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Post by rubcale on Jun 29, 2015 18:11:52 GMT 1
Just a thought - I'm not convinced Nadal is out of the mix and this weather plays into his hands - if it continues then the ball will bounce higher which suits him down to the ground,
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Jun 29, 2015 18:53:38 GMT 1
Great win for Liam Broady coming from 2 sets down to beat Marinko Matosevic. Johanna Konta well beaten. Sometimes it does a home player no favours to be put on a Showcourt. I don't see Konta as any more than perhaps a top 50 player. Matosevic was actually a pretty tough draw, he beat Verdasco (then no 24 ranked) in 4 sets as the world no 58 to reach the 2nd round of Wimbledon last year. It's strange, Liam's done nothing in the last month but I had a feeling before the draw came out that he might pull off a surprise win, (assuming he didn't get one of the top guys of course). Didn't see him winning from 2 sets down though! Read the point by point updates on the Wimby site and saw the 5th set, it was a bit of a ridiculous effort from him considering he was 2 sets down. There was one game when he served 4 aces almost back to back! He's put himself in contention for the Davis Cup now, as like Ward in the last Davis Cup tie he's won from 2 sets down, and it puts massive pressure on Ward to win tomorrow.
As for Konta, I thought the same as you about the show court. I'd happily take Top 50! Never been completely convinced she'll get that high, maybe Top 60, but I've always thought she'd establish herself in the Top 100 and peak in her mid 20s over the next few years and she's on course for that. She was unlikely to win today of course but still get this nagging feeling that she'll need to start winning main draw slam matches if she is to reach that peak though.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Jun 29, 2015 18:56:28 GMT 1
Just a thought - I'm not convinced Nadal is out of the mix and this weather plays into his hands - if it continues then the ball will bounce higher which suits him down to the ground, I haven't changed my mind from a few weeks back that he's a contender. If he plays Murray in a QF and wins I'd fancy him to reach the final.
Good point about the weather, hadn't thought about that. I've wondered for a while, maybe since the announcement was made that they were pushing Wimby back, that the later start may mean drier weather, July is possibly the best summer month, so they may not need to use the Court 1 roof that often when it arrives!
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Jun 29, 2015 21:55:51 GMT 1
Johanna Konta well beaten. Sometimes it does a home player no favours to be put on a Showcourt. Forgot to add, she hadn't played on a more high profile court than Court 12. I'd put Centre, No 1 court, No 2 court, No 3 court, and 18 ahead of that, so playing on Centre was a big jump up.
Straight sets defeat for Naomi Broady. Didn't surprise me at all, Duque-Marino beat Goerges, then ranked 36, to reach R2 in 2013 before losing to Laura, so a much tougher match than I thought.
Heather Watson resumes tomorrow at 1 set all.
Order of Play for tomorrow 3rd on Centre Murray 1st on No 3 court Kyle Edmund followed by Laura Robson Heather on Court 12 not before 12.30pm with Ward 4th on same court following Aga Radwanska 2nd on 18 Brydan Klein 3rd on Court 8 Bedene - which seems a little obscure, assume it's a televised court but not used to seeing a Brit singles match on there. 3rd on 15 Naomi Broady and Emily Webley-Smith in the doubles.
Hopefully we should see more British wins tomorrow.
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Post by rubcale on Jun 30, 2015 18:09:51 GMT 1
Not a brilliant match from AndyM even though it goes down as a straight sers win. He had taken control a couple of times but let his opponent back in and his serve gave some cause for concern.
Hopefully this might tske some pressure off.
I wonder could this be another year like 2013 in the women's event? Bouchard last year's finalist who is having a terrible year and Halep a semi-finalist in 2014 both knocked out by lowly ranked opponents.
I thought the suspension of Heather Watson's match last night at 1 set all would play into Garcia'a hands. What a final set with Garcia having match points and Heather failing to serve out the match earlier - the tension was almost unbearable.
