Wimbledon Day 8

So we are nearing the business end of Wimbledon.

Federer is up against Robredo looking to avenge his US Open defeat last year.

Nadal will face the new kid on the block Kyrgios.

Wawrinka is up against Lopez and Raonic will face Nishikori.

On the ladies side Sharapova against Kerber.

Kvitova, Lisicki and Halep all in action.

Interestingly enough Wimbledon is the only event not to have Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray all clash in the Semi's. So could we see that duck get broken?

I won't see any of today's play due to work (or tomorrow's) but will follow it on my phone's Wimbledon app.

Roger will have too much for Robredo me thinks as long as he is relatively consistent.

Nadal to win in straight sets.

Lopez to use his grass court skills to beat Stan.

Raoniv V Nishikori is tough to call. A lot depends on how well Raonic can return Nishi's serve and if he can then will say Raonic to win in four or five sets.

Enjoy the tennis everyone.

So a bit of trivia.

Can you name the 4 occasions when Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray occupied the Semi Final spots at the same time at a Slam?

Off the top of my head....

US Open 2008, French Open 2011, Australian Open 2012 and, erm.....US Open 2010, maybe?

Sabine on first - I'll watch that. Wawrinka v Lopez could also be good one but aside from that there's nothing really inspiring on today.

88Chris05 wrote:Off the top of my head....

US Open 2008, French Open 2011, Australian Open 2012 and, erm.....US Open 2010, maybe?

3 out of 4. Good memory indeed.

Wonder if Robredo will upset Fed again following the straight-sets win at USO last year?
That was then, when Fed was having back trouble and was between racquets, as it were.
Could be tricky for Fed today, but he did have an unblemished record against Tommy before that. Fed, though, did lose to Berdych at Wimbledon and then lost another slam match to him. Ditto for JWT. Omens?

legendkillarV2 wrote:So a bit of trivia.

Can you name the 4 occasions when Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray occupied the Semi Final spots at the same time at a Slam?

I think it was the 2011 US Open that is the missing one. I recall the 2010 US Open being Fed/Novak and Nadal/Youzhny.
Murray lost to Wawrinka that year in the third round think.

Wawrinka Slammed the organisers yesterday:


‘For sure I was disappointed,’ Wawrinka said. ‘If you look for this week, me or Lopez or Isner have to play three matches in three days. Five-set matches. It’s terrible for the body.
‘I was expecting them to move matches, move maybe juniors or doubles, to make my match or the Isner-Lopez match first on when they started again at 5.00pm or 6.00pm when it stopped raining.
‘They played doubles five-set match on Saturday on many courts. I was surprised because they told us (their match was suspended), but then they start to play all matches. It was a perfect day to finish actually and they play so many matches.

‘They said for security reasons, they didn’t want to put our match on a small court. But Kei Nishikori was playing on a small court. All the other matches were playing on small courts.’

He added: ‘You cannot do anything. You have to accept. They do what they want and you just follow. They just say what's going to be the schedule and that's it. Even if you want to talk to them, they're not going to change anything. They don't listen the player. They just do what they think is good for them.
‘I'm used to it here. They just do what they think is good for them and that's it. Normally, if the player starts to talk to the referee, they never change the decision. You have to accept it.’

All England Club officials insisted that 'major marquee players' - of which Wawrinka is one due to his Grand Slam success - must be scheduled on show courts as 'expected by paying public and TV audiences alike'.

Scheduling guidelines also state that players with 'a large fan following will usually, by necessity, be scheduled on courts offering the greatest security'.

Djokovic also questioned the scheduling and also raised the point of Middle Sunday being looked at:

"I had a couple of days off and was then scheduled to play today on Center," Djokovic told reporters after his straight sets win over Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

"No interruptions, played the whole match under the roof, didn't think about the rain. This is the advantage of being scheduled on Center Court.

"But I understand why Wawrinka was complaining because we have this tradition here of not playing any match on the middle Sunday. This tradition was broken a couple of times and I remember a few years ago it was the case when they actually had to play a few matches," added the Serb.

"I think we have to rethink about this Sunday inbetween because the day was beautiful. There was no rain and the whole day there was no match played. No other grand slam has this particular rule.

"We all know tradition is something that is nurtured here at the All England Club and we respect that. But there are some rules I believe should be updated, changed for the better for the schedule and for the better of the players."

FedsFan wrote:

legendkillarV2 wrote:So a bit of trivia.

Can you name the 4 occasions when Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray occupied the Semi Final spots at the same time at a Slam?

I think it was the 2011 US Open that is the missing one. I recall the 2010 US Open being Fed/Novak and Nadal/Youzhny.
Murray lost to Wawrinka that year in the third round  think.

That is correct.

Australian Open 2012
French Open 2011
US Open 2008, 2011

So hopefully the Fab 4 can make it here too.

