Wimbledon Thoughts: Djokovic Out, Federer Through

June 25, 2008 by Jeremy Howard

Wimbledon Well, it was a quiet third day of action at the All England Club. For example, Novak Djokovic went down in the second round today with barely a whimper!

After questioning last week how much longer Federer can stay at the top of Men’s tennis with the likes of himself and Nadal on his heels, Djokovic fell in straight sets to 75th ranked Marat Safin. Now, what makes this loss so interesting is that Djokovic has always claimed to have grown up idolising Safin’s game - and obviously that (plus the wind) played a factor in Djokovic going down so easily. It’s in stark contrast when he goes up against, or discusses with the media, Federer, whom he has shown very little respect for. Not to take anything away from Safin, but isn’t Federer the one who deserves a bit more respect? Anyway, I digress.

The aforementioned Federer, who I thought may have a tough match on his hands today against one of the best non-seeded players, Robin Soderling, cruised through in straight sets, as did other grass court lovers Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Bagdhatis. Federer looks as smooth and strong as he ever has on the grass, not dropping a set during his first couple of matches.

I am sure players on his side of the draw such as Djokovic (whoops!), Wawrinka, Safin, Bagdhatis & Hewitt were all hoping for the Federer who showed up in the final at Roland Garros - and not the machine who is looking for a 6th straight Wimbledon. Unfortunately for them, it appears as though the latter showed up.

There are a few other noteworthy items from the Men’s tournament today. First off, American Bobby Reynolds advanced to the third round with a win over Canadian Frank Dancevic (who upset Nalbandian on the opening day). He was down a set and started off slowly in the second set tiebreaker before turning the match around with a 12-10 second set tiebreak win, and then winning the 3rd and 4th sets in relatively pedestrian fashion.

Juan Carlos Ferrero lost the first two sets, and then retired, giving unheralded German Mischa Zverev the opportunity to take on Stanislas Wawrinka in the third round. Finally, 15th seeded Fernando Gonzalez was upset by Simone Bolleli in four sets. I did not see the match, but based on the scores (all three sets Gonzo lost were in tie breakers), Gonzo simply didn’t step up when he needed to.

Over on the Women’s side, top seeded Ana Ivanovic narrowly avoided an upset bid from Natalie Dechy, before winning 6-7, 7-6, 10-8 in a match that lasted almost three and a half hours. Serena Williams took out a 17-year old from Poland, Urzula Radwanska 6-4, 6-4. I did manage to catch a bit of this match. Radwanska should make a name for herself in the near future as she looked very strong. In what had to be the strangest match of the day, Nicole Vaidisova barely survived her match agains Sam Stosur, winning 6-2, 0-6, 6-4. After winning the first set, Vaidisova then lost nine straight games, and was actually one point away from being down 4-0 in the final set before somehow managing to rebound and advance to the third round.

That’s it for today, for complete Wimbledon Results and Schedule, click here.

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