Wimbledon Day 3

First topic message reminder :

GOATgate

Roger Federer has been told he cannot wear trainers with orange soles again at Wimbledon. The Swiss defending champion wore the trainers as he eased past Victor Hanescu 6-3 6-2 6-0 in the first round.

The official guidelines state that: "Including the warm-up period, players at Wimbledon must be dressed almost entirely in white."

Worthy of a DQ


Centre Court - 1.00pm

Flavia Pennetta (ITA) v Victoria Azarenka (BLR) [2]
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) [6] v Ernests Gulbis (LAT)
Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) v Roger Federer (SUI) [3]

No.1 Court - 1.00pm

Fernando Verdasco (ESP) v Julien Benneteau (FRA) [31]
Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) v Andy Murray (GBR) [2]
Petra Kvitova (CZE) [8] v Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ)

No.2 Court - 11.30am

Dustin Brown (GER) v Lleyton Hewitt (AUS)
Petra Cetkovska (CZE) v Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) [9]
Michelle Larcher De Brito (POR) v Maria Sharapova (RUS) [3]
Kenny De Schepper (FRA) v Marin Cilic (CRO) [10]

Vika has withdrawn too.

And Stepanek's withdrawn too!!

DW juan Azas out...

The Special Juan wrote:And Stepanek's withdrawn too!!

He was holding his left knee in the first set against Janowicz.

Yeah, LF's right - he got treatment on it, and was getting increasingly agitated throughout the second set. It's a shame to see a match end that way. Darcis, Azarenka, Isner and Stepanek all withdrawing within two hours of play starting. Yikes!

Robredo vs Mahut about to start as a result, and Benny vs Nando firing up too. Some good matches today

Edit: Rufin breaks Almagro back via a double on BP, 3-3 in the first.

laverfan wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:And Stepanek's withdrawn too!!

He was holding his left knee in the first set against Janowicz.

That's a real shame. There'll be calls to ban grass now.

This is adding up to be a lot of injuries. Is the grass super slippery this year or something?
Just shows how Darcis must have been red lining his serves to take Rafa out to knacker his shoulder in (almost always due to serving).
Its a shame he cant follow up...but suspected he'd fizzle out anyway after the emotional expenditure. It always happens.

Can Hewitt turn this around....Brown's purple patch is lingering! C'mon Lleyton!

Argh, there are about five matches that I want to watch. First world problems, eh?

Just heard a tidbit on the commentary for the Youzhny match; apparently his opponent Popisil had to miss quite a few tournaments at the start of the year due to mono, and only recently came back to win a Challenger at the end of April. Yet another tennis player struck down with the illness.

I must pick up a souvenir towel this year, they look...sumptuous.

5-4!!! hewitt serving to stay in the match!

Brown showing no sign whatsoever of cracking.

Bouchard's just gone down. Someone must have smeared oil on the courts this year or something.

6-5!!! COME ON DUSTIN! dreddytennis!!!

Almagro breaks, then serves out the first set 7-5. Competitive stuff from Rufin, though. Troicki made short work of Kuznetsov and is already through in straights, Benne and Nando currently on serve early.

Come on Eugenie!! She's playing Ana though so either way members of this section will be disappointed after the match.

Tiebreak time....

Big shame to hear about Darcis pulling out with injury. Injuries everywhere you look in fact; Isner and Azarenka also gone.

Hewitt still alive and kicking wins the tie-break and is all fired up. He trails to sets to one but is on the comeback trail.

Hewitt's going to tear something in his throat if he carries on like that!!

CMAAAAWWWWNNNN!!!!!!

Has Hewitt now gone favourite to win?

Great breaker from Hewitt, stepped it up with some great returns.
The locker rooms at AELTC must resemble A&E at the local hospital at the moment.

Pospisil is being put to the sword by Youzhny, 6-2 opening set. The Colonel's looking very tidy, soaking up some heavy shots and dealing with pace very well. Pospisil's got some firepower on him, but seems pretty tired already.

Edit: Almagro's on the warpath, set and a break up on Rufin, who's still very much competing.

come on brown do it in 4!!!!

Always enjoy watching The Colonel, never a dull moment.
He's in good form, played a blinder vs Fed at Halle and hope he goes far this year.
His BH is pretty unusual too in a kind of Borg-way.

Not a Hewitt fan LS?

When did Ivanovic develop that stupid grunt?

Break point....Dustin goes 2-1 up n the fourth!

Chip and charge tennis working a treat....

He's ok lydian.

But when you see the attacking, flamboyant, easy-going flair of brown, how can you not support the more aggressive player?
And he's broken"!!!!

Is that the final nail in Hewitt's coffin?

Eugenie 5-2* up in the first set. Playing well.

Takes the first set 6-3 She's no Laura Robson though.

COME ON DUSTIN! BREAK NOW!!!

Definitely, lydian. I think he could do very well this year, not sure where he's positioned in the draw though. I see what you mean with the Borg comparison, it's quite an unusual stroke.

I just watched Rufin break back, he's really making a game of it against Almagro. On serve in the 2nd, currently. Almagro's backhand is just a work of art when he cracks it. Nando and Benny approaching the business end of the opening set, 5-5.

bouchard did get on topspin 4 before robson did though! That's an achievement right there.

Eugenie breaks to love in the first game of the 2nd set

I realise why Lleyton is losing now. Where's his cap?

Dustin goes a double-break up!

Brown breaks again and leads 4-1 in the fourth set. Writing on the wall?

DUSTINNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LuvSports! wrote:He's ok lydian.

But when you see the attacking, flamboyant, easy-going flair of brown, how can you not support the more aggressive player?

Ditto....

If some other potential young players would adopt his style of play, they might make it to the third round of Wimbledon too....

no way back for Hewitt from this surely? He's as always put up a good fight, but a few too many uncharacteristic errors have cost him dearly, and Brown has played a superb match (great touch at the net in particular).

shivfan wrote:

LuvSports! wrote:He's ok lydian.

But when you see the attacking, flamboyant, easy-going flair of brown, how can you not support the more aggressive player?

Ditto....

If some other potential young players would adopt his style of play, they might make it to the third round of Wimbledon too....

Brown's hardly a spring chicken? ATP has him at 28 years old...

This win (presuming he does it) should force him up the rankings by about 50 places and who knows what he can do in the next round? Hewitt just a few too many errors and never really worked out a game plan to combat Brown.

I heard about him in 2010 jo'burg but saw nothing for him before that. did he start that late at 25?

Match point DB!

Controversy in the Benny-Nando match, as Benneteau is denied a challenge because...the umpire was looking the other way when he (repeatedly)signaled that he wanted to. That was after two consecutive doubles by Verdasco, and it could've been a third. Ultimately though, they're on serve at 5-6. Saying that though, Benny's just gone over very hard on his right knee, sitting down at the back of the court and struggling. Surely not another withdrawal...

CaledonianCraig wrote:This win (presuming he does it) should force him up the rankings by about 50 places and who knows what he can do in the next round? Hewitt just a few too many errors and never really worked out a game plan to combat Brown.

to be fair he's got a beautiful draw afterwards too: Mannarino in the next round followed by Paire (or Kubot or Robert). Very winnable matches you'd think?

gets this one wrapped up, well done him

HE DOES ITTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAHOOOOOO

Dustin wins! Well done, young man!

Maybe in tennis terms he's actually only 23 for the amount of time hes played!

Hmph. Didn't sign any autographs or even wave to the crowd as he walked off. Gone off him a bit

74 winners for Brown in four sets, impressive