to try less hard than most to get thoroughly up my nose. My Pat is your Boris.

Cash may have been riding on that one Wimbledon his whole life, but, if you're only going to win one major, you may as well do it in some style. Beating Forget, Wilander, Connors and Lendl without dropping a set is some way to go. I well remember his wildcard QF loss to Leconte twelve months earlier - my first encounter with the phrase 'keyhole surgery'. I use it all the time now.

The Aussie media sounds appalling, btw. Thank goodness we've got chaps like Williams with his tripping on the needle-bliss celebration of Henman's second round win above.

but so far federer is too good.

Pick of the commentary moments:

Andrew Castle: "Philippousis is very proud of his Greek heritage...but not of that volley."
(later, with a view of Federer's girlfriend): "She's warming up those dimples for a very big smile."

At times it was like having Robin Askwith and Leslie Philips in the box. "Purrrr, a pretty girl..."

Talking of records, Woodbridge's doubles win was, I think, the 77th title of his career. McEnroe has 78 and Tom Okker 79, so Mac has suggested, once Woody wins another tournament, they team up and try to equal Okker's mark.

Talking of Tom Okker (I'm on fire here), he was a semi-finalist the last year the last three men's matches were decided in straight sets: 1978. It didn't feel like a let-down then either, Borg was just a class apart from Connors in the final. I watched much of that year's tournament on a black'n'white portable above a florist's on Poulton Road listening to John Denver LPs.

Talking of John Denver... no, I can't go on.

And, until Melb Park Jan 2004, it's goodnight from me, and it's goodnight from him....

navratilova has just won her 20th title.

Hats off to Mardy Fish - who can now join the hallowed ranks of Florin Segarceanu, Todd Martin, Paul McNamee and, er...Paul McNamee as Men Who Took A Set Off An Untouchable Champion Elect.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1960000/images/_1960677_jensen150.jpg vs http://www.pjede.de/208/images/jocks/jensen.gif

hey dan i love 'em too (they get me going on 'all levels') but they shouldn't play in finals against each other, that's all.

It would be a shame not to make the 300-posts mark, so I'm going to keep this fella chugging along until it's a bit gnarly and rotten - a bit like those courgettes that went liquid next to the cooker last week. We thought something had died in the kitchen wall.

Did the men's event suffer slightly from Hypertension Hewitt's early dismissal? His potential QF with Roddick could've been a furious affair, Centre Court so much scorched scrubland afterwards. Instead we got one man who could serve his way out of a steel box heading inexorably towards a chap whose ranking should probably be in minus figures (like The Black Hit of Space). Goran vs Pete in '94, really.

And the 'return of grass-court tennis' line is laughable; the last serve-volley final was only two years ago. We always need a mix. I wonder if the Aussies basically developed the serve-volley game, or was it those post-war Americans: Kramer, Falkenberg, Seixas? I've never seen enough footage of them to make it out.

I renounce my initials.

Have they ramped up the absorbency? The sweat streaming off the peak of Roddick's cap was faintly nauseating. We're back to those courgettes again.

Re Flushing Meadow? Never grabbed me. Andrew Bolt or his British equivalent (from the Daily Mail?) would probably use it as an indicator of my ever less 'healthy' or 'helpful' or 'mature' attitude towards our shared Mecca (that's America, of course), and he would most likely not be far wrong. Something about the atmosphere of the US Open puts me off, I've never been able to put my finger on what it is. Mind you, put an Australian or two in the final and I'll watch.

And urge next years Wimbledon to be presented by Mr Michael Jones instead of birds nest bonce bird.

I cannot agree at all with Mike about Hewitt's exit being a bad thing. That exit was the thing which, along with one or two other things, made this one of the best Wimbledons I can remember. I was surprised at how reticent and becalmed Inverdale, Lloyd, Cash and even Becker ultimately were about the tournament - they have a professional interest in building it up, yet seemed less enthused about it all than I did.

Great things: Hewitt's exit; the fact that people still talk about Roddick-Rusedski as a great thing, though I didn't see it (it's nice somehow that Greg R's early defeats can be as momentous as Tim, um, H's late ones); Henman beating Nalbandian was probably an achievement, but what do I know; Agassi- MP was an epic though naturally I didn't like the score; Federer fulfilling the isolated outburst of passionate partisanship with which Mike began the whole thread - in such quiet, cautious fashion; the Oxbridge heights of Federer-Roddick; the sudden, superfluous backhand volley past MP from a yard inside the court; the notion that the right man may have won; the 'sentimentality' (Becker: interesting word) with which he received the trophy (Nipper and Barthelme to thread); McEnroe's at least occasional magnificence in the studio; Becker's gradual verbal redemption of past physical crimes; and the late late victory for my bovine wholegrain fruitjuice favourite Kijm C. (Someone post a picture of her!)

yes, very much so, a beautiful thing

I know that no one else will have been crass enough to notice that her nipples erected at the very moment of victory.

It struck me that if this thread was ever to reach 300 posts, I really should have split my above post into c.15 separate instalments.

I think this is 300.

also, I'm sure Michael is heartily relieved by finally being vindicated re Federer after umpteen previous thread humiliations. Hats off to Mr Jones ... and er to Roger of course.

(my favourite headline from yesterday)

I'd seen him play breathtaking stuff on clay and hardcourt and '93 Wimb would see the full flowering of his gifts. Yes, he won, but not very interestingly and thereafter won so often that those chums came to regard my punditry with open hostility - some changing their phone numbers to avoid me and, in one case, undergoing plastic surgery and joining the British Antarctic Survey.

This can't be allowed to happen again.

I miss this Wimbledon.

Great things: Stepanek's promise directly proportional to his receding hairline; the graceful turns Boris Becker spun in his grave as Hot-Rod and The Elephant rocketed into the last four; the return of grass tennis, wha?; Hantuchova's lips' quivering like a sea gently mussitating against the shore as Asagoe kept on proving too much too much; Henman generally; Kim Cloisters you'll never win a slam; I wish Federer was like a mercury tilt switch but I don't know what one of them is; the drive volley from just inside the baseline (oh! yes!); replay of the French semi-final cauldron of red raw seething hatred from a rained out London on sunny day in Glasgow; pints and points: outside with Henman and Grosjean; I love tennis.