Wimbledon 2011 day seven live! | Xan Brooks
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4.30pm: Game, set and match to Dominika Cibulkova. The Slovak wins 1-6, 7-6, 7-5, finishing it off with a piercing forehand winner and heading through to meet Maria Sharapova in the quarter-finals. So Caroline Wozniacki, the number-one seed we never really got to know, is out. Yet again she leaves a Grand Slam empty-handed.
News from elsewhere. Novak Djokovic leads Michael Llodra 6-3, 5-3. And out on Centre, Venus Williams has pulled ahead in the second set of her match against Tsvetana Pironkova, leading 3-2 with the break.
4.24pm: What's the deal with Caroline Wozniacki? She's the Wimbledon top seed, the world number one and yet a player who has yet to lift a Grand Slam trophy. Novak Djokovic assured us that she would win this title but it now seems that he was kidding. Having eased to a 6-1 first set over Dominika Cibulkova 6-1, the top seed fatally lost her way, frittering away the second and toiling in vain to break through in the third.
So far, it seems, it is not to be. Cibulkova breaks to lead 6-5 and will now serve to take this match.
4.13pm: On Centre Court, Tsvetana Pironkova rushes to a 6-2 opening set against a subdued Venus Williams. Over on Court One, Novak Djokovic pockets the first set 6-3 from France's Michael Llodra. Meanwhile, down on a sun-spalshed Court Two, top-seed Caroline Wozniacki is in the midst of a torrid final set against Slovakia's Dominika Cibu! lkova. T he score is tied at four games all.
Another mail from another Bryan. This one is called Michael Bryan. He hails from Brussels in Belgium and this is what he says:
Seeing my, no doubt long lost, cousin 6 times removed Barry email you made me yearn to know how my namesake Mike and his brother Bob are doing this year? More bizarrely, Mike and I share the 29th April as birthdays, although I'm a year younger. Plus those that shall not be named rudely gatecrashed my/our birthday this year with some wedding or other. Come on Bryans!
4.07pm: The form guide tells us that Lukasz Kubot is a qualifier, ranked 93 in the world. By rights, therefore, he should be one of those Wimbledon footsoldiers, wheeled on in the opening days to be peppered with aces and stretchered off to the airport. By rights, therefore, he should now be warming up ahead of his first-round match at the Timbuctu challenger event, where the winner gets a tin cup filled almost to the brim with raffle tickets. Instead, he's here on Manic Monday and playing like a dream against Feliciano Lopez. Right now the form guide means nothing.
Kubot has a hard, flat serve and clean, flat groundstrokes that he takes on the rise and hits for outright winners. He canters through the first two sets against the Spaniard but is then pegged back in the third. Lopez is battling for survival, throwing himself into that stern lefty backhand and rocking Kubot on his heels.
Lopez wins the third set on the tiebreak and gesticulates furiously to his camp. But the qualifier still has his nose in front, leading 6-3, 7-6, 6-7.
3.55pm: Bernard Tomic, 18 last birthday, arrives at the press conference that follows his straight-sets demolition of Xavier Malisse. There he is asked how it feels to be the youngest men's quarter-finalist since 1986. He says:
Unbelievable achievement. Great honour to do it here at Wimbledon. You know, I'm not going to stop now. I'm going to try ! my best to play on Wednesday in the quarters. I've got nothing to lose. That's a big thing, always
Tomic, incidentally, will face the winner of the match currently being conducted on Centre Court, where mercurial Michael Llodra is employing a bygone serve-and-volley style in an effort to bamboozle second-seed Novak Djokovic. Thus far this is paying only fitful dividends. Djokovic is poised to serve for the opening set, leading five games to three.
3.45pm: Just back from a hop and a skip around an oven-baked All England Club to see that Novak Djokic has already leapt to an early 4-1 lead over Michael Llodra. It remains to be seen whether this Court One contest will equal the drama of the Marion Bartoli victory earlier today, though Jamie12 has his doubts. He (he?) comments:
I know it gets a lot of unfair stick but am I alone in finding the women's tournament more exciting than the men's this year?
Chances are you're not alone. So far this year, the matches that stick in the memory are Francesca Schiavone's first-day victory over Jelena Dokic and Kimiko Date-Krumm's gorgeous losing effort against Venus Williams. Yes, the men have provided a few brilliant encounters (Soderling vs Hewitt; Murray against Ljubicic; Tsonga vs Dimitrov) but the women still have the edge. It's been a long time since we've able to make that claim.
