Hello. Amy here. As the self-elected official unofficial bringer of Sidepodcast tennis news, I bring you Wimbledon: Day 1.
Wimbledon is the third slam of the year and the only one played on tennis' original surface of grass. They don't call it Lawn Tennis for nothing. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have one slam a piece in 2010, and they are once again the two favourites to lift this title. Some say 2010 could bring an upset though, as in the all too short grass season coming into this tournament Roger lost to Hewitt for the first time in 16 matches in the final at Halle and Rafa was taken out early in Queens. My friend Kait has written a blog about the five men outside the top five who are most likely to cause havoc this year, and I would recommend giving it a read. I am going to put my money on Roger this year though, because I always do.
Credit: AELTC
Wimbledon's Centre Court back in 2006, before they added the roof that keeps the rain off
This is also the last slam I'll be able to give proper attention since someone who doesn't know my travel plans went and scheduled the US Open in the two weeks between Spa and Monza. Many tennis fans, including me think SW19 (as it is affectionaly known) is the best slam of all. What's not to like? Strawberries and cream, Queen Liz shows up, and thanks to the all-white clothing rule we get a break from some of the fluro colour schemes we see the rest of the year. Seriously though, this is the slam that everybody wants the most. As an example of how much they want this one, seven time slam winner Justine Henin came out of retirement solely so she could add it to her collection. We will be in for some fantastic matches over the next two weeks.
Wimbledon is all about tradition and one tradition that is very good to me is that the defending gentlemans champion always kicks off proceedings on Centre Court. This is great because as we've established already, I love Roger, and now I get to watch him take on Alejandro Falla at the socially acceptable hour of 10pm. If you live in the UK this match and the first match on Court 1 will start at 1pm. Play on all the other courts starts at 12. The first matches I will be keeping an eye on are my favourite lady Kim Clijsters taking on Maria Elena Camerin on Court 2 and Judy Murray's favourite "Deliciano" Lopez vs Jessie Levine on Court 14.
Brit watch
There are no English men in the draw this year for the first time in forever so local hopes fall on the shoulders of world number four Andy Murray and er, world number 253 Jamie Baker from Scotland. There are plenty of local ladies to see you through though, with 16 year old Laura Robson making her Centre Court debut against French Open semi finalist Jelena Jankovic after the Federer match. After seeing Laura at the Australian Open I'm not really a fan but that makes me feel mean because she's just a kid so go Laura!
There are plenty of other local women in action today with Melanie South third on Court 5, and Britain's number one ranked woman Elena Baltacha first up on Court 12. Katie O'Brien will be playing not before 5pm but her court has not yet been chosen.
Other matches I hope to watch today are Novak Djokovic v Olivier Rochus (Centre Court), Rajeev Ram v Andy Roddick (Court 1), Mardy Fish v Bernard Tomic (Court 2), Maximo Gonzalez v Lleyton Hewitt (Court 2), Marin Cilic v Florian Mayer (Court 12), Justine Henin v Anastasija Sevastova (Court 12) and Shahar Peer v Ana Ivanovic (yet to be scheduled). So that is my day one, have a look at the full Order of Play here and let me know who you'll be watching.
Will we see any major first round upsets? Will Mirka spend all of Roger's match on her Blackberry? Will any seeds fall today? How many times will Robson yell at the ball boys and girls? Stay tuned to find out and I'll see you in the comments!
Woooooohoo!
I'll be following along here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/8748690.stm
So far they're talking about fashion: Roger Federer is waiting until 1300 BST to make this year's fashion statement. We've had the cardy, the military jacket, the gold-trimmed tracksuit, so it's anyone's guess what's next.
Important information, I'm sure you'll agree.
The court looks lovely. That won't last! http://twitpic.com/1yp58x
There are some Twitter peoples to follow too:
http://twitter.com/Wimbledon
http://twitter.com/ACETennisMag
http://twitter.com/5livetennis
http://twitter.com/piersnewbery
Some weeks there may be a little too much sport going on
True enough.
Wimbledon > World Cup > Most other things.
Priorites. Good enough for me!
I prefer tennis anyway
Wimbledon also have to super duper Slamtracker wotsit, which is pretty cool. http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/tracker/index.html
Cetre court has a roof now? Cool. Very rod laver arena of it.
