Monday, June 24, 2013

Wimbledon 2013 Day One

I just noticed that my previous post was around the Australian Open and the opening day at Wimbledon has prompted me to write another one. Looking back at what happened yesterday, I am sure that the British media and every sports broadcaster around the world is wondering what just happened!

The king of clay was reduced to a pauper on grass. A shocking round one disaster! This is not new for Nadal as he had a similar experience with Lukas Rosol but this happening in the first round with a person who just ran over Novak in the semis and lifted the cup at Roland Garros roughly about 2-3 weeks back came in as quite a shock.

The next shock was Errani. She was almost like a queen of clay when she reached that semi-final in Roland Garros. Then came an unknown Puig from Puerto Rico who gave her the run of her life perhaps. Puig is not a consistent player. She did take the first set easily but literally struggled through the second one when Errani pulled herself up a bit. Nevertheless, it was too late for Errani because Puig was already up 5-1.

Roger cruised through his game with Victor. He must have walked into the court with this big worry at the back of his mind about meeting Nadal in the 4th round but now that's out of the way!

The biggest shock for me was Hewitt. At 32, the 2002 Wimbledon Champion was on fire. He played a fantastic round one against Wawrinka (a Roland Garros quarter finalist and the guy who made Novak shit bricks in Melbourne). I guess these Wawrinka moments are quite short-lived and Hewitt's consistency helped him get through.

Mladenovic from France showed up like the next Anna Kournikova but then she was up against Maria. The first set was very tight. On the second, Maria picked up pace and sailed through.

And I totally forgot about our Drama Queen Victoria Azarenka. I am sure all of us can remember what she did from the semi final against Sloane Stephens in Melbourne this year. That was definitely unwarranted. In London, she sort of slipped and fell down, ended up hurting her knees. I am not sure if the fall was really bad but I did notice that Vika was really out of shape. She looked slightly overweight and unfit. Buckle up Vika, you need to get back your house in order.