Before we talk about Federer, let’s review the late matches yesterday.
Yesterday afternoon, it began to rain and this cancelled all play except Centre Court which has, surprise, a roof!
When the roof was ready to go in Wimbledon 2009, there was very little rain. Andy Murray played a 5-setter against Stan Wawrinka, and was pretty much the only guy to play under the roof. So when his match again Daniel Gimeno-Traver was played under the roof, Murray was the only guy who had played twice under the roof. Who knew that once they had a roof installed, the normally rainy event would have its best weather in some time.
The two had met only once before in Valencia last year, which is on hard courts. It was an easy win for the Scot. However, Murray was familiar with Gimeno-Traver from his time spent in Spain as well as juniors. Gimeno-Traver has a good forehand, and he was able to pressure Murray to take a set with a late break. Murray would win the second set fairly closely, then run away with two 6-0 sets. Although Gimen0-Traver would not win another game, some of the game, especially the early games were well-contested showing that the game can often be mental, that once you get a break, the match can get away from you.
Now back to today’s action.
Andy Roddick pounded 30 aces in his win over Andreas Beck. Beck has seen better days, but his rank is 156 down from a high of 33. Roddick has generally gone for good hard serves over raw aces in his last few years, but it may make it easier to win matches by going for bigger serves.
Another Beck, Karol Beck of the Czech Republic, won in 5 sets over Carlos Berlocq, of Argentina.
Roger Federer started off slowly needing a tiebreak to win the first set against Kazakstani, Mikhail Kukushkin (Kukuskin may be Russian for all I know, since Kazakhstan has money to support players). The next two sets went a bit more comfortably. 7-6, 6-4, 6-2.
In a minor upset, Croatian veteran Ivan Ljubicic beat Marin Cilic in four sets: 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Fernando Verdasco needed 5 sets to come from 2 sets down to beat Radek Stepanek in one of the tougher opening round matches. He needed to win a fourth set tiebreak, 8 points to 6 and then win the fifth set 9 games to 7. Gilles Simon beat fellow countryman, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, in four sets.
Florian Mayer had a tough four setter, needing two tiebreak sets in the first two sets, to beat Brit Daniel Evans. Tobias Kamke, another German, won in four sets over Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia. Not all Germans had good luck. Xavier Malisse beat Mischa Zverev, who has a Russian sounding name, but plays for Germany.
Ivo Karlovic won over Janko Tipsarevic when Tipsy retired in two sets. He was injured in a tournament last week and appears to still be hurt from that. Stakhovsky won easily in straight sets over Brit, Daniel Cox. Bernard Tomic won in 3 close sets over Nikolay Davydenko, who continues to struggle a year after coming back from an injury.
Juan Martin del Potro won easily in 3 sets over Flavio Cipolla. Robin Haase beat Pere Riba in straight sets. Yen-Hsun Lu beat Tommy Robredo also in straight sets.
Viktor Troicki and Juan Ignacio Chela won in four sets each over opponents.
Djokovic is up two sets to love over Jeremy Chardy. James Blake who was up a break in the fifth set is now down 15-40 double match point against Baghdatis, and has lost. Blake had been down 2 sets to love, then took 2 sets. David Ferrer is about to close out a match against Benoit Paire in straight sets, 4, 4, and 4.
Soderling is up a set against Petzschner, which is tough opening round, but is down a break in the second. Fernando Gonzalez who hasn’t played much in a year, split the first two sets with Alexsandr Dolgopolov. Michael Llodra is up a set over James Ward who made the semis of Queen’s. They are on serve in the second set. Lleyton Hewitt took the first set, 6-1, against Kei Nishikori. They are in a tiebreak in the second set.
Nalbandian has won the first two sets over Reister of Germany. Irish player, Connor Niland, is in the fifth set against Adrian Mannarino who lost to another Brit in the quarters of Queen’s.
