WIMBLEDON 2012

Draw will be out in an hour or so!

The Pliskova sisters both qualified - is this is the first time a pair of twins have both graced a Slam main draw?

I went to qualies the other day btw, had an amazing time - unsure why I have not done this before. Report at http://alexmacpherson.tumblr.com/post/25536657178/wimbledon-qualifying-report-20-6-12

Bob and Mike Bryan

Enjoyed your write-up! Slam qualies seem like such a nice event to watch, mini-dramas in many different corners before the big storylines have begun. Still haven't made it to Wimbledon ;\

Kim and Venus should make for some interesting early rounds.

I dare not even think about the amazing 1R possibilities b/c they probably won't happen. We could get 1st rounds between:

V.Williams-S.Williams (winner plays Pironkova)
A.Radwanska-U.Radwanska (after this happened AGAIN in Sydney they said they'd w/d in protest if they were drawn against each other in the 1R again)
K.Pliskova-K.Pliskova

And let's have K.Clijsters-M.Sharapova for the lulz.

And put all of them in the same quarter.

xp I meant in the singles draw...don't think the Bryan bros ever made it to a singles MD in a Slam

FED DJOKO
NADA MURRAY

Lex I enjoyed your qualifier report more than I have any tennis report from a national newspaper in the last 5 years!

Especially
Kristyna Pliskova d. Stefanie Voegele 46 64 63
Caught the last few games. KrisPlis is lethal from a static position; who knows what she’s like on the run because she doesn’t even try. Pretty poker-faced though, in contrast to an increasingly furious Voegele, who flung her racquet across the court after losing match point. KrisPlis is as slothful walking as she is playing tennis, when she left the court she slouched across it at a slug’s pace. I never want to end up walking behind her on a busy pavement.

I now CANNOT wait to see her play!

POTENTIAL ISNER-MAHUT 2R LOOOOOOOOOOOL

xp thanks! the Pliskova twins are ridiculously lazy

Hang on did Odesnik make the draw as a LL? And plays useless Phau? UGH

the Pliskovas also have some fairly horrible tattoos btw

http://img.blesk.cz/img/2/full/1200123-img-sport-tenis-pliskova-kristyna-karolina.jpg

CLIJSTERS VS JANKOVIC 1R LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

No new lows for you at this tournament Jelena ;_;

Jesus, these draws are TROLLING HARD. The Radwanska/Stosur quarter! This exists!

Pironkova/Sharapova 2R!
Venus/A-Rad 2R AGAIN!

Murray's first week draw: Davydenko, Karlovic, Anderson or Baghdatis or Dimitrov, Raonic or Cilic!

Tsonga/Hewitt 1R! Tomic/Goffin 1R!

Oh LOL Roddick can make himself useful for once - he gets Odesnik in the 2R and you KNOW he'll say something about that drugs cheat.

Kvitova/Silliams QF...I like that. My expectations for Petra are low anyway, but if Quarterena or her latter-day Serena Zvonareva re-emerges, a big win could revive her...

Murray is screwed.

I thought that at first and now I'm thinking hmmmmmmm it's one of those draws that makes you go OMG right off but I could see him getting through it, actually...

Elsewhere I note that the traditional St Kim deathbed injury on the eve of a Slam has occurred. I won't miss this come 2013.

Ha, Odesnik truly is a lucky loser*. (Not only the HGH importing thing, but there was that dodgy betting pattern surrounding his 1st-round loss at Wimbledon a couple of years ago too, right?)

(asterisk was there cos I was going to ask for clarification on how they choose the LLs - but it's just a draw of the 16 Roehampton-R3 losers, right? I thought there might be rankings or closeness of final contest in play (Odesnik got thumped in three in Roehampton R3, so not that).

there are - helpfully - different rules for picking LLs between the ATP/WTA/ITF.

WTA = highest-ranked Q3 loser
ATP = actually not sure
ITF (inc Slams) = used to be the same but you'd often find those players tanking their Q3 matches if they knew there was a LL spot, so now it's a draw of the four highest-ranked Q3 losers (I assume it's the same for men as women)

Misaki Doi got the women's LL, which I'm happy with. Defend those 3R points girl.

I think it should be the player who lost the tightest match! Though there were three matches in Q3 in the men's that went to 6-4 in the 5th, so maybe not...

Ah, just read about the Gimelstob-Bastl thing, Wimb Q3, 2005 (Gimelstob was carrying a back injury, was going to withdraw from his match vs Bastl; it was suggested that he played at least a game and then retire, still making him eligible - as the highest ranked played in the qualies - for a LL berth. Which is what happened, I think).

