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Post by Panda on Jun 25, 2021 13:21:12 GMT 1
Meanwhile, Simona Halep and Dominic Thiem withdrew just before the draw was made, hence most of the seeds being bumped up a spot.
Ekaterina Alexandrova becomes 32nd seed in the women's draw, Marin Cilic is now seeded in the men's.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Jun 26, 2021 19:56:18 GMT 1
Katie Swan got the 23rd seed Madison Keys in the end, probably one of the toughest draws for a qualifier!
15 Brits involved in singles and 10 of them playing on the opening day, to avoid a clash with England-Germany on Tuesday? Couldn't see the BBC wanting a Brit last on Centre or Court 1 when they've got the football as well. There is rain forecast on Monday though, (but it doesn't look as bad as it did earlier in the week) so how many matches actually get completed remains to be seen.
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Post by Panda on Jun 26, 2021 20:17:07 GMT 1
I don't think they're trying to avoid a clash with the football, it's just the way the draw has worked out. Norrie is the only British player in the bottom half of the men's draw and as Djokovic is defending champion, it's the top half playing on day 1. The women's is more even with 4 British players in the top half and 5 in the bottom half so it doesn't make much difference which half is playing on the first day
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Post by Panda on Jun 27, 2021 21:19:11 GMT 1
Johanna Konta is out of Wimbledon after one of her team tested positive for Covid. Because she's been identified as a close contact, she has to isolate for 10 days.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Jun 28, 2021 7:46:24 GMT 1
Johanna Konta is out of Wimbledon after one of her team tested positive for Covid. Because she's been identified as a close contact, she has to isolate for 10 days. Disappointing And she was one of the Brits playing tomorrow and most likely to be on Centre or no 1 court.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Jun 28, 2021 7:57:18 GMT 1
Katie Swan 290 (career high 163 Oct 2018) beat Rodionova 149 (career high 116 Oct 2017) 6-0 6-4 Not as impressive as it first looked. Rodionova was injured and had a medical time out at the end of the first set.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Jun 28, 2021 10:51:16 GMT 1
Gutting for Jo, reckon she would have gone far in the tournament too with some of the big names pulling out.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Jun 29, 2021 8:32:44 GMT 1
7 of the British matches completed in the end (out of 10) which is more than looked likely at one point, though it helped that Heather Watson's match got moved to Court 1.
Results round up
Jack Draper 253 (career high 250 last week) lost to (1) Djokovic 4-6 6-1 6-2 6-2 in 2 hr Great performance under the Centre Court roof, expecting him to be ranked a lot higher this time next year.
(Q) Katie Swan lost to (23) Madison Keys 27 (career high 7 Oct 2016) 6-3 6-4 in about 1 hr 15. Swan became the first British woman to qualify since Karen Cross in 2001 and Cross reached R2. In fact all our qualifiers this century had won a match, Chris Eaton and Marcus Willis being the others, assuming I haven't missed anybody, but I doubt any of them had a draw as tough as this. Think they said in commentary this was the highest ranked opponent Swan had faced in her career. With the momentum she had from qualifying and Keys not being the player she was I didn't think this was as tough as it first appeared though. Watched most of the match, given my higher expectations maybe a bit disappointed with her performance but I'm still more confident of her top 100 potential than I was in 2018. She won a match then but it was only because Begu was awful, think a couple of breaks came from Begu DFs, she didn't have to do anything to win the match. Then in her 2nd round match I thought she was poor, maybe the occasion got to her.
Katie Boulter 219 beat (Q) Lao 239 (career high 152 April 2019) 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 6-4 in 2hr 28. Expected Boulter to win this in straight sets and having seen the final set where she was very impressive I'm even more surprised she didn't. Next plays 2nd seed Sabalenka so will presumably be on a show court for the first time.
Andy Murray 118 beat (24) Basilashvili 28 (career high 16 May 2019) 6-4 6-3 5-7 6-3 in 3 hr 32 finishing at 9.49 pm. Saw the last two sets. Murray contrived to lose the 3rd from 5-0 up having served for the match 3 times, at which point they put the roof on (on Centre). Great performance in the end though.
Jodie Burrage 274 (career high 233 June 2019) lost to Davis 91 (career high 26 May 2017) 6-2 6-1 in less than an hour. Given her ranking, career trajectory and the fact that I don't think she's beaten a top 100 player on grass Burrage can consider herself fortunate to have got a wildcard.
Liam Broady 143 (career high 137 in April) beat Cecchinato 86 (career high 16 Feb 2019) 6-3 6-4 6-0 in under 2 hr This was a very winnable match but to win for the loss of only 7 games is brilliant.
Heather Watson 68 (career high 38 Jan 2015) lost to (LL) Ahn 117 (career high 87 Sep 2019) 2-6 7-6 (7-3) 8-6 in over 3 hours finishing just past 10.15pm. They must have closed the roof at some point to get this match finished. Has she had a worse Wimbledon defeat than this? Expected her to win in straight sets so to lose after winning the opening set so easily (and with Clare Balding saying how well she was playing) and having served for it at 5-4 in the decider is shocking.
