Federer v Murray and Williams v Radwanska
(courtesy of Wimbledon twitter)

Day 10

Agnieszka Radwanska made it to her first Wimbledon final, after defeating Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-4 in the SF. She is seeded number 3 and if she wins the title, she will become the world number one. Radwanska is the first Polish player, woman or man, to make it to the Wimbledon final since 1937. One thing that helped her, was the long rallies between her and Kerber. She will face Serena Williams in the final.

Williams will be playing for her 5th Wimbledon title, after defeating Victoria Radwanska 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) in the SF. This will be Williams’ 7th Wimbledon final. After a disappointing French Open, she lost in the first round, Williams started playing better tennis. In this match, she served 24 aces against Azarenka, a Wimbledon record. Another  impressive statistics? She had zero double faults. Williams has 13 majors, including 4 Wimbledon titles. She will face Radwanska in the final.

Two American doubles teams made it to the SFs, for both men and women’s doubles. Serena and Venus Williams played their QF match against another doubles team of Americans- Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears. They won 6-1, 6-1. This game was played a few hours after Serena Williams’ singles match.

Next up for them is the American doubles team-who’s also seeded number 1-Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber. The other Americans doubles team to make it to the SFs was Bob and Mike Bryan. They are one of the most accomplished doubles team in history. Their Qf match wasn’t easy though. They played against Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram, two Americans, and won 5-7, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.  They won the Wimbledon men’s doubles titles last year and are after their 3rd title. They will face the wildcard doubles team-Jonathan Marray and Frederik Nielsen.

Day 11

What an incredible win for Roger Federer. He defeated the world number one, Novak Djokovic, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.  Federer was incredible in his SF, some even said this was vintage Federer. Everyone this to be a very close match. After all, you had the world number one and the the best player of all time, espn on grass, playing against each other. This match was worthy of being a final. The last time these two met in a major was last month in the French Open, where Djokovic won in the SFs.  Federer has a chance of becoming world number 1, again, if he wins the title on Sunday. This is Federer’s first final since last year’s French Open final, when he lost to Nadal. He will play Andy Murray.

Murray has been to three finals before, 2 Australian Open finals and a US Open final. This is his first ever Wimbledon final. He made it through after defeating Tsonga in four sets-6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. Murray is the first British man in the singles final in 74 years. He started off really well, wining the first two sets without a problem. Then he lost the third set. He struggled a little during the fourth set and it looked like he was going to lose that one too, but he pulled through and won 7-5. He will face Federer in the final.

Mixed results for the Americans in the doubles SFs. The men, Bob and Mike Bryan, lost their SF match to the wildcard team, Marray and Nielsen. They lost the first two sets, but won the third set. The Bryan brothers were down 5-0 in the fourth but came back to even it at 5-5. That wasn’t enough though, as they lost the fourth set in a tiebreak 7-6(7-5) and the match.

The women did much better. Serena and Venus Williams defeated the top seeded Americans- Huber and Raymond. They won 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. They had a little trouble with their serves in the first set, but stepped it up in the second and third sets. They will face Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka of Czech Republic in the final.

The SFs for the men’s singles has been set. There weren’t any upsets in the QFs. Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, and Jo-Wilfriend Tsonga all won their respective matches.

Federer defeated Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets- 6-1, 6-2, 6-2- and is in his 32nd Grand Slam SF. Although his back had been hurting during his fourth round match, Federer showed no signs of discomfort during this match. He will play against the current world number 1, Novak Djokovic.

Djokovic also had an easy QF. He defeated Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-1, 6-4. So far, Djokovic has had a very good tournament.He won his first Wimbledon title last year, when he defeated Rafael Nadal and became world number 1 for the first time. He will face Federer for a chance to win his second Wimbledon title.