Yeah, it's stuff like that that triggered the rule change.

Tightest match is tempting but there are too many subjective variables (quality of opponent, fact that 6-3 and 6-4 can both just be one break etc). I'm fine with whatever, LLs aren't "meant" to be in the draw anyway so it's not as if anyone can "deserve" to be one.

erm. predix. erm. I have no ideaaaaaaaaa (for the women anyway)

Pironkova d. Martic
Clijsters d. Kerber
A.Radwanska d. Oudin
Li d. Doi
S.Williams d. Shvedova
Kvitova d. Zakopalova
Bartoli d. Kuznetsova
Azarenka d. Bondarenko

Clijsters d. Pironkova
Li d. A.Radwanska
S.Williams d. Kvitova
Bartoli d. Azarenka

Li d. Clijsters
S.Williams d. Bartoli

S.Williams d. Li

Djokovic d. Troicki
Berdych d. Gasquet
Federer d. Matosevic
Isner d. Nalbandian
Del Potro d. De Schepper
Murray d. Raonic
Wawrinka d. K.Beck
Nadal d. Paire

Djokovic d. Berdych
Federer d. Isner
Del Potro d. Murray
Nadal d. Wawrinka

Djokovic d. Federer
Nadal d. Del Potro

Djokovic d. Nadal

court 1 tickets for monday

praying praying praying that the tennis gods are kind to me and i don't get radwanska

i think i could potentially get nalbandian/tipsarevic, berdych/gulbis and either venus/vesnina or clijsters/jankovic, and any of these matches would be an absolute dream.

JUST NO FUCKING RADWANSKA

omfggggg nalbandian/tipsarevic, clijsters/jankovic and FEDERER! yes please! court 1 matches > centre court matches :D never seen federer play live. this is awesome.

hooray!

i forgot to apply for the ticket ballot but i'm checking ticketmaster's last minute tickets thing every now and then - http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/packages/wimbledon_2012.html - seems unlikely that i'll have any success, but ey i don't have anything better to do. is anyone else going? how is it if you turn up without a ticket?

i've never gone the tktmaster route - i queue up from 8.15am or so on the day, which is enough to get you grounds passes (not the main show courts obv, those are overnight jobs)

i intend to do that again this year, almost certainly friday weather pending, maybe tuesday too

4R

Hsieh d. Martic
Clijsters d. Makarova
V. Williams d. Oudin
Stosur d. Li
S. Williams d. Shvedova
Kvitova d. Zakopalova
Vinci d. Wozniacki
Azarenka d. Martinez Sanchez

QF

Hsieh d. Clijsters
V. Williams d. Stosur
Kvitova d. S. Williams
Vinci d. Azarenka

SF

V. Williams d. Hsieh
Kvitova d. Vinci

F

V. Williams d. Kvitova

4R

Djokovic d. Troicki
Gasquet d. Berdych
Federer d. Mathieu
Tipsarevic d. Seppi
Del Potro d. Roddick
Murray d. Cilic
Wawrinka d. Beck
Nadal d. Paire

QF

Djokovic d. Gasquet
Federer d. Tipsarevic
Murray d. Del Potro
Nadal d. Wawrinka

SF

Federer d. Djokovic
Nadal d. Murray

F

Federer d. Nadal

taking it back to '07 teehee

dude you are totally high if you think Venus is getting out of the third round if she's lucky

dude i picked hsieh and vinci as wimbledon SFists, so duh

Heh. Also Stosur will probably lose way earlier than the quarters. Murray might go out early and I'd say Tipsarevic is a dead man.

If Kvitova doesn't win then really only Li or Venus would make me happy as champs.

idk how Nalbandian will react tennis-wise to the controversy, could easily imagine him just wanting to get out swiftly, and Tipsarevic has been surprisingly consistent ever since his ascension into the top 10

Hsieh would make me happy as a champ

Gonna document my day here as I go along probz. Just saw nadal practicing. He sucks obvs. Thought he'd be hitting the ball harder. I guess the spin was pretty cool but I'd def beat him. Nicolas Mahut also just said sorry to me because he was trying to get past, so he's my new fave. He also almost definitely overheard me telling my brother I wasn't v impressed with nadal. Hopefully he relays the message. Can't be dealing with capital letters on my phone so excuse me for that.

:D

also, jelz

also, I am CHOOSING to watch the Radwanska match you were so eager to avoid

Pironkova and niculescu were practicing next to nadal but no1currd.

Kveta peschke is in lisicki's support box.

