Tennis!

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

What a fantastic end to a brilliant match. Well done Gisella Dulko, she played brilliantly, second set meltdown aside. That was a terrific case of back-and-forth, Sharapova showing that she still has the type of game in her to win tournaments, but it won't be at Wimbledon this year. Matches like this are why I prefer womens tennis to the mens.

Agreed with the ending, I find women's tennis so much more entertaining to watch than the men's.

Who's everybody's tip to win it on the women's side? I'm still sticking with Venus

[Adam]

I think Venus has to be the favourite. Serena hasn't played as much tennis as she'd liked to have this year, it showed the other week at the French. Safina seems incapable of winning a slam, thus making Venus, who has been playing very solidly lately, the favourite for the tournament in my view at least.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Querrey/Cilic just had the best match so far, damn awesome match. Really gutted Querrey went out though and I've got a weird disliking for Cilic for some reason. Querrey and Sharapova out, not a good day

[KoA]

Querrey went out? He was absolutely battering Cilic in the second set when I turned it off to watch Roger's game. :/

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Cilic was pretty average for the first set and a half, then finally came to life and it was a pretty damn good match. Very close but he ended up winning it three sets to two.

[Sir Alan LCSugar]

I saw the fourth set as we bought some centre court tickets on re-sale towards the end of the day. That set was excellent and I really thought Querry had a shot at beating Cilic.

Also saw Verdasco look average early on in his match, the Bryans dominate, Hantchukova win, Karlovic bored me to tears and Jamie Murray was just dreadful. Overall, a good day out.

[IAceI]

ugh. I am sick to God of hearing about Hewitt upsetting JMDP. Upset? Come off it.

JMDP only gets anywhere on grass because he's tall and hits the ball harder than most Argies. On top of that his height + newly improved serve really gives him a lot of cheap points but against Hewitt? It was Hewitt's to lose. The only argument I can see is that Hewitt's on the back of an injury but I still had him pegged for the victory. Surprising that he won in 3 sets like he did perhaps, but surprising he won? Not really.

It's once again the Wimbledon-fans and media, because that's what they are. They don't care about tennis for the January-November it seems to run but for a week in June and July they're all suddenly experts.

It's like when USA fans see their team in the top 10 rankings for football and assume that means they're amazing, same with JMDP for a seeded 5th in Wimbledon. (Perhaps a bad example given USA's 2-0 win over Spain just yesterday but you can get the point.)

That or the world has just forgotten how awesome Hewitt is.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Talksport haven't mentioned that it's an upset, but then that's because their tennis reporters actually have a clue.

In the same way that their guy wasn't at all amazed about Sharapova going out cos she's just come back from 10 months of injury.

[IAceI]

My news sources are generall the BBC. BBC News at work and Radio 1 on the way home.

[Hornswoggle4PM]

To be honest, he hasn't done much in the past few years. Sure he's been injured but he' hasn't done much to speak of considering how good he is.

And he often chokes under pressure now too.

[Mongrel]

I was mildly suprised to see Hewitt beat JMDP only because Del Potro is largely an unknown quantity since he had that run of wins late last year (we're talking pretty much straight after Newport), and that Hewitt hasn't looked like beating anyone inside the top 10-20 this year apart from Roddick.

That being said, this is his biggest chance at pushing for a semi or the quarters at least. He should beat Petzschner (though he's dropped games to similar level players many times since his hip injury) and I can't see either Ferrer or Štěpánek causing too many troubles. Roddick is obviously the man to beat in his quarter, but he's at least gone close to beating him twice this year and matches up pretty well.

[IAceI]

Del Potro looks out of sorts of grass but can hide it with his short rallies and powerful hitting but he can't sustain that for a full match on a court that quick. Like I say, the fact it was three sets is surprising but the win itself was not so much.

Del Potro's win of 4 titles on the bounce was good, but lets not forget it came at a time when the Olympics were on. Players were off there representing their country and those that couldn't be arsed used it as a chance to go home and be with their families. I'll give you that he won them emphatically, and that shouldn't be taken away from him but his wins against a Richard Gasquet whose never dealt with the pressure put on him (probably more pressure than a Brit has felt, on the magazine cover aged about 5 being championed as France's best player for the future and expected to win Grand Slams), Jurgen Meltzer, a forever blowing hot and cold Andy Roddick and a good-but-not-that-level-yet Viktor Troicki.

I don't want to take away from his wins too much because to do that regardless of opponents is very, very tough but he wasn't playing top players on a consistent basis. And when Murray beat him you could see him break down in tears in the interview. With a player like JMDP though he'll improve on clay and hard but for a guy like him and other Argentineans and Spaniards they couldn't really care less about the little grass season that's only there because of Wimbledon.

And this is from me, a guy championing Del Potro when he was knocking on the door of the top 100. But then again I have a soft spot for Hewitt, I just didn't see him losing that match really. Hope he can put in a decent performance because he's got a chance for the fairytale story for us to latch onto aside from Murray's hopeful progress and I'd like to see him and Roddick go at it both giving the best they could.

[Hornswoggle4PM]

I remember seeing him in a match at Adelaide a couple of years back vs. Guccione (My fave player).

Gucc won, and at that time it looked like they would both make an impact, but I'm surprised just how far JMDP has come since then.

Similarly, I remember seeing Djokovic getting thrashed by Safin at the Hopman Cup in Perth and thought he was always gonna be a No. 40-120 rank with a good serve. One year later, he sets the world on fire.

Edited June 27, 2009 by Hornswoggle4PM

[Sir Alan LCSugar]

Ivo Karlovic looks like a good outside bet at the moment. Players are struggling against him, and his high level of quick first serves is very dangerous.

[therockbox]

ROOOOOOF!

[IAceI]

Ivo Karlovic looks like a good outside bet at the moment. Players are struggling against him, and his high level of quick first serves is very dangerous.

A good bet.. to win?

When he comes up against a player that can negate his serve (Federer/Murray etc.) then he's just about done for. He has finally in the last year or so realised a forehand and backhand are also useful weapons, but he's largely just a serve. He can cause the odd upset but he's not nearly good enough to win this tournament.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Yay doe Saffina, awesome win. Fuck the fans who seemed to be against her winning, great fight back to win that game. I don't think she'll win it, but I just loved her heart today

[IAceI]

I don't think people wanted to see Safina lose, but more Mauresmo win - she's a former winner and I think a lot of people here like her, especially with her struggles over the year so people really like her.

Epic win for Murray but definitely showed some fragility. Wawrinka, apparently my near-double, was always going to put up a strong performance.

[Hornswoggle4PM]

Hewitt you bloody legend!

Still don't think he'll win, but excited that he's performing all the same

[KoA]

Murray/Wawrinka was a fantastic match. Shame Murray won though.