Wimbledon day Five and Six

Two very interesting days some good and some not so good and some truly inspirational players.

Day Five

Men

I was really sad to see Dustin Brown go out on day five his story really touched me. Normally in the UK we hear that most people playing tennis come from middle class backgrounds were money is not an issue. So to think that Dustin travelled around for five years in camper van and finally qualified and succeeded at Wimbledon is very inspirational as he never gave up on his dreams.

I was also sad to see Sergiy Stakhovsky go out again he had that similar determination that Dustin Brown has and he came across really well. I think that some of the men are so focused on winning that few have charismatic personalities so it nice to see guys with personalities in this years Wimbledon.

Women

Sloane Stephens had a very lucyk escape her match was completed on day six and she won third set.  I think Sloane has a great chance to at least  to make the semi finals but the way she lost that second set 6 love was scary and also rather fortunate that the match was completed on day six as opposed to day five.

Day Six

Men

 

Andy Murray did what he needed to do win his match and with little fuss. Andy is now very comfortable both on and off court.  The only worry I have for him is that he could get  a little complacent but I’m hoping that will not happen.

Novak Djokovic made very well and has this look of steely determination and he will be very hard to beat. He has really developed his grass court game and if Andy is to beat Novak then Andy will really have to step it up.

Women

Laura Robson played well enough to make the fourth round but to beat Kaia Kanepi she is really going have to play well which means serving incredibly well and moving a lot faster. I think that nerves may now become a real problem for Laura and if she is not careful the match maybe over before it has started.

Serena Williams played enough to beat Kimiko Date Krumm but her fourth round match against Sabine Lisicki will be the first real test. I am confident that if she serves like she did in the French Open then she will be fine.  Sabine is a very good player and she will able to get balls that Kimiko Date Krumm could not get to. So it should be a very high level match which hopefully Serena will win.

 

 

Wimbledon day four

There were few shocks today after all the excitement of yesterday a lot of the top seeds in both the women and the men's draw had routine wins.

Men

Novak Djokovic got through to the third round beating the American Bobby Reynolds in three straight sets. For the American men Wimbledon has not been good to them because with Bobby Reynolds out it is the first time since 1912 that there are no American man in the third round.

I know that John Isner pulled out yesterday but realistically it's highly unlikely that he would have got past the fourth round and it's a real shame that USTA did not build on the success of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick.

Women

Serena Williams had comfortable win against Caroline Garcia, beating her in straight sets. I have to say that I really liked Caroline's game and I think that  if she played like that every week she would quickly rise in the rankings. 

Serena Williams is playing Kimiko Date on Saturday and as great as it is for a 42 year old women to be still playing competitive tennis. I hope Serena is going to continue learn and develop her game and most importantly does not lose focus when she is playing Kimiko Date.  

The day of the under dog!

 All the years I have been watching tennis I have never witnessed a day like this, it really is the day of the underdog!

Men

What a shock Tsonga  and Federer out! truly unbelievable it was a bit sad because at the end of the day you want the best players to be there on the last weekend of Wimbledon. I was shocked when Tsonga could no longer continue but watching Federer get beaten like that was a bit of shock but I didn’t think he was going to win this year.

 I watched Tsonga take apart Federer at the French Open and I thought his days of being a champion was over. However I thought that Federer  would have exited the tournament at the quarter final stage.

However it was a very good day for Andy Murray who had a straight set win against Yen Hsun Lu and with the loss of both Tsonga and Federer there is going to be even greater pressure for Andy to win. 

Excellent win for Sergiy Stakhovsky against Federer  he was very impressive and he had no fear  after losing the third set  and he was able to regroup and win the fourth set and the match.

Dustin Brown against Lleyton Hewitt turned out to be a Wimbledon classic. I did not know anything about Dustin but by the end of the match I felt like he was a personal friend! His story to how he got Wimbledon is inspirational and it just goes to show2 that nobody should ever give up on their dream.

Women

Women’s tennis today was equally shocking as Maria Sharapova, the winner in 2004 was also beaten and Victoria  Azarenka pulled out with an injury and Jelena Jankovic  was also beaten in straight sets. However women that did very well today include Sloane Stephens and Michelle Di Barito .

It was a very strange day at Wimbledon so I was relieved that both  Sloane Stephens and Andy Murray  made it to the third round with little fuss.

 

Wimbledon Day Two

Day two of Wimbledon was full of shocks and surprises and this is my review of men's and women's games.

Men

Novak Djokovic had a comfortable straight sets victory and I  Iike Novak’s style of tennis and he also come across as an engaging character. For this tournament now that Rafa is out I would love Andy, Novak or Jon Wilfred to win.

