Wimbledon Report: Day 3

This part of the draw must be cursed since rain has yet again interrupted play. Thankfully, it only amounted to delaying the start of play with a good chunk of matches still able to be completed. Still, there'll be a few some overflow matches tomorrow.


For a second straight day, a Williams sister brought big-time drama at Centre Court. Today it was 5-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams who was mere points away from defeat in the hands of the timeless Kimiko Date-Krumm. Date-Krumm played some inspired grass-court tennis to almost cause the monumental upset, but she played only one truly bad game in the end that cost her the match. With her still playing great tennis at her age, it makes one wonder why others (Dementieva, Hingis, Henin, Vaidisova, etc.) walked away so early?

With this said, it was actually a relatively drama-free day for the ladies as most of the seeds that played moved to the next round. The one exception was 30th seed Bethanie Mattek-Sands who still had to play her first round match. Top ten players Vera Zvonareva, Victoria Azarenka, and Petra Kvitova all got through in straight sets. 11th seed Andrea Petkovic played the very last match of the day, winning in 3.


Unlike the women, there was a litany of upset in the men's draw. Granted most of the top contenders such as Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, and Andy Roddick were troubled very little. And yet it was still quite a bloodbath for seeds. Among the casualties were 14th seed Stan Wawrinka, 21st seed Fernando Verdasco, 25th seed Juan Ignacio Chela, and 31st seed Milos Raonic. The latter was the favorite to win his match and meet Nadal in the next round, but when he fell and injured his knee/thigh he had to retire.

Joining the top contenders to the next round are 6th seed Tomas Berdych, 9th seed Gael Monfils, 10th seed Mardy Fish, and 17th seed Richard Gasquet. 24th seed Juan Martin Del Potro only got a chance to play one set which he inexplicably lost in a tiebreak against Olivier Rochus. The point of absurdity was reached when the 5'6" Rochus delivered a lob winner against the 6'6" Del Potro. The Argentinian best step up tomorrow!

Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to watch any matches tomorrow due to a family thing, but I'll definitely keep up-to-date.