TENNIS: Wimbledon round 1
Jun. 26th, 2013 07:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllAs expected, I'm able to watch less of Wimbledon than I did of the French Open.
If I had written about my other expectations, which I didn't get around to, but humour me, I would have said that on the women’s side, I expect Serena to win unless if someone else plays an absolute blinder (eg Kvitova). On the men’s, well, I wanted to see how they all played in the first week, although I was only thinking seriously of the top three and Nadal. Federer and Murray (coming off an injury etc) were in form on grass, we knew. How much would the French Open affect Nadal and Djokovic? (What we’d seen so far made me dubious about Berdych and Del Potro stepping up, and probably Tsonga too.)
And then on Monday night, I came home to see Murray seeming to let his concentration slip to let Becker do better than he needed to, so I switched over to the shocking sight of Nadal down one set, facing real competition in the second tie-breaker. I thought he’d step up a gear, but he couldn’t. Unlike in the French he couldn’t find a way, didn’t have the backhand or the legs. Not to take it away from Darcis, who I had never heard of before, but had clearly been studying, remembered to play aggressively and, most impressively, did not waver.
Um. I really feel for Nadal, because it seems to be his body (knee?) that’s letting him down and presumably the French and the season leading up to it took it out of him. It makes you think that, despite the monumental achievement of winning the French for the eighth time and all the breathless talk of ‘greatest ever?’, he’s not the force he was, and Djokovic and Murray have come forward in the meantime.
Day two and the grass is still green, almost shockingly so, and the stripes are still visible. I just saw bits of matches – Lisicki was playing well but that wasn’t enough to stop me watching my first Today at Wimbledon to see Robson being all composed and consistently good. BUT we’ve always known she could be that good and I understood that she was only just outside of being seeded, so I refuse to get that excited, yet. I did think that her memories of the Olympics might be a boost for her. As it might be for other players - Darcis referenced it.
Serena, unsurprisingly, won easily and Djokovic looked good, which answered a few questions. Tomic made me laugh in disbelief by revealing he hadn’t eaten properly – he’s a professional tennis player, you’d think he’d have got that sorted out! I'm fairly sure Lleyton Hewitt always makes sure he's eaten properly - well done him for beating Wawrinka.
If I had written about my other expectations, which I didn't get around to, but humour me, I would have said that on the women’s side, I expect Serena to win unless if someone else plays an absolute blinder (eg Kvitova). On the men’s, well, I wanted to see how they all played in the first week, although I was only thinking seriously of the top three and Nadal. Federer and Murray (coming off an injury etc) were in form on grass, we knew. How much would the French Open affect Nadal and Djokovic? (What we’d seen so far made me dubious about Berdych and Del Potro stepping up, and probably Tsonga too.)
And then on Monday night, I came home to see Murray seeming to let his concentration slip to let Becker do better than he needed to, so I switched over to the shocking sight of Nadal down one set, facing real competition in the second tie-breaker. I thought he’d step up a gear, but he couldn’t. Unlike in the French he couldn’t find a way, didn’t have the backhand or the legs. Not to take it away from Darcis, who I had never heard of before, but had clearly been studying, remembered to play aggressively and, most impressively, did not waver.
Um. I really feel for Nadal, because it seems to be his body (knee?) that’s letting him down and presumably the French and the season leading up to it took it out of him. It makes you think that, despite the monumental achievement of winning the French for the eighth time and all the breathless talk of ‘greatest ever?’, he’s not the force he was, and Djokovic and Murray have come forward in the meantime.
Day two and the grass is still green, almost shockingly so, and the stripes are still visible. I just saw bits of matches – Lisicki was playing well but that wasn’t enough to stop me watching my first Today at Wimbledon to see Robson being all composed and consistently good. BUT we’ve always known she could be that good and I understood that she was only just outside of being seeded, so I refuse to get that excited, yet. I did think that her memories of the Olympics might be a boost for her. As it might be for other players - Darcis referenced it.
Serena, unsurprisingly, won easily and Djokovic looked good, which answered a few questions. Tomic made me laugh in disbelief by revealing he hadn’t eaten properly – he’s a professional tennis player, you’d think he’d have got that sorted out! I'm fairly sure Lleyton Hewitt always makes sure he's eaten properly - well done him for beating Wawrinka.