It's moveable :)
I think the organisers finally realised what country we're in :)
They also have a free (!) iPhone app. Not iPad sized, but it works ok, and the price is right.
Hola!
*sets up camp in thread*
Yay!
makes notes for factbyte factbox.
Kait is now raging because the TV is showing Australian Carsten Ball instead of Roger.
It reminds me how much I dislike early rounds, theres still Australians in them :(
I am going to have a serious headache by the end of this week. With the Valencia GP coming up too!
oh boo I just realised I can't watch Deliciano because his court is not one of the 6 ones that they stream. Slamtracker it is!
So... you need to move to Switzerland now?
sounds like a plan.
Yeahh, but Valencia GP finishes before the first World Cup match of the day from tomorrow.
To keep this tennis related, go Andy!
he isn't playing today :D
I have my tv screen on football, a smaller tv on tennis, slam tracker occupying my handy laptop, world cup app on my phone, and my sis' desktop is displaying ESPN soccernet.
I don't know where to look.
Come on Kim! And Feliciano! ;)
Darn, err *reads post*, go Laura, Melanie and Elena!
:D
one of my favourite things about Wimbledon is that the colour scheme is purple and green. I love purple and green.
Hold on, Carsten Ball? Seriously?
heheheh
I am reduced to watching scores on the iPhone in round 1!
wooo. Kim is decimating the Italian on Court 2. :D
I wonder what channel 9 will show later. I don't remember them showing early rounds last year but I may just be blanking that out.
it's so nice that the baselines are still grass at the moment as opposed to just solidly packed dirt.
1215: Elena Baltacha gets off to a flying start with an immediate break of serve against Petra Martic on Court 12. This is our year, people. I can feel it. It's either that or hunger.
Hehehe. I love the Beeb commentary.
Ah, The Ball lad is getting wooped. Should be over bybthe time tv coverage starts
I'm hanging out on the streaming. If every slam offered this service I would be so so happy.
yay for Kim bagel-ling! More of the same in the next set please!
first set to Kimmy!
so there is all that queueing and camping and what not and theres still a lot of empty seats on court 2.
As predicted, master Ball is loosing quite well.
hooray!
I can't help but laugh everytime I see Kim's tattooed wedding band. It's so bogan :D
Ah yes, "aussie" Kim :-)
Clijsters father was Belgian player of the year in 1988 and once scored a winning goal against England. #footballcrossover
Clearly the practice courts do not get the love and attention that Centre Court does. Bare already. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7aqZDmcvFE&feature=youtu.be&a
uh oh, time to start watching two matches at once. HOLA ROGER.
my my Roger, your hair is looking beautiful today.
grrr mph
The Wimbledon roof has been reengineered for 2010 so it has more options than "fully open" and "fully closed"
F1 LINK: Jackie Stewart is watching Roger <3
Jackie Stewart is there? how cool.
Hola everyone :)
Hi Lou :D How is the revision going?
fine, i have a week and a half till my next exam now, so can afford not to panic anymore and watch the match.
After the hellish exam this morning i'm giving myself a day to do fun textiles and watch tennis.
How's the sleep/work/tennis balance going Amy?
so far so good, had a wee nap between 5-9 and think I'll head back to bed around 2 this morning :D
Ahh I wondered why the Federfolks weren't sitting with Mirka, I didn't realise they were in the Royal Box.
Roger. What the hell.
What did he do?
He got broken and now Falla is serving for the first set.
Oops.
I blame the fact that his parents are sitting together. They never sit together.
apparently that is the first time Roger has lost the first set of his first round at Wimbledon for 7 years.
That's not a great start.
The Wimbledon poet is on the news, thats got to be the cushiest job in the world.
this is the third time in 4 weeks that Fall has played Roger. I think he's learned all of his secrets.
oh pants.
I don't know what to say. This is bizarre.
i'm enjoying this match because it's not as easy for Fed as i thought it would be...
#sorryamy
I'm calling it now, Roddick for Wimbledon 2010. We'll just ignore what I wrote about Roger in the post :D
I knew it would suck because Roger hasn't had anything easy since January, and Falla is quite good :(
Roddick?.. what about Murray??
#livesinhope
;)
I still want Fed to win, but i was expecting this to be much easier for him.. i've never heard of Falla before.
a ha. ha. ha ha ha. ha.