She remains an enigma - you just don't know what to expect from her. Loses when she shouldn't then hangs tough and beats a seed. Now plays Daniela Hantuchova. Probably expected to lose but who knows?
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Post by rubcale on Jul 1, 2015 10:46:34 GMT 1
Random thoughts - weather is going to have a major impact on the outcome.
Question in my head - did Murray peak at Roland Garros?
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Post by greendemon on Jul 1, 2015 17:36:57 GMT 1
Very solid performance from Watson today!
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Post by rubcale on Jul 1, 2015 18:00:55 GMT 1
Great performance from 1-3 down in first set.
Some very poor line calling with points that were almost certainly won having to be replayed.
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Post by greendemon on Jul 2, 2015 20:10:23 GMT 1
Just saw Brown knock out Nadal in four sets. Absolute corker of a match!
Very disappointing for Nadal but he was beaten by a better opponent.
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Post by Panda on Jul 2, 2015 20:19:07 GMT 1
Nadal's shot. He's a shadow of the player he was.
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Post by raliverpool on Jul 2, 2015 20:19:28 GMT 1
Brown's performance was Becker-esque. Where most players in his position would have shown nerves trying to close out the match, he showed none.
If he continues to play to this standard he could easily reach the Quarter Final.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Jul 2, 2015 21:57:40 GMT 1
It was good to see the good old serve & volley on showcase, which is clearly a weakness with Nadal's game at Wimbledon. I think his last 3 of the 4 opponents Nadal lost to at Wimbledon used the serve/volleying technique. I really hope he'll be back fighting though. Great news for Wardy too! Not only he's in the 3rd round at Wimbledon for the first time in his career but breaks into that elusive top 100 after the tournament!
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Post by raliverpool on Jul 3, 2015 22:15:23 GMT 1
Was I the only one one who watched the last half of the match this evening when Heather Watson gave top seed Serena Williams an almighty scare, and could very well have knocked her out in the third round.
If our British #1 can play like that all the time she could easily become a Top 16 player.
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Post by Shireblogger on Jul 4, 2015 8:03:38 GMT 1
Was I the only one one who watched the last half of the match this evening when Heather Watson gave top seed Serena Williams an almighty scare, and could very well have knocked her out in the third round. If our British #1 can play like that all the time she could easily become a Top 16 player. No, you weren't. It was a captivating match, and both players should take credit for terrific tennis and making some splendid shots. A great pity Heather couldn't see it through from such a strong position, but Serena is a force of nature. I agree, Heather should be aiming for the Top 16 on that performance.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Jul 4, 2015 10:41:57 GMT 1
Struggling for motivation after Heather last night but will plug on regardless, plenty to catch up on so Part 1 coming up. I thought the suspension of Heather Watson's match last night at 1 set all would play into Garcia'a hands. What a final set with Garcia having match points and Heather failing to serve out the match earlier - the tension was almost unbearable. She remains an enigma - you just don't know what to expect from her. Loses when she shouldn't then hangs tough and beats a seed. Now plays Daniela Hantuchova. Probably expected to lose but who knows? From the updates I read of Heather's match on the first day I thought she was poor and lucky not to have gone out. A set and a break down Garcia hit two double faults in a row to give the break back and then double faulted again to go a break down. I did wonder whether the court change and being demoted in my eyes to Court 12 was a factor though, but impressive final set the following day. The Hantuchova match was a great opportunity, in fact I probably slightly favoured Heather. Agree about the inconsistency though. Elsewhere I said before the tournament started that even if she beat Garcia I could see her losing in the next round to whichever unseeded opponent she faced.
