Wimbledon first week
June 27, 2014
In the men's draw on Friday, top seed Novak Djokovic survived a nasty fall in his match against Gilles Simon. Djokovic, who has former winner Boris Becker as part of his coaching team, fell heavily on the baseline as Simon was serving in the fifth game. A trainer was called to treat the injury but the Serb player recovered to complete a straight sets victory, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. He will next play another Frenchman, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga.
After his first two rounds spilled over four days, Tsonga beat Taiwanese qualifier Jimmy Wang in three sets, 6-2, 6-2, 7-5. Other top propositions, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray all reached the third round.
The first week of the championships saw exits for Germany's men players but three women are still standing. In third round matches, Andrea Petkovic takes on Canada's Eugenie Bouchard with the winner likely to face top seed Serena Williams in the round of sixteen. Angelique Kerber plays Belgian Kirsten Flipkens with the winner playing Maria Sharapova, so long as she beats American Alison Riske. Last year's finalist Sabine Lisicki plays eleventh seed Ana Ivanovic.
The key match in the women's draw was the exit of China's Li Na on Friday. The second seed double-faulted on match point after playing more than two hours against the Czech Republic's Barbora Zahlavova Strycova. The 28-year-old who had reached the final of a pre-Wimbledon warm-up event in Birmingham earlier this month had been beaten by China's biggest female sports star in both their previous matches at the Australian and French Opens. But this time Zahlavova Strycova won 7-6, 7-6 in two, tiebreak sets, 7-5 in each one.
Li praised her opponent after the match: "I think she finds very good chance to come to the net. Pretty good serve, I would like to say, today. I don't know how other day she play, but at least today she has very good serve."
Sometimes appearing unhappy on court, Zahlavova Strycova said she had prepared ahead of time: "I told myself before the match, I mean, this is Wimbledon, Court No 1, I shouldn't be grumpy. This is why I do this sport. This is why I play, to play these matches. I thinkI did great today with mental. It wasn't easy actually." Zahlavova Strycova faces Caroline Wozniacki in the fourth round.
Five-time champion and 34-year-old Venus Williams took sixth seed Petra Kvitova to three sets before losing 7-5, 6-7, 5-7 on Centre Court.
jm/msh (Reuters, AP)