Women

I  am disappointed that Heather Watson went out in the first round and watching her match I could see that she was struggling with her fitness. I noticed that she is also going to play doubles which I think is probably not a great idea as she still needs to recover from that bout of glandular fever.

Laura Robson did very well and I did not expect her to get past Maria Kirilenko but she served and returned the ball really well and hardly made any errors. I was very surprised at Maria Kirilenko as she is normally a good grass court player but she seemed a little one dimensional today and when she was losing it did not seem to me that she had a plan B.

After the disappointment of Heather Watson, Tara Moore definitely lifted my gloom and even though she lost in to Kaia Kanepi she is definitely one for the future. I was very impressed with Tara’s serve and movement so I did a little google research and found out she trained at Nick Bollettieri’s academy which explains a lot. As there are not too many UK female tennis players that can move and serve like that. I am hoping that Tara will get right sort of sponsors and a coach that will help take her career to the next level.

I am little surprised that Daniela Hantuchova is out already after winning the title in Birmingham I thought she was going to do well here but sadly this did not happen and was beaten in straight sets. Serena Williams played well enough to win the match and I think she was familiarising herself with the grass and so I hope she will be able to play even better in second round.

Wimbledon Day One

First day of Wimbledon was full of surprises both in the men and the ladies games.

Men

I am  disappointed that Rafal Nadal is out of Wimbledon and I think that his style of tennis will be missed in the next two weeks.

I am hoping that Rafal will get proper treatment for his knee and only return when he is 125% fit. There were also good routine wins for Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Jon Wilfred Tsonga.

Women

I am not surprised that Sara Errani lost today as she does not really have  a good record at Wimbledon. Maria Sharapova won in two sets however the first set was a real struggle for her and she seemed to be a little irritated today and I was surprised to see her arguing with the umpire. 

The all American first round tie between Jamie Hampton and Sloane Stephens was won by Sloane Stephens who played quite well and won the big points when it mattered.

Wimbledon Draw

Wimbledon gets under way today so I thought I would give my brief view of the draws.

Men’s draw

It’s a little sad that Rafal Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Jon Wilfred Tsonga are all on in the same part of the draw. It means that potentially Roger and Rafa could meet in the quarters final which I think is slightly too early and sometimes it can make the semi finals and final are little boring to watch.

Women’s draw

I really like the women’s draw as it has spread out the talent evenly and Serena Williams is at the opposite end of the draw to Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka. Serena’s path to the final looks fairly straightforward although she may need to play a tricky third round against the Chinese player Je Zheng .

Heather Watson could possibly make the third round as her first round is against Madison Keys which I think is very winnable match and in the second round she could face either Monica Niculescu or Mona Barthel . If Heather gets this far then it is a very winnable match. However Heather’s third round could be against Agnieszka  Radwanska and this is probably when Heather exits the tournament. On a positive note if she did make it to the third round she would not lose any ranking points as that is the stage she exited the tournament last year.

Laura Robson as not been given a nice draw she has a very tough first round against Maria Kirilenko.  If she was able to get past Maria then she would probably get Julia Georges in the second round and it would get even tougher after that. I’m not saying Laura cannot do it but it will be really tough get past Maria Kirilenko who has good record at Wimbledon.

One interesting first round match to watch would between Jamie Hampton and Sloane Stephens. Jamie did very well at Eastbourne eventually losing to Elena Vesnina. Sloane Stephens has also been rising up the rankings and they are both very different players so this all American first round could be very interesting.

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Eastbourne Final

Ok today is finals day at Eastbourne and as I predicted in my previous post.  it will be played  between Jamie Hampton and Elena Vesnina. 

Vesnina had a more comfortable victory therefore maybe the fresher of the two. This is probably Jamie Hampton's first major final so nerves might play a part. 

However that does not mean I think Vesnina guaranteed a win just that as she has more match experience than Hampton it makes it little more likely.

Eastbourne Semi-Finals

Today is semi-finals day and as regular readers of my blog would have noted. Earlier this week I wrote a post about the increasing strength and depth of USA's women team.

So I am not surprised that Jamie Hampton has made the semi-finals and we will find out how far her grass court game has developed when she takes on Caroline Wozniacki.

In the second semi-finals Yanina Wickmayer takes on Elena Vesnina. I watched Elena's previous game against Heather Watson and although she won I am not yet convinced that she can be a grand slam winner. 

However as world number 34 this could be a very good year for her. Where she could gain lots of points and finish the year in at least the top twenty.

So I believe that the final could be between Jamie Hampton and Elena Vesnina. I would say that for Wickmayer, Vesnina and Hampton whether they win or lose they will all do well with the ranking points they would have gained.

