Wimbledon 2016 - Day 7

First topic message reminder :

Schedule - http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/schedule/index.html

Live Scores - http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/index.html

Good to see new faces - Johnson, Vesley, Pouille, Mahut.

MoTD - Kyrgios v Murray (IMVHO).

Yeah, but we would not want Fed to have a difficult match, would we?  That we are hoping for Andy.

I was shocked yesterday to see bookies giving Johnson just about exactly the same odds against Fed as Kyrgios against Andy.  No way in the world those two are same - even with Fed playing poorly by his standards.

Johnson had taken 9 sets to 1 in previous rounds, including a strong showing v Dimitrov.

Any chance he could grab one to extend this match .....

Looks like Fed v Cilic then. Only dropped one set combined so far (Cilic v Stakhovsky). I haven't seen any of Cilic but I guess he is playing well. Should be a good match!

Goffin 5'11", Raonic 6'5".  Will be very contrasting match.  David and Goliath.

Superb game from Johnson to break. He's playing some top quality grass court tennis at the moment.

The scoreline is flattering Fed.

He's rusty as hell.

Uh oh, here I was, counting my chickens, when all of a sudden Fed falls a break behind.

summerblues wrote:Goffin 5'11", Raonic 6'5".  Will be very contrasting match.  David and Goliath.

Goffin being 5"11 always confuses me. He looks about 5"6!

Fed upped his game a little and Johnson played a couple of poor points. Break back achieved with minimum fuss.

Yep, some very good stuff from Johnson. Third set still in the balance.

emancipator wrote:The scoreline is flattering Fed.

He's rusty as hell.

I don't know.  I thought Fed was poor for most of the first set, but starting with the last game of that set I thought he looked pretty decent - without even playing at top gear.

having played an excellent return game to break, Johnson rather undoes his good work with what can only be described as a lousy service game to hand the break straight back. Absolute gift that. Feds is looking OK still, much as he did in previous rounds moving decently but ball striking rusty. His advantage here is that once he's able to find the Johnson BH he's in complete control of the rallies.

Te big question isn't if anyone in Feds half has the game. Lots of them have the given Feds rustiness. It's wgether they have nerve to do it. That's the hardest part of beating him sometimes. Does raonic or cilic really beleive?

Cilic looked very sharp today, admittedly against an apparently injured Nishikori. I reckon he could certainly give Feds a decent game.

Johnson did well to come through that game, though Feds will be disappointed at missing a fairly routine BH pass on the second BP.

Querrey has gone two sets up against Mahut.

I see Querrey has gone two sets up on Mahut. Did not expect that. Good for him.

Cibulkova and Radwanska are having an absolute ding-dong over on court 3, Cibulkova has been up a break multiple times in sets 2 and 3 but each time Radwanska has come right back at her and got the break back straight away. Cibulkova has just broken again for 8-7 and will serve for the match for the third time (I think, once in set 2, and once in the previous game at 7-6). Cracking stuff.

THis is the Shankerer of 2009-2011. So many balls not being hit cleanly. Timing off and movement sluggish

Cibulkova looks to me like she needs help from Radwanska to get over the line. Phenomenal point for 15-15!

Yes, well done Querrey !! That should be enough, surely.

Johnson will be free of any tension he might have felt, no pressure at all and he could very likely edge this set.

Some of Fed's UE's are truly painful to witness.

Cibulkova looks nearly out on her feet. Radwanska's fitness levels are phenomenal.

First serve taken away for a time violation at 30-30.

My chickens are just about to hatch. Surely I can count them now?

Johnson with one of the worst leaves you'll ever see, Federer has given up, he has a simple BH mid-high volley to put away, but lets it go, and it lands plumb on the line. A gift to Federer, who needs no second invitation, takes the next two points and will serve for the match.

It's felt like a match in which Johnson could have been competitive, he's played some good stuff at times, but too many brainless errors at crucial moments.

Cibulkova gets it done, what a match!

Goffin doing well to stave off two BPs in his opening service game, but I think his serve will let him down here, will let Raonic have too many looks at return games.

Roger wins easily enough without playing great tennis.

Cilic will be much much harder, Fed will need to play far better than today.

Querrey already up a break in the third. So Raonic vs Goffin next for me.

Fed: "Cilic next, he brushed me off the court at the USO like I was nothing a few years back"

Courier: "razor sharp, strong performance... Everything clicking"

V2: "rusty as hell... Shankerer of 09-11" 

Tennis is so confusing 

Gotta look under the surface. Is there enough to suggest it will click if he gets out under more pressure

Goffin doing a superb job at negating Raonic's serve here, and breaks for 4-3.

Back to Fed, I thought he moved nicely, some of his groundstrokes still looked rusty though, a fair few mis-hits, though at least with his wider racquet more of those are dropping in. His draw couldn't have been any better so far, so expect the Cilic match to give us more of an indication.

Yeah, that's about how I saw it. Something like 35-13 on winners-UEs, turned it on when he needed to and movement looks a lot sharper. Obviously not at his best level but hard to work out how much was because he was in cruise mode. Cilic will be the first real test.

