Wimbledon Updates
June 30, 2008
As I begin this article, Andy Murray is serving up one break in the fifth set, after coming back from two set to love deficit against the seemingly unbeatable Richard Gasquet. Murray showed grit and fight that has made him a top 15 player in the world. He is clearly not as talented as Gasquet, but to this point, has showed more heart. The winner will move on to the quarter finals to play Nadal, who cruised against Youzhny today.
The rest of the Men’s quarters are set: Federer vs. Ancic, Safin vs. Lopez & Schuettler vs. Clement. Yes, you read that correctly, 94th ranked Rainer Schuettler will be playing 145th ranked Arnaud Clement for a spot in the Wimbledon Semifinals. Schuettler was able to defeat Tipsarevic in a tightly contested four set match, while Clement blasted young Croat Marin Cilic in a straight set victory.
Note: Murray was able to defeat Gasquet 6-4 in the fifth set.
Unbelievably, the five set Murray/Gasquet match was only the third best (of eight) on the Men’s side today. The 2nd best match of the day belonged to Feliciano Lopez vs. Marcos Bagdhatis. Lopez used a booming serve (25 aces for the match) to win 8-6 in the fifth set, in a match that lasted three hours and forty one minutes. Topping that was the Mario Ancic/Fernando Verdasco match. Ancic was down two sets to love, before evening the match and eventually winning 13-11 in the fifth set. This match lasted three hours and fifty minutes, with the fifth set alone having a duration of over an hour and a half. Shorter matches included Federer cruising yet again against 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt; and Marat Safin defeated the second best Swiss, Stan Wawrinka, in a close four set match.
Over on the Women’s side, things look beyond absurd. Gone are the top four seeds, with Jankovic and Kuznetsova being the latest to crash out (to Tanasugarn & Radwanska, respectively). This is the first time in the modern era that the Women’s draw will not include any of the top four seeds. The quarterfinal matchups are as follows (my pick in parenthesees): Zheng vs. Vaidisova (Vaidsiova), Radwanska vs. S. Williams (Williams), Dementieva vs. Petrova (Petrova) & Tanasugarn vs. V. Williams (Williams).
Being on opposite sides of the draw, you really have to like the chances of an all Williams final, which many predicted even before the tournament began. Serena looks to have a tougher quarter final match, as Radwanska has been playing big time tennis throughout the fortnight thus far; however it appears as though should Venus make it through her next match, Dementieva or Petrova could pose a big threat in the semi’s. Considering the Williams have won six of the eight Wimbledon’s in this decade, I would be incredibly surprised if they didn’t meet in this year’s final (which is obviously good for American’s as both Blake & Roddick crashed out early).
As tomorrow is Ladies day, I’ll do a more in depth preview of the Men’s Quarter final matches. Until then, congrats to the Murray mountaineers.
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