Wimbledon Day 1

Murray v Bublik
Nadal v Millman
Wawrinka v Medvedev
Tsonga v Norrie
Cilic v Kohlschreiber
Kyrgios v Herbert
Bedene v Karlovic

and lots more.

I am calling potential upsets as Medvedev beating Stan and Herbert beating Kyrgios.

For Andy Murray it is going to be - can he keep up with the pace of play?  That will be a sign of how well he has recovered from his hip issues.  

I wonder whether his hip issues are going to go away or whether it is a sign of his body permanently aging - a result of the wear and tear he has put his body through in order to carve out what has been a very very successful tennis career.

Kygrios is out hurt. Sounds like he was in a lot of pain

NNB.. well what with your concerns about Rafa's knees, and Andy's hip.. what about Rogers back.. and Novak's elbow/shoulder.. should be a great Wimbledon

Laura Robson may have been the first person out of Wimbledon this year.  She lost 6-4 6-2 to Haddad Maia ranked 97th in the world.  I think it would have been better for Robson to have gone through the qualifiers - but maybe she needs the money to keep her in the sport - £35,000 prize money for losing in the first round.

Haddie-nuff wrote:NNB.. well what with your concerns about Rafa's knees, and Andy's hip.. what about Rogers back.. and Novak's elbow/shoulder.. should be a great Wimbledon

Just some of the issues that face the over thirty year olds.   But I think Roger and Novak look physically healthy enough coming into this tournament.  Nadal looks healthy too but you cannot easily dismiss the issues he has had with grass over the past five years.

Neither is he presumably .. hence the modification to his game I would suggest.. but I think it a bit premature given how well he has been playing this year to make an assumption based on the past.. but it is hard to tell with any player whether they are fully healthy or not they all have niggles.... what we see is not always what they feel.. Roger nursed a bad back for a long time without anyone really knowing .

If you get 35k for losing in the first round then I'd have skipped the qualifiers as well!

No name Bertie wrote:Laura Robson may have been the first person out of Wimbledon this year.  She lost 6-4 6-2 to Haddad Maia ranked 97th in the world.  I think it would have been better for Robson to have gone through the qualifiers - but maybe she needs the money to keep her in the sport - £35,000 prize money for losing in the first round.

Surely Laura Robson is a multi-millionaire? Sponsorship alone would have seen to that, I would have thought. Guessing she's not making too much these days, but she was the golden girl of British tennis a few years ago.

Guest82 wrote:

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Surely Laura Robson is a multi-millionaire?  Sponsorship alone would have seen to that, I would have thought.  Guessing she's not making too much these days, but she was the golden girl of British tennis a few years ago.

Hmm ..... I'm not totally convinced about the 'multi'  

Laura's last really good spell was back in 2013, and that's when sponsors would be thinking about really big deals.

But her star then fell dramatically, and her on-court earnings will have been pretty lean in recent years whereas her routine expenses are no doubt significant.

I doubt she's on the bread line ..... but I doubt she's truly wealthy either .... at least not in the context of elite level tennis players.

Money matters apart, I do feel so sorry for Laura because when long-term injury hits, there's absolutely no guarantee that you can get back on track. And as the weeks & months go by, there is so much fresh talent constantly breaking through on the women's circuit. Without consistency of play and exceptional talent, it gets harder & harder to make a long-term impact.

Usual annual fiddling around on centre court. If rain's around why don't they close the roof? Oh, it's an outdoor tournament, they say. We want to play without the roof closed if we can. Result. No tennis.
   Apart from that. Highly entertaining first match on centre with the Kazakh guy blowing hot and cold.

Take your point sfp. Although when the rain is as short-lived as this particular spell looks to be, I can understand their reluctance to close the roof.

(but if we get another interruption in the next hour or so, then I'll no doubt be agreeing with you .... !!)

Bit quiet on here today - sign of a slightly underwhelming start to Wimbledon? Hopefully things can warm up a bit later.

Barring any surprises/upsets first rounds are usually nothing much to comment about. Rafa doing his normal settling in .. but nothing spectacular ..getting involved in too many long rallies for my liking.