Eastbourne update

Both Heather Watson and Laura Robson went out of Eastbourne yesterday. Having watched both games I was disappointed that Heather let it slip away after coming back in the second set. She did look a little fatigued and that probably did not help.  After gifting  Vesnina a five love lead in the third set she did try to come back but it was too late.

Laura did her best against Caroline and I am sure if she gets fitter she will be challenging for a top ten place. Right  now both Laura and Heather are on a steep learning curve and I hope they both rise to the challenge without getting demoralis

Preview of Wimbledon 2013

Wimbledon is nearly here! And it is the tournament that as a child got me hooked on tennis. It is the most important tournament in the UK tennis calendar and it is really the only time in the UK when people are really focused on tennis. This year’s tournament will hopefully showcase some of the emerging tennis talent and however I do feel that experience of grand slams will help win the tournament!

Men’s draw

I’m writing at the time when the men’s draw has not been released so I am basing this review on my knowledge of the men’s game. If it was obvious already the men to watch are Roger Federer, Rafal Nadal Andy Murray and the world number one Novak Djokovic. The outsiders to the title would Jon Wilfred Tsonga Juan Martin Del Petro. Time and time again the men’s draw proves to be predictable and the top seed seem to move to each round quite comfortably and on occasions they might be tested to five sets but experience has tended to win the day.

 

 

 

My prediction

Okay as much I want Andy Murray to do well I truly believe that his success will depend on his mental toughness and not worrying about the public. I think if he worries less and his game comes together then he has got every chance of winning this.

 I think Roger Federer will do well depending on the draw I suspect he will at least make it to the quarter finals.  After that it will all depend on the shape that he is in and Roger did win a grass court tournament last week so I suspect he is more than ready for the challenge.

Rafal Nadal didn’t do particularly well last year and he lost fairly early it was probably because he had been carrying the injury. But as a previous Wimbledon winner and my personal favourite I hope he does well. Rafal makes tennis exciting and he doesn’t play text book tennis....and to me his shot making is unique.

Tsonga is my outside bet for the title but after his below par performance at French Open I saw him in different light. I hope he is now put that shambolic performance behind him and is able to play well at Wimbledon.

Women’s draw

Again this is being written before the draw is out so it based entirely based entirely on my previous knowledge of the players. The players to watch are Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova. The women’s draw historically is a little less predictable the three women I have previously mentioned are the ones I think have a real realistic chance to win.

 There are probably two outsiders in Petra Kvitova and Svetlana Kuznetsova. Petra won the tournament two years ago but has since failed to live up to expectations. Kuznetsova is a good grass court player so depending on the draw she could do quite well.  

Heather Watson is battling back to full fitness and I think her goal should be realistically to make to third round now if she does get to the third round maybe just maybe she could make it to the quarter finals but that is a long shot.

I watched Laura Robson’s game on TV yesterday and she was playing a qualifier at Eastbourne and she did seem herself and seemed very nervous. Most of time she looked like she had a scowl on her face and I think that now she playing in the women’s main draw the pressure of having to succeed is probably getting to her and to be fair at Wimbledon it will only get worse for her she needs to develop coping mechanism and quickly too.

 

 

My prediction

I suspect that Serena Williams (my personal favourite) will retain her title but Maria and Victoria will both be tough challenges for her. Maria beat Serena at Wimbledon for her very first title about nine years ago so anything could happen....

Now please tell me what your predictions are....or if agree or disagree with my predictions..

Looking forward to reading them J

USA Tennis

As someone who has a deep appreciation of US style of tennis, it is nice see that US women’s tennis  is more than just Venus and Serena Williams. The emerging talents of Sloane Stephens, Jamie Hampton and Varvara Lepchenko amongst others mean that the US women could dominating even once Serena retires.

 However I would say that that these players are probably a good two to three years away from winning grand slams. However having watched one or two of these players they have definitely made feel very optimistic for the US’s women team.

The same cannot be said  about US men’s tennis which seems to be struggling a bit and now that Andy Roddick has retired.  The current crop of male players do not really strike me has grand slam winning potential but I could be wrong. However I am sure that the US team will probably find a male player to feel the void that Andy Roddick left sooner than I probably realise.

UK Tennis

I have just read a very interesting article on the BBC website about the current funding plans for UK tennis.  As an avid tennis fan I have waited a long time to see some real UK talent coming through and at the moment I am pleased with the current crop of tennis stars i.e. Andy Murray, Heather Watson and Laura Robson.

Anyone who follows tennis knows  that it does take time to get a tennis super star. Five years ago the UK was in a tennis abyss and now five years down the line we have finally got a tennis champion in Andy Murray.