I read some of Murray's book, he says that Roddick stays in the locker room with all the nobodies at this tournament because he refuses to go into the champions locker room until he wins Wimbledon. I think that's so sweet.
awwww!! that is very sweet!
i had no idea murray had a book?
#isabadfan
I didn't either, I read the sample of it on Kindle and it was quite good but I didn't want to buy it because I don't like Murray enough to give him money :D
I was reading http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitting-Back-Autobiography-Andy-Murray/dp/1846051673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277126518&sr=8-2 but apparently it's now been updated to http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coming-Age-Autobiography-Andy-Murray/dp/0099505657/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277126518&sr=8-1
I guess that's the problem with writing an autobiography way, way, way too early in your career.
Yes Lewis...
yep, said the same about him.
Baltacha is out? She started so well.
it's the British way.
god I hate deuce. hate hate hate hate hate hate hate.
ah crap.
oooooohhhhh deeearrrrr........
trainer is out for Falla.
wimbledon.org suffering already :)
Ya for R-andy!
Just read it recently. Nicely written, though very typically British. :D
you're watching the tennis?! woot! :)
I'll not rub it in for Federer (especially since his opponent seems hurt).
Instead GOOOOOO MONFILS! :D
not until you watch football with us, no ;)
i am stealing ideas for fbfb though.
but now wimbeldon is on i don't neeeeed to watch the football.. because tennis is back! :)
oh. :)
Feli's match is never ever going to end.
He is leading 2-1 though, so it is okay.
Heikki cares about Roger!
How's #Federer doing I heard he lost the first 2 sets what's going on?!
the dirt on centre court starting to show on the baseline already.
Phew. Gael finally wins the tie break.
Ljubicic is the first seed to go out.
no way he can come back from this. bye roger.
It reads as though the other guy is struggling though?
You want to switch to football instead? They are doing well. :D
Maybe the shock of his football team beating Rafa's caused him to play so badly.
he's not struggling enough. He only needs 5 more points to win the match :D
Ah.
Hmm, Federer is Swiss, the Swiss are playing. Maybe he wanted to get out before it started?
ooooh nice rally
phew.
ATP World Tour says "Six-time champion Roger Federer has come back from a 0-2 sets deficit five times in 887 matches"
which is misleading, it's not like he's been down 0-2 887 times.
He certainly wouldn't be anywhere near the top if that were the case!
:D
oooh. Over in court no. 1, Nikolai isn't doing very well either.
Not a good day for seeded players in tennis.
WOOOOOO
Come back?
one set. just two more to go :D
Phew!
Tomic loses. What a shame. Or not.
oh for gods sake roger, don't get broken again.
... Really not a good day?
It's definitely appearing that he doesn't break records in 2010, just streaks.
everyone has got to retire sometime
#sorryamy
I miss Marat.
Was he really good? I got into tennis only as he was dwindling.
The French Open lady is playing now.
ooooh. btw. YAY FOR GAEL! :D
:D The name is Schiavone, Christine.
That's the one.
Nikolai holds on. What are the chances of him coming back, I wonder.
I hope so. I kind of love him.
Of the 11 twitter trends on my screen, 6 are on football and 1 on tennis.
The tennis one is Roger Federer, though. ;)
it's probably a good thing the pizza places closed at 11pm or I'd be all over that.
clearly the bbc tennis guy would rather be penning his next romantic novel:
Federer glides to his chair, chasing yet chastened, and draws a giddy whoop from a gaggle of wide-eyed ladies by removing his sodden shirt and replacing it with a box-fresher.
Hehehe!
Falla serving for the match. Now would be a lovely time to break, Roger.
watch out for the typo mistaking fed for darcy.
:D
2 break points OH NO ROGER YOU SUCK AT CONVERTING THESE.
Trying reverse psychology?
WOOOOO
I like that I don't even need to keep checking the Beeb at the moment :)
I've switched channels expecting a result...
#sorryamy
heehee
Why is it that Roger gets on the groove once Swiss football has taken a turn for the worse? The country can only support one sport at a time?
its what i'm here for as the official unofficial tennis news bringer.
this wasn't meant to happen.
oh thank god. Although, do not want tiebreak.
christine, i demand this kind of coverage from fbfb, come sunday:
- flapped into the tramlines
- thunked into the net
- oh, he's dinked in a dropper
- then WALLOP
f1 needs more wallop.
