You would think the second ranked player in the world would get more love at Wimbledon. Novak Djokovic, however, is getting less press partly because his streak, which was the big conversation heading into the French Open, is over. With Federer’s defeat of Djokovic and his proficiency on grass, Federer and Nadal are again the favorites to win Wimbledon though, as usual, Nadal has downplayed his chances. And if they aren’t part of the conversation, then the British media circus that surrounds Andy Murray is. With Murray’s recent victory in Queen’s, there’s talk that maybe this is the year that Murray breaks through. Those outside the British press probably rate him as 3rd favorite, if that. Some say, without a Slam title, Murray should be fourth or fifth favorite after, say, Djokovic and del Potro, each of whom have Slams to their names.
The fact is, Djokovic continues to play very well. Kevin Anderson is one of those guys that ought to be scary. He’s John Isner height and has a very good serve, but despite this, Anderson’s game is to Isner, as say, Cilic’s game is to del Potro. Cilic moves better than del Potro, but del Potro has two big weapons Cilic doesn’t: his serve and his forehand. One might even argue that del Potro is steadier than Cilic.
Anderson needs a bigger game so he can be more imposing, but he moves pretty well for a guy his height, possibly better than Isner. Isner, however, has a bigger game.
In any case, it didn’t matter much as Djokovic had a straight-forward straight-set victory.
Two of the lower seeds lost today. Karol Beck of Slovakia won in four sets over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez while Xavier Malisse upset Florian Mayer in four sets after dropping the first set, 6-1.
There’s currently a rain delay which means the only match making progress is Centre Court where Lleyton Hewitt has a 2 set to 1 advantage over Robin Soderling. That may be a surprise, but Hewitt has a 3-1 head-to-head over Soderling. That may be a surprise too, but there you have it. You would think Soderling’s power would be too much for Hewitt whose game is modeled more like Wilander than Federer. But Soderling can be bothered by steady players that are quick. He’s had issues with, say, David Ferrer, who has more firepower off the ground.
del Potro has completely turned around his match against Rochus. After losing a tiebreak last night, del Potro had the evening to think about how he was going to take control. Whatever he did, it seems to be working as he’s dropped only 2 games in 3 sets. It’s early in the fourth set with del Potro taking sets 2 and 3 easily.
Baghdatis is trying to serve out the second set over Andrea Seppi after taking the first set rather handily. Veteran David Nalbandian has a 2 set to 1 lead over Haider-Maurer. They are on serve in the fourth set at 3-all.
Fernando Gonzalez is staging an improbable comeback after not playing on the main tour for around a year. He has a friendly draw and is up 2 sets to 1 over Rik de Voest of South Africa. Gonzalez beat Dolgopolov in the first round.
Yen-Hsun Lu is trying to make another run at Wimbledon, as he has plenty of points to defend after his quarterfinal run last year with an upset of Andy Roddick. Lu is up 2 sets to none over Viktor Troicki and is up 30-0 serving for the match.
Michael Llodra has a 2 set to 1 lead over Ricardo Mello of Brazil. It is early in the fourth set.
Matches are beginning to resume. Court 2 and 3 have started play.
