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Wimbledon Diary Day 5


 

Originally published on: 24/06/11 20:08

Three women’s seeds departed SW19 today and two of those were against the expected form. Tsvetana Pironkova, the 23 year old from Plovdiv in Bulgaria put out Vera Zvonareva, the No. 2 seed. Pironkova is no stranger to Wimbledon though, as in 2010 she reached the semi finals, where she lost to today’s opponent in three sets. 

The number 11 ladies seed was most definitely not dancing today, as she was defeated in straight sets by Ksenia Pervak 64 76(2).  Andrea Petkovic who has been having a great year and making lots of friends on the Tour, said she didn’t have good day at the office. “I think I just had a black day.  I just didn’t feel the ball at all.  I didn’t move well”.

No 12 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also lost to a lower ranked opponent, Yanina Wickmayer. The Belgian next meets Petra Kvitova who defeated Roberta Vinci 63 63.

Victoria Azarenka overcame Daniel Hantuchova on three sets 63 36 62 to take her place in the fourth round where she will meet Nadia Petrova. Venus Williams dropped only 2 games in just over an hour to beat Spaniard Maria Jose Martines Sanchez.

We chuckled when Maria Sharapova, almost the veteran, was asked about Laura Robson her 17 year old opponent today, who she overcame 76(7) 63, ” I don’t have any regrets about being 24. I think that’s relatively quite young. You know, I have to say I’m very fortunate, you know, that I got to get experience on the tour from a very young age by winning many matches.  I think everybody’s success comes in different parts of their career and in their life”. Maybe some more success is coming the Russian’s way in London.

The big upset of the day was when Feliciano Lopez defeated Andy Roddick in straight sets 76 (2) 76 (2) 64. Lopez’s career has been eclipsed by the rise of another Spaniard, one Rafael Nadal, but as he pointed out “ I was the first Spanish to reach the quarters after 35 or 36 years. And then Rafa came here and won the title and he has been the most successful Spanish player here in Wimbledon by far”. 

Feliciano, or Deliciano as he has been nicknamed, likes grass, and he’s delighted with today’s performance “It’s definitely a great win.  I mean, I play solid all three sets.  When you play Andy Roddick here, you never expect to win two straight tiebreaks against him.  So I’m really happy with my performance”.

Other winners included Bernard Tomic who beat Igor Andreev 46 57 63 64 61.  Rafa will have to wait until tomorrow to finish his match against Gilles Muller because at 5.40pm the rain came down and eventually at 7pm, Andrew Jarrett, the referee called time on today’s action. The forecasters here are doing a great job, they were an hour and twenty minutes out today for the arrival of rain, forecast for 7pm.

As always, we’re looking forward to all the action, and are off now, to dig out the Factor 30 sunscreen we bought from Aus. Based on their form this week, we trust those forecasters.

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Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.