WIMBLEDON 2012

Hmm...I don't think so. I've only seen her match vs Woz at length, and they seemed great there, but Woz does have a history of making players seem much better and more powerful than they are. Tamira doesn't have explosive first-strike power, she has to work the rally before she can hit the winner, which...Azza sadly does much better.

I remember last year's QF and Paszek seemed pretty helpless for most of it ;_;

In the Eastbourne final, it seemed like a combination of gutsy shot selection and well-timed vicious forehands allowed her to boss Kerber around for extended periods of time. I'm wondering if she would be able to disrupt Azarenka's rhythm in a similar manner.

I do take the point of her needing to get into a rally before she really unleashes, though.

That's the annoying thing with Azarenka, she's so metronomic and steady these days that you can't really disrupt her. It's why she owns Radwanska so heavily. She'll probably expose Paszek's two big weaknesses - her serve and her inability/refusal to volley - quite horribly.

I know Ivanovic is no real measuring stick but Azarenka could even expose the winner of Serena/Petra if she plays like today :/

I'm assuming Nole beating up on Trotsky yet again will be straightfoward. So the question is, given that the forecast says play on other courts is unlikely...do they try to cram as many matches on to Centre as they can before the curfew?

With the matches-must-be-finished-on-the-same-court-they-started thing, that could be Pony/Ferrer and/or Baker/Kohlschreiber...but NOT Murray, who weirdly may end up being the player most screwed by the schedule.

that's a rule? i recall sharapova/venus 07 starting on court 2 and being on centre the nex

...

next day that is

I think they've broken it in exceptional circs? But that was the reason Nadal/Soderling took like a week in 2009. Anyway, Ferrer/Pony cancelled, so I guess the only possibility they're keeping open is to move Gasquet and Mayer to CC after Djokovic, which would complete the top half of the draw. Or just go home afterwards because since when has sense had anything to do with the Wim schedule.

DavidLaw ‏@DavidLawTennis

Line of the day on @bbc5live 'So Goran, what do you want to say to Cilic to get him to play better?' Goran: 'Nothing. I want to smack him'.

bahahahah Goran otm. I watch the last bit of that set, and he should've won it about three games before Murray finally broke - Moron Cilic more like.

watched*

Hang on, what...NO more play on CC tonight?

???????

YOU HAVE THREE SPARE HOURS TO PLAY WITH AND MANY MATCHES UNFINISHED WTF WTF WTF

Quite easy to catch up really. I hate that roof - I want a struggle with the conditions - the less used the better.

I'm fairly sure you're trolling me by trying to defend Wimbledon here! It's massively unfair to Gasquet and Mayer for starters (and that is ENOUGH to make it a terrible decision full stop). This is like...100% of tennis fans I follow on Twitter were as outraged about this as me, defending it is just contrarianism.

oh fuck serena's gonna have to play kvitova on indoors grass isn't she :(

A tiny dribble of hope which will be snuffed out by aces tomorrow.

Well I'm not trolling and its hardly a defence of Wimbledon when I was not in favour of installing that roof in the first place.

You may get as many matches as possible on one roofed court today - forecast is terrible.

To try and see the AELTC PoV, there was no telling how late Djoko-Troicki would go and, at some point, you just have to let players go for the day. They may even have spoken to Gasquet and Mayer around 7:30, who knows. I don't know how these conversations go, tbh - "we're switching you to CC, hang around" or "do you want to switch to CC or try again on #3 tomorrow?" I don't know whether players are given an option.

I was expecting to see some doubles on there but I guess that involves getting four pissed-off pros to hang around for several hours.

Neil Harman tweeted that he suggested to Gasquet et coach that they should lobby for their match to be moved - they didn't know it could be done but were v much in favour of the idea and accordingly went off to do it. Obviously weren't successful. At least no one in the bottom half has finished their match but the Gasquet/Mayer winner is really significantly disadvantaged - disturbing how the UK press is focusing on Murray and actually suggesting that Wim should display more favouritism. Seriously fuck off with that, that's the one commendable thing Wim has done.

While there was technically no telling how late Djokovic/Troicki would go, I think Gasquet and Mayer would have been pretty happy to wait around in the hope that it would be the steamrolling it always is and turned out to be again.

Well, if that's true, bit daft and inflexible of AELTC considering the players were ready to be so accommodating.

