Day 5: Brit-Watch at Wimbledon 2011

Flickr Creative Commons by Marc Di Luzio

So it's the end of day five at Wimbledon and once again the Brits were out in force.


Since my last Brit-Watch post Laura Robson fought back from a set down to win her first round match, whilst Heather Watson sadly lost out to Mathilde Johansson after sustaining an elbow injury. She should have one that match.


8th seed Petra Kvitova proved a class above Anne Keothavong crushing her 6-2, 6-1. But Andy Murray (what would we do without you) overcame Tobias Kamke to give us someone in the third round.


So as of today there were only three Brits left in the singles competition (which lets face it is all that really counts), so how did they do?

Firstly though I realise that of all the Brits I mentioned in my first Brit-Watch post I forgot to mention Katie O'Brien, who was the first player to be knocked out of the tournament by Date-Krumm. 


My first thought was 'oh she's beaten by a 40-year old, just give it up girl' but said 40-year old then went on to completely bring-it to Venus Williams and nearly caused a shock upset. So maybe O'Brien losing wasn't such a shocker after all. Here's a lovely red arrow for you Katie - we wouldn't want you to miss out.

Anyway moving on. First up today was Elena Baltacha, who faced 20th seed Shuai Peng of China. Baltacha took the first set 6-4 gaining a break late in the match but Peng came back strongly in the second round winning 6-2. 


The final set was a heart-stopper with Baltacha breaking twice only to be broken twice herself. Baltacha saved four break points but in the end Peng prevailed 7-5.

Meanwhile (and it was a real case of channel swapping at this point) Laura Robson stormed to an early 3-0 lead against Maria Sharapova. Sharapova found her champions spirit and battled back to take it to a first set tie-break. Laura Robson edged ahead in the tie-break early on but once again Sharapova came back, taking the first set. 


The second set saw Sharapova race ahead and although Robson broke back after an early break, Sharapova stepped up a gear to win winning 6-3. Laura did herself proud though and definitely deserved her wild card.

So, unfortunately, as predicted, Andy Murray was the only player to get through to the 3rd round. He took to the courts to play Ivan Ljubicic, the oldest man in the competition and came through in four sets winning 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 6-4 to book his place in the 4th round, needing a tie-break to beat his opponent.

Flickr Creative Commons by Marc Di Luzio

So there we have it. Out of eleven British players there is only one left and it's Andy Murray. No pressure then Andy!

Day 2: Brit-Watch at Wimbledon 2011

Flickr Creative Commons by Marc Di Luzio

So it's the end of day two at Wimbledon and a host of British tennis players took to the courts today. There were 11 British hopefuls at the start of the tournament but how many remain now?

Yesterdays win for Andy Murray against Daniel Gimeno-Traver was unsurprising, although he suffered a bit of a scare after losing the first set 4-6 before coming back 6-3 and then winning the remaining two sets 6-0, 6-0. He now faces world number 83 Tobias Kamke in the second round.

Emily Webley-Smith, who received a wildcard put up a fantastic fight against the world number 38 Klara Zakopalova and after losing the first set the lowly 244th ranked Webley-Smith 6-3 came back to win the second 5-7. It was in vain though as she ended up losing in the third set 8-6. Still it was an honourable performance.

There were high hopes for James Ward after his heroics at Queens but he couldn't respond to 19th seed Michael Llodra's excellent serving - at one point the Frenchman had 81% of his first serves finding the mark. Ward lost in straight sets 6-3, 7-6, 6-3. He still has some work to do if he is to meet his aim of breaking into the worlds top 100. 

Britain's number four Dan Evans took his opponent, 20th seed Florian Mayer, to four sets including two tie-breaks (both of which he lost), before winning the third set 6-3 but was eventually overpowered and was yet another British casualty.

Another Dan (Cox), meanwhile lost in straight sets to world number 46, Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine the lowest ranked of the British male wildcard's opponents but still too good for the world 273. The result was 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.

Flickr Creative Commons by Marc Di Luzio

Thank our lucky stars then for the all-British pairing of Anne Keothavong and Naomi Broady, which at least guaranteed us a British woman in the second round. Keothavong prevailed winning in straight sets xx xx against an inconsistent Broady - who although showed potential was no match for the higer ranked Keothavong. Next up Kvitova tomorrow, which will be a much sterner test for the British number three. 

Then came world number 68 and British number one Elena Baltacha who played German qualifier Mona Barthel. Baltacha looked nervous at times, this was after all the same court where she was knocked out a year ago against a lower ranked player, but she gritted her teeth and knocked out a 6-2, 6-4 win against the world number 114. 

Heather Watson and Laura Robson didn't get to play their matches so should be up tomorrow - so another day of nail biting and crossed fingers.


So there we have it. Out of eleven British players, three still stand and a further two are still to play a match. Not as bad as last year, so it's a step in the right direction and there's still a chance I could be proved wrong.

Mr Musing's: Five Certainties for Wimbledon 2011

I am SO excited that Wimbledon is almost here. I happen to be off work for pretty much the whole tournament, which means that as well as trying to get along and get a ground pass so that I can catch some of the live action, I will happily spend hours watching every match on TV.


I am such a geek when it comes to Wimbledon, devouring all the statistics, reading everything on the BBC news website that is tennis related - rankings, head-to-head, form and completely useless tidbits.


I thought I'd share my five Wimbledon certainties with you. Every year the same anecodotes, debates and discussions happen and it's possible to check them off like a kind of tennis bingo.


1. Andy Murray will be the only Briton to get past Round two in the singles. 

However, much I would like to believe otherwise it just ain't going to happen this year. Even though we are guaranteed a British woman in the second round, as Anne Keothavong and Naomi Broady play each other in the first, the winner will face 8th Seed Petra Kvitova from the Czech Republic. Double bagel anyone?

