Wimbledon

[Sir David Gray]

Day One

In the men's draw there were no problems for Roger Federer starting the defence of his title for the 5th consecutive year. He saw off Dominik Hrbaty 6-3 6-2 6-2. Hrbaty actually went into today's match with a 100% record against Federer having won both of their previous two meetings.

World number three Novak Djokovic was made to work a little bit harder for his win. He eventually progressed 7-5 2-6 6-3 6-0 against the German world number 91 Michael Berrer.

Former champion Lleyton Hewitt had a marathon match against Dutchman Robin Haase, the Aussie came through in 5 sets, 6-7 6-3 6-3 6-7 6-2.

5th seed David Ferrer had a slightly easier win against Sergiy Stakhovsky. He won the first two sets before the Ukrainian had to retire when he was 3-1 up in the third set.

Marcos Baghdatis won in 4 sets 6-3 6-2 6-7 6-3.

Fernando Gonzalez beat Robby Ginepri in straight sets.

Number 32 seed Michael Llodra is out after having to retire injured against Mario Ancic although he was already a break and 2 sets down.

There were also wins today for Igor Andreev, Thomaz Bellucci, Olivier Rochus, Marc Gicquel, Thomas Johansson, Florent Serra, Feliciano Lopez, Albert Montanes, Victor Hanescu, Philipp Petzschner, Roko Karanusic, Marat Safin, Thomas Berdych, Stanislas Wawrinka, Bobby Reynolds, Andreas Seppi, Juan Martin Del Potro, Robin Soderling, Fernando Verdasco, Ilia Bozoljac, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Mischa Zverev and Simon Stadler who defeated 6ft 10in Croat Ivo Karlovic who had just won at Nottingham on Saturday.

Unfortunately we lost the only British man in action, Alex Bogdanovic, today. He lost to Italian Simone Bolelli 6-7 6-4 3-6 6-7.

However the shock of today and possibly the shock of the tournament came just a little while ago. Canadian Frank Dancevic, ranked 95 in the world, demolished former Wimbledon finalist and world number 7 David Nalbandian 6-4 6-2 6-4.

In the women's draw world number one Ana Ivanovic hammered Paraguayan Rossana De Los Rios 6-1 6-2.

Former champion Serena Williams also booked a place in round two beating Estonian Kaia Kanepi 7-5 6-3.

Number 4 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova came back from a set down and then from 3-1 down in the final set to beat Mathilde Johansson 6-7 7-5 6-3.

There were also wins for Nicole Vaidisova, Agnes Szavay and Anna Chakvetadze.

However seeds Virginie Razzano, Patty Schnyder, Dominika Cibulkova, Alize Cornet and Maria Kirilenko.

There was some joy for British number 4 Elena Baltacha who won 6-3 2-6 7-5. However the other British woman in action today, Melanie South went out to 28th seed Alona Bondarenko 6-3 6-7 6-4.

In action tomorrow are Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Richard Gasquet, Andy Roddick, Nikolay Davydenko, James Blake, Chris Eaton and Jamie Baker in the mens.

And in the womens Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, Jelena Jankovic, Lindsay Davenport, Katie O'Brien and Anne Keothavong are all in action.

[Hibbie_Cameron]

Seen a bit of Baltacha this afternoon. What she lacks in skill etc is more than made up for with her sheer determanation to win

[Sir David Gray]

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Seen a bit of Baltacha this afternoon. What she lacks in skill etc is more than made up for with her sheer determanation to win

She is an extremely gutsy young woman who deserves a bit of success. She has had unbelievable bad luck with injury. She's had severe problems with her back and a few years ago she had to battle liver damage.

I wish all the best for the rest of the tournament.

[Sir David Gray]

Andy Murray was safely into the second round after a straight sets win over the veteran Fabrice Santoro 6-3 6-4 7-6. Murray will now face the Belgian Xavier Malisse who reached the semi finals in 2002.

Rafael Nadal also won in straight sets German Andreas Beck 6-4 6-4 7-6.