Andy Murray played David Ferrer in the QF and won in 4 very close sets.  He lost the first set in a tiebreak, but won the next three sets, two of which also went to a tiebreak. Murray will be playing for a chance to become the first British man to be in the Wimbledon finals in over 70 years. He will face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The last player to join these three is Tsonga. He played Philipp Kohlschreiber and won 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 7-6(7-3), 6-2.  This will be Tsonga’s second SF. Last year, he made it to the SF by defeating Federer, coming back from 2 sets to win in 5 sets. He will play the hometown favorite, Andy Murray.

It was a busy for Serena and Venus Williams. First they played a second round match against the 4th seeded doubles team- Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova. Then they played a third round match against 13th seeded doubles team- Bethanie Mattek -Sands and Sania Mirza. The Williams sisters first match was a difficult one for them. They lost the first set 3-6, won the second 6-3, and had tough time with the third set. They eventually won the third set 9-7 and moved on to the third round. Since the second round match had been postponed a day, the Williams sisters had to go back a few hours later and play their third round match that same day. Although this was their second match of the day, the Williams sisters had an easier time with their third round match. They won in straight sets- 6-4, 6-3- and moved on to the QFs.

Sabine Lisicki Upsets World Number One, Maria Sharapova
(picture courtesy of tennis.com)

Day 7 had a few upsets in the women’s side. The biggest one was Maria Sharapova, who lost in straight sets-6-4, 6-3 to Sabine Lisicki of Germany. Sharapova never really looked comfortable playing againt the 15th ranked player. Lisicki went after her shots, hitting big whenever she could. Another thing that worked against Sharapova? The windy conditions. She was unable to serve as well and had many double faults. Most people had picked Sharapova as the favorite to win Wimbledon. As a result of this loss, Sharapova will lose her number one ranking to Victoria Azarenka.

Kim Clijsters is another grand slam winner who lost on Day 8. She also lost to a German player, Angelique Kerber, 6-1, 6-1. This was Clijsters’ last Wimbledon. She will retire after the US Open, which is next month. Clijsters made 9 appearances in Wimbledon and made it to the SFs twice. This time she wasn’t able play as well as she would’ve liked. Overall, Kerber was the much better player. She will be facing Lisicki in the QFs.

Kim Clijsters’ last Wimbledon match
(courtesy of @wimbledon)

Roger Federer struggled a little bit in the first set of his fourth round match with Xavier Malisse and even lost the third set, but was able to win in four sets to make it to the QFs. During the first set, Federer took a medical time out, which is something he almost never does. He’s one of the few players on tour who’s been able to stay healthy for so long. In fact, he’s never retired from any of his matches during his years as a professional. He was able to overcome his back problem to win this match. Next up for him is Mikhail Youhzny.  Victoria Azarenka’s fourth round opponent, Ana Ivanovic, didn’t give her any problems. Azarenka won the match 6-1, 6-0. Novak Djokovic also had an easy match. He beat his Olympics doubles partner, Viktor Troicki, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3.

Serena Williams had another tough match. This time against Yaroslava Shvedova. She won in three sets agaisnt her, 6-1, 2-6, 7-5. She will be playing Petra Kvitova.  Kvitova also had a hard time in her match. She was playing Francesca Schiavone and like Williams, won in three sets.

Many of the matches, including a few of the men’s fourth round matches, were canceled because of the rain. These matches will be played on Day 9. Wimbledon is being shown on ESPN and ESPN 2.

A day after Rafael Nadal lost to world number 100, Lukas Rosol, it looked like Roger Federer was about to join him on the sidelines. He was playing in the third round and had dropped the first two sets to world number 29, Julien Benneteau.  Federer was able to easily win the next set, 6-2, but struggled in the fourth set. This set went to a tiebreak and most Federer fans were very nervous. It was very tense and Federer was 2 points away from losing this match, but he was able to hang on and win the fourth set 7-6(8-6). It was now even with two sets each and Federer was beginning to look like his old self again. He won the fifth set, and match, without a problem, winning 6-1. Had Federer lost, it would have been his earliest exit at a major since 2005. He will be playing Xavier Malisse of Belgium in the fourth round.

