Olympic Day 5 Thread

[The Special Juan]

First topic message reminder :

Centre Court: Serena Williams v Zvonareva then Djokovic v Hewitt then Murray v Baghdatis then Hantuchova v Wozniacki

Court 1: Federer v Istomin then Azarenka v Petrova then Lisicki v Sharapova then Ferrer v Nishikori

Court 2: Simon v Del Potro then Venus Williams v Kerber then Isner v Tipsarevic then Williams/Williams v Vinci/Errani

Court 12: Kirilenko v Goerges then Huber/Raymond v Makrova/Vesnina then Azarenka/Mirnyi v Kerber/Petzschner then Dulko/Del Potro v Vesnina/Youzhny

Court 14: Darcis v Almagro then Kvitova v Pennetta then Brunstrom/Lindstedt v Cilic/Dodig then Stosur/Hewitt v Cilic/Dodig then Radwanska/Matkowski

Court 16: Berdych/Stepanek v Melo/Soares then Chuang/Hsieh v Pennetta/Schiavone then Lisicki/Kas v Huber/B Bryan

Court 18: Clijsters v Ivanovic then Tsonga v Lopez then Erlich/Ram v Federer/Wawrinka then Paes/Vardhan v Tsonga/Llodra then Robson/Murray v Hradecka/Stepanek

Court 20: Mirza/Paes v Ivanovic/Zimonjic then Raymond/M Bryan v Errani/Seppi then Arvidsson/Lindstedt v Vinci/Bracciali

[laverfan]

Break for Djokovic.

[lags72]

Pleased to see Lleyton has finally ditched the silly back-to-front cap.

Looks ok if you're 17, but ......

[bogbrush]

Lleytonran out of gas as expected, plus no doubt Djokovic tightened it up.

Murray will have a shot here.

[bogbrush]

Federer may prefer to lose this doubles today. Probably not though, it's not too tiring, just inconvenient.

[lags72]

Lleytonran out of gas as expected, plus no doubt Djokovic tightened it up.

Murray will have a shot here.

Will certainly be an interesting one, clash of the event perhaps.

Valiant effort by Lleyton but in truth I’m not sure the fundamental pattern of events has changed much for him over the last few years. Sure he deserves credit & respect for sticking around after all the ops + layoffs but the much-praised ‘battling performances’ ultimately bring little reward towards the business end of tournaments..

Honestly can’t remember the last time Hewitt got to the SF of a Slam or won a tourney of real note. But then I get the impression he just enjoys being on a tennis court, maybe in the way that Connors did for so long. Nothing wrong in that

[bogbrush]

Brilliant by JWT to win today after that epic.

Not sure that'll have pleased the writer of that-blog-which-must-not-be-mentioned.

[reckoner]

oh Good.

She'll be tweeting from centre court until her battery runs out

Who the hell follows her. I bet she imagines it all. I dread to go on her twitter page - what monstrosities there must be on there.

I love the smell of HRT primrose oil camomile tea caramel in the morning!

[HM Murdock]

Murray will have a shot here.

Much as it pains me to say it, I think on present form he'd be favourite v Djoko.

I'm struggling to pinpoint exactly what is different about Murray the last few weeks but he's looking a much more dangerous player. More consistent mentally perhaps.

[lags72]

Packed house for Federer/Wawrinka v Erlich/Ram on one of the outside courts

HMM - you could be right. But Baghdatis first and he can be tricky when he's in the mood....

[break_in_the_fifth]

Fed really carrying Stan here.

[break_in_the_fifth]

Stan to carry Fed through the tie break.

[invisiblecoolers]

they will tank the match as expected.

[laverfan]

Fedrinka.

[invisiblecoolers]

Fedrinka.

Its good for Federer, the schedule coz of rain is way too cramped, playing 2 matches every day will be taxing on the 31 year old body and his ambitions of winning Olympics Singles gold be unfulfilled.

To add more Doubles is a completely different game to singles of today, one serve and volley and the other baseline grinding, so more Fed plays both he not gonna shine in any of them.

[lags72]

Isner/Tipsy being played in front of a pretty pathetic "crowd" on Court 2

This particular duo will never be the hottest ticket in town, but you do feel they deserve better than this. I've far seen far bigger numbers at some practise sessions

I've always said the points don't lie (which of course they don't) but you can't help sometimes wondering how Tipsarevic got himself into the Top 10, it's almost like he sneaked in without anyone noticing ....

[lags72]

Fedrinka got broken just the once so tough luck in a way, could so easily have got through

[Danny_1982]

Isner/Tipsy being played in front of a pretty pathetic "crowd" on Court 2

This particular duo will never be the hottest ticket in town, but you do feel they deserve better than this. I've far seen far bigger numbers at some practise sessions

I've always said the points don't lie (which of course they don't) but you can't help sometimes wondering how Tipsarevic got himself into the Top 10, it's almost like he sneaked in without anyone noticing ....

