TENNIS: Wimbledon 2015 rounds 1 and 2
Jul. 3rd, 2015 08:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllThe Wimbledon I’ve watched so far has been made up of a collage of matches - none seen from start to finish. When she doesn’t swear, Heather Watson has been entertaining to watch, but if Serena Williams keeps her intensity level of the second round up, she won’t win. I have yet to see anything to change my mind about the favourites. I watched Bouchard collapse and Cilic’s inspired opponent blink at the end of five sets – interesting that his match was the one to replace US Open final opponent Nishikori, when the latter withdrew, injured.
I haven’t seen all of Wimbledon 2Day or whatever textspeak name it’s called either – it’s basically a slight rebrand that allows for them to have the BBC 2 logo everywhere. I think it’s a good thing the re-jig includes Claire Balding as a presenter (should have happened a couple or more years ago). I haven’t seen her interview a tennis parent yet, but she’s used to presenting live sporting events and has that natural quickness and warm informality that make her good at humanising what she's doing. The show’s still settling into its groove I think (and you still have puntastic recaps of the day’s events that usually don’t work).
On day four, there was an impressive, composed win from Ward. Kvitova, Murray and Federer breezed through. I would still like to know why Bedene became a British citizen (he’s fortunate that a pro dancer on Strictly Come Dancing paved the way on the pronunciation of his first name), but Troicki has been in form on grass, and so, apparently, has qualifier Dustin Brown. The match against Nadal was entertaining to watch, with some element of disbelief that Brown was playing so well and in that style throughout. (I missed the final game.) I wanted Nadal to come back, so kept being disappointed as he missed shots that you’d traditionally expect him to make, but for the fourth year running, Nadal’s opponent found a really high level against him at Wimbledon.
I haven’t seen all of Wimbledon 2Day or whatever textspeak name it’s called either – it’s basically a slight rebrand that allows for them to have the BBC 2 logo everywhere. I think it’s a good thing the re-jig includes Claire Balding as a presenter (should have happened a couple or more years ago). I haven’t seen her interview a tennis parent yet, but she’s used to presenting live sporting events and has that natural quickness and warm informality that make her good at humanising what she's doing. The show’s still settling into its groove I think (and you still have puntastic recaps of the day’s events that usually don’t work).
On day four, there was an impressive, composed win from Ward. Kvitova, Murray and Federer breezed through. I would still like to know why Bedene became a British citizen (he’s fortunate that a pro dancer on Strictly Come Dancing paved the way on the pronunciation of his first name), but Troicki has been in form on grass, and so, apparently, has qualifier Dustin Brown. The match against Nadal was entertaining to watch, with some element of disbelief that Brown was playing so well and in that style throughout. (I missed the final game.) I wanted Nadal to come back, so kept being disappointed as he missed shots that you’d traditionally expect him to make, but for the fourth year running, Nadal’s opponent found a really high level against him at Wimbledon.