Also saw practising: raonic, ferrer, and llodra vs simon. Also fought the urge to yell at everyone around me trying to figure out who nadal was hitting with that hitting partners do exist

BOMBSHELL, Lisicki and Young have both managed to win sets

This match is sad, you can tell Rybarikova is in the middle of a protracted slump.

Haha Youzhny beats himself up - literally bashing himself on the chest with his racquet - and suddenly the comeback is on. 15 points in a row to take the second set.

Hey, look, Djokovic is already playing an error-strewn shit-fest. Down a break. STill, it's to Ferrero, who is 90 years old.

By the time I realised Nole was down a break, he wasn't any more.

JCF's facial hair is just NO.

Still looks like something off a Catholic frieze.

Venus down 0-4 to Vesnina...

LOLOLOLOLOL at what ensued from 5-0, 40-15. Obvious really.

Vesnina is definitely going to try to choke in the next game. But Venus just looks completely done physically.

Aw Venus :( Sad to think she might be done, especially since her fighting Sjogren's has surely won all but the most hard-hearted around to appreciating her. Didn't see any of it because TV was showing Hobak/Juanqui, and inexplicably flicking to just about every other American playing (Blake? WTF? Who cares?), except Venus. BAD TV.

Well, anyway, the day can be salvaged by Granollers losing, and Bemelmans winning, because his resemblance to Justine Henin is always good for a lol and if he makes the second round I might get to watch it.

Hsieh won :D

Not news, but Donald Young still really needs to grow up judging from his whining during the match and quotes after it. He also needs to stop with the facial hair and baggy clothes that make him look like an adolescent. You'd never guess he's 22.

andujar i remember from a very wta-esque horroshow at the french last year vs nadal

I saw Berlocq a few years ago, terrible clay grinder with terrible grunt. That was the year he double bagelled Young and then immediately got double bagelled by Blake. He's doing much better this year for some reason.

Saw Begu when she first had her breakthrough run to the Marbella final last year (beating Sweta, lulz). She's pretty decent but has been sucking this year.

Ramos in the top 50 is such a joke, also how is Go Soeda so close to the top 50?

Giraldo is a pretty fun basher! Really uncompromising.

Don't think I've seen Matosevic but I know he has a reputation for gamesmanship. Lots of the ATP players around there I know from seeing their results but don't know much about. With the WTA it goes down further.

WTA ranks http://www.wta96.com/wiki/lranking100.htm

Vesnina back being a bawse out there, they break back...

lol @ vesnina's inspired performance here

mixed doubles tends to bring out the best in the wta girls. will never forget zvonareva's incredible performance in the 2006 final here

love the sound of torrential rain <3

I love it when the WTAers ace the men

remember Ivanisevic being outraged at Hingis - Hingis! - acing him in Hopman Cup one time

incidentally on the topic of seasonal tennis fans, my mum had been enthusiastically supporting murray these last few days even though she has never heard of roger federer

I watched it in the pub with a bunch of women at the next table. One of them glanced up at the telly at one stage and explained to her friends that Federer had 2-4-40 and Murray had 1-2-A. She wasn't sure what that meant, but Murray was probably winning. We also heard her tell her friends that Federer had won Wimbledon for the last 7 years, and that Andy Murray had never beaten him. They then, despite paying no attention to the entire game, proceeded to go on at length about how badly Murray had played the entire match.

god those people are the worst

now that makes me want to create a sport where the scoring system is a beautifully baroque alphanumeric mystery.

it's called cricket

a guy I know asked a couple of years ago "is federer any good still?" and when he was told Fed was number 2 in the world "well, those rankings are just based on reputation"

can u beleev that federer won Q9L to 1D▲ in the seventeenth quarter? (sad xps to myself)

Oh my god Paes and Vesnina flopping so hard at everything right now

Especially returning, how hard is it to return Lisa bloody Raymond's serve back in court

"I don't think I was totally tested today; it's hard to say something after 6-2, 6-2 against Lisa Raymond," Hingis said.

(RG 2006 in response to a question about where her level of play was)

Right can Bryan choke for the match again plz

No choking :( Poor Elena :(

3rd wimbledon final this weekend where the winners have had sizable leads and been pegged back before going on to finally winning

Roll of honour

Men's singles: Roger Federer
Women's singles: Serena Williams
Men's doubles: Jonathan Marray & Frederik Nielsen
Women's doubles: Serena Williams & Venus Williams
Mixed doubles: Mike Bryan & Lisa Raymond
Boys' singles: Filip Peliwo
Girls' singles: Eugenie Bouchard
Boys' doubles: Andrew Harris & Nick Kyrgios
Girls' doubles: Eugenie Bouchard & Taylor Townsend

Clean Canadian sweep of the junior singles crowns. WTF is Bouchard doing still playing juniors though, she's nearly 19! Can't even credit the finalist instead because Elina Svitolina, already firmly ensconced in the top 200, shouldn't be playing juniors either.

