Wimbledon Day 6 Tidbits: Time, Truth and Heart.

1) I never cease to marvel at the “orderliness” at Wimbledon. For a tournament of rules and traditions, it has a strange protective effect over the top seeds, it shields them from freak upsets in the first week. It also has the ability to realise pre-tournament predictions, be it an ultimate Federer/Nadal-Roddick showdown, or a Williams final. We may or may not get Federer/Murray and Venus/Serena in the finals this year, but that just seems to be the way Wimblydondon rolls.

Not that upsets don’t happen at Wimbledon, but they’re less likely to happen. Particularly on the WTA side of things, I had expected Ivanovic, Safina or Dementieva to fall much earlier. On the men’s side, I had been predicting Simon and Verdasco to exist early, but both seem to have found their range in their respective third round matches. Even Amelie Mauresmo is putting up a solid performance. Dare I hope that Momo takes down Safina? Dare I? Looking at her first service game against Pennetta, no – I dare not. 

But go Momo nonetheless! 

 

2) Ana Ivanovic played the best match I’ve seen from her in quite a while. It’s a pity she had to take down my compatriot in doing so. When that ball toss is right, Ana has quite a good serve, and she seems to be learning to take her time with the ball toss. Good signs? Whatever. I was too busy paying attention to the hunk in her box. Oh Adam, we could’ve been beautiful together. *puppy face*

 

 

That said, if Venus loses to her I might just throw myself into the Yarra again. I had Ana as a dark horse for Wimbledon, and she may turn out to be just that. Wimblydondon Gods, protect thy champion!

 

3) Of course if Venus plays the way she did against Suarez Navarro, I don’t see it happening. How DIVINE was this woman? The first set of the match just topped the Azarenka and Safina quarterfinal at Roland Garros as one of the most enjoyable dominant performances by a player. Interesting to see the number of times she approached the net, even S&Ving on quite a few serves. By the middle of the second set, Suarez Navarro had found her range and her presence in the match, giving us glimpses of the kind of game that saw her advance to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open. But in the end, Venus just had too much power, athleticism, and wingspan for Carla. Great to see her commitment to coming to the net at this tournament, it gave me warm-fuzzies to see a player’s game continue to evolve at the age of 29.

 

 

4) Raise your bone-china teacups at our homies in the US of A, who found a 17-year-old sweetheart to swoon over yesterday. With Aussie TV coverage stuck on Hewitt v Petzschner, I switched to livestream to catch a glimpse of this girl. Must say I was quite impressed. Oudin was 20% head, 20% legs, and 60% heart. With all of JJ’s dramatic “woman problems”, the girl remained focused. When she had four set points in the first set and couldn’t convert, I was so sure that she was going to go quietly into the good night, but I was wrong. The girl remained positive, ballsy, took risks and reaped rewards. Considering she almost could’ve lost in qualifying, fourth round is a pretty impressive showing for a 17 year old debutante. I like her guts, and her hoop earrings.

 

 

5) Someone whose guts I don’t like – Jelena Jankovic. 

Oh JJ, remember the times when we used to be best friends? Okay no, that was just wishful thinking on my part. But I don’t even want to be manicure buddies with you anymore. I like the sore losers and the bitchiness in the WTA, it makes it fun to follow, but this is a little too sore for me. 

 

Q. She’s still very young, but can you tell us what you think her potential is?

JELENA JANKOVIC: No, it’s tough to say. But, you know, from what I have seen, you know, she can play if you let her play. But she cannot hurt you with anything. She doesn’t have any weapons, you know, from what I’ve seen.

 You know, I played with half pace. I served, you know, like almost my first serve was like a second serve and all those kind of things. But if I had a little bit more ‑‑ if I felt a little bit more fresh at the end of that second set, I could have won in two sets.

But I just was ‑‑ the more I ‑‑ the longer I stayed on court the worse and worse I felt, and that was not good for me. I know my chance was to win that second set, but unfortunately didn’t happen, and then everything went in her favor.

 

Q. Except for her movement?

JELENA JANKOVIC: She’s a consistent and quite solid player. She doesn’t make so many mistakes.But she doesn’t do anything either, so it’s like she’s depending kind of on you. And, as well, it’s another story when she’s young and she has nothing to lose, no pressure. You know, even when it’s an important moment, she can just go for it.

And nobody’s expecting her to win, so it’s just a bonus if she does well. But if she loses, you know, nobody will tell her anything.

So it’s a different, you know, situation for those kind of players. And then for players like me, which you’re expected to win, you have pressure on yourself, you have expectations, as well. She just goes out there to enjoy it and give her best.

 

The pot calling the kettle weak. Perhaps we should remind JJ that she hit 14 winners while her opponent with “no weapons” hit 38?