This Goffin-Raonic match is not working out anything like what I imagined.

Born Slippy wrote:Courier: "razor sharp, strong performance... Everything clicking"

V2: "rusty as hell... Shankerer of 09-11" 

Tennis is so confusing 

Come on.. you know it's their job to hype it up.

Whereas seasoned Federer watchers can see the difference between a full flowing Federer and a rusty Federer.

Solid set from Goffin. Puts Milos under a lot of pressure now.

Raonic looking so slow compared to Goffin.

With Nole gone, I bet all these guys are thinking deep down they could end up with the trophy on Sunday.

emancipator wrote:

Born Slippy wrote:Courier: "razor sharp, strong performance... Everything clicking"

V2: "rusty as hell... Shankerer of 09-11" 

Tennis is so confusing 

Come on.. you know it's their job to hype it up.

Whereas seasoned Federer watchers can see the difference between a full flowing Federer and a rusty Federer.

Fed fans do like to play down his chances though. Mono, old age, bad back, rinse and repeat since about 2008

Mad for Chelsea wrote:

emancipator wrote:

Born Slippy wrote:Courier: "razor sharp, strong performance... Everything clicking"

V2: "rusty as hell... Shankerer of 09-11" 

Tennis is so confusing 

Come on.. you know it's their job to hype it up.

Whereas seasoned Federer watchers can see the difference between a full flowing Federer and a rusty Federer.

Fed fans do like to play down his chances though. Mono, old age, bad back, rinse and repeat since about 2008

like all fans really. He's the second favourite after Murray but that's different to saying that he looks razor sharp - he clearly doesn't. It may still be enough - we'll see - but I suspect against Murray it won't.

I have to say though, if Goffin beats Raonic and Fed beats Cilic, then he, Goffin, would be perfect prep for Murray. Basically Murray lite and will get lots of balls back but without enough purchase to ever threaten thus allowing Fed to find his groove.

BS, by the way, Courier also seems to think that Cilic and Raonic are more of a threat to Fed than Murray.

Well razor-sharp is one thing Raonic is certainly not looking today. Seems to be really laboured, and not hitting the serve as hard or placing it as well as he would usually. Goffin breaks for 3-2 in set 2.

Very impressive from Goffin. I've never seen Raonic turn around a match going against him and this match so far he is being outclassed. He needs Goffin's level to drop.

There's a doubles match over on court 7 which is level at 12-12 in the fifth

Raonic needs to do something different.  Not only is he losing, but Goffin looks very comfortable.

emancipator wrote:I have to say though, if Goffin beats Raonic and Fed beats Cilic, then he, Goffin, would be perfect prep for Murray. Basically Murray lite and will get lots of balls back but without enough purchase to ever threaten thus allowing Fed to find his groove.

BS, by the way, Courier also seems to think that Cilic and Raonic are more of a threat to Fed than Murray.

I think he said Federer would prefer playing Murray because Murray will at least allow him to play his game, albeit Murray was the better player. Probably correct in all honesty. He will beat the other guys more often than he will Murray but, the odd time they do beat him, it will be because they've entirely taken the racquet out of his hands.

Mad for Chelsea wrote:There's a doubles match over on court 7 which is level at 12-12 in the fifth

Has a former champ playing in it as well!

Three match points to Marray and partner.

I'm struggling to see Goffin winning Wimbledon to be honest. I like him, but he's a bit like Ferrer - doesn't seem to worry the best players too much.

If Goffin gets past Raonic and into the semi-final then Fed should beat him (assuming he gets there).

In some ways it would be nice if Murray and Fed both went out...give us a new champion.

Raonic hiring a part time Mac who was even commentating during one of his matches the other day must be one of the worst coaching decisions ever. It's not like Mac is gonna teach him to volley, there are tonnes of ordinary coaches out there that can teach you all of that. And let's face it, Mac sounds good on the mic, but some of his commentary is just bizarre.

I bet he's paying through the nose for Mac's 'insights'.

Born Slippy wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:There's a doubles match over on court 7 which is level at 12-12 in the fifth

Has a former champ playing in it as well!

Three match points to Marray and partner.

Erm, still 0-40. No idea what's going on as its not televised!

Guest82 wrote:I'm struggling to see Goffin winning Wimbledon to be honest.  I like him, but he's a bit like Ferrer - doesn't seem to worry the best players too much.

If Goffin gets past Raonic and into the semi-final then Fed should beat him (assuming he gets there).

In some ways it would be nice if Murray and Fed both went out...give us a new champion.  

Fed would have crushed Raonic anyway. I still see only three players capable of winning - Fed, Murray and Kyrgios - possibly Cilic if he has another golden run.

Laughably easy for Goffin.  I thought Raonic would be better than this.

Seriously impressive returning from Goffin.

Born Slippy wrote:

Born Slippy wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:There's a doubles match over on court 7 which is level at 12-12 in the fifth

Has a former champ playing in it as well!

Three match points to Marray and partner.

Erm, still 0-40. No idea what's going on as its not televised!

It's finished, Marray and his partner have won 14-12