With Wimbledon literally melting yesterday (including a small fire in Centre Court late into the evening) it was probably with some relief that the day started a gentle sprinkling of rain, albeit with some concern for the purple and green powers that be, who chose to put Andy Murray on Court No. 1 today.
They need not have worried as the former champion was a Murray in a hurry and whizzed through his match, before charming a nation with the most adorable Instagram of his dog Rusty quite frankly not giving a hoot if he once lifted the gilded cup, daddy was home!
But it is debatable what was more adorable – the cute Instagram or his sheepish admission that his extremely sweaty wristband had not only been hurled at the Chairman of the All England Club (Philip Brook), who mopped up its soddenness with his suit, but he then promptly offered the perspiration soaked item to the Duchess of Cornwall.
Murray grinned as he admitted he saw the discarded sweatband in her bag when she opened it, as he met them on his way back to the locker room. Just goes to show, even Royalty want a keepsake from Murray!
Over in Centre Court, Roger Federer more than handily dealt with the challenge of big serving Sam Querrey. Federer needed to be on point to get on the end of those bombs, as he described his form (which is tickety-boo, if you must know).
Federer said: “Today was definitely a good day. I sort of returned well. Served okay. I definitely think I can serve a little bit better. I didn’t check my match stats, but I feel like things are definitely good out there.
“Querrey can definitely be dangerous. He’s got a big game, especially on the grass. He was going for his shots today. It was important today to move well and be clear in the important moments. I felt like I was. It was a good match.”
But the story of the day was how Wimbledon second rounds and Rafael Nadal do not get along. The dynamic Dustin Brown came out swinging, taking the first set off the Spaniard before Nadal had quite enough of that, thank you. As he levelled, it looked as though it had been just the scare he needed, but full credit to Brown whose level picked up as he denied Nadal any kind of time to get rhythm on his game.
He admitted as much, after the match, saying: “In this court especially, you meet players that don’t want to play from the baseline sometimes. This opponent is one of these ones. You cannot have mistakes against a player like him with that big serve. You know, nothing to lose. Serving first and second almost the same speed.
“Without having rhythm at all. I didn’t hit three balls in a row the same way. Then when you need to hit that ball, extra ball, you don’t have the confidence to do it. So that’s what happened.”
Without his ability to dictate, Nadal just seemed step slow and out of ideas, as the qualifier (yes, qualifier – the AELTC did not award him a wildcard) stepped up and took advantage. Of course the Twitterverse could be relied upon to go into meltdown about Nadal’s demise, but let’s have a little perspective, good citizens of tennis-land. He has a whole hard court season to come, and he’s fairly useful on that surface.
The women, by contrast, managed to hold things together… well almost. Former finalist Sabine Lisicki made life pretty hard for herself against Christina McHale, losing the first set and having to fight to level the match in the second before she ran away with it in the final set. At least we could rely on Petra Kvitova towering over Kurumi Nara, who managed to keep her on court for almost double the time of her first match… the nerve!
Agnieszka Radwanska continued her good from Eastbourne, rocketing past Ajla Tomljanovic although we did lose eighth seed Ekaterina Makarova who slumped to a straight sets loss against Magdalena Rybarikova. Caroline Woznaicki also eased into the next round, as we gave to the other half of the draw and her best pal Serena Williams.
Williams continues her quest for the Serena Slam (and three-quarters of a career Slam) when she takes on home favourite Heather Watson. It is a huge ask for the Brit, but above all we hope it is a good battle and that Watson can enjoy the experience of playing the World’s best, on the world’s best stage.
Topics: All England Club, Andy Murray, Caroline Wozniacki, Dustin Brown, global chick, Petra Kvitova, Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer, Sabine Lisicki, Sam Querrey, Serena Williams, Tennis News, The Championships, Wimbledon 2015
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