Federer imperious in his first match today! Sharapova found herself in a great first round match against Mladenovic. Murray's on court now against Becker but the real story seems to be Nadal. He's 2 sets to 0 down to Darcis. Big trouble!

 

edit: Nadal is fading here. It's his knee. Darcis had two break points...and he's got the break! I think the crowd are stunned.

Sharapova will probably appreciate a tough first round to keep her sharp, she'll be looking to at least get to the semi's (I think she'll see Wozniacki in the quarter).

 

Watching Nadal now, Darcis has just broke serve for the first game of the 3rd set, this is really unbelievable. I haven't heard much about what's happened in this match so far, whether Nadals been very poor or Darcis playing beyond his best, probably both.

Sharapova will probably appreciate a tough first round to keep her sharp, she'll be looking to at least get to the semi's (I think she'll see Wozniacki in the quarter).

 

Watching Nadal now, Darcis has just broke serve for the first game of the 3rd set, this is really unbelievable. I haven't heard much about what's happened in this match so far, whether Nadals been very poor or Darcis playing beyond his best, probably both.

 

His knee is strapped and the commentators claim he isn't moving as freely as possible. But as they have just said he hasn't shown any sign of getting the trainer on so it can't be massive. That said Darcis is playing great tennis as well. I really backed Nadal at this tournament after what he produced at Roland Garros so this is still a real shock.

Well, he did drop first sets against weak opponents in the first few matches at the French (I think the first 3 matches) and Novak probably should've beat him on what is Nadal's court, so for me I thought he was still showing he's not completely comfortable back in the slams yet but I would've backed him as much as the other 3.

 

But nobody could've predicted this, I know for sure Coldplaymom wouldn't have. Not over yet...

Well, he did drop first sets against weak opponents in the first few matches at the French (I think the first 3 matches) and Novak probably should've beat him on what is Nadal's court, so for me I thought he was still showing he's not completely comfortable back in the slams yet but I would've backed him as much as the other 3.

 

But nobody could've predicted this, I know for sure Coldplaymom wouldn't have. Not over yet...

 

That's a good point. Grass is arguably Rafa's least favourite surface as well so any issues that he may have had at the French Open have possibly been illuminated to a greater extent here.

Holy crap! Darcis does it in three! Don't really know what else to say! Does anyone remember when that Swiss guy Bastl bet Sampras in 2002? Feels a bit like this.

And it's over with an ace, I don't know if it was a mental thing but Rafa sure was moving worse on that knee towards the end.

My dad watched the match and to him it wasn't his knee at all: he made mistakes as he wouldn't place himself correctly in the court.

 

Anyway YESSSSSSSSS :dance: That opens the tournament a bit more!! And it's good news for our French players as well :awesome:

 

I'm sorry but I just hate it when Nadal is put on a pedestal, which he was, at least by the French journalists, and that annoyed me a lot. For instance, when they learned that it would be (well, have been) Nadal-Federer not that late in the tournament, the titles were something like: "Nadal will have to face Federer quite soon". That shows very little knowledge of the current tennis players currently in the circuit imo: Novak is first, Murray is always interesting when it comes to Wimbledon, and so is Federer ffs, it's "his garden". It's like everyone forgot that last year Nadal lost at his second match at Wimbledon. Oh and this year, he didn't participate in any tournament on this surface after Roland Garros. Maybe he should've prepared himself a bit better.

Anyway, rant over.

I didn't see the whole match but it didn't sound like it was his knee overall, just when I started watching in the 3rd set he wasn't hobbling at all but was towards the end of the set. What I'm getting at is possibly he knew the game was going out of his grasp, and he never seems to lose unless packing a bad injury, so maybe he hobbled a bit on purpose (I read a tweet "Nadal keeps up his amazing record of only losing when injured" I think they were implying the same thing).

 

Certainly when you look at that flimsy piece of tape inches below his knee you wonder what that's actually doing.

Holy crap! Darcis does it in three! Don't really know what else to say! Does anyone remember when that Swiss guy Bastl bet Sampras in 2002? Feels a bit like this.

 

the brad pit of tennis yeah :p

 

Rafa is always vulnerable during the early rounds on grass. He's had a couple of 5 setters against big hitters, losing some and winning some. He's not going to talk about any injuries he might or might not have.

Very disappointing, but now I'm free to support Andy. He better assert himself and get it done this year.

Rafa did the impossible by winning 3 Masters Series and a GS after a 7 months lay-off. He has nothing to hang his head about.

the brad pit of tennis yeah :p

 

 

Wow! He looks....different.

 

What a great performance by Laura Robson to defeat 10th seed Maria Kirilenko. Outstanding performance.

Crazy day at Wimbledon, missed it but reading about it, or trying to, there's a LOT to read about.

