It is that time of the year. Strawberries and cream and one corner of London gets very busy for a fortnight. Yes folks, it’s Wimbledon time, the worlds premier tennis championship.
Start’s from monday 26 June.
The following are the single seedings for this year:
The All England Club was left to foot the bill after persistent rain meant only 44 minutes of play were possible on the opening day at Wimbledon.
The Club offers full refunds if less than one hour's play is possible and that is likely to cost it somewhere in the region of £1million.
Wimbledon dropped its insurance policy two years ago because of high premiums. Showers are also predicted for Tuesday in SW19, but conditions should improve during the rest of the week.
So, whats the reason for organizing Wembeldon every year smack in the middle of rainy season? Does All England Club get some kind of perverse pleasure in seeing rain drizzle down over spectators, or is this the only time of the year, where tennis players are available to play Wimbeldon. This rain is more of a recurring issue year after year for Wimbeldon.
^ faisal jee rain is a permanent feature of England all year round, as I am sure you know. This is suppose to be summer. I don't think they can supposedly get better weather than this.
rain dropping on Sharapova is a sight not many of the gabru jawaans of England and all over the world wanna miss. Faisal bhai is a different case alltogehter. I say we should hold the wet t-shirt contest during rain breaks.
I know it's off topic but last week Pakistani player Aisam ul Haq almost defeated Mario Ancic (7-6, 6-7, 7-5) I just noticed that Ancic is actually 7th ranked player in the world and his serve is one of the best in the world. Aisam's serve was equally impressive according to many different articles :)
I wish Aisam was around 20, he would have surely made a big name in tennis.
They should just give it to Federer. We wont have to go through all this rain business. I mean the way that dude plays on grass, looks like he’s practicing or something.
i just heard he's a Scot and proud of it, the RedTop Rags are giving him a hard time because he said that he did not care if England won when asked about it this week.
On a day that saw temperatures rise above 30C at the All England Club, America's Wimbledon hopes turned distinctly icy, with the exit of Venus Williams, Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi from The Championships.
Andre Agassi was the first to go, beaten by the younger, quicker and more agile Rafael Nadal in an eagerly anticipated match on Centre Court.But it was the Spaniard who took the opening set on a tie-break and he never looked in danger of losing the match from then onwards, eventually winning in straight sets.
With retirement looming after the US Open, it would be Agassi's last match at The Championships and the 36-year-old made a tearful departure from a place that he admitted was close to his heart: "I can't put a value on what's in my Wimbledon memory bank," the 1992 champion later admitted. "I wouldn't sell it for anything."
As Agassi departed to a standing ovation on Centre Court, there were yet more twists and turns still to come. On Court 2 the Graveyard of Champions claimed another victim in the shape of ladies' defending champion Venus Williams.
Williams was beaten in three thrilling sets by Jelena Jankovic on the same court that her sister Serena was beaten on, during the middle Saturday of last year's Championships. The three-time champion's defeat means that for the first time since 1999, neither sister will grace the ladies' final.
The day would get even worse for the US, with the shock defeat of the no.3 men's seed Andy Roddick by unseeded Briton Andy Murray. Roddick - a finalist at Wimbledon for the past two years - was beaten in straight sets by the Scot and compounds a miserable 2006 which has seen him fail to win any tournament titles.
With the withdrawal of the injured Mardy Fish, Shenay Perry is left as America's sole representative in the last 16 of the men's or ladies' singles next week.
Day 7 Recap
After the seismic shocks of 'Super Saturday', Wimbledon's 'Magic Monday' largely ran to form with most of the big names coming through the fourth round unscathed.
Even so, there was disappointment from the home crowd that Andy Murray failed to repeat the heroics of his win against Andy Roddick. When Murray returned to the Centre Court stage against Marcos Baghdatis today, he ended up losing rather tamely in straight sets, leaving the frustrated Scot yelling in self-admonishment at his "horrible tennis." While Murray grew increasingly hot-headed, his Cypriot opponent kept cool and will next face Lleyton Hewitt in the quarter-finals.
Elsewhere, there were wins for the top two seeds, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, while their quarter-final opponents - Mario Ancic and Jarkko Nieminen respectively - had to come through testing five-set battles. Nieminen would be well advised not to give the Spaniard any points as easily as he did against Dmitry Tursunov, when he slammed his racket against the ground only for it to bounce over the confines of Court 3 and cost him a code violation and a game point.
There were no such histrionics as the last 16 of the ladies' singles became the last eight. Maria Sharapova's on-court shrieking was a little noisier than normal as she was stretched by Italian Flavia Pennetta but she came through in three sets. Elsewhere, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Amelie Mauresmo, Anastasia Myskina, Kim Clijsters and Elena Dementieva all won in straight sets.
But for the romantics, there were two surprises in the ladies' matches. Anyone who saw rising Chinese star Na Li and French qualifier Severine Bremond last week knew they had deserved their place in the last 16. After Li's storming win over the higher-ranked Nicole Vaidisova and Bremond's over Ai Sugiyama, their adventures will continue for at least one more day.
Roddick is getting worse day by day, he will be out of Top 10 after this tournment. He almost had Federer in one of the Wimbledon's final (I guess it was 2003). But after that he fired his coach Brad Gibert (and his GF Many Moore :) ) & his performance started declining.
Day 8 - Ladies’ Quarter-Finals
Sometimes in life the best-laid plans do end up being followed exactly as set out in the instruction manual
Today saw the top four seeds in the ladies’ singles all safely negotiate their quarter-finals to progress to Thursday’s semis.
It only took a little over three hours of play, with the top four ladies - Amelie Mauresmo, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin-Hardenne and Maria Sharapova - duly booking their places in the final four.
Sharapova was first through, playing well enough to mercilessly expose Elena Dementieva’s wobbly serving. And it wasn’t the only case of exposure - the cartwheeling antics of a male streaker in the second set at least brought a smile to Dementieva’s lips, while Sharapova simply turned her back on him and retained her focus
Second seed Kim Clijsters faced up to the Chinese challenge provided by Na Li, who was making history in reaching this stage and initially showed her nerves as she double-faulted to concede the opening service game. Although she fought her way back into the contest, the Belgian always had the edge and eventually came through in straight sets.
In the semis, Clijsters she will face fellow Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne who had the easiest task on paper, against the French qualifier Severine Bremond. The woman ranked 129 in the world gazed across the ranking abyss at the world number three, took some valiant steps to close the divide but ended up falling in straight sets.
So that left the one match which turned into a contest. World number one and top seed Amelie Mauresmo romped through the first set against Anastasia Myskina but then made a number of errors which helped the Russian level the match. However, in the deciding set it was the Frenchwoman who would come out on top.
Mauresmo’s win completed a successful day for the top seeds and ensured an awesome foursome for Thursday. www.wimbledon.org
awww at least there is something for UK to celebrate, but too bad it will go unnoticed after today’s loss to Portugal
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