Novak Djokovic also dropped the first set of his match, but was able to win the next three sets against Radek Stepanek without controversy or drama. He plays his countryman, Viktor Troicki in the fourth round. The other favorites did well too. Kim Clijsters was up 6-3, 4-3 against Vera Zvonareva, when her opponent retired. Clijsters, who’s playing in her last Wimbledon, is trying to win one of the two majors she has yet to win. She has won the US Open and Australian Open. Maria Sharapova played much better in her third round match. She won in straight sets and is closer to winning her second Wimbledon title. She plays Sabine Lisicki in the next round.

There were a few upsets in Wimbledon, though none as big as Nadal’s loss. Nadia Petrova, seeded 20th, lost to Italian qualifier, Camilla Giorgi in straight sets. Another upset was Fernando Verdasco’s loss to Malisse. He lost in 5 sets. Verdasco is a player who has the talent, but at times loses matches he should easily win, like this match. Mikhail Youzhny, seeded 28th, defeated Janko Tipsarevic, seeded 8th. Juan Monaco, who was playing in the third round of Wimbledon for the first time in his career, was upset by Troicki in straight sets. Not sure this can be considered an upset, but Richard Gasquet defeated Nicolas Almagro in straight sets. Reason it might not be such an upset is that Almagro is considered a clay court specialist, a completely different surface than the one used in Wimbledon.

How did the Americans do? Mixed results. Sloane Stephens lost to Lisicki in a very close match. It was 7-6(7-5), 1-6, 2-6 for Lisicki. Stephens had two match points at 5-2 in the first set tiebreak, but ended up losing the next five points. Stephens should be proud of her efforts though, after all she had been playing one of last year’s Wimbledon semifinalist. Another young American, Christina McHale, also lost in the third round to Angelique Kerber. She lost in straight sets to the 8th ranked player. One American who did win his match was Sam Querrey. He defeated Canadian Milos Raonic in four very close sets- a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (7), 7-6 (8), 6-4. Querrey was once ranked 17th in the world, but was sidelined for a while after having surgery on his elbow. He’s had a tough time coming back, but this win is one of his biggest wins in a long time.

There’s no Wimbledon on Sunday. Matches will resume on Monday on ESPN from 8 am EST to 3 pm EST and on ESPN 2 from 7 am EST to 5 pm EST.

Roger Federer (courtesy of Wimbledon twitter)

Day 3 got off to a good start. The winner of 6 Wimbledon titles, Roger Federer, won his second round match in a little over an hour. He defeated Fabio Fognini of Italy in straight sets.  A few hours after Federer’s match, it started raining and play was suspended everywhere, except Center Court, which has a retractable roof. There was a rain delay which lasted over 2 hours. The only match on during this time was Caroline Wozniacki v Tamira Paszek. A number of matches were canceled and moved to tomorrow due to this rain delay. Some of the winners of Day 3 were- Juan Monaco, David Ferrer,  Kim Clijsters, Arantxa Rus, Sorana Cirstea, Andy Roddick, Tamira Paszek, and Sloane Stephens. Many of these names might not sound familiar, but that’s because they were the players who caused a few upsets today.

There weren’t any major upsets in the men’s matches today. A few seeded players lost, but none of them in the top 10. However, there were 3 upsets in the women’s matches. The first upset of the day was Samantha Stosur of Australia. She is currently ranked 5th in the world and won last year’s US Open. She was playing 72nd ranked Rus, from Holland, in the second round. Stosur lost the first set 4-6, but was able to win the second set 6-0. It looked like she had a chance of winning the third set, and the match, but Rus was just too good today. She won the third set 6-4. This wasn’t Rus’ first win over a top 10 player in a major. Last year, she beat Clijsters at the French Open.

