Wimbledon

[Ivan Drago]

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Well what an absolutely stunning comeback by Andy Murray last night. I had to go out last night and left early in the third set and it did not look like the match had long left.

When I heard it was two sets all I was amazed and then when I heard he had managed to win it was just incredible.

I thought he was unlucky to lose the first set as it really could have gone either way and some of his shots to save several set points were just incredible. The second set started poorly for Murray and he seemed to lose his focus although he did start to come back into it a little bit by the end although it was too late to save the set.

It looked as if the third set was going to be close but I thought Gasquet would just do enough to see it through, even although my original pre-match prediction was for Murray to win it 5 sets.

I saw the highlights of the rest of the match last night and Murray's winning shot to win the third set tie-break is one of the best shots you will ever see on a tennis court. He had no right to win that point, Gasquet had played a great shot to force Murray so far out wide that he almost ended up in the crowd and how he got his racquet to it, never mind played a winning shot, I will never know.

He now has a simple match tomorrow against Rafael Nadal in the 1/4 finals . I hear the forecast down there tomorrow is not good so hopefully his match may be delayed and maybe even put back to Thursday to give him time to recover as there is no doubt that must have taken a lot out of him last night and he will have to play at his absolute best if he is to have any chance of beating Nadal.

Meanwhile in the rest of yesterday's play;

Roger Federer saw off the challenge of Lleyton Hewitt to win 7-6 6-2 6-4.
Marat Safin continued his excellent run by knocking out 13th seed Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4 6-3 5-7 6-1.
Rafael Nadal will face Andy Murray after the world number two beat Russian Mikhail Youzhny 6-3 6-3 6-1.
Rainer Schuettler continues to surprise everyone with his run to the 1/4 finals as he defeated Janko Tipsarevic 6-4 3-6 6-4 7-6.
Mario Ancic will now face defending champion Roger Federer after he beat Spaniard Fernando Verdasco from 2 sets down. He won 3-6 4-6 6-3 6-4 13-11.
Arnaud Clement booked his place in the 1/4 finals after beating unseeded Croat Marin Cilic 6-3 7-5 6-2.
Feliciano Lopez shocked the 10th seed Marcos Baghdatis by winning 5-7 6-2 3-6 7-6 8-6.

In the women's last 16 draw;

4th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was knocked out by Polish teenager Agnieszka Radwanska 4-6 6-1 5-7.
Nicole Vaidisova beat the 8th seed Anna Chakvetadze 4-6 7-6 6-3.
There were no problems for 6th seed and former champion Serena Williams. She defeated fellow American Bethanie Mattek 6-3 6-3.
And 7th seed and defending champion Venus Williams also wasted little time in beating Russian Alisa Kleybanova 6-3 6-4.
Unseeded Jie Zheng continued her impressive form by knocking out 15th seed Agnes Szavay 6-3 6-4.
In the all Russian affair, Nadia Petrova knocked out Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1 6-4.
5th seed Elena Dementieva is now the highest ranked female left at the 1/4 final stage after she beat Israeli Shahar Peer 6-2 6-1.
And 2nd seed Jelena Jankovic appeared to still be suffering the effects of her injury in the previous round as she was beaten 6-3 6-2 by Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn.

So far today on Women's Quarter Finals day;

5th seed Elena Dementieva eventually saw off Nadia Petrova. Despite being a set and 5-1 up, Dementieva lost the second set on a tie break but eventually came through 6-3 in the third.

She will play Venus Williams in the semi finals after she beat Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-4 6-3.

The other two 1/4 finals are still ongoing-Serena Williams has just taken the first set 6-4 against Agnieszka Radwanska. Meanwhile it is a set all between Jie Zheng and Nicole Vaidisova. It is currently 1-1 in the final set.

Williams pissing all over the Pole and Vaidisova but but

[Sir David Gray]

Serena Williams hammered Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4 6-0 and Jie Zheng beat Nicole Vaidisova 6-2 5-7 6-1.

That means the women's semi final line up for Thursday is;

Elena Dementieva v Venus Williams
Serena Williams v Jie Zheng

Also a wee mention to Jamie Murray who is through to the quarter finals of the mixed doubles with his new partner American, Liezel Huber after they beat Julian Knowle and Yung Jan Chan 6-4 6-3.

Maybe a Murray double this year!

How sick would that make the English!

[SpursLivi]

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Serena Williams hammered Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4 6-0 and Jie Zheng beat Nicole Vaidisova 6-2 5-7 6-1.

