Wimbledon 2016 - Day 7

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

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

MoTD - Kyrgios v Murray (IMVHO).

Tomic goes down 8-10 in the fifth

If Nick does go on to lose, he's clearly going to attract a lot of criticism for checking out mentally in the 2nd set. However, in his defence, it can't be easy to serve as well as he did in set 1 and still come out second best.

I do wonder whether his tendency to tank is a cocky self defence mechanism to protect his ego. If you stop trying you can at least kid yourself that that's why you lost, when the truth may be that you're simply not good enough.

That was a game of insane talent from Murray.

I actually feel for Kyrgios.

Yes, we know that Murray is way way better than earlier opponents faced by Kyrgios and is giving him a bit of a runaround, causing all manner of problems.

But .....we also know that Kyrgios can do better than this.

summerblues wrote:

Aut0Gr4ph wrote:Well, Nick won't be getting any time violations today at this rate.

I thought it was crazy that they gave him a time violation the last match - he is always one of the fastest guys to serve.

Yes, agree it was totally bizarre.

Murray totally in the zone

Murray turning it on now. Great stuff!

Vintage muzza that one. Nick at the moment doesnt want to make a match of this seemingly

Surely this is it.

Another unknown. Tsonga is te next guy. Whil hes has an easy 4th round. How much has the Isner match taken out of him permanently for the tourney

Two possibilities here. Either Kyrgios totally relaxes and starts creaming winners or he throws in the towel. To be honest though, if Andy can maintain this level, Nick's effort levels probably aren't going to make much difference.

Murray has been as good as Kyrgios has been poor, particularly from the end of the first set onwards. The clinical one-two punch he used just then to break was lovely.

Just a question of staying focussed from here for Murray.

He has COMPLETELY tanked

Murray has hit 19 baseline winners to Kyrgios's 6, those are crazy numbers!

Some ding dong rallies now, but has the feel of an exhibition match. Andy needs to keep his focus.

In the meantime, Vesely has taken the first set.

Drop shot is being incredibly effective for Murray. Is Kyrgios too far back or just slow to react?

Vesely for the semis i reckon. Hes in beautiful touch

Close this out Andy. One good game or this could still get nervy.

Chokeray incoming...

Held himself together in the end. Supreme display.

No such jinxing needed. Vintage Murray in the end. Some PLEASE find Nick a stern coach...

All done. As I said, Murray as good as Kyrgios was disappointing, definitely looking very sharp. That level of play should be comfortably enough to cruise to the final you'd think.

Tsonga next.

That was easy; well done Murray.  This was way more one-sided than I expected.

Tsonga next.  Andy has a good record against him but Tsonga can be dangerous on his day.

Nicely done. Another routine win for Andy against Nick at a slam. It must be hard for someone with such a monumental ego to get a beatdown like that. Having said that, the 1st set was mighty tight and, if Nick had nicked it, it could have been a very different story. No question Kyrgios has slam winning potential, but still a work in progress at present.

Berdych breaks, will be serving for the second set.

One set all. I expect Berdych to win from here.

Well, from the little bits I saw, Murray looked great but Kyrgios was too often happy to just punt it back and then play some very low percentage shots at the wrong time. He needed to play with controlled aggression, not get involved in long drawn out rallies where he invariably comes out second best.

For all the lauding of Kyrgios from certain quarters I don't see much more than a young version of Monfils.

At least Tsonga should be a bit fresher now that Gasquet has retired.

summerblues wrote:That was easy; well done Murray.  This was way more one-sided than I expected.

Tsonga next.  Andy has a good record against him but Tsonga can be dangerous on his day.

Agree that Tsonga is a dangerous player, particularly on grass. Didn't he once come back from 2 sets down to knock Fed out one year? However, I'd be pretty confident of a Murray win, particularly on current form. He has a dominating H2H, including several grass court wins.

Dare I say that Andy is showing the form of a clear tournament favourite. Good response to the seismic shock of Novak going out. It would have been easy to start looking too far ahead and perhaps losing a bit of focus or getting nervy.

Yeah, the danger for Murray is peaking too early and/or taking someone too lightly. On today's form, he's in the final without dropping a set, as no one could have matched his form today. However, all it will take is for him to start slow against Tsonga or Berdych and he could be in trouble.

emancipator raises an interesting point. Kyrgios was pretty passive in his first three rounds, mostly counter-punching or dominating behind his big serve. Obviously against Stepanek, Brown and Lopez it's perhaps harder to take the initiative, given their attacking nature, but he continued in that vein today. I posted the stat on baseline winners (19 to 6 to Murray at one point), and certainly you felt Kyrgios was too happy to let Murray dictate play from the baseline.

I hope he hasn't decided on that as a way forward, with weapons such as his he should be looking to dominate more. The comparison to Monfils is an interesting one, since Monfils also has some big weapons, but most often chooses not to use them. There was a match against Nadal in Doha, back in 2009 I think, where Monfils played aggressively on the baseline and blew Nadal off the court, and I always felt he'd have achieved much more in the game with those tactics.

If this goes 5 sets they aren't finishing tonight. Already looks fairly dark there.

If they do not finish today, it is nuisance for the players, but from the tournament's perspective no problem - they now have enough days left to squeeze it all in regardless of weather.

Oh my, Berdych fails to serve the match out. Back on serve 5:4 in the 4th.

Oh dear Berdy...

Oh dearer

Vesely saves three MPs and holds from 0-40! TB time.

Berdych having a sulk.

Vesely looking poised to level at two sets all.

Berdych with only himself to blame really, served for it, then let three MPs go on the Vesely serve.

2 MPs saved by Tomas. 3 to go!

2 to go, just one mini-break.

Jiri misses a sitter and it's back on serve.

no... its back on serve

6-6. 5 MPs saved!

would you believe it? Berdych fights bqck from 1-6 to 5-6 in the TB! And a big one-two punch makes it 6-6! Remarkable! Vesely had an easy BH at 6-4 but poked it wide...

6-6

Tomas not complaining about the light now.....

Another MP saved by Vesely! Brave play coming in to the net there! And now Vesely has another SP. Maybe this time?

Oops, just realised the score is 2-1 in sets, so I've been grossly exaggerating the MPs. Still very tense though.

No! Brilliant FH down the line from Berdych lands plumb on the baseline. HE now unavailable to add to the drama! More excellent play from Berdych earns him a fifth MP (second in the TB)

Light so poor the linesman are having to guess.