Another upset of Day 3 was former number one Caroline Wozniacki, who lost to 37th ranked Paszek in the first round, after throwing away 2 match points. This was easily the most exciting matches of the day. At first, I only started watching this match because, as a result of the rain delay, it was the only match that was on. But I soon found myself glued to the tv. Both players played some great tennis. In fact, some people were saying it was the best women’s match of the year. There were long rallies and great points between the two. One of Paszek’s biggest strengths was her forehand. If it hadn’t been for the rain, I would’ve missed this match. So in a way, it’s a good thing it rained, otherwise most of us wouldn’t have been able to watch this great match.

The third set of the day was Li Na’s loss. She’s currently ranked number 11 in the world and won last year’s French Open. She was playing against 52nd ranked Sorana Cirstea in the second round. After winning the French Open last year, Na hasn’t had much luck in the majors. She played poorly in this match and lost 6-3, 6-4.

The favorites who won their matches were Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Clijsters. Federer played Fognini in front of Prince Charles, who was attending Wimbledon for the first time since 1970. This was a very easy match for Federer. He won in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2. Djokovic played against American teen Ryan Harrison. He also won in straight sets. Djokovic had to play his match under the roof of Centre Court. Clijsters was another favorite who had an easy match. She won 6-3, 6-3. All three of these players are through to the third round.

Two Americans who made it through were Stephens and Roddick. Stephens is a 19-year-old who’s playing at Wimbledon for the first time. She was playing 23rd ranked Petra Cetkovska in the second round and won in 3 sets. Stephens made it to the fourth round of the French Open last month and is considered one of the players to look out for in American tennis. Roddick is a veteran, he’s been to 3 Wimbledon finals, the most recent in 2009, when he lost to Federer. He finished his first round match against British Jamie Baker, after having his match postponed yesterday.

Two other players who won today were Monaco and Ferrer. Ernest Gulbis wasn’t so lucky. Prio to this Wimbledon, Monaco had never won a match on grass. This year he is in the third round. Ferrer is the 5th ranked player. Although his game is more suited for hard courts, he has been doing well so far at Wimbledon. Just two days ago, Gulbis upset Tomas Berdych in the first round on Centre Court. Many thought this match would be easier for him, as he was playing a qualifier. Unfortunately, they were wrong. Gulbis was playing Polish Jerzy Janowicz, who’s ranked 136th in the world. This match went to five sets, where Janowicz won the fifth set 9-7.

Wimbledon will be on ESPN 2 tomorrow, from 7 am est to 5 pm est.

Ernest Gulbis (courtesy of Wimbledon twitter)

For those of you who don’t know where Wimbledon takes place, it’s in London. This means that for us in the US that are interested in watching, we need to wake up pretty early. I woke up at 3:30 am just to watch today’s matches. Why would anyone wake up at that time? Simple, Wimbledon is on of the most popular tennis tournaments in the world, not only do us tennis fanatics love it, but so do casual fans. Day 1 didn’t disappoint. The top two stories of the day were the upsets of Tomas Berdych and Venus Williams. American John Isner was also upset in the first round by Alejandro Falla of Colombia.

Tomas Berdych, of Czech Republic, is the number 6 player in the world. He was a semi finalist in Wimbledon two years ago. He defeated Roger Federer in the QF and Novak Djokovic in the Sf before losing to Rafel Nadal in the final. Ernest Gulbis, of Latvia, is number 87 in the world. Most people probably saw this draw and thought it would be an easy match for Berdych. Gulbis proved them wrong. The two played for a little over 2 and a half hours before Gulbis upset the 6th ranked player. Before this, the last time Gulbis had won a match in a major tournament was in last year’s US Open. Two of the things that helped Gulbis in this match was his serve and movement. He had a huge first and second serve, and was able to run down most of the balls that Berdych hit to him. Berdych will be leaving Wimbledon wondering how he lost.  But this will definitely be one of Gulbis’ biggest wins in his career. He will face Jerzy Janowictz of Poland in his second round match.