That means the women's semi final line up for Thursday is;

Elena Dementieva v Venus Williams
Serena Williams v Jie Zheng

Also a wee mention to Jamie Murray who is through to the quarter finals of the mixed doubles with his new partner American, Liezel Huber after they beat Julian Knowle and Yung Jan Chan 6-4 6-3.

Maybe a Murray double this year!

How sick would that make the English!

Not that sick, considering the crowd (predominantly English) helped Murray to win that match...

[Sir David Gray]

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Not that sick, considering the crowd (predominantly English) helped Murray to win that match...

They maybe came round at the end but it was through gritted teeth at the start and it was the same in his previous matches as well. The reception Murray has got for some of his superb play is nothing compared to what Henman used to get.

You only have to listen to some of the comments of the people that the press have spoken to over the last week or so to know that Murray is, by and large, not liked in England.

And then when Chris Eaton came through his first round match, the hysteria that surrounded him was unbelievable it almost sounded as if they were desperate for him to emulate Murray so that they had someone else to cheer on.

Murray gets a lot of criticism from many people and some of it is justified but no-one will change my mind that the main reason Murray isn't wholly accepted down there is because of what he said two years ago about the English football team. It just beggars belief that people can still hold a grudge so long after a comment was made that was clearly intended as being tongue-in-cheek.

[Ed De Gramo]

Bit gutted to see Jelena Jankovic go out yesterday

She's got a valid point...why did she get punted to the court closest to the carpark????

The male tennis players get all the priority which is all wrong....

[Sir David Gray]

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Bit gutted to see Jelena Jankovic go out yesterday

She's got a valid point...why did she get punted to the court closest to the carpark????

The male tennis players get all the priority which is all wrong....

I was disappointed to see her go out as well as I really like her as a person, I think she has a nice character.

She does have a point about where she was scheduled to play. She was the number two seed and therefore I believe that she should be on either Centre Court or Court Number One for all her matches. After all, Rafael Nadal (men's second seed) would never be on any court other than the 2 main ones.

In saying that, once you know that you are on whichever court, you just have to get on with it and get the job done like the Williams sisters did. They weren't happy at being placed on court two but got the job done and are now in the semi finals.

I could also see her point about being disappointed that a request to play later on in the day, to try and rest her injury, was denied. However I heard one of the commentators say that they try and put the women's last 16 matches on as early as possible because they play their 1/4 finals the next again day, whereas the men have a day to recover, which is understandable.

[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.

[Sir David Gray]

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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.

I think where Safin and Schuettler differ is their own expectations on themselves.

Schuettler went into his match against Rafa Nadal today saying that he would give it his best shot but at the same time, all but saying that he had no chance of winning the match.

For Schuettler, this was his final. He considered retiring a little while ago and had only won 4 matches all year before he came into Wimbledon.

Safin on the other hand, although he has gone drastically down the rankings, he is still a former number one two times grand slam champion, he also hammered the guy that is widely tipped to break into the Federer/Nadal duopoly earlier in the tournament.

Whilst I don't think for one moment that Marat Safin went into today's match expecting to win, I think he would have expected to have done better than he did, hence the frustration.

I totally agree that he would be better acting like Agassi to try and see if he can get back in amongst the big boys again. Sadly, I don't think that's in Safin's nature.

[mixumatosis]

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I think where Safin and Schuettler differ is their own expectations on themselves.

Schuettler went into his match against Rafa Nadal today saying that he would give it his best shot but at the same time, all but saying that he had no chance of winning the match.

For Schuettler, this was his final. He considered retiring a little while ago and had only won 4 matches all year before he came into Wimbledon.

Safin on the other hand, although he has gone drastically down the rankings, he is still a former number one two times grand slam champion, he also hammered the guy that is widely tipped to break into the Federer/Nadal duopoly earlier in the tournament.

Whilst I don't think for one moment that Marat Safin went into today's match expecting to win, I think he would have expected to have done better than he did, hence the frustration.

I totally agree that he would be better acting like Agassi to try and see if he can get back in amongst the big boys again. Sadly, I don't think that's in Safin's nature.

I don't think it's in his nature either and that was really what I was getting at. I understand why Safin may give up on a match, but I think it's a very very poor attitude for a professional to have. I'm upset by anyone who has talent in whatever field but who doesn't have the fortitude to make the most of it, I think it's a terrible waste. God knows, we've seen enough folk who fit that bill parading themselves at ER over the years !