WIMBLEDON TENNIS NEWS, GOSSIP AND MORE FROM LONDON BROUGHT TO YOU BY GLOBAL CHICK

Written by: Global Chick on 29th June 2015

WIMBLEDON TENNIS NEWS, GOSSIP AND MORE FROM LONDON BROUGHT TO YOU BY GLOBAL CHICK

Serena Williams of USA returns to Margarita Gasparyan of Russia in their first round match during the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 29 June 2015. EPA/SEAN DEMPSEY |

On this fine day of champions – Global Chick’s Wimbledon Diary & oh add Federer Onto Tomorrows line up

On this fine day of champions – Global Chick’s Wimbledon Diary

Oh my – it’s FINALLY here. Did you see that blur? That was me, whizzing to the head of the Pimm’s queue, asking sweetly for not too much ice, surreptitiously pocketing a sachet of sugar to sweeten the strawberries and cream. It’s the first day of Wimbledon, and our focus today is on a brace of champions.

With men’s defending champion Novak Djokovic leading out on Centre Court, and five time champion Serena Williams starting on Court 1, we were veritably cross-eyed for a while. Even more so when qualifier Margarita Gasparyn stole an early march on Serena Williams, much to the gasps and perhaps a dropped strawberry or two.

Animated with some rather severe ‘COME ON’s, Williams crept towards breaking back while commentators still chose to wax lyrical about how qualifiers really rather ought to tremble in her wake. Not anymore these days. Everyone comes to win. Did they not get the memo?

Meanwhile in the kingdom of Djokovic over in Centre Court, it seems Phillip Kohlschreiber also missed the memo, having broken straight back after surrendering an early break.

Switching back and forth was making our heads spin, as Williams came back from 1-3 down to ’Come Onnnnn’ her way to the first set, and once more the hype surrounding the Serena/Calendar Slam was restored to good order.

Williams was back in control at the start of the second set, breaking straight away and stomping her authority on proceedings, but she probably will have been happy for a bit of a fight.

She said, after the match: “I would be lying if I said I want a hard match. But I think it’s good for me. At the end of the day, I think it’s definitely good for me. But no one really wants to be in any sort of difficult match.”

Meanwhile for those who say that the transition from junior success does not necessarily translate into senior success ought to look at Latvian wildcard Jelena Ostapenko. Last year’s Junior Wimbledon champion ousted the ninth seed, Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2 6-0 in 53 minutes, probably more than earning her wildcard status.

Back to Djokovic who was nothing, if not consistent as he managed to break poor Kohlschreiber thrice in the 10th game of the match, contending with a curios bird that decided to pop own onto court for a closer look, and reminding Djokovic of the Belgrade sparrows back home.

“At one point Kohlschreiber was serving at the advantage side, between the first and second serve, the bird landed literally very close to the side-line. She stayed there until I won that point. So I said, Be my guest, stay around, if you want. But, yeah, it was funny. It was funny to see that. We had birds, mostly birds and different animals come in and out from the court. But the sparrow bird from Belgrade really stayed for the entire match (smiling).”

Novak Djokovic of Serbia serves to Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany during their first round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 29 June 2015. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA

That made a change from his someone testy response to yet more questioning about Boris Becker’s assertions that his team signal him during play. This surely is not news? All players receive some kind of signals during a match, and surely Djokovic is a big enough player to know when to change things up without being told? Either way he made it very clear he was having no more of this:

“I got this question already two times in the last couple days. I don’t understand what I can say, what I haven’t said already before. I’m going to repeat myself. I’m going to say that there are certain ways of communication which is encouragement, which is support, which is understanding the moment when to, you know, clap or say something that, you know, can lift my energy up, that can kind of motivate me to play a certain point. But it’s all within the rules.

“If I am breaking any rules or my team does, I would be fined for that, right? The chair umpire would say, Coaching penalty, and that’s it. Or the supervisor, or whoever. I just don’t understand why this same story is repeating over and over for days.”

And it was a fond farewell, complete with raucous support from the Aussies to Lleyton Hewitt. He battled out on Court 2 against another veteran Jarkko Nieminen who edged him 11-9 in the final set. After the Finn acknowledged the crowd at his last Wimbledon, Hewitt took to the court to wave goodbye one last time. Darn that pollen, something got caught in my eye.

Lleyton Hewitt of Australia in action against Jarkko Nieminen of Finland during their first round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 29 June 2015. EPA/ANDY RAIN

We’ll be back tomorrow for all the fun of the fair, with Roger Federer and that chap Murray on Centre Court.

Topics: 2015 Wimbledon, AELTC, Atp World Tour, Boris Becker, Centre Court, global chick, London, Novak Djokovic, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Serena Williams, Sports, Sw19, Tennis, Wimbledon news, Wta

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June 29, 2015 at 1:12 pm

-@Wimbledon #TennisNews, GOSSIP AND MORE FROM #LONDON BROUGHT TO YOU BY GLOBAL CHICK- http://t.co/6hqHH9s4zn #Wimbledon2015 #SW19 #AELTC