Former two time finalist Andy Roddick beat Argentinian Eduardo Schwank 7-5 6-4 7-6.

Number 8 seed Richard Gasquet knocked out American Mardy Fish 6-3 6-4 6-2.

Following David Nalbandian's shock defeat yesterday, another high profile exit was made today. World number four Nikolay Davydenko was beaten by Ben Becker in straight sets 6-4 6-4 6-4. And the 26th seed Ivan Ljubicic was knocked out in 5 sets by the Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-4 7-6 4-6 2-6 6-3.

There were mixed fortunes amongst the other Brits today. Jamie Baker was comfortably beaten by Italian Stefano Galvani 6-4 6-2 6-3. However world number 661 Chris Eaton defeated Boris Pashanski 6-3 7-6 6-4 and will now play Dmitry Tursunov in round two.

There were also wins for James Blake, Tommy Haas, Marin Cilic, Agustin Calleri, Jesse Levine, Radek Stepanek, Nicolas Almagro, Jarkko Nieminen, Gilles Simon, Nicolas Kiefer, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Martin Vassallo Arguello, Rainer Schuettler, Jeremy Chardy, Arnaud Clement, Mikhail Youzhny, Ernests Gulbis, Sebastien Grosjean, Janko Tipsarevic, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Tommy Robredo and Viktor Troicki.

In the women's draw Venus Williams overcame a tough opening set against Brit Naomi Cavaday to eventually seal a 7-6 6-1 victory.

Number 3 seed Maria Sharapova hammered Stephanie Foretz 6-1 6-4.

Number 2 seed Jelena Jankovic also won in straight sets beating Olga Savchuk 6-3 6-2.

Former champion Lindsay Davenport had to battle hard to beat Renata Voracova 6-3 5-7 6-3.

The other 2 British women in the draw had contrasting fortunes. Katie O'Brien was beaten in straight sets by the number 24th seed Shahar Peer. However British number one, Anne Keothavong progressed to round two by beating the American Vania King 4-6 6-2 6-3 and she will now face Venus Williams.

Francesca Schiavone, Vera Zvonareva, Timea Bacsinszky, Alla Kudryavtseva, Emilie Loit, Aleksandra Wozniak, Daniela Hantuchova, Marina Erakovic, Nadia Petrova, Tamarine Tanasugarn, Sorana Cirstea, Carla Suarez Navarro, Monica Niculescu, Gisela Dulko, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, Dinara Safina, Sania Mirza, Sybille Bammer, Ai Sugiyama, Flavia Pennetta, Alisa Kleybanova, Su-Wei Hsieh, Julia Goerges, Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka, Mara Santangelo and Shuai Peng all went through to round two as well.

[Ivan Drago]

Djorkos on his way out

[JimBHibees]

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Djorkos on his way out

Yep, Safin can beat anyone if he is in the mood.

[Sir David Gray]

There may only be a year between them in terms of age but tonight it genuinely was a case of man against boy.

Simply a case of "too good" this evening. From the first point to the last, Rafael Nadal was in a different class to Andy Murray.

Some of the shots that he was making were sensational and made Murray look like a novice, which of course he isn't. Murray was nowhere near his best but he wasn't allowed to be by a man who was quite simply brilliant.

Everyone knew Murray was the underdog and was expected to lose but the margin of Nadal's win was amazing. He dominated almost every rally and competed for every single point.

Whilst I don't believe there was a great deal that Murray could have done differently tonight, the one area of his game that he could have improved upon was his serve. He had a first serve percentage of just 49% which is far too low against someone of Nadal's ability and the points won on his second serve was just 39%.

Murray must now go away and regroup. He has to take the positives out of this year's Wimbledon campaign and there are many to take from it. He has reached the Quarter Finals of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career and he has shown unbelievable resolve to come from 2 sets and a break down to beat a top 10 player. That's not bad for starters.