Nothing particularly remarkable by Rafa .. but he got the job done without any hitches

I swear this medvedev came from
Nowhere. He's an interesting player. Very lanky strokes and occasionally a huge fh

temporary21 wrote:I swear this medvedev came from
Nowhere. He's an interesting player. Very lanky strokes and occasionally a huge fh

I saw part of his QF match at Queens against Dimitrov - he has interesting "biomechanics" - very long thin arms.  I agree he is a very interesting player to watch - seems to have great timing and court awareness.

Bedene putting up a great fight against 21st seed Karlovic - Karlovic leads by two tie breakers to one.  67(5-7) 76(8-6) 67(7-9)

Does anyone here think Robson will get back to winning again, not sure entirely about how her record was before but i know she got injured at one point as well.

Stan struggling quite badly with his knee 
It's on the leg he pushes up with on his serve. 
I always thought his serve put a lot of load on the front leg

She's been very badly injured for a few years. Near career ending arm problem I think
It'll take some doing. But I've seen bigger rebuild jobs over the years

Holymiky wrote:Does anyone here think Robson will get back to winning again, not sure entirely about how her record was before but i know she got injured at one point as well.

I think we have to assume she will never get back to top fifty winning ways. Johanna Konta has shown it is possible if you work hard enough to have a break through in the mid-twenties. Robson had the natural talent but past coaches suggested she didn't quite have the natural application to burn off the body fat and turn her body into an elite athlete.

Wawrinka on the way out, slowly.

And there he goes. Gave in in the end but then with a knee problem there wasn't much he could do

I like Medvedev a lot.  He is a fascinating player to watch.  He is like a fly by wire instrument.  He doesn't have a solid muscular body, he is long armed, long legs, he is thin chested, hunched shoulders.  McEnroe said the main issue is whether his body will be able to physically hold up to the rigours of the day to day grind that is the ATP tour.

Easy problem to fix.

Karlovic and bedene are into a fifth. After 4 close tiebreaks 

Uh oh...

Bedene - Karlovic.  No final set tie breaker, 67 76 67 76  and final set 66 and continuing.
And Bedene wins 8-6 in the final set.

Bedene is someone I like.  I hope he just focuses on his own tennis, and improving his ranking, and gives up the effort in trying to represent Britain (Davis Cup, Olympics) even though he has been a British citizen since 2015.

Seemingly, a comfortable win for Murray today (though I never managed to see any of it). The big talking point was Wawrinka being beaten in the First Round by Medvedev. I think he has blown his best chance of getting to No 1 with that defeat.

Guest82 wrote:

I am calling potential upsets as Medvedev beating Stan and Herbert beating Kyrgios.

Pretty impressive.

Stan: "I had problems with the knee.....apparently grass is not the best surface for my knee."
http://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/40482701

Pretty sure I am correct in saying that Medvedev lost in the final round of qualifying to Marcus Willis last year.

What a difference a year makes.

Wow - talk about a tight match - look at the scores in the tiebreaks. I bet some people wondered if another Mahut-Isner was coming tomorrow.

"Bedene maintained his perfect record (4-0) against Karlovic with a 6-7(5), 7-6(6), 6-7(7), 7-6(7), 8-6 victory on No. 3 Court in fading light at the All England Club. It is the first time a match at Wimbledon has reached 6-6 in the fifth set without a break of serve." (Source:BBC).

"Andy's first serve was always his weapon.... that's why he's No.1"

A quote from Boris Becker, who constantly reminds me why I don't mind Pat Cash

You are in a bad way if you don't mind Pat (the 1 Wimbledon wonder) Cash ;

At least Cash tries to give some angle on the sport. He was spot on a few years ago about Federer and the changes he needed to make

I think some don't like his attitude, but as a Tennis expert he at least he gives us something. Boris just the same old rent a legend stuff

Your choice .. frankly cant stick him ..cant see why we need either of them

I think Cash is one of the very worst, least interesting, pundits to be heard at any of the Slams.