3.26pm: So what next? What next? Like greedy children, we peer at the schedule. Heading out now on Centre, it's Venus Williams and Tsetana Pironkova, her tormentor at last year's tournament. Court One, meantime, plays host to Novak Djokovic versus crafty Michael Llodra. Rest assured that we'll be keeping tabs on both of those, though I'm heading out now for the briefest of breaks. Back soon.
3.19pm: Out on Centre, Andy Murray wraps up a surprisingly simple 7-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Richard Gasquet. The Frenchman flattered to deceive at this year's Wimbledon, bounding through his ope! ning thr ee matches without dropping a set only to wilt and wither when the heat was turned up. So Murray marches on. That was an impressive, imposing performance that bodes very well for the days ahead.
Over on Three, meanwhile, qualifier Lukasz Kubot leads Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 7-6, 2-1, while top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki is tied at a set-all with Dominika Cibulkova. Manic Monday is now about midway through.
3.13pm: Game, set and match to Marion Bartoli. The 2007 finalist triumphs 6-3, 7-6, claiming the tiebreak eight points to six with a vicious sliding serve out wide.
Remove your hats and bow your heads, for the champion is gone. Serena Williams returned to defend her title after being laid up for nearly a year. It was too big an ask and she rarely got past third gear here. Today she seemed half-a-step too slow and Bartoli was able to give her the runaround. So the Frenchwoman goes through to play Sabine Lisicki in the last eight.
3.09pm: Let be known that Serena Williams is not about to surrender this title without a fight. Who's to say, in fact, that she's going to surrender it at all? Facing her fourth match point, the champion tees off on a bruising ace down the T to tie the breaker at six-points all.
3.05pm: One has the sense that Marion Bartoli has to win this match right here and now. If it goes to a third, that favours the champion. The Frenchwoman is wide-eyed and soaked in sweat, mustering all of her reserves in a last-gasp effort to claim a grand and unprecedented victory. Five-all in the tiebreak.
2.59pm: High drama on a sweltering Court One, where Marion Bartoli stands with two match points against Serena Williams at 6-5 in the second set. Somehow the champion saves both, the second with a ripped backhand return that has the Frenchwoman staggering.
Match point number three finds Bartoli playing desperate defense as Williams biffs and bullies her all over the court. Finally the American seizes her chance,! forges into the net and knocks off a smash. Bartoli is so close to her first win over the champion that she can almost taste it. But she's not there yet. At break point, Williams connects with another of those lacerating backhand returns to haul the set to a tiebreak.
2.50pm: Second set to Murray, six games to three. He's now set fair to plough onward, ever onward to the men's quarter-finals, where he will meet the winner of the match between Lukasz Kubot and Feliciano Lopez. Chances are he'll be fancying his chances against either one.
Jacob Steinberg tweets:
6-3 to Murray in the second set. Gasquet now has to do what Murray's done to him twice - win from two sets down.
2.45pm: News from the grounds. Andy Murray breaks to lead 7-6, 5-3 as a Gasquet backhand sails long. It's five-all in the second between both Bartoli and Serena Williams and Kubot and Lopez.
Elsewhere, Barry Bryan mails with musings on the lexicon of Brad Gilbert:
Do you think Brad Gilbert honed his nicknaming skills as a coach? I would be it's a technique he uses to help his players feel confident (or in some cases, more like a machine). Thoughts?
2.33pm: He may be a deeply beautiful human being, possessed of the saintliest smile and the kindest eyes this side of Mahatma Gandhi. But still the question remains: just how good a tennis player is David Cameron, really?
Here's the verdict from Andrew Castle:
He cheats. He hits hard at the body, especially when he's playing a woman. And he cries when he loses. Just cries and runs away, screaming abuse over his shoulder
Sorry, I read that completely wrong; eyesight playing up again. Here's Matt Scott with the Real Story:
Andrew Castle, the former British No.1 and one-time
GMTV presenter, has spilled the beans on David Cameron's
tennis skills. Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph's politics
diary, Mandrake, Castle explained tha! t Camero n has had the
courts relaid at Chequers. Castle said: "David's a good
player; he's tenacious, he chases down every ball and he
never lets the ball bounce twice." Quite apart from that
questionable measure of tennis skills (isn't preventing the
ball from bouncing twice the very point of the game?) it
seems our prime minister could learn a lesson from tennis
in his political career. After all, the u-turns on everything
from student-maintenance allowances to NHS reform to sentencing
regimes, it seems Cameron's government has been dropping the
ball all over the place.
