TENNIS: Wimbledon QFs
Jul. 7th, 2016 07:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllThis year, I’m only watching week 2 in the evenings, which means watching little live tennis. On Tuesday, I saw the Williams play crunching doubles, knowing they’d won through to the semis – is Venus going to be able to maintain all this? Three champions (but obviously Serena is a long way ahead, Venus in second, although most of her wins were at Wimbledon, but a long time ago, and newly minted Australian Open champion Kerber) and one player with a proven doubles pedigree – Vesnina representing a noble tradition, there (and it being one match too many for her opponent). I mean, on the face of it, Kerber vs. V. Williams is the semi-final that should be most competitive, Serena having snapped into week 2 focus (but there is a but since Wimbledon last year...so who knows?)
For the men, I saw the end of the first set tiebreak between Murray and Tsonga, where Murray just edged it, then put his foot on the throttle in the seond as Tsonga worried over the loss of the first. But credit to Tsonga, he came back in the third, and Murray could do nothing on his serve and kept making errors. They were grinding through the fourth when I abandoned it for the football* but at half-time I learned Murray had won in five.
Phew. This, of course, puts him in the same position as Federer – I did think Federer vs. Cilic would be quite a match, with Cilic being quite a step up in opposition for Federer. But Federer got through it and will face Raonic, who I think is clearly on an upward curve, and had more than Querry – although the American must be able to hold his head up high for having backed up his win against Djokovic. Berdych unsurprisingly beat Pouille, but, er, is the lowest ranked player left.
As for the football, as one of the S4C commentators put it, we’re sad, not disappointed. What a championship after all those years! Nothing quite came together on the pitch – experts can better tell if the loss of Ramsay was the key or if it was more Portugal’s play; it did seem to me that there was little that could have been done to stop the two goals. But I think we’re all very proud of the ‘bois’ every one jack, even the ones who are defnitely not Swansea Jacks.
For the men, I saw the end of the first set tiebreak between Murray and Tsonga, where Murray just edged it, then put his foot on the throttle in the seond as Tsonga worried over the loss of the first. But credit to Tsonga, he came back in the third, and Murray could do nothing on his serve and kept making errors. They were grinding through the fourth when I abandoned it for the football* but at half-time I learned Murray had won in five.
Phew. This, of course, puts him in the same position as Federer – I did think Federer vs. Cilic would be quite a match, with Cilic being quite a step up in opposition for Federer. But Federer got through it and will face Raonic, who I think is clearly on an upward curve, and had more than Querry – although the American must be able to hold his head up high for having backed up his win against Djokovic. Berdych unsurprisingly beat Pouille, but, er, is the lowest ranked player left.
As for the football, as one of the S4C commentators put it, we’re sad, not disappointed. What a championship after all those years! Nothing quite came together on the pitch – experts can better tell if the loss of Ramsay was the key or if it was more Portugal’s play; it did seem to me that there was little that could have been done to stop the two goals. But I think we’re all very proud of the ‘bois’ every one jack, even the ones who are defnitely not Swansea Jacks.
