WIMBLEDON 2016

omg rain

lol this match
this blessed rain
this engerland

oh my god.

rip novak

lmao this is amazing

querrey

http://blog.mytennislessons.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/screen-shot-2015-03-09-at-11-10-24-am.png

so who fucked Novak's mind? there has got to be another explanation for this

I mean sure the slam but you might think a loss in a 2nd week - and not to this?!

Finding Makarova's black socks weirdly jarring

Petra making error after error: not jarring in the least, obv

Shades of Curren vs Connors, '83.

the funny thing about the Querrey loss is that Querrey was choking for his LIFE. I really didn't see much of it before the closing stages but the last set was atrocious quality from both. Even the MP, Querrey tentative on every stroke before Djokovic hits an error for no reason.

After the immense pressure of finally winning RG/holding 4 in a row was lifted I don't think much further explanation is needed. We saw how hard 4 in a row was, 5 in a row is unfathomable. Just one of those situations where you couldn't imagine who exactly would do it, and tbh Djokovic wobbled against Ward and Mannarino so...

No such excuses for Kvitova who seems to have finally changed her career's frustration "85% flopping, 15% peaking" ratio to "100% flopping". Easy money, cheers Kate M.

Can't believe this is Mahut's first Slam second week! Thrilled with Doi's first week 2 too, exciting that she gets a chance to avenge her loss from MP up to Kerber at the AO. Halep/Keys and Radwanska/Cibulkova are popcorn R4s, Aga was incredible against Siniakova.

Why are there so many #hormones among the men this tournament? So many tantrums and fights. Kyrgios, Paire, Troicki, Delpo v Pouille (this was a great match otherwise), Fognini v Lopez...I don't want to hear any ATP player talk about WTA emotions again. Even Cornet has been an oasis of calm in comparison.

I scored No 1 Court tkts for tomorrow! I get to see the Kyrgios circus in person.

Djokovic seriously made Querry look like a tennis god in the second set. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life.

Sloane's collapse against Sveta was highly entertaining.

Feeling sad about Delpo again though. What happened between him and Pouille yesterday? I missed the whole drama.

Isner-Tsonga BBC commentator will not shut up about Isner-Mahut, at least ten references, starting in the 4th set. Well, you've willed your marathon set into being now, let it go.

Roz - https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jul/02/wimbledon-del-potro-pouille-mens-singles

Thank god Tsonga put a stop to the Isner marathon stuff before it got silly again.

Got No 1 Court tickets for yesterday, Middle Sunday is so much fun! Kuznetsova/Stephens was a thriller, Sweta just threw everything at her towards the end. Didn't feel like a Sloane choke because there was never any momentum in the match...both players had patches of awful errors that seemed to come at random (ditto their winners).

Lopez was clearly just a bit too fatigued to push Kyrgios like yesterday, he didn't roll over but he was chuntering away to his box from the first game. Ultimately a Lopez without a first serve and volleys isn't a pretty sight (unlike his ass in those obscenely tight shorts). Kyrgios hit a few astonishing BH crosscourt passes.

Vesely/Sousa...by the second set I looked around and literally 10 people in my immediate vicinity were on their phones. Sousa was absolutely atrocious, could barely hit a groundstroke.

Saw some incredible junior drama at the end of the day. First saw 15yo Iga Swiatek when I went to Les Petits As for work last year (biggest U14 tournament in the world, she reached the SF iirc) and she was playing against Usue Maitane Arconada, three years older and basically outhitting her on every point. Came back from 1-5 in the final set but just couldn't get it done, lost 9-7 in the third and was in floods of tears even before she got to the handshake. Sad to see but she's one to watch and will def be winning this sort of match next year.

your last 16s for Manic Monday! I got 10/16 each, not bad, quite happy I picked Doi and Johnson in particular.

(1) Serena Williams vs. (13) Svetlana Kuznetsova
(21) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. (27) Coco Vandeweghe
(3) Agnieszka Radwanska vs. (19) Dominika Cibulkova
Ekaterina Makarova vs. Elena Vesnina
(5) Simona Halep vs. (9) Madison Keys
Misaki Doi vs. (4) Angelique Kerber
(8) Venus Williams vs. (12) Carla Suárez Navarro
Yaroslava Shvedova vs. (28) Lucie Safarova

(28) Sam Querrey vs. Nicolas Mahut
(11) David Goffin vs. (6) Milos Raonic
(3) Roger Federer vs. Steve Johnson
(9) Marin Cilic vs. (5) Kei Nishikori
Jiri Vesely vs. (10) Tomas Berdych
(19) Bernard Tomic vs. (32) Lucas Pouille
(7) Richard Gasquet vs. (12) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
(15) Nick Kyrgios vs. (2) Andy Murray

And Kerber is yr first QF-ist.

Hey, A-Rad/Domi has just got good! Domi was so strong on the important points, helped by Aga missing some putaways, often hitting it back to her. The game where Domi tried to serve it out at 5-4 in the second was terrific in places, the really long rally at... deuce? It ended on a sad error but was terrific moving and punching. Aga's retrieved from 3-5 to take the second 7-5.