Like...it's as if Martina Hingis still played the junior tournament in 1999 o_0

all you guys who are like "as soon as the roof came on it was all over" don't forget that Fed had already turned it up about eight notches, to the point where the BBC commentators were like "Andy could sure use a break right now" and "surely this is the last point before they stop play - COME ON, COME ON" as if even just a respite from play would somehow turn the momentum around for their boy

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 8 July 2012 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well that ws bollocks from the commentators - Andy held his first serve in that one game of the 3rd set. Fed hadn't turned it up about eight notches at all, he continously struggled to hold his own serve in the 2nd - Murray had about 5 breaks points.

What does it matter I suppose but I am pleased that he got into a slam final (saw what was coming at the rain break, went to a film) and reckon he'll win one or two now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-18765015

amazing story

"In 2003 Nick Newlife, from Oxfordshire, made a wager of £1,520, at odds of 66/1, that the Swiss tennis star would win seven Wimbledon titles by 2019.

Mr Newlife died in 2009 but had left the betting slip to Oxfam in his will.

Federer's defeat of Britain's Andy Murray in Sunday's Wimbledon final means the charity will now collect a payout from William Hill of £101,840."

New rankings! New No 1s!

1. Victoria Azarenka (2)
2. Agnieszka Radwanska (3)
3. Maria Sharapova (1)
4. Serena Williams (6)
5. Samantha Stosur (5)
6. Petra Kvitova (4)
7. Angelique Kerber (8)
8. Caroline Wozniacki (7)
9. Sara Errani (10)
10. Marion Bartoli (9)
11. Na Li (11)
12. Ana Ivanovic (14)
13. Vera Zvonareva (12)
14. Maria Kirilenko (19)
15. Dominika Cibulkova (13)
16. Kaia Kanepi (16)
17. Flavia Pennetta (17)
18. Sabine Lisicki (15)
19. Andrea Petkovic (18)
20. Jelena Jankovic (21)
21. Nadia Petrova (20)
22. Francesca Schiavone (23)
23. Lucie Safarova (22)
24. Julia Goerges (24)
25. Jie Zheng (27)
26. Anabel Medina Garrigues (28)
27. Roberta Vinci (23)
28. Christina McHale (32)
29. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (30)
30. Petra Cetkovska (25)
...
35. Kim Clijsters (47)
36. Tamira Paszek (37)
46. Yaroslava Shvedova (65)
58. Tsvetana Pironkova (38)
68. Venus Williams (58)
79. Heather Watson (103)
89. Camila Giorgi (145)

1. Roger Federer (3)
2. Novak Djokovic (1)
3. Rafael Nadal (2)
4. Andy Murray (4)
5. David Ferrer (5)
6. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (6)
7. Tomas Berdych (7)
8. Janko Tipsarevic (8)
9. Juan Martin Del Potro (9)
10. Nicolas Almagro (11)
11. John Isner (10)
12. Gilles Simon (13)
13. Mardy Fish (12)
14. Juan Monaco (14)
15. Marin Cilic (18)
16. Fernando Verdasco (16)
17. Gael Monfils (15)
18. Kei Nishikori (20)
19. Alexandr Dolgopolov (21)
20. Richard Gasquet (19)
21. Philipp Kohlschreiber (30)
22. Florian Mayer (29)
23. Milos Raonic (22)
24. Marcel Granollers (23)
25. Stanislas Wawrinka (24)
26. Radek Stepanek (27)
27. Andy Roddick (25)
28. Mikhail Youzhny (33)
29. Feliciano Lopez (17)
30. Andreas Seppi (26)
...
34. Denis Istomin (39)
45. Bernard Tomic (28)
75. Brian Baker (126)
78. Ernests Gulbis (87)
103. Lukas Rosol (100)
195. Robin Soderling (154)

Ok, can you explain Rosol? Last 32 of the main draw vs out in the first round of the qualies last year? And yet he's dropped? I know there's no bonus points for beating Nadal thesedays but this seems weird.

Last year he won the Braunschweig challenger in the second week of Wimbledon (125 points), which a 3R at Wimbledon (90 points) doesn't quite make up for.