Elena Baltacha, who admittedly is playing the best tennis of her career, faces an as yet unknown qualifier in round one but if she comes through that unscathed faces Peng of China, the 20th Seed, who recently knocked out two Brits at Birmingham (Broady and Watson). Will she make it a hat-trick?


James Ward, who I got very excited about at Queen's has been pitched against Michael Llodra of France, the 19th Seed. Now Ward did beat players of a higher calibre at Queen's to make the semi-finals, so there is a slim chance, but it is very slim. Although if he did win he would probably face Ricardo Mello, the world number 90.

2. The British press will bemoan the lack of British talent in tennis. 

Following on from my first certainty and after Andy Murray is the only British player left in the singles the press will moan about the state of British tennis - why can we not produce the stars like other countries? Are our tennis players to pampered? There will be talk of a 'new crop' of young players coming up through the ranks (we have been having that same discussion for about ten years now - so where are they?) The words Fred and Perry will no doubt come up time and time again. 


3. There will be a debate about the 'grunting' in the women's game.

Comparisons will be made to aircraft taking off and pneumatic drills. This happens every year, without fail. Either ban it or get over it, the discussion is boring. I personally am not bothered by it at all.


4. There will be a debate about the state of the women's game. 

Questions about Wozniacki and her lack of Grand Slam wins, references to Safina - and discussion about the lack of consistency in the women's game, along with the way the seedings work and a general sense that it 'just ain't as good as it used to be'.


5. Hundreds of people will search for 'Andy Murray muscle', 'Andy Murray bulge' or 'Andy Murray body' and some will reach my site.

Seriously, it never ceases to amaze me that every time there is a Grand Slam, the traffic to my site increases loads due to people entering these search terms in Google. And I have never written about Andy Murray's bulge in my life (well until now).


So there you have it, my five certainties for Wimbledon this year. Let me know what yours are?

Will James Ward be the Next Big British Male Tennis Star?

So today James Ward, the British number two, ranked at 216 in the world beat the defending champion, Sam Querrey at Queens and then followed it up with a 6-2 6-7 (14-16) 6-4 win over world number 54 Adrian Mannarino. 


Are we about to see a breakthrough for another British male tennis player? The 24 year old Ward has recently been training with a cage fighter Diego Visotzky to toughen him up and it seems to have worked as he had already knocked Stanislas Wawrinka in a previous round. 

It's about time we had a challenger to Murray, although he is a way off from catching the world number 4 yet. With 3 women, Heather Watson, Elena Baltacha and Ann Keothavong breaking into the world top 100 recently, another male player doing well has been long overdue.


I can't help getting excited. Although a few years ago Britain went crazy for Chris Eaton when he went into round 2 of Wimbledon after coming into the competition as a qualifier and we haven't heard much from him since (he is currently not even in the top 400). 


I will certainly be cheering for Ward in the semi-finals, where he meets Jo Wilfred Tsonga who today knocked Nadal out of the competition - which will be a tough match. Who know's it could be an all British final. Now that would be something to shout about.

Australian Open: Will Andy Murray Finally Win A Grand Slam?

Andy Murray battled back from being a set down and 5-4 down to knock David Ferrer out of the Australian Open earlier today with a four sets victory over the seventh seed, booking his place in the final for the second year in a row.

With both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer out of the Australian Open, the latter knocked out by Novak Djokovic, Murray's opponent in the final, there has never been a better chance for Andy Murray to win his first Grand Slam and muscle his way back into the top four, but can he finally do it? I will certainly be keeping everything crossed for him!

Murray

Djokovic

After two recent Grand Slam final losses to Federer, including last year's Australian Open Final, Murray must be feeling that now is his chance.


Although Murray is 4-3 down in head to head's with Djokovic, he is 3-2 up on the hard courts so that should give him a little confidence. It won't be an easy match though and anyone who puts Federer out will be hard to overcome. But surely it is now Murray's time? We Brit's really can't take the disappointment anymore.


So I am going to lay it on the line and say Murray will come back to Britain as the Australian Open champion AND win the Sports Personality of the Year award later in the year.

So come on Murray, you can do it. Show us some muscle!

Can Andy Murray Win the US Open This Year (2009)?

Is 2009 the year that Andy Murray finally wins a Grand Slam? After coming so close last year in the US Open (he made the final against Federer) he has got to be in with a shout right? Murray says that the hard courts are his preferred surface and it is here that he won the Junior US Open in , so here is hoping.


With Nadal having missed Wimbledon and therefore losing his title, he will be keen to return to winning ways and fight his way back to the number 1 spot. However, Murray did beat Nadal on the way to the final last year, so he has it in him to beat him on the hard courts. Nadal's troublesome knee could cause him problems.


If Andy Roddick plays like he did at Wimbledon, cheered on by his home crowd, he could be a serious threat too and will take confidence from the fact that he beat Murray at Wimbledon this year.


I may be wrong but I am discounting Novak Djokovic, as I don't think he is a major threat. He doesn't seem to have the hunger of Murray, Federer and Nadal and now that he has made some good money, I think he will slowly drop down the rakings a bit.


And obviously nobody should ever discount Federer, that goes without saying! Federer, even when you think he is not playing brilliantly, seems to be able to just take it up another gear and find a way to win. He must surely be the favourite to win this year?


Maybe it is foolhardy optimism but I feel like a major Grand Slam win is just around the corner for Andy Murray. I like his spirit and attitude, the way he has bulked and strengthened up and worked hard to improve his game. Sure he comes across as moody sometimes, but that is probably down to how focused he is on being the best. If that's what it takes to win a grand slam I am happy to allow him that.


Come on Andy YOU CAN DO IT!

The US Open starts on 31st August 2009