^ Which is why I will always prefer Australia and USO (get rid of 5th set TB) than Wimbledon's posh snobs. Why not let them play on CC late on Saturday? Didn't Murray finish a match after 11PM there one year?

legendkillarV2 wrote:So a bit of trivia.

Can you name the 4 occasions when Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray occupied the Semi Final spots at the same time at a Slam?

US 2008: Federer beat Djokovic, Murray beat Nadal, Federer won the final.
French 2011: Nadal beat Murray, Federer beat Djokovic, Nadal won the final.
US 2011: Djokovic beat Federer (from 0-2 down), Nadal beat Murray, Djokovic won the final.
2012 Australia: Djokovic beat Murray, Nadal beat Federer, Djokovic won the final.

I promise I started writing that post before LK posted the answers, honest

He did against Baghdatis in 2012.

Credit to Baghdatis who could've stopped play.

The US Open and Australian Open have the benefits of night matches though.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:

legendkillarV2 wrote:So a bit of trivia.

Can you name the 4 occasions when Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray occupied the Semi Final spots at the same time at a Slam?

US 2008: Federer beat Djokovic, Murray beat Nadal, Federer won the final.
French 2011: Nadal beat Murray, Federer beat Djokovic, Nadal won the final.
US 2011: Djokovic beat Federer (from 0-2 down), Nadal beat Murray, Djokovic won the final.
2012 Australia: Djokovic beat Murray, Nadal beat Federer, Djokovic won the final.

2014 Wimbledon Murray to win the final?

re the scheduling, I agree with all those who say they should have put an extra match on CC on Saturday, the last scheduled match finished pretty early, and there was more than enough time to play another one. Really the organisers should have done everything they could to make sure Wawrinka and Lopez had played their R3 matches on Saturday. I do understand the point about wanting them to play on TV courts (and no doubt the TV companies want it too), but with middle Sunday out, a decision should have been made. It's simply not right to ask players to play 5 matches in 7 days in Bo5 IMO...

legendkillarV2 wrote:He did against Baghdatis in 2012.

Credit to Baghdatis who could've stopped play.

The US Open and Australian Open have the benefits of night matches though.

I remember it well. The final game had to be started before 11pm Saturday night otherwise they would have had to come back on the Monday. Massive credit must go to Baghdatis there because he didn't try to slow it down or try anything dodgy.

Shvedova loves grass. I remember she had a golden set against Errani here a couple of years ago. She's broken the darling of Wimbledon in the first game of the match.

Lisicki's serve looking dodge

Lisicki can't serve, Shvedova can't return. The German somehow leads 3-2 (on serve).

Lisicki breaks here

A Sharapova-esque performance here on serve so far from Lisicki.

Lovely play from Lisicki

How did Lisicki get this far into the draw (when the first week is fast and serve friendly) with that many DFs?

Halep and Lisicki both win first set 6-3. Halep attacking with hardly any UEs and Diyas attacking with far too many

Someone has just suggested than Wimbledon be turned into a hard court tournament. I suggest they are burned at the stake.

Lisicki breaks back in the 2nd. She leads 6-3 2*-3.

The Special Juan wrote:Someone has just suggested than Wimbledon be turned into a hard court tournament.  I suggest they are burned at the stake.

Lisicki breaks back in the 2nd.  She leads 6-3 2*-3.

Not painful enough.

A) nothing ever should be turned into HC. Nobody needs any more HC
B) we need more grass
C) it's Frak Wimbledon. Sacrilege.

Wow Halep didn't waste any time there!

An example of what confidence can bring to your game. The Stanimal is up next.

Come on Sabine!

I've got a huge crush on Kerber, but I'm not sure I'm prepared for a MaSha vocal performance

Neither player playing even vaguely well

Dodgy time to call for the trainer

I don't agree with this. She can't just sit down and expect the trainer to come out.

Quite the questionable time out.. Sabine looks gorgeous glistening with sweat...

Trainer was working the biceps head attachment, now the scapula, that's rotator cuff areas, hope she hasn't actually torn something

Shvedova has every right to be incensed.

Shvedova can feel pretty dubious about all of that

Looks like a possible neck strain?

I can hear Sharapova from here in Eastbourne!

Kerber is the pick of the bunch for me. Drop dead gorgeous. Kerber for the win.

For whom the bell tolls, Sabine...

Whilst I'm not sure they'd like us talking about their looks and not their tennis, Lisicki, Bouchard and the knocked out Cornet are all lovely. And Ana

The commentators are right, Lisicki is Djokovicing

Azarenka is very underrated.

Federer serving for the 1st set.

Any of them will do, lets not be picky. You lot are some VIP Celeb posh rich guys?

Be simple   

Kirilenko too. Something about tennis players, imagine there are some lovely men for the ladies too

And takes it.

This could be a short match!