Interesting that you think that lags. I always thought Tipsy was one of the more talented mid ranked players a couple of years ago, and thought ability wise he could get into the top 15.

Admittedly, I was a little surprised he made it into the top 8 as I thought his small size and lack of mental strength may cost him, but I've always rated his ability. Plus the shades, well he just looks pretty cool.

Bellucci is another who I think we may see flirting with the top 10 over the coming years. Just think he has 'it' and just needs to grow up a bit and put on a bit of muscle.

[laverfan]

What is the deal with Ferrer?

[lags72]

Fair points Danny, and I certainly don't mean to take anything away from Tipsy. Mind you he's just turned 28 so really needs to make the most of the next couple of years before hitting the big 3 0

Bellucci on the other hand is 24. I was hugely impressed with his Indian Wells performance against Federer earlier in the year. In truth it was only a bit of classic Fed magic at a few pivotal moments that separated the two. As a Bellucci fan you might want to catch clips of that encounter on youtube if you haven't already seen it ... some nice stuff to be enjoyed.

[Danny_1982]

He (Bellucci) looked a top player against Nadal for a set at Wimbledon this year, but then fell away. I think he has the ability in spades, but is a bit flashy and inconsistent. He might never find the right approach, but if he can replicate Tipsy's mental improvement then I think he could be a proper player.

24 used to be quite late to add things to your game, but nowadays it seems most players are peaking at 27-28, so he may yet have a chance.

I didn't see that match, I'll look it up.

[lags72]

As so often, it was the ace count that carried Isner through in the end

22 in all versus 6 from Tipsy .......

[invisiblecoolers]

Fair points Danny, and I certainly don't mean to take anything away from Tipsy. Mind you he's just turned 28 so really needs to make the most of the next couple of years before hitting the big 3 0

Bellucci on the other hand is 24. I was hugely impressed with his Indian Wells performance against Federer earlier in the year. In truth it was only a bit of classic Fed magic at a few pivotal moments that separated the two. As a Bellucci fan you might want to catch clips of that encounter on youtube if you haven't already seen it ... some nice stuff to be enjoyed.

I was hugely impressed by Bellucci few years back when he won so many ATP 250's in clay, he has the game to be called baby Guga, but unfortunately he doesn't have his mentallity and very vulnerable on key moments. By this time he should have had big wins over the top 4 but just fell apart in every match.

[lags72]

Intriguing final stages of Ferrer v Nishikori.

Nishikori leading 5-4 in decider and then moved to Centre Court in fading light .

[laverfan]

Can Nishikori break through?

[laverfan]

Ferrer. Looks a shadow of himself. Nishikori.

[invisiblecoolers]

Did Nishikori beat Ferrer?

[time please]

Well done Nishikori. I thought he played wonderfully in the doubles against Fedrinka the other night, but telly seized from moi tonight so unable to watch this.

Is it me, or does Fed's draw suddenly look a bit . Slightly nervous about Isner and Delpo over three I must admit.

I just really want Federer, Djokovic and Murray on the podium and I would live with any order - I just think for their consistency and results, I would like to see the best three players over the year, out of the competitors here, medal at these games.

[laverfan]

iC... Nishikori won.

Tough matches with Del Po/Nishikori and then the final, but it is a Bo5 final.

[invisiblecoolers]

Well done Nishikori. I thought he played wonderfully in the doubles against Fedrinka the other night, but telly seized from moi tonight so unable to watch this.

Is it me, or does Fed's draw suddenly look a bit . Slightly nervous about Isner and Delpo over three I must admit.

I just really want Federer, Djokovic and Murray on the podium and I would live with any order - I just think for their consistency and results, I would like to see the best three players over the year, out of the competitors here, medal at these games.

I wanna see Fed winning the Gold, Murray the silver and Djoko the bronze , but yes DelPo and Johny won't make the path any easy for Fed, its actually getting a bit tougher than expected.

@ LF thanks for the result , it wasn't updated on official ATP site, had to go back to Olympics site to check the score and results.

[laverfan]

iC... that is a very nice GSB. I just would feel bad for Djokovic getting another Bronze though. . Let us see if Federer makes it past Isner and DelPo/Nishikori first.

[invisiblecoolers]

iC... that is a very nice GSB. I just would feel bad for Djokovic getting another Bronze though. . Let us see if Federer makes it past Isner and DelPo/Nishikori first.

Fed getting past Isner is tricky but getting past DelPo kinda looks impossible rite now with the amount of matches he played this week, I will have to put DelPo has the fav among the two if they bound to meet each other, yup I am a Del Boy fan and hence will respect his game even more than normal posters would do.

Djoko vs Tsonga not gonna be any easy for Djoko, now Murray's path look easy than the rest.

Murray is playing super tennis of the 3 and would be hard to stop unless the other 2 play their A-game for the entire duration.

Yes its will be bad to see Djoko with bronze again, but he can make with gold the next edition but Fed won't have another chance in next Olympics.

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