Back on the courts, Tamira Paszek defeats Ksenia Pervak 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarters.
2.23pm: Caroline Wozniacki may be the most invisible women's number one since, ooh, Jelena Jankovic or Ana Ivanovic, Dinara Safina or Hegelande Cedar-Jones III. That said, the great Dane is easing assuredly through the draw at this year's tournament and has just rushed to a 6-1 opening set against Dominika Cibulkova.
Meanwhile, far away on Court 12, near the forest, Petra Kvitova (seeded eight) runs out a comfortable 6-0, 6-2 win over Yamina Wickmayer.
2.10pm: Andy Murray sneaks the opening set from Richard Gasquet on the tiebreak. The French musketeer uses his racquet like a rapier, meaning to dice the Scot into a thousand bloody pieces. So far, however, Murray has managed to evade its edge.
Finally, a mail from the amazing Max Daly (and by heavens, it's been a long time coming). Max's mail provides crucial texture to the two nameless, faceless automatons currently waging battle on Centre Court. He writes:
Have just spotted that Richard Gasquet's web page reveals he doesn't have a girlfriend, likes pizzas and his favourite actor is Russell Crowe. On a more important note, he states both his parents are tennis coaches, while Andy's dad is a retail manager.
2.05pm: First set to Marion Bartoli! on Cour t One. The 2007 finalist weathers a last-minute attack of the jitters to take it six games to three, leaving Serena Williams with a hill to climb.
Next door on Three, Lukasz Kubot serves for the opening set against Feliciano Lopez. The qualifier elects to serve and volley on virtually every point, ambushing the Spaniard with his deft play at the net. Set one to Kubot, six games to three. It could well be a day of shocks here at SW19.
1.55pm: Off to the newly-built Court Three, where qualifier Lukasz Kubot leaps to an early break against Feliciano Lopez, while (over on 12) eighth-seed Petra Kvitova has just bagelled a hapless Yanina Wickmayer, taking the first set without the loss of a game. Back on Centre, Murray is serving to stay in the first set against Richard Gasquet.
This just in from the great Matt Scott:
John Inverdale pushed the boundaries in his
early-Saturday-morning Grandstand feature on
the relative merits of Wimbledon and Glastonbury.
Inverdale introduced the more established of the
two features of the early English summer thus:
"The grass is better here, and it's free."We know what you were driving at, John. Indeed,
even Mediawatch which inherited custodianship
of decency on our airwaves from the late Mary
Whitehouse's National Viewers and Listeners
Association got the joke. Clearly times have
changed in the 10 years since Whitehouse passed away:
even Inverdale's off-hand references to drugs could
not draw an outburst of splenetic indignation this time.
"I think it was a pretty subtle comment," a spokeswoman
said. "The Daily Mail in me would like to jump up and
down and scream. But youngsters whose behaviour may
have been affected by that wouldn't get the reference.
I think it's quite funny really." When delivered by
Inverdale, who is smoother than an overpriced punnet
of strawberries and cream, it is hard to argue with that
(unless, perhaps, you are the ! Daily Ma il).
1.45pm: Over on Court Two, Maria Sharapova wraps up an easy 6-4, 6-2 win over Shuai Peng, while (on Court One) Marion Bartoli jumps to a surprise 5-2 lead on reigning champion Serena Williams. Elsewhere, the tournament is still being shaken by the Tomic explosion away on Court 18. Brad Gilbert tweets:
what a performance by Weekend At Bernie's. i love his sense of calmness and how relaxed he is and he drops a beatdown on X-Man.
You can always rely on Gilbert for the colourful nickname. Last week he was billing Lleyton Hewitt as "Rusty the Lawnmower" and Robin Soderling as "the Sod". Now here he is, remaking the raw matter of young Bernard Tomic in the mould of a sub-par 1980s comedy. Next up he'll be discussing the merits of "Hear My Tsonga" and "Me and Youzhny and Everyone We Know".
