When I heard that Tennis Channel was going to use the middle Sunday, where is a rest day for all players, to re-telecast every point of the Isner-Mahut match, I wondered if they had gone insane. The match was 8 hours and 11 minutes long. While it was exciting to watch the match as it
With the middle Sunday as a rest day (unique among Slams that generally want to make money off this day), Day 7 is really Monday and not Sunday. Let's take this opportunity to look at Monday. On Monday, all men and women will play their fourth round matches in Wimbledon's version of "Super Saturday" except
Before the start of a tournament, especially the start of a Slam, there are questions being asked and the tournament, like students taking an exam, hope to provide answers to. For Roger Federer, the question was: can he win Wimbledon again? Is the great Roger Federer in decline? In the last two years, Roger Federer
Due to some previous commitments, I couldn't see any of the day's matches. Although I thought maybe Petzschner might give Nadal trouble because he gave Federer trouble in Queen's, I didn't think he'd take two sets off Nadal. The last two sets resemble the Haase match, i.e., it seems Nadal figured out what to do
Let's take a quick rundown of Saturday's matches. Petzschner vs. Nadal (Centre Court, Match 2) Petzschner was a bit unlucky. The last player not to get seeded, he was "awarded" the 33rd seed when Ernests Gulbis withdrew shortly after the draw was announced. Petzschner was moved to Gulbis's position in the draw, which meant the
Roger prefers playing players he's played a long time. There was a time that a handful of players gave Roger trouble. Lleyton Hewitt, David Nalbandian, and, yes, even Arnaud Clement. Federer overcame many of his nemesis by 2004 when he started becoming the Roger Federer of today. You have to credit Arnaud Clement, at 32
Five-time Wimbledon champion, and current World No. 2, Venus Williams, advanced to the 4th round of Wimbledon 2010 without really being challenged. Her victims have been , 6-3, 6-2, Ekaterina Makarova, 6-0, 6-4, Alisa Kleybanova, 6-4, 6-2. Venus' next opponent will be No. 92 ranked Jarmila Groth. Venus has had a rather easy draw. Looking
Well, you have to realize that the Isner-Mahut match was something of a perfect storm. A big server facing a guy (Mahut) that couldn't see his serve, first or second. Isner was able to hold serve mostly because nearly every big serve wasn't coming back. That lead to many games with easy enough holds. Similarly,
The match continued much where it had left off. Isner, who said he was delirious when he came off the court, and wondered a day after why he wanted the match to end despite Mahut looking the fresher of the two, was back to serving well. His first few serves went awry, and it seemed,
Most tennis experts felt Nadal would get a challenge from Robin. Only, they figured it would be Robin Soderling, not Robin Haase. Haase was considered a potential up-and-comer, perhaps not at the level of Ernests Gulbis. Haase had defeated a few top players including Andy Murray at Rotterdam in 2008, Ivan Ljubicic, Tomas Berdych, and