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Post by rubcale on Jun 29, 2021 9:33:01 GMT 1
Heather Watson is a spent force - while she was never going to be a Slam force I think she was capable of getting near the top 20.
Murray became excruciating to watch - I began to have visions of him screwing up the 4th set - thank goodness he didn't have to serve for it in the end.
Don't want to put the blink on Jack Draper but there are very encouraging signs there.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Jun 29, 2021 20:30:08 GMT 1
Heather Watson's problem these days is inconsistency. I'm willing to excuse her poor form in the last year after hearing about her problems during the pandemic, but she came into Wimbledon in form. Won a couple of matches in Nottingham before losing to Boulter, then reached semis in Birmingham and then should have beaten Swiatek in Eastbourne last week 4-1 40-0 up in deciding set. Lost a bit of concentration Swiatek got her confidence back and the momentum was gone. Won't criticise the performance overall in that match as she did OK but I hoped she'd got that kind of match out of her system...
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Post by Panda on Jun 29, 2021 20:35:09 GMT 1
Heather Watson's problem these days is inconsistency. It's always been her problem.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Jun 30, 2021 0:54:44 GMT 1
Jodie Burrage 274 (career high 233 June 2019) lost to Davis 91 (career high 26 May 2017) 6-2 6-1 in less than an hour. Given her ranking, career trajectory and the fact that I don't think she's beaten a top 100 player on grass Burrage can consider herself fortunate to have got a wildcard. Not sure if Jodie had an injury earlier in the season but seeing her playing in the Battle of the Brits last year showed she has got potential and I think the LTA want to help her fulfill that potential. I agree she is quite fortunate to get a wildcard but I hope this experience can demonstrate the work needed to get in the top 100.
I managed to watch some of this match whilst flicking in between the Murray match and the football. The roof closed after the 2nd set, about 5 mins after Centre was closed.
Watson had chances but once again, too many unforced errors and her first serve deserted her in the 3rd (basically she choked) and Ahn started hitting some really telling returns an elevated her game.
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Jun 30, 2021 10:30:30 GMT 1
4 out of 7 matches completed yesterday after rain delay in the afternoon. Not sure why they started the Norrie match last night when it was never going to finish. They only completed a set, which means the winner (hopefully Norrie though losing that set when he was a break up and also had set points in the TB is a bad sign) will be playing on 3 consecutive days.
Will post results later.
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Pablo
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Post by Pablo on Jun 30, 2021 14:49:19 GMT 1
Presumably they got him playing to stop the schedule going further behind with possibly more rain in the week?
The luck of Wimbledon really - something that Djokovic was moaning earlier in his career when he had to play multiple matches in a short time.
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Post by rubcale on Jun 30, 2021 15:00:56 GMT 1
Great to see Cameron Norrie come through today winning relatively comfortably from the re-start 7-5 6-2 7-5.
He's very easy on the eye to watch too!
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Tom
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Post by Tom on Jul 1, 2021 11:55:53 GMT 1
Presumably they got him playing to stop the schedule going further behind with possibly more rain in the week? The luck of Wimbledon really - something that Djokovic was moaning earlier in his career when he had to play multiple matches in a short time. That may be true, they were probably more keen to get the men's matches started with them being best of 5, they cancelled a couple of the Brit women's matches. Although there wasn't any rain in the end yesterday (which surprised me a bit) and the forecast for Thursday and Friday i think was always going to be ok, so still don't think it was really necessary. Tues results Harriet Dart 142 (CH 121 Jan 2019) lost to (13) Elise Mertens 16 (CH 12 Nov 2018) 6-1 6-3 in about 1 hr 15. This was a very tough match so no surprise with the scoreline but can't help but feel that Dart has gone backwards in the last couple of years. She reached R3 in 2019 and also impressed in 2018 when she lost in R1, plus reached the semi finals of the mixed doubles with Jay Clarke in 2018 too. Don't think she won a single match on grass this year and is now likely to plummet in the rankings. (22) Dan Evans 26 (CH 25 2 weeks ago) beat Feliciano Lopez 89 (CH 12 March 2015) 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 7-5 in just over 2hr. May be being too hard on Evo but actually thought this would be slightly more comfortable, Lopez is lower ranked than i thought. At the age of 39 Lopez must be, along with Federer, the oldest player in either singles draw. Jay Clarke 230 (CH 153 July 2019) lost to Gerasimov 73 (CH 65 Feb 2020) 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 in just over 2h 45 Clarke is a strange one, don't know what's happened to him in the last couple of years but he always rises to the occasion at Wimbledon. Apart from the mixed doubles with Harriet Dart as mentioned above he's also won matches in the men's doubles with Marcus Willis in 2017 (including a win over the defending champions and 2nd seeds Herbert and Mahut which is one of the greatest doubles matches i've ever seen involving a British player) and won a singles match in 2019 beating Rubin (which i barely remember, certainly not the fact he won anyway!). This match was carried over from Monday with play suspended at the end of the 3rd set and was completed during the 2nd half of the England-Germany game. I can't help but feel that had an impact as he was on Court 17, one of the lesser outside courts. They showed the match very briefly on Today At Wimbledon and there hardly seemed to be anybody watching! Fran Jones 211 (CH 190 in April) lost to (20) Coco Gauff 23 (=CH) 7-5 6-4 in over an hour and a half Fran Jones is a 20 year old who qualified for the Australian Open this year. Due to a rare genetic condition she was born with only 3 fingers on each hand and only 7 toes. She's done amazingly well to reach the top 200, especially so early in her career. I remember her from the juniors but don't think she did much. Sam Smith was talking about her on the opening day and said she met her at the airport i think after the Aus Open and was talking to her about her schedule expecting her to be playing more events now but she said she's got to be careful with her schedule as playing too much puts too much pressure on her body. She was told by her doctor that she would never make it as a tennis player. This was one of the toughest draws for any of the Brits and was the match i most wanted to see as i'd never seen her play before. So it's typical that due to the rain delay in the afternoon it clashed with the England-Germany game...After seeing the highlights on Today at Wimbledon it seems she's a noisy player which is a bit of a shame, but she did amazingly well to make it so close.
