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.

The Scary Round Four

Stanisla Wawrinka - a name unheard of, until yesterday night has become the talk of the tennis world today. And this has sparked me to write a post.

Yesterday, at the Australian Open 2013 Men's Singles Round 4, he gave Novak Djokovic a run for everything - money, title, fame, name and most importantly - the game. While I sat through the five hour battle that Novak fought, to defend his campaign to the quarter finals; I realized what havoc Stan had created.

Novak lost the first set 1-6 in rapid 25 minutes. No one expected this from a world number one. He was down on the second set as well but then managed to win it 7-5 in about an hour. The third set was reasonably comfortable when Novak won at 6-4 spending only 45 mins. While everyone believed that Novak had to get the fourth set, he lost it at 6-7. He did put up a very good fight because Stan got it only after 68 mins. The fifth and final set lasted a nasty 104 mins. In the end Novak survived.

Was Novak overconfident? He probably was in the beginning. He would have never expected a 15th seed player to shock him out of his wits in the first set. Stan served 16 aces against Novak's 7; but it was not just about the aces. Novak struggled to keep up with the serves in general.

Stan kept Novak on his feet all through the 5 sets. Stan was literally dictating the game. You would expect it to be the other way around, but that hardly happened. I still remember a few points where Stan moved a few feet to swing the ball and Novak was running like a dog all over the baseline to make the return. Moreover, Stan's backhand's became a nightmare for Novak.

Towards the end of the ordeal, Novak managed to pull himself up a bit more than Stan, which gave Novak a slight advantage and a ticket to the quarter finals.

What helped Novak all through was his fitness. He could not bring his A-game because Stan quashed it right from the start. Years and years of playing competitive tennis, esp the 5 setters, gave Novak the edge he needed to last that long. Stan developed a minor hamstring injury during the game which definitely made him slow in the last 2-3 sets. Despite that, Stan took the 4th set. But his injury started playing up. The last set was a clear indicator when Stan moved less and relied on serves and backhands. Nevertheless, Novak was nowhere close to making an advantage of this.

At the end of the day, it was Stan's mistakes that made Novak win. And clearly, those mistakes were not forced on him by Novak. If Stan was even 10% more fit than what he was in the 5th set, Novak would have had to re-schedule his return ticket.