Other Brits on Day 2 not already discussed:
Kyle Edmund lost to Dolgopolov 7-6 (7-4) 6-1 6-2 - The key part of the match was that tiebreak with Kyle 4-2 up. Disappointing end result. Seems he had treatment for a shoulder injury in the second set, don't know how much that hampered him but do think this will probably be the grand slam he struggles at the most, as I'm coming around to the idea that grass is his weakest surface. Laura lost to Rodina 6-4 6-4 - Reasonably ok. Served a lot of double faults but closer score line than I expected. Ward beat Vanni 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 6-4 6-3 - A match he was expected to win but good performance. Brydan Klein lost to Seppi 6-3 6-2 6-2 - Actually thought this was a pretty good effort from the score line and the two sets I followed. Bedene beat Stepanek 7-5 1-6 4-6 6-3 6-4 - Made harder work of the win than I thought he would, but then other than the first set which I followed and the final couple of games which they showed on BBC2 after Ward's match had finished I didn't keep up with it much so Bedene may have played better than the score line suggests. That was probably Stepanek's last Wimbledon, he must be in on protected ranking after 8 months out - don't see him being high enough to get in next year assuming he doesn't get a wild card.
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Post by greendemon on Jul 4, 2015 10:56:22 GMT 1
Heather did incredibly well to come back to being able to serve for the match from losing the first set 6-2 - such a pity she couldn't finish it, but when your opponent is arguably the greatest player the women's game has ever seen, you can't really complain!
Some really interesting matches to look forward to today - Murray of course, and hopefully Ward can keep up the winning streak. Also interested to see what Dustin Brown gets up to next!
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Jul 4, 2015 11:37:27 GMT 1
Great news for Wardy too! Not only he's in the 3rd round at Wimbledon for the first time in his career but breaks into that elusive top 100 after the tournament! The commentators during the match thought he'd probably done enough going by the live rankings site. I wasn't so sure (they were also wrong about Kyle during the French Open), there's bound to be a challenger somewhere next week with an opportunity for players out of Wimbledon to break into the Top 100. Of course Brown later won his 2nd round match and that presumably would have taken him above Ward in the live rankings given he was already higher ranked coming into the tournament. As for the match, Vesely may be a Top 50 player but grass is his weakest surface so it was a winnable match, and I thought if Ward played as well as he did against Vanni he'd win, and that proved to be the case. Topsy-turvy match though, first set 6-2 which I honestly thought was Murray-esque, don't think even Murray could have done a better job...which is interesting as I wondered if Murray had given him specific advice before the match, Ward did say he was going to talk to people about Vesely's game. 2nd set quite good and won on a TB 7-4. Completely fell apart in the third losing it 6-3 but played a really good 4th set to win it 6-3.
Other Brits on Day 4:
Murray beat Haase 6-1 6-1 6-4 - Saw very little of this, but did see the final game in full, really pleasing job done. Bedene lost to 22nd seed Viktor Troicki 6-4 3-6 6-2 6-4 in only 2 hr 4, there are longer 3 set matches! - Followed the first two sets and watched the last two sets. Very up and down from Bedene, as an example he was a break up in the first set, lost it, went a break up again only to lose the break straight away. Not a bad effort overall, 25 years old and he's going to be a regular in slams so plenty more opportunities to see him more and also the potential to improve with the current men's game peaking in their late 20s and sometimes later.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Jul 4, 2015 11:38:25 GMT 1
Very solid performance from Watson today! Great performance from 1-3 down in first set. Some very poor line calling with points that were almost certainly won having to be replayed. I thought it was a stunning performance by Heather and for a split second wondered if she played like that whether she might run Serena close, but then thought better of it!
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Jul 4, 2015 11:55:49 GMT 1
Kind of a note to myself, to come later in the weekend: Part 2 Brits in the 3rd round Part 3 The seeds knocked out in Week 1, to lower ranked players Part 4 Any British wins in the doubles, hardly aware of any results in the last few days I've been so wrapped up with the Brits in the singles. Tbh the last time we had this much success in the singles the doubles wasn't worth following much, there weren't many doubles players capable of winning matches back then!
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Post by Mart!n on Jul 4, 2015 20:30:07 GMT 1
Amazing Murray performance, what a match that was. I hope his shoulder is alright for the next match.
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