TENNIS: Wimbledon days three and four
Jun. 24th, 2011 07:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllI didn’t watch much tennis on Wednesday. I came home to see that Laura Robson was playing, and eventually saw her win. Her winners were impressive, but the girl needs to get over her abject terror of the volley and do better at the net. The commentators were hilarious, having clearly given up on being unbiased before they even began hinting at gamesmanship, with Virginia Wade sounding like she’d walked out of a book named ‘A Tennis Term’ at times. Meanwhile Keovathong was getting thrashed on a show court by Kvitova.
Someone called me during the first part of Today at Wimbledon (so I muted the sound), fortunately some of it included ‘how the British did’. I got to see glimpses of the Date-Krum vs Venus fest (I can’t believe Inverdale didn’t ask Lindsay Davenport if that didn’t make her want to return again, although she didn’t look as if she’d drunk enough to be drawn on the subject). I kept yelling ‘Tsonga’ as they’d left him off the fifth man list, although unless if this fifth man makes it to the semis, who cares? And a rematch of Nadal and Murray, and Federer and Djokovic in the semis is quite intriguing enough.
On Thursday, I came home and rised to find that Soderling and Hewitt were still playing. To be honest, I thought that Hewitt might push Soderling a little, but not as much as being two sets ad a break in the fifth up. But it is grass and one can't doubt his grit. However, if that was the first time Soderling came back from two sets down, good on him. And I was thankful, becuase it meant that I could watch the whole of the next two matches. As soon as they started talking, I realised that I did remember Lisicki from 2009 and, of course, I knew about Li. With both women serving well from the outset, I sniffed a three setter. In fact, I sniffed a tie-break in the first set...just before Li Na broke! Lisicki's response in the seond was encouraging - and showed confidence in her game. I started wanting her to win somewhere around this point, perhaps because of her occasional touch shots. She really is a good player, and while I don't think 22 in the world (her past high) is top of the game, I think she's got enough to go beyond that. Her serves to save herself in the third were stupendous. It was Li Na who lost the plot, her forehands going all iffy. Excellent match. I'm glad that the women are providing them!
And then I watched Federer outclass Mannarino, whom I remembered from Queen's. Like Petchy and Henman, at times, you could almost giggle - maybe they needed a third, because Henman had some silent patches, but at times, they were a really good commentating team. I would like to see Djokovic play, but I'm bound to on Saturday, aren't I?
Someone called me during the first part of Today at Wimbledon (so I muted the sound), fortunately some of it included ‘how the British did’. I got to see glimpses of the Date-Krum vs Venus fest (I can’t believe Inverdale didn’t ask Lindsay Davenport if that didn’t make her want to return again, although she didn’t look as if she’d drunk enough to be drawn on the subject). I kept yelling ‘Tsonga’ as they’d left him off the fifth man list, although unless if this fifth man makes it to the semis, who cares? And a rematch of Nadal and Murray, and Federer and Djokovic in the semis is quite intriguing enough.
On Thursday, I came home and rised to find that Soderling and Hewitt were still playing. To be honest, I thought that Hewitt might push Soderling a little, but not as much as being two sets ad a break in the fifth up. But it is grass and one can't doubt his grit. However, if that was the first time Soderling came back from two sets down, good on him. And I was thankful, becuase it meant that I could watch the whole of the next two matches. As soon as they started talking, I realised that I did remember Lisicki from 2009 and, of course, I knew about Li. With both women serving well from the outset, I sniffed a three setter. In fact, I sniffed a tie-break in the first set...just before Li Na broke! Lisicki's response in the seond was encouraging - and showed confidence in her game. I started wanting her to win somewhere around this point, perhaps because of her occasional touch shots. She really is a good player, and while I don't think 22 in the world (her past high) is top of the game, I think she's got enough to go beyond that. Her serves to save herself in the third were stupendous. It was Li Na who lost the plot, her forehands going all iffy. Excellent match. I'm glad that the women are providing them!
And then I watched Federer outclass Mannarino, whom I remembered from Queen's. Like Petchy and Henman, at times, you could almost giggle - maybe they needed a third, because Henman had some silent patches, but at times, they were a really good commentating team. I would like to see Djokovic play, but I'm bound to on Saturday, aren't I?