Yes I do understand that neither Andy nor Heather learnt their game in the UK but I believe that this is more of a damming indictment of the training facilities in the UK.  Even if a child is talented the cost plus the bureaucracy that parent has to go through is probably no joke.

However I do believe that the UK is heading in the right direction and what I have noted from following the careers of Steffi Graf, Venus and Serena Williams is that you have to give the child a racket from the age of 3-4 onwards and in this country that is practically unheard of so I guess we need to realise where not harming child by wanting to develop them when they are young.   So by the time they reach 21 they are on the verge of winning grand slams.

 

Working it!

This  past weekend was an interesting weekend as I really pushed myself harder than I have done in while. On Saturday I did a three hour work out which started with a circuit class and involved me running three times round a 400 metre track. Then I went to my usual box exercise class which again was pretty intensive and then I did a Zumba class.

Now I have never taken a Zumba class and to be honest I couldn’t really understand what the fuss was about. However after an hour of advanced Zumba I was absolutely shattered to say the least! I now totally realise what the fuss is about and if I can attend Zumba class for the rest of the summer I will be very pleased with myself.

On Sunday I attempted to run 5K now bearing in my body was aching from the previous day I was going to take it really slow. However by the 3^rd mile my competitive spirit kicked in and it became all about getting that fast time!

What has really helped me to run in the last two weeks is being able to use the run keeper app on my phone. It’s just amazing tells me everything I needed to know about my running even informs me of the pace that I am running at it really is a huge motivation and it is also nice that at the end of the run I am able to share it with friends.

 As anybody who runs knows it’s quite a lonely activity and it is so easy for the motivation to drop so to be able to see the statistics on my run is really helpful.

Now I definitely feel like I am ready to run the charity 5K in July and hopefully if I continue with the running after the 5K charity run I will be in even better shape!

Andy Murray and a whole lot more!

I’m really pleased and relieved for Andy Murray for winning the Queen’s championships. I can imagine that being the only realistic UK contender to win Wimbledon weighs heavily on this man’s shoulders and  I like the way Andy just get’s on with it and doesn’t let the pressure get to him.

 Clearly the turning for him was being a losing finalist last year’s Wimbledon and him probably feeling that he had let the country down. I felt his pain as he shed those tears and with that annoying Sue Barker asking him silly questions must have compounded the pain.

Yes he is no Tim Henman and that to me is a good thing because I watched as Heman was the media darling did and said all the right things but at the end of day Heman has no slams to show for his efforts. Whilst Andy is disliked in some quarters because of the comments he made years ago and has nothing to do with his tennis. What I like about Andy’s game is that it has evolved over time. Andy’s serve has improved and return of serve is nearly as good as Nadal.

I think that there are two key areas that I attribute to Andy’s success and the first would be his fitness and secondly his coach. Andy has really improved his fitness I remember three years ago he was very thin and he would often lose five set matches. However he has worked on that and now it is not a problem.

Secondly his coach Ivan Lendl, Lendl is a legend himself and I think he has brought the winners mentality to Andy’s game I don’t really think was there before. So I am cautiously optimistic that Andy will be more successful at Wimbledon than he was last year.

Elena Baltacha has also done well this weekend as she won the Nottingham Open granted it was like a tier three tournament but a win is still a win. At Elena’s age being successful is not going to be easy and there were rumours that she was considering retirement but clearly that has now been put on hold.

I am not sure Elena really has the game to challenge the top fifty and her lack of movement around the caught could be a casing point. Elena does have a very good serve but with the recent injuries that she has had it has set her back.

I think if the Wimbledon draw is kind to her she might make it to the second or possibly third round before exiting the tournament and this would hopefully help her to get some much needed ranking points.

Daniela Hantuchova did very well to win Aegon Birmingham championships and recently has been struggling but maybe this grass court title may mean a better Wimbledon for her.

Heather Watson season is very slowly starting didn’t particularly do well at Aegon Birmingham last week and today she is playing at Eastbourne championships against a very good USA players Vavara. I think that based on current form she would do very well to beat Vavara.

Oh well...

Disappointed to see both Laura Robson and Heather Watson go out today. Both were up against to very good tennis players; however at this stage they both need to perform better. 

Heather is probably a couple of months short of match fitness whilst Laura needs to realise that she is no longer the underdog.

I am hoping they will both perform better in the penultimate tournament before Wimbledon.

Looking hot for the summer!!!

Recently I have really stepped up my exercise regime as I wanted to lose the baby fat that I gained and summer being here means wearing fewer clothes. This also makes little weight gain more visible J so about three weeks ago I registered to run the Race for Life 5K. I have run this race 10 times although I have not done any running since 2010.

