After two more rain affected days, the second round has not been completed on schedule with a number of second round matches spilling over on to Friday. Of the outstanding matches the highlight is likely to be British youngster Laura Robson taking on title contender Maria Sharapova. 17-year-old Robson is seen as one of the future stars of British tennis but will just be looking to give a good account of herself against a player who won the tournament at Robson’s age. Other players in second round action on Friday are British number 1, Elena Baltacha, against 20th seed Shuai Peng, and world number 1 Caroline Wozniacki against Virginie Razzano.
Of the completed matches on the men’s side, the ‘big 4’ all sailed through their respective matches in straight sets. Provided the scheduling runs smoothly, Nadal will play Gilles Muller and Murray will play Ivan Ljubicic on Friday, whilst Federer and Djokovic will be in action on Saturday against David Nalbandian and Marcos Baghdatis respectively. It would be a surprise if any of those matches turned out to be anything other than one-sided, but Federer - Nalbandian could be an interesting game as the duo renew their rivalry which began on the Juniors circuit.
There were second round problems for some of the players in the unofficial second tier of men’s tennis, not least 5th seed Robin Soderling. Soderling, who is seen as one of the genuine threats to the dominance of the top 4, came back from 2 sets down to knock out former Wimbledon champion, Lleyton Hewitt. Although it was a strong recovery against a player of proven grass court quality, Soderling will need to come out of the blocks faster in his future rounds.
Another player who made a dramatic come-back was giant Argentine, Juan Martin Del-Potro. Del-Potro’s match against Olivier Rochus began on Wednesday evening but had to be completed on Thursday. The final game on Wednesday saw Del-Potro lose the first set and, in his anger at the loss and the slipperiness of the court, he took off his trainers and hurled them into the crowd (or at least that was the intention; one trainer was thrown with such venom that it went out of the court and, in fact, out of the Wimbledon grounds). Del Potro returned on Thursday as an altogether much calmer figure and dropped just 5 games as he won the match in 4 sets.
Tomas Berdych, Andy Roddick, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet, all players with realistic hopes of progressing to the later stages of the tournament, all reached the third round with only Tsonga conceding a set. The biggest upset on the men’s side was the defeat of 14th seed Stanislas Wawrinka against Italian Simone Bolelli.
Due to patches of rain, the Centre Court roof was in action on both Wednesday and Thursday and, at the start of play on Wednesday, Venus Williams’ Centre Court victory over Kimiko Date-Krumm was the only match being played. But this turned out to be for the best as the two veterans provided a spectacular match; an early contender for match of the tournament. Date-Krumm won the first set (which the BBC commentator proclaimed as the “best set of women’s tennis” he had ever witnessed), but Venus came back, in no small part due to her vastly superior serve, to take the next two sets and win the match.
Venus, at 31, is one of the more senior players on tour but she was a relative junior against her 40 year old opponent. Date-Krumm’s first played in Wimbledon in 1989. She reached a career high ranking of 4 in 1995 and made the Wimbledon semis in 1996 before retiring from the game. 12 years later she returned to the tour, apparently at the request of her husband who had not seen her play during her first stint. Considering how much is made of players returning after just a 2 year absence from the tour, Date-Krumm’s return after 12 years is remarkable. Her fitness is exceptional (as she proved by revealing an intensive fitness regime and rather impressive marathon times following the match) but the general quality of her play was superb. The match, which was followed by a standing ovation for both players, showed that age is not as much of a handicap as people might have previously thought.
The rest of the women’s second round was rather overshadowed by that match as the top seeds made steady progress to third round until, late on Thursday, reigning French Open champion and 3rd seed, Na Li, was knocked out by German Sabine Lisicki. Lisicki came from a set down to win the decider 8-6. Australian Open runner up and French Open champion Li will be disappointed with the defeat; following her victory at Roland Garros, Li opted to avoid returning home to China in a bid to focus on Wimbledon. Her defeat will be of particular interest to former world number 1 Ana Ivanovic. Ivanovic has performed very strongly in her opening two matches and will now face unseeded opposition until the quarter final stage.
Of the third round matches on Friday, the biggest draws will be Murray’s match on Centre Court and Nadal’s on Court 1. Also on Centre Court is Andy Roddick against Feliciano Lopez and Daniela Hantuchova against Victoria Azarenka. Court 1 opens with Robson Sharapova, followed by Venus Williams against Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. Courts 12, 14 and 18 are the only outside courts with singles matches scheduled on Friday.
Akbar Shah
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