As planned, it was a very busy Day 3 at Wimbledon, with plenty of rain delayed matches being fit in under continuing rainy conditions. Here are a few things that stand out.
Wow, what a match! It took a Champion’s effort from a rusty Venus Williams to take out 40 year old (!!!) Kimiko Date-Krumm in the second round today, 8-6 in the third. It seems that now more than ever we’re expecting the 30-year-old five-time Wimbledon champ to fizzle out – but what’s her excuse when she’s playing someone ten years older? Anyway, I liked this comment from Venus after the match (via the San Francisco Examiner):
“I’m not sure what lies in the future for me,” was her indirect response to how long she’ll play. “I tend to base all my goals around the Olympics nowadays. I hope to have a few more Olympics left in me. But obviously [Date-Krumm] is a huge role model.”
A Japanese player half Kimiko’s age scored a minor upset over Bethanie Mattek-Sands today. Misaki Doi also won the battle of the asymmetrical fashion statements.
Ack!
vs. Ahhhh!
Melanie has become the first female spokesperson, not to mention the first tennis player, to represent Eyeblack.com, so I guess her Wimbledon has a silver (actually, black) lining.
A very interesting bit of information from reporter Tom Tebbut on renewed domestic bliss in the Nadal camp:
The parents of Rafael Nadal – Ana Maria and Sebastian – are back together after they separated two years ago. They appeared side by side in the Royal Box for Rafael’s opening-round win on Monday and an impeccable source has confirmed that they have indeed reunited.
His parents were sitting together in the royal box during his first round match. According to the story, a member of Nadal’s “inner circle” blamed his parents’ 2009 split for his loss to Soderling at the French – calling it a bigger factor to his loss than his knee tendonitis. So does this mean Rafa’s the overwhelming favorite for this year’s title? Well, he’s one match closer, dominating Ryan Sweeting on Wednesday in a straight set second round win.
Speaking of Canadians (Tom Tebbut, that is), Canadian tennis was dealt a major blow with the retirement of young gun Milos Raonic on Wednesday during his second round match vs. Gilles Muller. Raonic slipped on the new Court 3 grass up a service break and 2-1 in the first set. He ended up retiring with a hip injury a couple games later. You have to feel for the Canadians, they also lost Frank Dancevic, Stephanie Dubois and Rebecca Marino on Tuesday. There are no more Canadians in the singles draw. And tennis fans will miss out on the much anticipated third round match-up of Raonic vs. Nadal.
In other results, Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, Mardy Fish and Tomas Berdych progressed to the next round with straight set matches. American underdog Alex Bogomolov Jr. beat Juan Ignacio Chela to get into the third round of his first Wimbledon. Kubot did the lockerroom a favor by taking out Ivo Karlovic and Robin Haase took out the struggling Fernando Verdasco. Tursunov continues his good come-back form, with a win over Gulbis. Wawrinka continues his puzzling form with a straight sets loss vs. Simone Bolelli.
On the ladies’ side, seeds like Petkovic, Zvonareva, and Kvitova are through. Dangerous floater Sabine Lisicki is into the second round, where she’ll face Li Na in what should be a highly competitive match.
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