 

Several players retiring from injury, most notably Azarenka on the womens and Tsonga from the mens. Some shocks not involving injuries, on the womens side seeds Wozniacki, Ivanovic and Sharapova going out, with Sharapova complaining of dangerous courts, presumably as some kind of excuse. I was a bit disappointed as I thought the way Sharapova's been playing lately on clay, she might stand a chance against Serena at Wimbledon, but the path is really being cleared for Serena.

 

Cilic also pulled out today, and how disappointing is this, Steve Darcis, after playing the best match he'll most likely ever play against Nadal, is forced to also retire before his 2nd round match. At least he'll get 2nd round prize money, might cover some basic costs for a few months- it's a tough sport to make a living from. John Isner and Stepanek also retired from injuries, so all pretty high profile players.

 

Currently Roger is down 2 sets to 1 to world no. 98 Stakhovsky, and as I write this Skakhovsky just played a hell of a point to break Roger and he's 2-1 up in the 4th set, I don't know how he got the return in after a powerful serve from Roger, and I don't know how he got the point from there as Roger rushed to the net. It's really surprising after Roger seemingly bounced back on Monday from a disappointing French to completely dominate his 1st round match, he could actually be going out (It'd be the first time before the Quarters in ANY slam hes gone out since 2004, and its only R2).

ROGER LOST :wreck:

 

 

:wreck:

How do you like them apples:laugh3:

 

That's your wrong line call twitter picture guy.:laugh3:

:wreck:

 

And that completes a pretty crazy day.

 

Also what must Murray and Djokovic be thinking, Novak must have felt very good about his chances with a relatively clear path to the final, and he still will, but Andy knew it was business as usual in a Slam, having to beat one of the top 4 to get there, now that weights been lifted Andy's half of the draw actually looks easier. Novak probably has Chardy next, his run in looks like it could be Tommy Haas, Gasquet or Berdych in the Quarters, and most likely David Ferrer in the Semi but Del Potro's in that quarter of the draw too, none of those are straightforward.

 

As for Murray, Tsonga's now out, Cilic too, I mean one of his toughest opponents in that part of the draw looks to be his next match against Robredo who is seeded 32nd, there isn't anyone seeded anywhere near the top.

It's bizarre to think that Djokovic now has arguably the tougher half of the draw. But with performances like that from Stakhovsky today it's hard to justify what is an easy half of the draw and what isn't. I guess that says something about the quality of mens tennis today. Federer getting knocked out by Stakhovsky this early tops what Darcis did to Nadal. Hard to think of a Wimbledon without him this early on. Commentators were saying this ends his record of 36 quarter finals in a row. Was also great seeing serve/volley tennis taking prominence once again especially what that Dustin Brown did to Hewitt as well. Just like the era of Sampras!

 

Sharapova losing was a big shock as well. Don't think it was the courts that were to blame for her loss. Her opponent played really well. Shame for the women's draw though. Thought she would give Serena Williams a run for her money but it seems the money is heavily stacked in her favour now.

Serena's out?! :o

 

Nadal, Federer and Sharapova don't come close to this as the biggest shock of the tournament.

I'm done! To make myself feel better, I'm going to catch up with all the work I've been neglecting and make money. I'm not going to waste my emotions grieving for these millionaires.

I'm so disgusted right now.

:huh:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Andy Murray wins his quarter-final match against Fernando Verdasco in five epic sets, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23c4news&src=hash">#c4news</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Wimbledon&src=hash">#Wimbledon</a></p>— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) <a href="https://twitter.com/Channel4News/statuses/352490745720078336">July 3, 2013</a></blockquote>

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^Yay :dance: AND Marion Bartoli is in semi-finals!! :awesome: I don't think she can actually get to the finale but seeing her going this far is awesome already! She's definitely not my favourite French player AT ALL (tbh she kinda looks crazy when she's on court, omg she jumps all the time for instance) but i'm still a proud French :wacky:

I'm done! To make myself feel better, I'm going to catch up with all the work I've been neglecting and make money. I'm not going to waste my emotions grieving for these millionaires.

I'm so disgusted right now.

I understand that when you support people, you feel bad when they lose (like omg i was so sad for Federer :sad: ). But when you like watching tennis, honestly this tournament is really interesting and at least we get to see players that we usually don't see, as TV focuses on the big ones. Some have been quite extraordinary when beating the champions, some are showing some great stuff (like Verdasco or Del Potro this afternoon), some have a really interesting style (Tomic for instance...is it Tomich?).

 

Oh and in the end we may still get the current n°1 and n°2 in the finale, which should be quite a fight as winning would mean a lot to both of them (and when i say a lot, it's obviously an understatement).

I'm sorry I'm very bitter about my tennis. The ONLY way I'm going to watch this Wimbledon again is if Andy wins, and that obviously will be on replay. TV is off. I'm not even watching the news b/c I don't want to see any Wimbledon report. Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I like Marion at lot. She made the final (2007?) and lost to Venus. It would be great if she were to win it all.

Wow. This semi final between Djokovic and Del Potro is simply incredible! Going the distance in 5 sets after an incredible tie break in the 4th.