However, on top of the positives Murray must look to guys like Nadal & Federer and see how he can adapt certain aspects of his game so that he can be as good as them. He undoubtedly has the potential to reach the very top and he now has the physique and the stamina sorted out. But there are several things technically and tactically that need to be ironed out before he can really put in a challenge to those two.

Most players are 23-25 before they start to peak so Nadal really is a freak from that perspective and Murray shouldn't be discouraged by how the guy is playing, he is simply a one off.

He has to get himself ready now for the US Open at the end of August and be ready to put in another challenge.

Just put tonight down as a learning experience and come back a better player.

There is no disgrace in being hammered by Rafael Nadal, it even happened to the great Roger Federer just a few weeks ago so there's no shame in it.

Meanwhile in the rest of today's play;

Roger Federer saw off the challenge of Mario Ancic to see him safely into the semi finals. Ancic is the last man to beat Federer at Wimbledon but beat him 6-1 7-5 6-4.

Marat Safin continued his surprising run by seeing off 31st seed Feliciano Lopez despite losing the first set. The Russian will now play Federer in the semis after winning 3-6 7-5 7-6 6-3.

In the last quarter final, play will have to resume tomorrow between Rainer Schuettler and Arnaud Clement as play was suspended at one set all. The winner of that match faces the daunting prospect of playing Rafael Nadal in the semis.

So Andy may be out but it's not all doom and gloom. Just another mention for older brother Jamie. He is now into the semi finals of the mixed doubles with his partner Liezel Huber after they beat 2nd seeds Daniel Nestor and Chia-Jung Chuang 6-4 7-5. They will now play either 9th seeds Andy Ram and Natalie Dechy or the unseeded pair of Bob Bryan and Samantha Stosur.

[Betty Boop]

Federer 1 set up, 3 games all in the second, mon the Fed!

[mixumatosis]

Very disappointed with Marat Safin. Playing a point with a snapped racqet to avoid a code violation, only to walk back to his seat after losing the point and smash his racqet on the seat, earning exactly the same code violation. If a jockey with a chance to finish in a place didn't ride to the end of the race he'd be fined. Safin was 40-15 down, not exactly un-recoverable. I understand the two situations aren't exactly comparable but if I'd forked out for tickets I'd be feeling cheated right now.

[Sir David Gray]

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Very disappointed with Marat Safin. Playing a point with a snapped racqet to avoid a code violation, only to walk back to his seat after losing the point and smash his racqet on the seat, earning exactly the same code violation. If a jockey with a chance to finish in a place didn't ride to the end of the race he'd be fined. Safin was 40-15 down, not exactly un-recoverable. I understand the two situations aren't exactly comparable but if I'd forked out for tickets I'd be feeling cheated right now.

Marat Safin was actually quite tame this afternoon in comparison to how he used to behave.

I'm actually surprised it took him until the 3rd set to finally lose his cool. To be honest, I can probably sympathise with people when they play Federer, he must just completely demoralise them.

Here we have a guy that hasn't had a good year, in fact he hasn't had a good couple of years and he comes into Wimbledon ranked 75th in the world. He knocks the number three seed out in the 2nd round and then gets all the way to the semi finals where he then meets Roger Federer and gets absolutely annihilated.

Not defending his behaviour but I can understand his frustration as Federer was almost faultless this afternoon.

[mixumatosis]

I totally agree with what you say about Federer being demoralising to play against, he was awesome today. But if you compare Safins attitude (from the start, not just in the final set) with Schuettlers in the semi going on right now the 2 are like chalk and cheese.

I take on board also what you're saying about Safin having once been at the top of the tree so it must be difficult to accept, but throwing a tantrum isn't the answer. Re-doubling your efforts and trying to get back to where you once were resulted in Agassi coming back from the challenger circuit to win Wimbledon. Safin has been known to moan about "only" getting an allowance of £12 from the LTA to pay for his lunch during his stay at Wimbledon so it comes as no surprise, I was just pointing out the inconsistency. Davydenko gets investigated and will be suspected for the rest of his career due to a match he supposedly didn't try 100% in. Safin gives up and nothing is said.