Tuesday, 8 July 2014

Wimbledon - Day thirteen

Day thirteen at Wimbledon and it is the Men's final day and Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer in five amazing sets. 

It was a bit of a slow burner to start of with but that soon changed and by the fourth set it became an incredibly tense match that could have gone either way. 

Roger served well and served about twenty nine aces but he is now a step slower and he was unable to move round the court like could maybe three or four years ago. 

Novak played well and physically he was struggling and in the fourth set he had match point but nerves got the better of him. 

However he was able to regroup and win the final set to take the title. Although it was a gripping game both Roger and Novak can be very one dimensional hence why it took about four sets for the match to really get going. 

It was a hard fought but deserved victory for Novak who like I said could have won it earlier if his nerves had not got the better of him in the fourth set. 

Wimbledon - day twelve

Day twelve at Wimbledon and it is the Women's final day and Petra Kvitova beat Eugenie Bouchard in straight sets. 

It was the most one sided final since 1992! Petra controlled the game from tbs start to the end. Eugenie could barely get her racket on Petra's serve. 

Petra broke Eugenie's serve with such ease that it was embarrassing to watch. Time and time again Eugenie made the same errors and Petra got the same winners 

To be fair Eugenie made Petra look better than she is. Petra has not had a great year so far but must have saved all her best tennis for Wimbledon!

It was a bit of demolition job but Eugenie has a lot to be proud of. it is not easy to get to a Grand Slam final and Eugenie was able to do that. 

She now needs to work on improving her serve and her fitness to have any real realistic chances of winning a Grand Slam.  

Wimbledon - Day eleven

Day eleven at Wimbledon and it is the men's semi - finals day and Novak Djokovic beat Grigor Dimitrov in four sets. 

It was a highly entertaining match and however hard Dimitrov tried to win this match Novak never looked like he was going to lose the match. 

Novak was solid tnroughout match and made few errors. Whilst Grigor played well he served quite a few double faults which in the end proved quite costly. 

Only time will tell if Grigor can live up to the hype round him and actually get a grand slam title. 

In the second semi- final Roger Federer beat Milos Raonic in straight sets and this was a routine win for Rogerer who barely broke sweat to win this match. 

However in the final he faces a tough a opponent in Novak Djokovic and will have to work alot harder than he did today.  

Wimbledon - Day ten

Day ten at Wimbledon and it is Women 's semi-finals day and Petra Kivitova beat Lucie Safarova in straight sets. 

To be fair on paper it always looked like a routine win for Petra and with the strong serve that she has it always going to be a real challenge for Lucie. 

In the second semi final Eugenie Bouchard beat Simona Halep in straight sets and this was a surprise result. However Simona get and ankle injury in the fourth game made it Eugenie's challenge a lot easier. 

I would say that the standard of tennis for both semi-finals was low in the first semi -final it was all about the serve and in the second semi final Eugenie and Simona slugged it out from the baseline and it certainly did not showcase women's tennis. 

Friday, 4 July 2014

Wimbledon - Day nine

Day nine at Wimbledon and Simona Halep beat Sabine Lisicki in straight sets. After leading four games to one in the first set Sabine fell away and never recovered. 

Euguene Bouchard beat Angelique Kerber in straight sets and this was a good win for Eugene. Who used her strong serve and court craft to out manoeuvre and out power Angelique. 

In the men's draw Roger Federer beat Stanislas Wawrinka in four sets and it was a good win for Roger against Stan who was not well and needed a medical time out. 

Roger was able to capitalize on Stan's health problems to win the fourth set and the match

The shock of the day was Grigor Dimitrov beating Andy Murray in straight sets. Andy did not look himself and I have never watched a match where he has lost the first set so easily. 

Andy looked distracted and this was in a sharp contrast to how he had played his previous rounds. But credit goes to Grigor for playing a sound match and getting this important win. 

Wimbledon - Day eight

Day eight at Wimbledon and Angelique Kerber beat Maria Sharapova in three sets and it was three very tight sets and could have gone either way. 

However Angelique was able to serve better when it mattered and was able to put away some amazing winners. 

Petra Kivitova beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in straight sets and to be fair it would have been a bigger surprise if Barbora had won. 

Petra has a big serve so it is incredibly difficult to get the ball back and out of her hitting zone. But Barbora gave it her all and put up an amazing fight which was sadly not good enough. 

Simona Halep beat Zarina Diyas in straight sets and it was a tough match for Zarina who was unable to show case her talent and I think this was probably not helped by nerves and this being her first fourth round draw. 

In the men's draw Roger Federer beat Tommy Rebredo in straight sets and it was a routine win for Roger but he faces tougher challenges ahead. 

The shock of day was Nick Kyrgios beating Rafael Nadal in four sets and it was difficult day for Rafal as Nick's serve was a little too hot to handle.

Rafael seemed a little tired and did not seem to have the energy to run around and Nick just seem to have little more energy and that great serve. 


World Cup - Day twenty

Day twenty of the World Cup and Argentina beat Switzerland one nil after extra time. 

The Swiss team where very unlucky to concede a goal so close to the end of extra time and they will look back at their missed chances with regret. 

However Argentinans seems to have a little bit more and where able to score that important goal when it mattered. 

Elsewhere Belguim beat the USA by two goals to one and after extra time. If it had not been for the heroic efforts of the USA goalkeeper Tim Howard they probably would not have made it to extra time. 

However I for one question the team selection of Jurgen Klinsman. He seemed to have an awful lot of talent on the bench and other than the injured players, he seemed to be chopping and changing players around a lot which I don't think help them. 

However Belguim had the most of the possession and richly deserve to go through. They will now face Argentina and will be present them with different set of problems and hopefully they will be more clinical in front of goal.