Wimbledon 2015 - Day one

Day one at Wimbledon and in the women's draw Serena Williams won her match in straight sets and Serena really found her range in in the second set and went on to get a comfortable victory. 

Venus Williams doubled bagled Madison Brengle and it has been a while since Venus has doubled bagled anyone.

Maria Sharapova beat Johanna Konta and it was expected victory for Maria but it's sad that Johanna had to exit the tournament so early. 

The surprise of the day was Carla Suarez Navarro getting knocked out in three sets.  She is now a top ten player so I was expecting to do reasonably well. 

In the men's draw Novak Djokovic got a straight sets win against.., and it was good first win for Novak who is hoping to make it to the final and win it.

Stanislas Wawrinka won in straight sets and he is through to the second and as the winner of the French Open he is looking to get is third grand slam.

Day one is only had one real surprise but all the players who have real potential of winning the tournament made it to the second round. 

Wimbledon 2015 preview

Ok to my shame I didn't complete the review of the French Open.. However it was truly wonderful to see Serena Williams win her 20th grand slam and it was nice to see Stanislas Wawrinka get is  2nd Grand Slam. 

But I am sure that Wimbledon challenge will be very different for both of these champions. 

The women's draw looks quite competitive this year but I cautiously optimistic that Serena will get the 6th Wimbledon title and her 21st Grand Slam. 

However it's not going to be easy and she will probably need to beat Maria Sharapova in the semis to even make it to the final. 

Last year winner Petra Kivitova is a contender to retain her title she has a very good grass court game and as there normally isn't many rallies on the grass it suits her game perfectly.

From a British prespective both Heather Watson and Johanna Konta have very tough draws and it will not be easy for either to progress to the second round. 

Heather faces Caroline Garcia and who has some powerful ground strokes and for Heather to win she will need to be aggressive and her serve has to be on point. 

Johanna faces Maria Sharapova and the chances of her winning are even more remote. Maybe if the crowd get behind her that might help to get one set! 

 

The men's draw is much more open and realistically either Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Stanislas Wawrinka or Rafael Nadal can win the title. 

Rafa is my personal favourite but he has been having a torrid time of lately so is chance of winning the title do not look great. 

Andy Murray is home favourite and a former winner and he knows how to win so I would rule him out of at least getting to the final. 

Novak Djokovic is current champion and I would not bet against him making it to the final as the three time winner he can do it again. 

Stanislas Wawrinka will be feeling very confident so I would not rule him out of getting to at least the finals. 

Roger Federer is a Wimbledon favourite and has won at least six times but he is older now and he cannot win matches like he used and he is unlikely to win a tough five set matches like he used to and but as a former champion I cannot totally rule him out. 

So it should be a another great Wimbledon and hopefully a record breaking Wimbledon for Serena Williams. 

French Open - First week review

So it's been an eventful first week at the French Open and in the ladies draw Eugene Bouchard and Simona Halep have both been beaten. 

To be fair neither of them was a major surprise and I personally don't think either of them are top ten and they will both be lucky to still be in the top ten by the US Open. 

Heather Watson made to the second round before she was beaten by Sloane Stephens. By all accounts Heather was a bit of a disappointment and her serve and game was way off. 

I hoping she will turn this around for the grass court season and get back to being healthy and competitive on the court. 

Another surprise exit first round exit was Venus Williams and with her health problems and advancing age it was always going to be challenge.

 However Venus still believes she has a chance of winning and her best results have come in both the grass court and hard court season so we just have to wait to see. 

Venus's sister Serena Williams has had an up and down week. She has struggled both her second and third round matches, however would not bet against her reaching at least the final. 

The men's has been less eventful with all the favourites still in there. I am hoping Rafa Nadal can really turn his season around by winning this title. 

Andy Murray has been having a good clay court season so I would not bet against him making to to the final. 

Novak Djokovic has been really consistent so I would not bet against him making it to the final either. 

Then there is Roger Federer who has sailed through the first three rounds but I suspect when he comes up a better player it will be a real challenge for him to beat a better player in five sets. 

So both the men's and women's draw is looking exciting we should know by this time next week who the champions are. 

Premiership - 24th May

The last day of this season premership and to be honest once Chelsea won the league I lost the motivation to blog about it. 

But the last day of the season was highly entertaining and Arsenal beat West Bromwich Albion by four goals to one.

In my previous blog I moaned about Arsene Wenger not playing Theo Walcott and for some reason only Wenger will understand he decides to play Theo upfront and Theo scores a hat trick !  

It was a great win from and hopefully it will set up nicely for the FA Cup final against Aston Villa. 

Arsenal good day is in stark contrast to Liverpool's bad day. Liverpool where beaten by six goal to one and it had be on of their most humiliating defeats. 

This time last year Liverpool where challenging for the title and at the time I thought it was a big fluke. I was not impressed with Brendan Rogers but some how last year he seemed to wonders. 

This year his luck has run Liverpool are getting the kind of results I expected them to get last year. What's worse is they now stated they are not to going sack Brendan Rogers. 

So the final day was a little more interesting than I imagined it to be and yes Chelsea won the league but Arsenal got a good creditable win. 

Premier League 7th May 2015

I have blogged about the premiership for a while, however I haven't missed a match! Arsenal beat Hull City by three goals to one and it was a good win. 

I still don't know why Arsene Wenger is not playing Theo Walcott and it particularly annoyed me our previous game against Chelsea as that point we still had a little chance to win the premiership which has now gone. 

This because Chelsea beat Crystal Palace one nil and they won the title and that is another year that Arsenal don't win the title so it is frustrating but at least it help Arsenal secure second place.

Premier League - Easter Bank Holiday Games

In the bank holiday fixtures Arsenal beat Liverpool by four goals to one and it is probably the best football Arsenal have played in sometime. 

I am not always happy with the line up that Arsene Wenger goes for but this line up was very effective albeit he left Walcott and Gibbs who are two of my favourite players but most importantly a Arsenal won the game and collected three valuable points. 

Manchester United beat Aston Villa by three goals to one and this was a good win for them and keeps them in the title race. 

Chelsea beat Stoke City by two goals to one and this helped them to lead at the top and with a few top matches coming up this win was vital. 

Shock of the bank holiday fixtures was Manchester City losing to Crystal Palace and before the game I would have bet my months salary that Manchester City would have beaten Crystal Palace comfortably. 

This was a bad loss for Manchester City and they also dropped to fourth in the league and it will take a real miracle for them to retain their title. 

 

So the last eight/nine games of the league are looking exciting and realistically any of the top three Chelsea, Manchester United or Arsenal can awin it. 

Premier League - 28 February - 1st March

Liverpool beat Manchester City by two goals to one and this was a very good win Liverpool as Manchester City have a got a real chance to win the league this season.

 The loss would have a shock for Manchester City who are just five points behind the leaders Chelsea and losses like this reduce their chance of over taking Chelsea and winning the title. 

Arsenal beat Everton by two goals to nil and this was a good win for Arsenal but to be fair Everton have had a poor season but they are always a threat and this is why is was a good solid win. 

Man United beat Sunderland by two goals to nil and this was another good win for Manchester United who who are now consolidating there top four place.