Wimbledon Days 3 and 4 - Djokovic And Nadal Survive Scares

The shocks may not have been as frequent as they were twelve months ago but after four days of Wimbledon it only seems a matter of time before this prestigious but unpredictable tournament conjures up another giant upset.   



Djokovic suffered a second round scare against Stepanek

On Wednesday Novak Djokovic came within a couple of points of being pegged back to two set all with the animated Radek Stepanek, while Rafael Nadal also suffered an early second round scare against Lukas Rosol.

Djokovic, the bookmakers favourite to win this year’s men’s tournament, appeared in complete control when he secured the second set against Stepanek; however the 35 year old Czech had other ideas. His vibrant style and interactions with the crowd threatened to turn the match of its head, as Stepanek clinched the third set tie break making the unthinkable a possibility.

The top seed showed signs that he was going to buckle but managed to compose himself in the nick of time; taking the fourth set on another tie break ending Stepanak’s challenge 6-4 6-3 6-7 (5) 7-6 (5)

On the other side of the draw Nadal was equally tested by Rosol the man who eliminated the Spaniard from the tournament at the same stage two years ago.

Back then Rosol’s monstrous hitting stunned Nadal and simply blew the Spaniard away. For a set and a half in yesterday’s encounter it was a similar story, Rosol led 6-4 4-2 with a break of serve and was on the brink of a two set lead. However Nadal is not a fourteen Grand Slam Champion for nothing and appears determined to put his early defeats from the past two years well behind him.

Nadal recovered to edge the second set on a tie break before sealing early breaks in sets three and four as he progressed 4-6 7-6(6) 6-4 6-4.

Despite those worrying moments for the top two seeds they still remain the clear favourites in the men’s competition along with defending champion Andy Murray and the seven time champion Roger Federer.

Murray’s second round win over Blaz Rola was as convincing as it gets, as the Brit brushed aside his opponent for the loss of just two games, showing the type of form which saw him claim the title a year ago.

Out of the so called “top four Federer is the one who has somewhat slipped under the radar, however there has been nothing off about the Swiss’ first two matches. He came through a potentially tricky match with Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller and as a seven time Champion the Swiss remains a real contender on his favourite surface.

The Women’s draw has been slightly more predictable with favourites Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Li Na all progressing for the loss of just a couple of games.

The same can be said for last year’s runner up Sabine Lisicki and 4^th seed Agnieszka Radwanska, however the one major surprise was a defeat for 8^th seed Victoria Azarenka who was beaten 6-3 3-6 7-5 by Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski.

The second round also marked the end of British interest in the draw, Heather Watson produced a strong showing but ultimately fell short losing to 9^th seed  Angelique Kerber 6-2 5-7 6-1, while Naomi Broady was beaten 6-3 6-2 by Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki.

Wimbledon Day 2 - Seeds on Song As Big Names Progress

Twelve months ago it felt strange watching the second week of Wimbledon without seeing the seven time champion Roger Federer.

When the Swiss lost to Sergiy Stakhovsky in the second round last year it brought an end his unprecedented run of 36 consecutive Grand Slam quarter finals and was his earliest defeat at the Championships since a first round defeat back in 2002.  



There was no repeat of Federer's shock exit last year

As refreshing and entertaining as it was to see Stakhovsky serve-volley and approach the net on every point, there was a sense of disappointment that Federer wouldn’t feature beyond the second round.

However a repeat of that this year looks extremely unlikely, especially if Federer’s first round demolition of Italian Paolo Lorenzi is anything to go by. Of course there will be tougher tasks ahead for the Swiss , but on this performance alone he looked back to his fluent best and dropped just five games on his way to a 6-1 6-1 6-3 in just I hour 33 minutes.

A lot has been made about Federer’s potential semi-final with Rafael Nadal which could see the pair face each other for the first time on grass since their memorable final at SW19 back in 2008.

But Nadal hasn’t been past the second round at the All England Club since he reached the final back in 2011. The Spaniard faced  much a tougher first round when he came up against Slovak Martin Klizan who managed to clinch the first set before Nadal finally prevailed 4-6 6-3 6-3 6-3.

Nadal will now face another dangerous opponent in the Czech Lukas Rosol, the man who knocked him out at the same stage two years ago.

Elsewhere Jo-Wilfred Tsonga finished off his five set marathon to beat Jurgen Melzer in a match which had been carried over from the previous day. There were also wins for Lleyton Hewitt, Richard Gasquet and Gaël Monfils.

John Isner made sure that Andy Murray was the only Brit left standing in the men’s draw after the American beat Dan Smethurst 7-5 6-3 6-4.

However it wasn’t all bad news for the Brits as Heather Watson joined compatriots  Murray and Naomi Broady in the second round with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Croatian Ajla Tomljanovic.Next up for Watson is a tricky task against the ninth seed German Angelique Kerber who was also a straight sets winner over Urszula Radwanska.

Last year’s runner up Sabine Lisicki, who often produces he best tennis at Wimbledon, began her campaign with a comfortable 6-2 6-1 win against Julia Glushko While former Champions Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams also powered their way through to the second round with minimum fuss.

 

 

Wimbledon Day 1 - Murray Begins Title Defence

We all remember that day last year when Andy Murray made history by lifting the Wimbledon trophy on Centre Court, ending Britain’s 78 year wait for a male singles Champion.

350 days later the Brit faces a different pressure from the sort he came up against 12 months ago or at any previous Wimbledon for that matter. Only Murray himself will know if the task of defending his title is more daunting than claiming it in the first place. 

Murray received a warm reception from the Centre Court crowd

But if any nerves were expected from last year’s Champion they certainly didn’t show. Murray was in the same bullish mood which saw him carve through last year’s draw, as he opened the 2014 Championships with a 6-1 6-4 7-5 over Belgium’s David Goffin in a time of 2 hours 2 minutes.