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Post by Panda on Jul 1, 2021 19:46:13 GMT 1
At the age of 39 Lopez must be, along with Federer, the oldest player in either singles draw. Surely that's Venus?
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Post by Pablo on Jul 1, 2021 23:53:51 GMT 1
At the age of 39 Lopez must be, along with Federer, the oldest player in either singles draw. Surely that's Venus? Also not forgetting Serena is 39 too
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Post by Tom on Jul 2, 2021 9:36:42 GMT 1
Should have known I'd forget someone! Was going to put just the men's draw as well!
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Post by Tom on Jul 2, 2021 12:07:34 GMT 1
Day 3 - all 7 matches completed and easily the best day so far!
Katie Boulter lost to (2) Sabalenka 4 (=CH) 4-6 6-3 6-3 in 2 hr 6 Watched this, great performance. Just hope that she can stay fit now, she does have a lot of strapping on that elbow...
R1 Emma Raducanu 338 (CH 333 March 2020) beat (Q) Diatchenko 150 (CH 71 Nov 2014) 7-6 (7-4) 6-0 in almost 2 hr (first set lasted not far short of an hour and a half)!!! Raducanu is an 18 year old from Kent so like Matusevich is someone that was mentioned on BBC Radio Kent when she was in the juniors. Interesting to read that she got to the quarter finals of the girls in 2018 losing to Swiatek (the eventual champion) as i did try to think how she'd done in the juniors, have a vague memory of starting to wonder how far she could go that year at some point. That must have been the year the BBC did an interview with her during the event. She impressed in the Battle of the Brits last summer but has barely played since, junior events were cancelled (though i don't know whether she was still interested in playing juniors anyway) but she didn't want to travel in the pandemic. I was surprised she got a wildcard, but wow, this was the best Brit match i've seen, bordering on the ridiculous! Only watched the 2nd set, Diatchenko served for the first set at 5-3. At the start of the second set she was rattled and was broken to go 2-0 down. She did regain her composure but then Raducanu stepped it up on the big points. In the last game Raducanu simply took Diatchenko's serve apart which again rattled Diatchenko and the match ended on a double fault.
Liam Broady lost to (9) Schwartzman 11 (CH 8 Oct 2020) 4-6 6-2 6-1 6-4 in about 3 hr 15 Saw the last two sets. On the back of his first round win i thought Broady would make this close so ultimately disappointing, especially as he had so many break points in the 3rd set in what was a gruelling match. Great atmosphere on Court 12! Still a really good week for him, hope he can reach the Top 100 in the next couple of months, should at least reach a new career high after Wimbledon.
Andy Murray beat (Q) Otte 151 (CH 129 Oct 2017) 6-3 4-6 4-6 6-4 6-2 in 3hr 51 Didn't think it would be as close as this. Didn't see anything before the roof closed, watched most of it when play resumed. He did struggle on his serve at times but was on fire in that 5th set. In the end really good win from 2 sets to 1 down.
(29) Cam Norrie 34 (=CH) beat Pouille 95 (CH 10 March 2018) 6-7 (6-8) 7-5 6-2 7-5 in about 2 hr 45 Made harder work of it than he should have over the two days, as he said himself in his post match press conference.
(22) Dan Evans beat Lajovic 42 (CH 23 April 2019) 6-3 6-3 6-4 in just under 2hr Impressive win
R1 Sam Murray Sharan 230 (CH 165 Sep 2013) lost to Cirstea 45 (CH 21 Aug 2013) 6-3 6-3 in about an hour and a quarter It was surprising that she got a wildcard, she's never won a WTA main draw match and she's only just returned from injury. I've barely seen her play but her results on grass in the past haven't suggested she's capable of beating Top 100 players. Tbh, this was a closer scoreline than i expected.
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