I guess there's a fighting chance of getting the three unfinished MS matches done between the showers today; less sure about Kohl-Baker. I know the women's semis are not until Thursday, so less pressure there, but we'll surely see Paszek-Azarenka switched to CC late on if they don't get on #1.

Funky Flo sweeps the second set and Tsonga begins restoring order before it rains again.

I trust the roof is closed already on CC and they'll be able to play immediately?

Oh for god's sake. No, of course not.

WTF is the point of starting an hour earlier if 3/4 of that will be spent dithering over the roof and then closing it? Why was it not ALREADY CLOSED before noon? Whyyyyyyyyyy

Sue Barker says Gasquet's coach was begging officials to move that match on to CC last night.

Wim CEO says they've been "consistent" in their use of the roof. Completely fucking deluded.

Because (again, playing devil's advocate here) it's an outdoor event and they're trying to preserve that where they can. So, if there's a window in the weather, they'll use that to play under yr actual leaden BritSummerLOL sky rather than the roof. But, yeah, get 1x forecast.

Consistently fucking retarded.

Oh Wimbledon, you have more rain than the other cities, and the least fucking clue how to manage it.

Fairly sure the USO will compete valiantly in the Worst Organised Slam category as it does every year. The AO really is so many miles ahead of the others in that regard.

Quality six-deuce opening game between Ferrer and Pony. Good to see Pony on my TV at last, not just a stream!

Hard court events in blazing sunshine at facilities custom-built in the 1980s = piece of piss. And they still make the men's semifinalists play a day apart! (Unless they don't - did they change it?)

But, yeah, USO - 2003 was my favourite. It worked though, didn't it? They got the champ they wanted.

pissed i'm going to have to miss Pony and Ferrer because of rain/roof shenanigans yesterday. :(

But, yeah, USO - 2003 was my favourite. It worked though, didn't it? They got the champ they wanted.

I grind my teeth whenever I remember all the bullshit that happened that year. Rusedski is usually 99% moron but I was glad he brought it up just now.

If only Hawkeye had been around then...

Lovely dropshot + well-anticipated get from Ferrer to break.

Pony down... :/

Ferrer tailoring his game to grass better than I've ever seen him do before.

On one point, Pony chased down a drop shot (in vain) and his momentum took him straight into a perfect hop, skip and jump on to and over his chair <3 The knee's OK then.

Haven't seen Funky Flo play for years, the serve and the FH are just as weird and awesome as ever I see.

ugh i can't watch del potro get a beatdown on grass by ferrer. too depressing :(

at least fish has stopped winning

omfggggggggg that backhand slice winner from mayer hit from behind the baseline. faking dropshot <3 so good

Ferrer playing the perfect match, all these changes of direction and wrong-footers exposing Pony's movement. Pony wasn't even playing that badly until he got broken at 2-2 in the second - since then it's been a bit of an implosion.

Mayer up a break in the 4th :D

Funky Flo into his second Wim QF, eight years after making his first as a qualifier, with a BH winner. Straightforward in the end, lovely to see.

thought this might happen after Ferrer took out Roddick but was hoping Pony would put up more of a fight. ;_; sort of glad i'm not watching this after all.

Some of Pony's misses are just OUCH and CLANK now.

Sam Smith one of the few commentators I don't have to facepalm at constantly - she's right that umpires should wear tennis shoes if they're going to check the dampness of the court.

She loses points for saying that Aga/Discount isn't going to have an excess of grunting, have you LISTENED to Kirilenko? To be fair, her puffballs are landing closer to the baseline than I'm accustomed to seeing, and Radwanska is being an idiot so far, so, she's not looking that bad. But soon!

Kirilenko's yelp is a wretched, wretched noise.

KVITTY-SILLIAMS TIME! This should be over in about an hour.

BTW Ferrer has a great shot at beating Murray for the second Slam running

my 3 favourite commentators for the serena/kvitova match yay

A-Rad's lobbing is terrible so far. First point she's won trying it, and it really shouldn't have worked.

kvitova is going to win :)

there is literally no way I can see HOW Kvitova would win

well she's lost 1 indoor match in the last 2 years

all it takes is one poor service game from serena. she had two of those against shvedova.

Kvitova is slightly more likely to throw in a poor service game or several, and her BP conversion rate in big matches this year is torture to me. Even against Fran it was like 1-9349348394 in the first two sets.

And Serena's serve is on siiiiiiiigh