Venus Williams was another player who lost in the first round. Williams hasn’t been playing her best tennis lately, but no one could’ve predicted that she’d lose in the first round. After all, she has won 5 Wimbledon titles.  She lost to Elena Vesnina of Russia, in her worst Wimbledon defeat since her Wimbledon debut back in 1997. Right from the start, you could tell this wasn’t the Venus Williams who’s won over 10 majors. She seemed to lack energy and was quickly down 0-5 in the first set. She managed to win a game, before losing the first set 6-1. Williams tried to get back into the match during the second set, but was only able to win 3 games. Vesnina deserves a lot of the credit though. She didn’t let the fact that she was playing a Williams sister intimidate her and was able to move Williams around. She was also to come up to the net and win points there. Although she hasn’t said it herself, many are wondering if this was Williams’ last Wimbledon tournament. After all, she will be 33 years old next year and most professional tennis players usually retire by this age.

Another American player that was upset was the number 1 American, John Isner. Most people first became aware of Isner when he and Nicolas Mahut played in the longest match in tennis history. In 2010, at Wimbledon, Isner and Mahut played a match that lasted 11 hours and 5 minutes. This match was played in a period of 3 days, Isner eventually won the match. The following year, Isner and Mahut met in the first round of Wimbledon yet again.  This time, they didn’t have a marathon match, Isner won that match too. Coincidentally, Mahut and Isner were scheduled to meet for the 3rd year in a row, this time in the second round. Unfortunately, since Isner lost, there wouldn’t be Isner-Mahut part 3. Isner has had a roller coaster year. He had two huge wins over Federer and Djokovic earlier this year, but hasn’t had much success in the majors. Isner has a strong serve that was made for this kind of surface, but wasn’t able to use it to his advantage. His return wasn’t as good, and his movement really hurt him.  Isner will be competing at the Summer Olympics next month. He needs to take this time and think about what he needs to do in order to do well. After all, the Summer Olympics will take place in London and he will be playing on the grass courts again.

The favorites- Djokovic, Federer, Maria Sharapova, and Kim Clijsters- all made it to the second round without a problem. Tomorrow, Rafael Nadal will start his quest for another Wimbledon title. The first matches start at 6:30 am EST.  The matches will be shown on ESPN 2.

Here are some of the results of Day 1

Upsets

E. Vesnina d V. Williams 6-1, 6-3

E. Gulbis d (6) T. Berdych 7-6 (7-5),  7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4)

A. Falla d J. Isner 6-4, 6-7 (7-9), 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 7-5

Favorites

(3) R. Federer d A. Ramos 6-1, 6-1, 6-1

(1) M. Sharapova d A Rodionova 6-2, 6-3

K. Clijsters d (18) J. Jankovic 6-2, 6-4

(5) S. Stosur d C. Suarez-Navarro 6-1, 6-3

(1) N. Djovokovic d J. Ferrero 6-3, 6-3, 6-1

Americans(the Americans are in bold)

T. Babos d M. Oudin  6-4, 4-6, 6-3

S. Stephens d K. Pliskova 6-2, 6-2

(23) P. Cetkovska d V. King 6-4, 6-2

R. Sweeting d P. Starace 6-2, 2-0 (retired)

M. Russell d A. Menendez-Maceiras 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (9-7)

(26) M. Youzhny d D. Young 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-3

R. Harrison d Y. Lu 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2

B. Becker d J. Blake 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 6-0, 6-4

Others

(13) G. Simon d P. Matthieu 6-3, 5-4 (retired)

(8) J. Tipsarevic d D. Nalbandian 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2

(17) F. Verdasco d J. Wang 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 7-5

(18) R. Gasquet d T. Kamke 6-2, 6-2, 6-2

(15) J. Monaco d L. Mayer 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5)

We are one week away from Wimbledon and I, for one, am very excited about it.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Wimbledon, it’s one of the four majors in tennis. It takes place in London and it’s the only major that’s played on grass court. It’s also the oldest tennis tournament in the world, the first Wimbledon tournament was played in 1877. This year, it will take place from June 25th-July 8th.