Olympics are gonna make the rankings extra-wacky this summer, with tournaments shuffled around and held in different weeks than last year, plus I expect all the scrubs who didn't get into the Olympics to vulture up all the high-tier points on offer in the weakened high-tier US hard court draws (as well as a couple of shameless top players, Mardy Fish I'm looking at you).

Right, thought it must've been something like that - thanks, Lex!

On yr second point - they retain true 52-week rolling ranking even in Olympic year, right? There's no provision for Rogers Cup 2011 points not dropping off until the Rogers Cup 2012 is held (whenever that is)?

Yup, 52-week all the way - there's already been a calendar stagger this year with everything shifting a week later than usual (so for this week's rankings it's not just Wimbledon points off but the tournaments held in the week after Wim last year - hence eg Vinci's fall, as the winner of Palermo 2011). It makes things a bit crazy but given that lots of tournaments may not exist from year to year, or new events may pop up, it's probably the more sensible option.

This coming week is madness, 4 ATP events (Stuttgart, Bastad, Umag, Newport) and 2 WTA events (Stanford, Palermo) crammed into what's usually a quiet week thanks to the Olympics.

what happens to the rankings now ATP company is liquidated?

Rankings will be agreed by a committee drawn from members of Mogwai, Shellac and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Roscoe Tanner expected to re-enter at #31 next week.

Bollocks to all this "We like Murray now 'cos he cried" nonsense

What he could do now to reverse this tide of sentimentality would be to withdraw from the Olympics, citing "grass court season is over, need to prepare for North American hardcourt season", and then go and win the US Open. That would be great.

haha, yeah it really would.

"I don't want to represent Britian, I'm fuckin' Scottish right, fuck the Queen!"

Yeah. "Put tennis in the Commonwealth Games, I might be interested. Glasgae 2014 COME ON."

re: crying at finals - does that always happen? all 4 singles finalists cried at the end at this wimbledon. is it a particularly emotional year? also, the collapsing on the floor after winning thing - genuine exhaustion/emotional overload, or contrived?

liked that federer put on his special gold watch before lifting the trophy though

Federer's bawled a couple of times after winning and at least once after losing. Murray's cried after losing before SO I DON'T KNOW WHY PEOPLE ARE GOING ON ABOUT IT SO MUCH NOW unless they literally have no idea that the Australian Open 2010 existed. The only one of those I felt was anything other than embarrassing was Murray yesterday. Don't think Djokovic and Nadal have cried after finals before?

Novotna after choking in '93 - the first tennis match I ever watched, no wonder I'm hooked on the psychodrama of the sport - was understandable and turned her into a British sentimental favourite 4eva. Hingis at RG '99 was an epic tantrum.

I wasn't sure whether Radwanska was crying out of emotion or illness on Sat - prob both. That wa OK b/c it was such a surprise, she's usually so poker-faced.

The first prostrate-on-the-ground moment I remember (apart from Charlie George) was Agassi in '92. There was some suggestion that Bolettieri was gesturing for him to do this as soon as Goran missed his volley. Made for a more marketable image or something. Obv, you've got Bjorn on his knees. You seem to get a combination of the two thesedays.

With Fed it does seem a bit contrived; the one time he didn't do it was 2009 which was a real match-point-out-of-nowhere moment with little build up, so I guess he wasn't thinking about it.

Lendl might've cried when one of his German Shepherd dogs died but not on the court.

xp

Nadal definitely cried after beating Fed at Wimbledon the first time. At the time I was pleasantly surprised; it wasn't the kind of thing that somebody off the back of a Hed Kandi compilation would do (that's how I had him pegged, in my mind).

Lendl might've cried when one of his German Shepherd dogs died but not on the court.

That makes him sound like Hitler.

Also heard some dimwit this morning, re: the anti-English joke, going on about how Murray should always be careful what he says because he is "representing Britain", NO HE FUCKING ISN'T! (Well, OK, he is at the Olympics... and Davis Cup)

2003: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6vds22Bdy1qm8d0to1_r1_1280.jpg
2009: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6vds22Bdy1qm8d0to2_500.jpg
2012: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/09/article-2170778-13FBFCAB000005DC-480_634x418.jpg

a steady upwards trajectory

nah Fed is on his way back to smugness i think.

Serena does improve every year. :)

how's rog managed to not age a day in nine years?

you just know Roger looks back on his old hair and cringes so hard

and well he might

Serena looks like she wears a ton more make-up than she used to, both on and off court. I blame Jankovic for that. Her fashion sense has improved so much, at some point it's like she and Venus swapped in that regard.