1.37pm: A star is born out on Court 18, as Queensland's Bernard Tomic roars to a 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 triumph over wily Xavier Malisse. The 18-year-old is the first man (man?) through to the men's quarter-finals. On Wednesday he will be back on the grounds to face either Novak Djokovic or Michael Llodra. It's been many years since an 18-year-old pushed so deep in this tournament. Goran Ivanisevic reached the semis in 1990, while John McEnroe reached the same round as a qualifier in 1977. The benchmark, however, remains the one set by Boris Becker, who bashed and belted his way to the 1985 title at the tender age of 17.
1.32pm: While Simon Burnton provides the comprehensive, game-by-game commentary on the Murray-Gasquet stand-off, we're free to dip in and out of the other action here at SW19. Fourth-seed Victoria Azarenka dashes to a facile 6-2, 6-2 victory over Nadia Petrova to advance to the quarters, while Sharapova leads Shuai Peng 6-4, 5-2. And out on Court 18, teenage heavyweight Bernard Tomic will now serve for the match against Xavier Malisse.
1.15pm: Richard Gasquet holds serve to 15, containing some thumping grroundstr! okes fro m Andy Murray on a parched Centre Court. Over on Two, meantime, fifth-seed Maria Sharapova has taken the first set 6-4 from Shuai Peng and now leads 3-0 in the second. And good news for the Aussies: Bernard Tomic leads Xavier Malisse 6-1, 7-5, 2-2.
1.10pm: Out onto Centre step Andy Murray and Richard Gasquet. This pair meet for the fifth time, with the head-to-head standing at two matches apiece. Having weathered the Friday night storm served up by the heavy-hitting Ivan Ljubicic, Murray may well need to find a further gear this afternoon, for Gasquet is a player of abundant talent, possessed of arguably the greatest backhand in the men's game. This one has the potential to be a classic.
In the meantime, Gary Naylor writes:
So the helicopters weren't security for Middleton Snr nor even paparazzi for Middleton Jnr, but Beyonce and entourage dropping into SW19?
1.02pm: Just time, before battle is joined on Centre and Court One, for some more royal-related news from Matt Scott. Doff your cap and tug your forelock. Matt writes:
As many oohs and aahs have been expressed in the press box about the composition of today's royal box as does Centre Court during a hard-fought rally. Some of sports administration's top brass are taking their place in the plush seats today. David Bernstein, the Football Association chairman who earlier this month took on the Fifa congress and lost, is in there. So too Greg Clarke, the Football League chairman trying to bring some financial sanity to his competition. And there is also John Steele, who recently quit his hugely successful position as UK Sport chief executive for the equivalent post at the Rugby Football Union, only to lose his job within weeks after finding the RFU in thrall to Sir Clive Woodward. But where is Woodward now? Not in the company of Prince William and wife at Centre Court today, that's for sure.
12.56pm: Your update from the courts ou! tside. F ourth-seed Victoria Azarenka romps through a 6-2 opening set against Nadia Petrova, while Maria Sharapova leads 5-4 on serve against China's Shuai Peng. Tomic and Malisse are locked at four-all in the second. Over on Court 12, Sabine Lisicki pockets the first set on a tiebreak from Petra Cetkovska.
12.50pm: The All England Lawn Tennis Club is more than happy to throw open its doors to Bruce Forsyth and Beyonce, Pippa Middleton and the Rear Admiral. But there is no room, it seems, for a poor little poodle called Pierre.
It transpires that Pierre is the long-time companion of second-seed Novak Djokovic. A glance through some pictures shows exactly how close this bond has become. Look, here's Pierre and Djoker adorning the cover of Vogue magazine. And here's Pierre and the Djoker (plus a lady-friend; probably Djoker's, conceivably Pierre's) taking a spin in a sports-car. And look, here's Pierre just, you know, hanging out and enjoying the celebrity lifestyle.
But there shall be no Pierre at this year's tournament and the Djoker isn't happy. "For him this is very serious issue," grumbles a source in the Djokovic camp.
12.33pm: At the age of 18, Australian prodigy Bernard Tomic probably has a good 12 years of competitive Grand Slam tennis stretching ahead of him. He can afford to take his time, hone his craft and soak up the atmosphere. Instead, he has arrived today as a man on a mission, seizing 2002 semi-finalist Xavier Malisse by the throat and shaking him until his teeth fall out (metaphorically speaking, of course).
First set ! to Tomic , six games to one.
12.27pm: If it's Monday morning, it must be Wimbledon. Barely 12-hours after bowing out at Glastonbury, Beyonce has just rolled into SW19, blithely upstaging Sir Cliff Richard (who is reportedly also here). What happens if they both want to sing? This could prove to be a major headache for the tournament organisers.