What do I love about Wimbledon? Well, as I mentioned before, Wimbledon has been around for a very long time. So naturally, they have a few traditions. There’s a dress code for players, they must wear all white, no exceptions.

Roger Federer, the 6-time Wimbledon champion

Another tradition they have at Wimbledon is the spectators are given strawberries and cream when they attend a match.

Strawberries and Cream+ Wimbledon=the perfect match

                When you’re at a Wimbledon match, there’s a chance you might get a glimpse of the Queen of England. The royal family is usually in attendance, esp when the British number 1, Andy Murray is playing a match.

Last year’s singles winners were Novak Djokovic, from Serbia, and Petra Kvitova, from Czech Republic. Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal, from Spain, 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3; while Kvitova defeated Maria Sharapova, from Russia, 6-3, 6-4.  As always, the “big three” Federer, Djokovic, and Nadal are the favorites to win this year. For the females, it’s a little bit more difficult to predict who will win. Maybe the women’s number one player Sharapova will win, could be one of the veterans (Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, etc), or even one of the wild cards ( Laura Robson or Heather Watson, both British players). Who knows, anything can happen. Personally, I will be rooting for Roger Federer and either Williams sister to win the title.

Here’s the trophy two singles players(male and female) will win at the end of the tournament.

After struggling with his first two French Open matches, Rafael Nadal showed up in good form on Saturday and won his third round match against Croatian Antonio Veic, 6-1, 6-3, 6-0. Nadal is now 41-1 at the French Open.

Earlier this week, Nadal had difficulties against John Isner on Tuesday, taking five sets (a first for Nadal at the French Open) to earn the win after struggling with the 6’9″  American’s cannonball serve. Two days later in the second round, Nadal lagged behind fellow Spaniard Pablo Andjuar 5-1 in the third set to come back and win, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6.

Many had to wonder what was in Nadal’s head; I kept thinking he may have knee problems again.

With his early week struggles, Nadal commented:

What is wrong about me is my footwork, my legs,” he said earlier this week. “But they’re very much connected to my head. Maybe I’m more nervous than usual. I don’t know.”

Any doubts that may have lingered for Nadal were erased on Saturday with the dominant win and a brief 90-minute match compared to the seven-plus hours it took during the week for his previous victories.

In response to Saturday’s match against Veic, Nadal said:

“I improved in every aspect of my game. I was more aggressive; I made fewer mistakes. I think that at the moment, I have more control of the ball,” Nadal said. “I played very well on my forehand. I opened the court with my cross-court shots. I won points with my forehands. My backhand has improved quite a lot.”

Solutions don’t come from heaven. I mean, you can’t change everything in one day. And you know what? I had not forgotten how to play tennis for a week, but I played better today.I have more confidence, and that’s a major step forward for me.”

Good to know it wasn’t physical problems.

Nadal will meet unseeded Ivan Ljubicic in the fourth round, who beat No. 16 Fernando Verdaco 6-3, 7-6 (6), 6-4 to advance.

While it’s good to have Nadal back, should he advance to the finals, there’s still his nemesis Novak Djokovic to contend with for a potential title. Also on Saturday, Djokovic captured his third-round win by defeating Juan Martin del Potro, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 and continued his perfect season with 42 consecutive wins.

However before he won the match, he had to endure a Friday evening start against del Potro that was later called by officials and ultimately completed on Saturday.

While Nadal marches toward a tie with Bjorn Borg for French Open victories, Djokovic is now only four wins away from a record 44-0 season and a No. 1 world ranking.

Next up for Djokovic is Frenchman Richard Gasquet.

Other than a match against Nadal in the finals, I don’t know what will break Djokovic’s streak. I’d never wish an injury on any athlete but who knows, maybe an upset is on the horizon by the local countryman?