These two have such a great rivalry right now! Hard to believe Aga once double bageled her in the final at Sydney once. So, so happy to have Domi back as a threat!

I put a fiver on A-Rad at the start of the tournament. Hopefully I can cash that out if she survives this.

However, more smartly, I put a fiver on Cilic when Djokovic lost!

Aga/Domi is another nailbiter.

Holy shit that game at 5-5. I love both of these women so much.

Jeez-o, this is tense.

I put a fiver on Cilic when Djokovic lost!

Aye, last time Nole opened the door for Fed in a Slam, Cilic promptly shut it. May happen Wednesday.

turn on wimbledon for five minutes and cibulkova/radwanska provides the greatest rally i've seen in women's tennis, ever

;_; Aga. But what a way to go.

can you think of a greater game to win a match, jesus

gawd the injustice. One had to lose, the other's gonna be gassed. Cibulkova deserves to make the final rather than face Serena in the SF.

turn on wimbledon for five minutes and cibulkova/radwanska provides the greatest rally i've seen in women's tennis, ever

Then there was another one nearly as good!

that set was right up there with that Kuznetsova/Schiavone epic, oh oh oh and Rubin/Sanchez-Vicario from the 1996 Australian.

yeah i mean i only showed for the last two games and that alone was titanic

Here's your stats for the third set, containing 16 games:

Domi: 33W/21UE
Aga: 18W/6UE

Damn.

Man, I just missed all this.

that rally i was talking about is here in full, if bbc links work overseas: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/36704059

Yeah that was pretty nuts!

If you weren't watching Sveta/Serena just then, poor you.

BEAUTIFUL defence to score a break for Sveta! She'll serve for the first.

And she'll fail, then play will be suspended.

Hopefully it'll be patchy drops and not get in the way of Goffin de-Raonicising the tournament.

"cibulkova/radwanska"

this was so awesome. very glad i watched it. almost the exact opposite of the dull match that was happening at the same time with the american whose name i can't remember right now...

Murray dismantling Kyrgios is amazing

great work edwardo, kuznetsova didn't win another game and raonic degoffined the tournament instead

Switched on to see a zombified Kryrgios go through the motions. #retireAlready

What happened to Gasquet? I'm not exactly rushing home for Vesely-Berdych.

Cibulkova/Radwanska = match of the year after Radwanska/Vinci? And at least Domi's QF opponent also went 9-7 today (Vesnina/Makarova was a thriller too, quality not as superlative but incredibly tense - can't believe Vesnina closed it out in the end, first Slam QF for her!)

Gasquet and Nishikori both came out obviously hobbled, obvious Gasquet (against an opponent fresh of a 19-17 fifth set yesterday) threw in the towel first. Nishikori's first set lasted 16 minutes, which is only 6 more than THAT 5-5 game between Domi and Aga.

All these years I've seen Pavlyuchenkova be utterly clueless on grass (including the second set of her R1 here vs Hsieh, she was totally saved by the rain) and suddenly she makes the QF? Not that I'm complaining when Vandeweghe loses.

Goffin losing from two sets up vs Raonic makes me livid, luckily I had the Pouille/Tomic epic to console myself with. Pouille is so good, multiple highlight reel shots. Tried his best to throw it away as well but inevitably Tomic tired first.

Murray/Kyrgios had all the intensity of an exhibition between two mates, which is sort of what it was. Curious that for such a supposed ~bad boy, Kyrgios can be so wholly deferential when he puts his mind to it.

I'm not sure we got the best QFs possible out of that. (Oh yeah, Keys never seems to get major injuries but without fail some minor niggle happens to her at the most ill-timed moment possible? This is a pattern now. Sheer bad luck or psychosomatic?)

Women's QFs:

(1) Serena Williams vs. (21) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
(19) Dominika Cibulkova vs. Elena Vesnina
(5) Simona Halep vs. (4) Angelique Kerber
(8) Venus Williams vs. Yaroslava Shvedova

S.Williams 5-0 Pavlyuchenkova
Cibulkova 3-3 Vesnina (Vesnina 1-0 on grass, Cibulkova 2-0 since 2009)
Halep 3-1 Kerber (Kerber 1-0 this year)
V.Williams 0-0 Shvedova (!!!!)

Williams final would just mean Serena wins, right? still, for nostalgia buffs, you can't beat it.

Vesely-Berdych not bad, actually. Tomas failed to serve it out and now it's 5-5 in the 4th. Pavic/Venus-J Murray/Soares are 12-12 in the 5th (I guess they've gone back to best-of-5 from the last sixteen onwards in the Men's Doubles) after nearly five hours.

Vesely-Berdych some way above "not bad" now. Berdych has triple match point at 5-6 0/40, Vesely wins 11pts of 12 to level and go five set-points up in t/b. Vesely pushes sitter into tramlines with set at mercy. They switch Hawkeye off due to darkness. Berdych saves another s/p with shot on line (no challenge available). Now a correction / play-two on match point to Berdych.

9-9 in the breaker. 9:20pm and overcast. Berdych claimed he wanted to come off 20min ago.

Vesely takes set with a drop-shot. Now Berdych wants to play the 5th set on Centre.