Another prediction regarding today's crowning contest. Brad Gilbert tweets:
of the big four there's no question Rafa has the toughest ask today against delPo. with quick conditions i expect this to potentially go 5
12.15pm: Here, without further ado, are my predictions for today's main matches. I've been so hilariously bad at these that they're swiftly becoming my trademark comic sideline. Please feel free to insert your own sound-effect (a ripe raspberry; a "quack-quack-oops") at the end of each airy prediction.
On Centre, Murray to beat Gasquet in four sets. Then, Tsvetana Pironkova to see off Venus Williams in three sets. And then, for dessert, Rafa Nadal to scrap and claw his way through a tight and torrid four-set win over the nuclear-powered Juan Martin Del Potro.
Over on One, I figure Serena Williams will have too much firepower for febrile Marion Bartoli, while Djokovic will similarly blunt and batter the slice-and-dice tactics of France's Michael Llodra. I'd love to think that Mikhail Youzhny might trouble the artful Roger, but the form-guide suggests otherwise: the Russian has lost all his 10 previous meetings with the Swiss. Federer in three.
12.05am: Tearing ourselves unwillingly back to the tennis, here's the order of play for Centre and Court One.
First up on Centre, it's the blockbusting fourth-round tie between Andy Murray and Richard Gasquet, the dashing musketeer of French tennis. These two have split ! their fo ur previous matches, with both of Murray's victories coming from two-sets down. The Brit needs a bright start here today if he's to avoid another long and gruelling dog-fight.
After that, we have Venus Williams up against the imperious Tsvetana Pironkova, who dumped her out of last year's tournament, and that's followed by reigning champ Rafa Nadal versus the resurgent Juan Martin Del Potro. All told, it's a formidable lineup on Centre Court.
The Court One schedule goes like this. Serena Williams takes on Marion Bartoli, after which serve-volley specialist Michael Llodra will attempt to worm his way under the hitherto impregnable skin of second-seed Novak Djokovic. And then, bringing down the curtain, we have six-time champion Roger Federer versus the talented Russian Mikhail Youzhny.
Play starts on Centre and One in about an hour. It commences imminently on the outside courts, where Maria Sharapova is all set to take on Shuai Peng and 18-year-old Bernard Tomic is poised to join battle with Xavier Malisse. Wimbledon's Manic Monday begins right about .... now.
11.53am: So far this year, the Wimbledon royal box has played host to the derrieres of Bruce Forsyth and Terry Wogan, Andrew Strauss and the legendary Rear Admiral of Kilgore-Trout. Today, if a swirling blizzard of rumours prove true, there may well be a fresh rear all set to plant itself in SW19. Matt Scott reports:
As if the sight of Tim Henman in a Lawn Tennis Association tie is not enough to send Wimbledon's Pimms-sippers into paroxyms of patrician delight, SW19 has a particular treat for The Establishment today.
Word is that the Duchess of Cambridge is making her way to her favourite summer sports event. (Although how watching her father-in-law in action in a pair of polo jodhpurs does not rank higher is inexplicable.)
Indeed, there is talk that the worl! d's most famous royal backside-in-law, Pippa Middleton, is accompanying her sister.
Today's list of attendees in the Royal Box is unusually late off the presses, and if they do both attend, it is said that it would be in a "personal capacity". So the phalanx of armed police, sniffer dogs and helicopter circling overhead are entirely coincidental.
11.45am: Welcome to week two of the Wimbledon championships, where the temperature's rising ahead of today's fourth-round clashes. Almost imperceptibly, we have now reached the business end of this tournament.
The nearly-weres and also-rans. The amiable make-weights and the glad-to-be-heres: they have all been weeded out and sent off to the airport. It's safe to assume that every one of those who remain has at least idly entertained the possibility of actually winning this title. I'm guessing that even goes for lowly Lukasz Kubot, the Polish qualifier who now faces Feliciano Lopez in the last 16.
The heat may be a factor today, with the temperature tipped to hit 30-degrees. All last week, the parasols were folded on the sun terrace above Court One, where they looked like a trio of cloaked Grim Reapers, on hand to scoop up the fallen. Today they are open, resplendent. They now resemble a set of flying saucers, all set to spirit the winners to the heavens. By the close of play we should know the eight men and eight women who'll contest this year's quarter-finals.
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