 

6) One last Aussie standing out of the original four. Lleyton Hewitt scored a solid straight sets victory over Petzschner, who has the most annoying name to spell. But Petzy can play, I must say, I seem to remember him winning something during the indoor season late last year, or at least I remember making a failed attempt to learn his name at the time. Lleyton did well towards the tail end of each set. Now one more round at least. Pretty please?

I’m uber impressed with the Fanatics at Wimbledon. 

 

 

7) ARod is still doing that shuda-been-straight-sets-but-ended-in-four thing. I’ve been saying that he’ll make it into the final, but I’m so not sure now: Murray’s played fairly dominant tennis in the last two rounds. 

 

Mildly cross-eyed, no? 

 

8.) How about the other New Balls guys? I can’t believe how well they’ve been doing this tournament.

The Tennis Gods are smiling on Tommy Haas at last, and gave him a second spring. I never liked him much in his early days. Sure the guy played beautiful tennis, but he spent half the time acting like a monkey on court, and routinely blew two sets to love leads while looking like someone stole his banana.

Tommy Haas wasn’t about to blow the fifth set when he came out at 6 all in the fifth against Cilic. The oldest guy left in the draw against the youngest. Old school serve and volley (since when did Tommy Haas S&V? Since now apparently…) versus new age fearless power tennis. When serving for the match, Haas clearly tensed up and threw Cilic a lifeline with two break points. But it was Cilic who proved to be the tenser of the two. He had Haas on the ropes, the court wide open, and shanked his forehand each time. I like the kid, but I wasn’t sorry he lost. He has something on his side that Haas doesn’t have. Time. 

 

 

9) Another living fossil who’s resurfaced again during the grass season – JC Ferrero. At the beginning of the week, I laughed when I read JCF’s presser, where he talked about becoming motivated again and returning to the top 10. Two rounds later, Ferrero claimed his first top 10 casualty since Rome(?) last year and that motivation showed. Despite being outaced and outgunned by a more powerful Gonzo, JCF remained consistent, making just 15 unforced errors in 5 sets. 

The match was also dramatic for the intermittent rain, dimming daylight, and the shambolic announcement (while the players were on court) that the match might be moved to centre court where the roof had been put across. Are you that desperate to use the roof, Wimblydondon? 

 

 

JC continued to sound positive in his presser. 

 

Q. Are you surprised to be in the second week at Wimbledon?

JUAN CARLOS FERRERO: Not at all. I was before, so it’s not the first time. I knew before the tournament that I was playing very well on grass because I made a great week on Queen’s. So I came here, you know, after a week practice and at home, doing not a lot physically and ready to be here.

That’s the way I want it to be, no? Physically I’m 100 percent okay, and I’m not surprised to be in the second week at all.

 

I’ve stopped using the word “vamos” in the last few years because of my Roger conversion, and truth be told, “hopp” just doesn’t have the same musicality to it. It makes me feel like Heidi half the time. Time to abuse “vamos” again. With no points to defend for the rest of the year, to the top 20 and beyond I say – VAMOS JCF! 

 

10) Not so surprised that Lisicki took down Kuzzy, who just doesn’t feel it on grass. When I first saw Lisicki play at Hopmans earlier in the year, I had no idea who she was, but loved all that I saw except for her DFs. Sabine plays high-risk, gutsy tennis that either ends up giving the match to her opponent with unforced errors, or making every single person watching the match fall in love with her killer instincts and positive energy. It’s fantastic to listen to a commentator who has yet to see her play slowly come to the realisation of what gem the girl is. Not sure that I like her quite as much as I like CWoz yet. But how could you not love this face?

 

 

11) For a while it looked like we could have another American pulling an upset. But Stan’s shotmaking rescued him in time. Looking forward to Wawrinka v Murray, not that I think Stan has a chance, but great result for him, reaching the second week at Wimbledon once again. 

 

12) In other results… the Worm came through in five sets against David Ferrer, with some pretty dramatic knee problems along the way. He’s due to face Hewitt next round, can you image the amount of fist pumps, disco moves and lawn-mowing going on? 

Only watched the last set of Berdych v Davydenko, and saw all I needed to see. Tomas Berdych is on fire and ready to burn.

He came into the match with a 0-8 record against Davydenko, but bullied Davo into submission in straight sets. After 6 days of play, Berdych is the only guy left in the draw who’s yet to drop a set – I’m just glad he’s on the other side of the draw. Roddick ought to look out. It would be a huge disappointment if he came into Wimbledon with such solid results, only to fall to Berdych fourth round. 

 

Was Chace Crawford at Wimbledon? Oh yeth he wath…. ahermmmm

 

 

Images via Yahoo UK & Ireland