Wimbledon Day 1 Highlights

Rain, court speed and hilariously inaccurate interviews dominated day one proceedings at the 125th Wimbledon Championships at the All England Club in London yesterday. Most matches went according to plan for the top dogs in the mens field, with perhaps the most notable upset of the day being Denis Istomin prevailing in a four set victory over recent Halle champion Philipp Kohlschreiber. This result is both surprising and expected and yes I know that doesn't make sense. The German just can't deliver when it's expected of him, especially in the slams. 

No one will ever forget the way he dismantled Andy "duck" Roddick at the Australian Open in 2008, clocking 107 winners in 5 sets of flawless tennis, only to proceed to lose to Jarkko "shark" Nieminen in 4 sets the next round, after being up in the tiebreaks of that match as well. I know it isn't the same situation here, however he was playing very well in Halle and people were expecting better things. It has been reported in the German media that he was carrying a groin injury so perhaps I'm being a tad harsh here, but you can't help but feel this result was coming anyway. Props must go to Istomin as well, the Uzbek had only won 6 matches all year on tour and he played a strong match. Always nice to see a player doing well on the tour after coming back from serious injury a few years ago with that horrible car crash incident.


Centre court action saw world number one and defending champion Rafael Nadal open proceedings against American journeyman Iron Mike Russell. This was a fun match, played in good spirits and both players played well. Iron Mike was on fire early, storming off to a 4-2 lead in the opening set playing some excellent controlled tennis from the baseline. Of course, you've never broken until you hold serve yourself and unfortunately for Russell, Nadal awakened to the situation and broke straight back. The Spaniard quickly held serve the next game and Russell was suddenly on the back foot before he knew it.  The American played a poor game at 4-4 and was broken after a couple of double faults and unforced errors. The set and the match was over right then and there. Still, Russell fought hard as he always does and was enjoying himself immensely out there which was nice to see as he probably hasn't got too many more seasons left in him and won't have too many more chances to play on the biggest courts in the world. Nadal would win the match in the end in straight sets, 6-4 6-2 6-2.

On the outside courts, results went as expected for most of the mens matches. Czech runner up from last year, Tomas Berdych, was loving his draw against Italian Pippo Volandri, barely raising a sweat in a comprehensive 6-2 6-2 6-1 victory. Volandri can now go back to the Italian clay challengers where he will easily forget about this match. A court 5 showdown pitted two players who had lost to Nadal in the first two slams of the year, Ryan Sweeting and Pablo Andujar, in a match to see who would again face Nadal in the second round. The player from the Bahamas living in America emerged victorious in 5 sets and at least will get to play on centre court in Wimbledon, that will be more than enough for him. Talented Frenchman Richard Gasquet also got through his opening match unscathed, winning in straight sets against Columbian Santiago Giraldo. There was a little hiccup for Gasquet in the final set where he served for it at 5-3 and Giraldo broke him, but other than that, he served very well for the most part which is important for him and the backhand was on as well. The Frenchman is on course for a potential round 4 encounter with Andy Murray which has enormous potential if both play their best tennis.

Onto Murray now, and the rain meant that he would play under the roof for a second time, this time against Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver. The heavy conditions and the humidity inside centre court meant that the surface was slowed down significantly and this benefited DGT considerably. It hasn't taken long for the arguments to arise about the speed of the surface and the key dominator here is that you can't please everybody. If the grass was as fast as it was in the 80's then everyone would be complaining about "boring" tennis that would ultimately end in a tiebreak in each set and a shootout for the match so to speak. Nowadays you get people saying that the clay at RG is faster than Wimbledon which is not true in any case, and that the grass doesn't compliment the slice and serve volleyers as it is "meant" to do. Whatever your opinion, you just have to accept the fact that the contemporary grass makes for longer rallies and closer games, which in turn attracts more audiences and thus greater revenue is generated for the ATP. It's all about the benjamins these days. 

Anyway, back to the match, and DGT played some lights out tennis for a set and half, running around the backhand and cranking the off forehand which was on fire. The Spaniard was also serving out of a tree, regularly clocking them at over 120mph which is Karlovic on drugs stuff for him. Murray was getting frustrated at his inability to make inroads on the DGT serve, and this translated to his own service games where he started retreating back into his comfort zone and played way too passive, enabling DGT to dictate with the forehand. DGT managed to break and close out the first set 6-4 in front of a stunned local crowd. The beginning of the second set produced more of the same for both players, with Murray getting angry with himself after failing to capitalise on a number of break point chances in an early DGT service game and the Spaniard ripping the off forehand winners from the backhand corner. However, midway through the second set DGT's notable backhand weakness started to feature more prominently. He doesn't get into position with the feet and can sometimes hit down on the ball which ultimately leads to a lot of balls being dumped into the net. Murray started to pepper this wing and this paid dividends in the end for the Scot, breaking the DGT serve and running away with the second set 6-3. Murray had regained his confidence now and DGT had run out of steam, and he also picked up a bit of an injury as well. Murray continued to play well from the baseline now and would attack the DGT forehand in an attempt to open up the weaker backhand side. The Scot would go on to win the final two sets comfortably 6-0 6-0 and kudos must be given to DGT for not retiring when he easily could have. Fun match to watch.


We'll end this article on a hilariously bad interview from one of the journalists in the Monfils press room after he had won his opening round match in straight sets. The person was addressing Monfils on who he will play in his next match and the lucky loser situation:

Q. You are playing Slovakian qualifier, Grega Zemlja.

GAËL MONFILS: Who?

Q. Greg Zemlja.

GAËL MONFILS: I didn't check.

Q. Do you know anything? Are you familiar with him?

GAËL MONFILS: You just tell me. I don't know who I'm supposed to play. It wasn't Kendrick or... (In French.)

Q. No. He is lucky loser. Do you know anything about him, the way he plays or something like that?

GAËL MONFILS: No.

Q. Never heard of him?

GAËL MONFILS: Yes, I saw his name, but I don't watch my draw, you know. Just match after match. But I don't know. Just I saw I was playing Kendrick or qualifier, so now you tell me.

Q. Do you think the qualifiers have some advantage because of the bad weather in the past few days and prepare a little bit more matches?

GAËL MONFILS: I don't know if it's advantage, but for sure they have good match because they need to win three matches.

Q. Two.

GAËL MONFILS: Two?

Q. Lucky loser. Yes, now three.

GAËL MONFILS: Yeah. But I played last week as well, so it's the same. It's always tough to play a qualifier and someone you don't really know. Like today, the opponent I played, it was tough because I never saw him playing.

So it's always tough and tricky, but all I can tell you is I will bring my game Wednesday, and then I will try to impose my style. And then for sure I will see how he's playing, and I hope I will have a good match.