However when I did my first run three weeks ago I was relieved to find that my body hadn’t forgotten and it really seemed so natural. So  there are some things that I have done or things that just help to motivate me to run/keep fit.

Music

When I’m running it really is all about the music and I do like listening to old garage music by Twice as Nice it really gets me motivated and moving quick....check out their music below

 

 

Route

As painful as it is I love running hills as I have find  that my whole body gets a good workout and when I reach the top of the hill there is that  real sense of achievement I always feel....

Clothes

I always dress depending on the weather I normally wear leggings and a top check out my attire below J

 

 

 

 

 

Food

Now food is a big deal for me...obviously trying to lose weight is not easy and having to adjust my eating habits is really difficult especially as I have a sweet tooth. However recently I have stayed away from sweets because in January I had three teeth removed....yes three teeth moved so I have not had any sweets since then.  Other than my sweet tooth I do like to eat junk food and the  key for me is trying to limit the junk food to the occasions....

Other exercise

On Saturdays I normally do circuit and aerobics classes I have only recently started doing the circuit class as it takes place outdoors and involves running around an athletics track which I think will help me to run the 5K...

 

 

Aegon Classic

Aegon Classic championships started yesterday and Anne Keothavong (pictured below) has gone out of the competition already and at 29, Anne probably needs to start thinking about life after tennis as I don’t believe it’s going to get any better for her.

The defending champion Melanie Oudin also went out today which I was little surprised but she has had a tough start to 2013 and didn’t do particularly well at the French Open.

Tomorrow Heather Watson and Laura Robson will start their challenge for the title and I am quietly confident for both of them but I am particularly hoping Heather does well at this tournament as she needs the ranking points.

 

A review of the French Open from the sofa !

I can honestly say that as much as I love tennis I probably have not watched the French Open for about ten years. This partly due to been busy with work and getting married and having a child. However this year I made time to catch a few of the games.

Men

I have only recently started watching the Men’s game as I got bored with Roger Federer’s style of tennis and I much prefer Rafa Nadal’s style of tennis.  So I was very happy to see watch Rafa win but disappointed that Jon Wilfred Tsonga could not beat David Ferrer. Tsonga played a terrible match in fact I have never seen him play so bad. Tsonga normally plays tennis like he is enjoying it and has a big smile on his face. So it was a bit of a shock when I saw him looking so miserable and questioning line calls. I noticed that his back hand let him down and his fore hand was shocking. Normally Tsonga plays the type of tennis that I could watch all day.

His tennis against Ferrer was just awful and I think it was the burden of expectation that made it difficult for him. We in the UK see it all the time with football and tennis stars who  fail to live up to the hype and when we are expecting them to be their best they go into their shell and perform terribly. So it was interesting to see this happen to sportsperson outside of the UK. I am hoping that Tsonga will put the disappointment of French Open exit behind him and play well in the grass court season as he has done well in the last few years.

Rafa is the man I am so pleased that he has come back from injury to win the French Open. I have to admit after his loss to Lukas Rosol in last year Wimbledon I was worried about his career. As I thought that his injury was career ending so I am pleased to see him back.

Women

I was disappointed with the performance of Heather Watson and Laura Robson and I know that Heather had glandular fever. However as she made the effort to come to the French Open she must have come with better expectation than a first round exit.  She desperately needed some match practice and it would have been wiser of her to at least have played at one tournament before going to the French Open. I am hoping that the grass court season is going to be kinder to her as her game his built on her movement around the court the grass court season should be good for her.

Laura Robson was another disappointment and I am not really her greatest fan but I wish her well and yes she had a tough opening match but she played very well against Serena the week before. I think not having a coach has hampered her success and she has now decided to work this British coach and I have seen this in the past with British tennis players.  They have the talent and then they get the wrong coach and it sets them back years and I am hoping this does not happen to Laura.

 I was impressed with Serena her game seems to get better. I was worried about her serve as she seems to be getting a lot of double faults and few aces but in the semi final and final she proved me wrong and there were less double faults and more aces. As she gets older she may need to rely on the serve to give her cheap points.

 I also noted that her drop shots had improved as before they were a little embarrassing to watch. But her semi final match against Sara Errani was probably the best I have seen her play in about seven years! So I am pleased that she played well against Maria to win the title for the second time.  

I  really enjoyed watching the French Open and the crowd did not annoy me like they normally do and I am hoping that the French have learnt that keeping quiet means you get the best players winning the tournament.  After all they spend a lot of money so they really should want to see the most talented players in the final.