It was an ideal match up for Murray whose early exit at the Aegon Championships just under two weeks ago came as an unexpected blip. Goffin, aged 23, is a player who after a promising junior career and a ranking as high as 42 has slipped down to 105 in the world. At times he played better than that however he was still far from a match for Murray.

A year ago it was eight time Grand Slam Champion Ivan Lendl who was the main attraction in Murray’s entourage. Twelve months on the calm Czech has moved on and in his place steps another major winner in Amélie Mauresmo, the Frenchwoman won both the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006 while holding the world number one ranking.

If there were any early doubts about the Murray/ Mauresmo partnership they were soon evaporated in the first set. The Brit broke his opponent’s serve in the second game and never looked like surrendering it back.

Murray’s combination of power and craft from the back of the court was too much for Goffin who showed flashes of his talent but in comparison to Murray was unarmed and simply didn’t have the weapons to trouble the defending Champion. A second break soon followed as Murray stormed to the opening set for the loss of a single game in just twenty-nine minutes.

The second set appeared to be going the same way, as Murray comfortable on his own serve, broke again to lead 2-1. However Goffin wasn’t going lie down as easily and at least made the score line competitive by holding serve, nevertheless it was too late to save the set from Murray’s clutches.

The Brit said after the match that “it was a very high standard”. That was to Goffin’s credit, in the third set the Belgian produced his best tennis of the contest, a memorable backhand passing shot was comfortably the highlight of his afternoon.    

Goffin’s attack was gathering momentum and Murray, who had been immaculate on serve, was forced to save two break points mid-way through the set. But once they had slipped through Goffin’s grasp it was business as usual for the defending champion as he made his move at 5-5 breaking the Belgian once more before serving out the match and finishing with an ace.

The only other British success on day one came in the Women’s draw from Naomi Broady who won her first ever match at a Grand Slam to beat Hungary's Timea Babos 2-6 7-6 (9-7) 6-0.

Elsewhere Johanna Konta lost 6-4 3-6 6-4 to China's Peng Shuai. While in the men’s draw there were first round defeats for James Ward, Dan Evans, Dan Cox and Kyle Edmund.

Spain's Reign Ends

Spain     0        Chile     2    

                                                     Vargas  19      Aránguiz 43 

 

 

The Spanish sides of 2010 and 2014 were both history makers but for very different reasons.

Four years ago Spain didn’t just win the World Cup in South Africa they won it in a way which changed the complexion of football, rebuilding the game around possession and keeping the ball. ”Tiki taka” as it was known, was the new way to play.



Sergio Busquets rues his missed second half chance

Yet four years on it’s a completely different story. Spain’s defeat to Chile last night ended their eight year dominance in which they had claimed a World Cup and two European championships; it certainly felt like the end of an era for a team which many had labelled as the greatest team of all time.  

But it was the manner they went out which was must disappointing. After being crushed 5-1 by Holland in their opening group game this was a match Spain had to win and in truth that never looked like happening.

Chile were more than worthy of their 2-0 victory following goals from Eduardo Vargas and Charles Aranguiz. They were simply better in every department, playing with energy, passion and a policy to win the ball back quickly.

For 90 minutes Chile’s pressure was relentless, they rushed Spain into mistake after mistake, as their once winning tactics appeared outdated and ineffective. Could this be this be another sign that the game is moving on?

Following their defeat to the Dutch, Spain’s manager Vicente Del Bosque elected to drop the influential Xavi, the man who has been the backbone of the Spanish side during their success.

Nevertheless this was by no means a weak Spanish side, any team on the planet would crave to have a midfield containing Xavi Alonso, David Silva and Andres Iniesta. But on this occasion it wasn’t enough.

Over the course of the match Spain were in possession of the ball 63% of the time however they rarely threatened Chile keeper Claudio Bravo and were forever pinned back by a wave of white Chilean shirts

In comparison Chile were quick and sharp on the counter attack and took the lead on 19 minutes. Spain were caught in possession midway inside their own half and before they could recover Chile had broken away in force. Arturo Vidal played a neat through ball to Aranguiz in the Spain penalty area; he then had time to square the ball to Vargas whose calm touch took him away from Spanish keeper Iker Casillas allowing him to covert from close range.

Surely their would be a reaction from the defending champions, the side that had conquered Europe and the world in recent tournaments. But Spain never looked like coming up with an answer.

Their passing was off; even the usual reliable Alonso just wasn’t at the races. Upfront lone striker Diego Costa still appeared to be struggling with the same injury that forced him to be substituted in the early stages of the Champions League and looked well short of match fitness. The fluent elegant passing which has become the feature of the Spanish game was nowhere to be seen.

On the stroke of half time Spain’s situation went from bad to red alert. Alexis Sanchez went for goal from a promising Chile free kick which Casillas should have caught. Instead he elected to punch the ball away, a decision which proved costly as it dropped at the feet of Aranguiz who prodded the ball home to double Chile’s lead.

That proved to be the killer not only to the match but to Spain’s hopes of reaching the last sixteen. They desperately searched for a way back into the game but their chances were rare, Costa’s touch let him down when he was played through on goal, while Sergio Busquets squandered a golden chance when the goal appeared to be at his mercy.

However there was no bombardment at the Chile goal or a late onslaught to save the Spanish crown, as the Champions never looked like scoring and their immaculate run ended with a whimper rather than a fight until the end.

They become desperate only threatening Bravo in the Chile goal through long range shots from Iniesta and substitute Sani Carzorla, but both were a comfortable height for keeper.

Four years ago Spain made history in the way they won the World Cup, yesterday they made history as it was the first time the defending champions have been the first team sent packing. How times have changed and what will this unpredictable World Cup throw up next?