Barrystar on Centre Court

I went today as the guest of a friend who won two tickets in his tennis club raffle.  Unfortunately, he could not come at the last minute - stuck in a traffic jam on his way to the airport - so he got the tickets transferred to my name and I went with the father of a friend of my son's.

We were up in the high seats on Centre Court with the Royal Box way down to our left.  It's pretty odd up there, under a roof that feels very close and it's pretty dark, a bit like being in a cinema.  The view is good and the atmosphere is good but it does not really feel like watching tennis in the open air, it's a bit like watching a match outside from inside a giant wide tunnel.

Anyway, I knew how lucky I was to be there.

first up Del Potro v Jesse Levine

A strangely flat match, I have to say.  Del Boy, without really doing anything particularly spectacular, was clearly the better player.  Levine was playing to the edge of his ability in his efforts to keep up - from time to time he would do something quite spectacular, but he had to take such risks with his serve placement and power that he made many mistakes, a lot of double faults too.  Eventually, a spark of sorts was lit towards the end of the second set and they played some reasonably enjoyable tennis, quite a lot of variety crept in, and then when del boy had won the 2nd set he started seeing the ball well and pummelling it.  Levine seemed to be taking the ball earlier than Del Boy and gave the impression of having a little bit more time to play his shots, despite Del Boy's tracer bullets, which lost some of their effect due to coming from way back.  I saw two different sides to Del Boy - first the "carpet beater" who whacked the ball about like a trooper all day long, then the little old lady getting milk out of the fridge - sometimes when his footwork isn't quite right he bends forward and scoops out a backhand - usually the rally was lost, but not always.  I was a bit disappointed by Del Boy, he got better and more entertaining as the match wore on, but he'll need to get a lot better this tournament.

Break - we went to the outdoor courts to get a sight of the sky (and have a bite to eat) and saw a mixed doubles match, goodness Bartoli is a big girl, and her outfit somehow left too little to the imagination.  the grass was extremely lush and the ball was dying quickly when it wasn't hit hard.  Bartoli and her partner got soundly beaten in the final set.

Back to CC to see some of Radwanska vs. Johansson.  We missed the first set during our sojourn, and saw the second set.  Radwanska was impressive, she gets down good and low to play her shots and she gets everything back.  I couldn't quite put my finger on what I liked about her play, but she was clearly superior to her opponent, who was game enough and was fairly solid off both wings, but didn't seem to have the variety or imagination to trouble Radwanska when her best stuff kept on coming back at her.  The girls got a really nice send-off from Centre Court after a reasonably entertaining match.

Djoko v. Reynolds.

Djoko looked absolutely delighted with the tremendous reception he got and he went on to deserve it.  This was a high quality match.  Reynolds played very well, he kept his level up for a set and a half and Djoko was forced to be good enough to beat him.  However, after a tight first set and a less tight 2nd set Reynolds was soundly beaten - he started sagging.  Djoko plays a pretty respectable (mostly) single handed slice backhand and his return of serve was something to behold.  His serve was pretty good too, in fact almost everything seemed to purr pretty competently, although he did make a bosh of at least one overhead, and he does not have very soft hands at the net - only coming in for not particularly convincing looking putaways when the point was properly dead.  There was one of those moments when both players found themselves near the net playing patta-cake, and Djoko did not look in his element at all.  Another time when the halo slipped was a period in the latter half of the first set when he went awol for a bit, throwing away a good opportunity to break and then chucking in a few errors, but he righted himself and played a very good tie-break.  Reynolds played some nice s&v at times, and it worked pretty well.  Djoko looked good, he looked like a guy who was enjoying himself, and CC in turn enjoyed his performance very much.  He looked as though he had extra gears, and he looked streets ahead of Del Boy today.  Not a natural on the surface, but way good enough to make up for that.  I like Djoko, and I think he's got a v. good chance of more fans warming to him as a person. I think as a player he looks best facing an attacking opponent - his matches vs. Fed used to be absolutely great in my view. Reynolds was pretty attacking today too. I don't think we'll be telling our grandchildren that we watched Djokovic on CC like we will be saying we watched Federer, or Nadal, but each time I've watched him play I've liked what I've seen and the way he conducts himself.

A very good day, an enjoyable day, but not a 'great' day, like others I've been lucky enough to have.

Very nice post barry, I have watched Novak a few times live and he always does a good job with the fans and the fans respond to him pretty well because as you said he is a guy who appreciates the position he is in and enjoys he fruits of his labor and people like that. I am very envious of all of you who have been down to wimbeldon, I have to make due with Indian wells which is a wonderful tournament with wonderful amenities and weather but still it is not the Mecca of the sport. Still, I am glad you had a good day, early on in tournaments CC is more of a showcase for big names not usually a place where you get a lot of tightly contested matches. But you can take heart in having been in the most historic and famous tennis arena in the world.

Very good article Barry

I am glad you got the right matches, you are sum up on Del Potro was awesome, I missed his match and was looking at views to see how he played, looks like he hadn't played bad, I am pretty sure he will get better as the tournament go by and will be a real threat in the later stages, after all he is the last guy standing in his draw to have beaten Djoko in the grass.

Thanks Barry, great article.

Interesting that you thought Novak looked really good as I thought he looked a little flat watching it on TV! I'll trust your assessment over mine though.

Nice to hear your view on the response from the crowd too. The camera picked up a big smile from Novak as he walked out, so it looked like he was getting a good reception.

Thanks for posting, I'm really enjoying all these articles people are writing about their days at Wimbledon.

HM Murdoch wrote:Thanks Barry, great article.

Interesting that you thought Novak looked really good as I thought he looked a little flat watching it on TV! I'll trust your assessment over mine though.

Nice to hear your view on the response from the crowd too. The camera picked up a big smile from Novak as he walked out, so it looked like he was getting a good reception.

Thanks for posting, I'm really enjoying all these articles people are writing about their days at Wimbledon.

I thought he looked like a really good player playing well enough - if that makes sense! I was watching him through my bino's as he came on - there was a generous welcome for his opponent and a noticeable ramping up to a cheer when he came out, he had an absolutely charming smile as he walked on, it looked completely genuine, all appreciation, no arrogance.

Great article barry - really good to hear you enjoyed your day. I have to say that I find Delpo a charming character on court, but a bit lumbering and boring to watch until he hits a sizzler, and then he goes back to being a bit lumbering and boring until the next one!

Djokovic really coming into his own in terms of presence and looking like a No 1 in every way. I was delighted to see the CC crowd give him such a good reception - it's overdue!

I was there same day as you but not on centre. I can definitely relate to your comment about the back of centre though, I was there once years ago and remember the same thing.

While you were on centre I was sat on court 12 in drizzle using my camera's zoom to watch the Djokovic match on a big screen on court 2.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your day at W.