Serena Williams, winner of the 2012 Singles and Doubles title

What a great day for Serena Williams. Not only did she win her 5th Wimbledon title in singles, she also won her 5th Wimbledon title in doubles, with her sister, Venus Williams.

First up for Serena Williams was her singles final, against world number 3 Agnieszka Radwanska. She won the first set 6-1. It seemed as though this would be an easy match for her. In the second set, she was up 4-2 and she was 2 games away from winning in straight sets. All of a sudden, Radwanska started playing better and better and came back to win the second set 7-5.  Radswanska was in control of the match, it seemed. At 2-2, though, Williams started serving much better and moving better. This helped her win the next four games and her 5th Wimbledon singles title. The score was 6-1, 5-7, 6-2.

The wildcard men’s doubles team who beat Bob and Mike Bryan yesterday, won their first ever title together. Jonathan Marray, Great Britain, and Frederik Nielsen, Denmark defeated Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(7-5), 6-7(5-7), 6-3.  Marray and Nielsen were given a wildcard to Wimbledon, but no one really expected them to go far, esp considering they had to face the defending champions-Bryan Brothers-and other seeded doubles teams. The two of them had never played in a tour level match before and Nielsen had never won a match at a major. On their way to the final, they defeated: Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez, number 9 seeds, Aisem Quereshi and Jean-Julien Rojer, number 8 seeds, and the biggest upset, the Bryan Brothers.  This match was huge for both players. Nielsen was the first male player from Denmark to ever win a title in a Grand Slam, single or doubles. Marray was the first British man to win the doubles title sincer 1936.

While the men’s doubles final had two first time winners, the women’s doubles final had the veterans. Serena and Venus Williams, who were unseeded, defeated Czechs Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 7-5, 6-4 in a little over an hour and fifteen minutes. Their opponents had won the French Open doubles title last year, so they knew how to perform in big matches. The first set was a little tough for the Williams’ sisters. Both doubles teams held serve until 5-5, when the Czech team was broken. Serena served for the match and they won the first set.  They didn’t have much time, they wanted to finish the match before 11pm, which is when all the matches are suspended and postponed until the following day. They didn’t need to worry. The second set was much easier for the Williams’ sisters.  They won the match after Venus closed to set with an ace.  This was their 5th Wimbledon title and 13th major title overall.

The Men’s Singles final will be on ESPN at 9 am EST. It will be a historic match whether Roger Federer or Andy Murray win on Sunday.  If Federer wins, he will win his 7th Wimbledon title and 17th major. If Murray wins, he will be the first British man to win a major in over 70 years. Good luck to both, although I will be rooting for Federer.

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.

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)