Wimbledon Day 4

Surely today's play deserves a thread of it's own!

Nadal v Rosol. Many praying for a repeat of 2012. You are going to need a roof for that! Nadal looking for some revenge no doubt. Shoulder barge to strike again like a Suarez bite?

Federer v Muller. Potential tricky opponent for Roger. Again could Federer make another 2nd round exit?

Our Hev is in action against Kerber. Fingers crossed on that one.

Wawrinka, Gasquet, Raonic, Williams, Bouchard and Sharapova all in action.

Tsonga and Querrey to commence their 5 set epic!

Gasquet a set up as is Kukushkin, Nishikori and Kohlschreiber.

Monfils and Vesely in a first set TB.

Vesely takes the first set on the TB.

Watching Gasquet and Krygios. Would be good to see youngsters like Krygios do better at slams.

Veseley is also up a break.

Are ageing first time Slam winners going to be the trend for the next 8-10 years?

Kukushkin up 2 sets. He will meet the winner of the epic encounter between Rosol and Nadal.

Vesely takes the 2nd set against Monfils.

Kohlschreiber drops the 2nd set to Bolelli.

Different odds this time. Very different.

IIRC you could have got something like 250/1 on a Rosol win before their 2012 match. This time the bookies are taking no chances and only offering 6/1 .......!

But I'm in the Rafa-in-straights camp ......

Remember when Gilles Muller beat Nadal at Wimbledon many moons ago? He'll be looking to join a select club (an empty club?) by beating both Nadal and Federer at SW19.

Also, I hope Rosol doesn't start spitting again.

Nishikori is through in straight sets.

And Kukushkin joins him.

Raonic through in straights.

The BBC is the f**king pits!

"D Kudla 3-6 2-6 1-6 K Nishikori: Kei Nishimori is into the third round where he will face either Stan Wawrinka or Yen-Hsun Lu."

They can't spell his name properly and even more so got his next round opponent incorrect!!

Rosol is playing well

deja vu?

I don't even think Rosol has hit "top form" yet. Nadal's coughing up errors, Rosol's hitting the ball well at the right time.

Rosol first set, great hold to take it 6-4

Nadal not doing anything with the return, even off second serves, which is just allowing Rosol to swing freely at his second shot. Needs to get more depth or bite to it. He's also looking a little unsure of what tactics to adopt here.

This is how you play Nadal! Hit it hard, flat and take away his time. Easier said than done of course but unless your initials are ND you can't outlast him.

The Special Juan wrote:This is how you play Nadal!  Hit it hard, flat and take away his time.  Easier said than done of course but unless your initials are ND you can't outlast him.

Exactly! With that said, Rafa hasn't won 14 majors for nothing.

He will find a way.

Now he's in top form!!

This is gonna be straights but...

Rafa has to take advantage anytime Rosol has a second serve; hopefully for Rafa, Lukas' level drops.

kemet wrote:

The Special Juan wrote:This is how you play Nadal!  Hit it hard, flat and take away his time.  Easier said than done of course but unless your initials are ND you can't outlast him.

Exactly! With that said, Rafa hasn't won 14 majors for nothing.

He will find a way.

Most of the time I'd agree with that but when an opponent plays like this there's nothing a Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, Ferrer or anyone can do! I'd even add Berdych, DelPo, Raonic into that category. Maybe even peak Federer, who swatted opponents off the court like this.

Although Rafa lost this recent game, much better from the Spaniard

Oh his level has dipped a bit...

I do believe an upset is on the cards here......

Yep, I reckon if he keeps this up, Rafa can take a set off this Rosol guy   

A tale of two serves - Rosol's first goes missing, Nadal finds it and in a blink of an eye it's 5-4*.

I smell another break coming

much better from Nadal, helped by a wonky service game from Rosol. Nadal looking much better now, playing closer to the baseline and putting more pressure on Rosol's groundstrokes. Key set this, you feel...

Some of these forehands from Rosol could rival this...

Spoiler:

Nadal's really slowed things down now. Signs he's struggling or a tactical decision?

that's way way way too passive from Nadal there, got what he deserved.

The Special Juan wrote:Nadal's really slowed things down now.  Signs he's struggling or a tactical decision?

I think it's tactical. You can tell Rosol wants to stay in the zone and get on with it. Umpire should really step in IMO, you simply shouldn't be allowed to make your opponent wait every point on their serve...

too many errors from Rosol in the TB. gifts it away with a DF too. Can't do that against Nadal.

Double-fault on set point for Rosol.

I think Rafa wins this in four sets.

4-6, 7-6, 7-5, 6-3

Rosol has shown enough today to hopefully stop people dismissing him as being 'lucky' last time.

elsewhere:

Kyrgios has fought back from two sets down against Gasquet, they're locked at 2-2 in the fifth. Successive five-setters for Gasquet.

Monfils has also fought back from two sets down against Vesely, 2-2 in the fifth there as well.

Bolelli serving for the match against Kohlschreiber at 6-5 in the fifth, would be quite a surprise that, don't think Bolelli has any grass-court pedigree...

That was BS on that penultimate point. How long did he wait between the 3rd and 2nd last points???? James needs to have a word.

I suffered a lot in this set

one hasto admitt rosolknows how to do it. and does it.

thankfully he missed some important shots in the second half of this set.

still it all looks in rosols hands

Dang it I go to a meeting and it's all happening!!! A few 5 set humdingers are taking place!!! FFS!

JuliusHMarx wrote:Rosol has shown enough today to hopefully stop people dismissing him as being 'lucky' last time.

Yo, Nadal fans totally dis mantelled his win citing he was injured   

By the stats on yesterday's comparison of Rafa 2012 and 2014,

You guys would remember Rosol won the first set and let a break up in 2nd and lost a close 2nd set in Tie breaker and its no different today either.   

So if 25 seconds is the average time Rafa is taking between points, can we presume he is taking well over that on some ...?

The limit in Slams is supposedly 20.

Those first serve lets for Rosol are virtual service faults.

lags72 wrote:So if 25 seconds is the average time Rafa is taking between points, can we presume he is taking well over that on some ...?

The limit in Slams is supposedly 20.

I reckon he was over a minute on one.

If that is the case then the umpire needs to grow a set and penalise him.

Nadal's the draw here. He sells the tickets and brings in more revenue than Rosol.

So what if he's taking longer between points.

Unless Nadal starts taking 30/35 secs per point, then there's nothing for the umpire to say.