+1 :D
Wallop I can do, maybe even some dinking. Not sure there's a net, though. Or tramlines.
2 more points roger. 2 more.
wait until singapore.
oh pants. tiebreak :(
no, no.
that is an unbelievable drop-shot to produce at this stage of this match, so much disguise on it that it might as well be wearing a false nose and moustache
There isn't a net on the Singapore track. At least not one that I know of.
But there is a giant wheel. And a new twisty bridge that you can watch the track from. ;)
They are painting a picture for those that can't be there. Hush up :)
mini break. consolidaaaaaate.
i love it. this is my afternoon's entertainment right here.
so you are still following the tennis!
#smallvictory ;)
momentum roger, momentum. GO GO GO.
We need tennis story podcasts here.
First to seven or two points ahead, right? I got it, right? I'm so smart.
only in a deeply ironic way, i assure you.
right!
Yeah! Now you'll become a tennis expert too. ;)
Woooo! I swotted up specially for this year.
I know more about tennis than I do about football (which isn't saying much), but the tiebreak has always evaded me. UNTIL NOW.
FIFTH SET FIFTH SET FIFTH SET!!!!!!!!!1
i'm still claiming it as a victory :P
#notcompetitive.
:D how exciting! (hearts) tennis
heehee
And imagine: this is just the beginning of the tournament. ;)
One reason I want Roger to win is that one of the tennis bloggers I follow is flying from Melbourne to London in a couple of days to go to Wimbledon. She's a huge Roger fan and has been going on about seeing him there for months. Her tweets tonight have been so sad :(
:D
the thing I always forget is which side is deuce court and which side is advantage court. Why can't they just call them left and right.
Chants of "Roger! Roger!" break out around the rapt stands.
They can hear you from there, Amy!
Mr C, add to the list - duffs a backhand and whippy topspin.
woot! I need to stock up on comfort food for the next two weeks I think.
I like talking about shanks, it makes me think of lamb.
Mr Whippy?
You'd better. This year's Wimbledon may be heart-attack inducing.
any excuse to eat cake.
Mmmm.
In that case, I better buy some too. Support for R-andy and Rafa. ;)
Slamtracker is pretty awesome.
5th set starting very well.
I am pleased you linked to it because for some reason I couldn't find it on the Wimbledon website. It's in big flashing letters practically for the other 3 slams!
And there's no actual link on that page, you have to know to click the picture... which I found out by randomly clicking around.
Mirka has her hands clasped together in supplication, her forearms resting on the polished balustrade at the front of the Royal Box.
i'm expecting the same to be said of nicole, please.
shes not in the Royal box, only his parents are. Fail text, fail!
LOL :D
Nicole has her hands clasped around someone else's cute little cherub, her eyes resting on the polished trophy at the front of the Canadian podium.
Something like that anyways.
I would like a mention of Rogers gorgeous chocolate curls please. #lovelyhair
Devilish drop shots.
Roger Federer is a BREAKING MACHINE.
This is much more like it.
I would once again like to point out that I tipped him to win the whole thing. #sorryRoddick
Inconsistent much? :P
This is the perfect example match of how winning over 5 sets in a slam is such a different kettle of fish to winning over 3 sets the rest of the year.
I'm fickle :D
♥ your fickleness.
Nikolai is also on the come back trail. Not such a bad day for the seeds then. Only testing.
I wouldn't be so fickle if Verdasco would just shave his face! It's hard to remain in love when he looks homeless :D (this is me going off on a tangent)
:D I just like his flat forehand.
John McEnroe on BBC TV: "It's taken a long time but finally Federer has the lead here. Who'd have thought it would have taken three hours?"
this is very very good. this is horrific.
A BAGEL? YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME
Feds clinches it. Just. ;)
yaaaaayyy!!! :)
tennis > football ;)
:(
i looked away for like 10 minutes and missed most of that set. *rewinds playtv*
The latter picture reminds me of CM Punk. (the one on the right)
"I've lost a lot of matches I should have won, this one I should have lost"
Who is this Bozaljac person he faces next?
Cilic is out. Lots of seeds falling.
oooh!!
I have noooo idea. ATP H2H says they have never met before though.
Wow laura must be terrified!!
Her trainer looks awesome!! Like a crazy looking Russell Howard :)
TV is showing some random Aussie lady so streams it is for JJ v LRob.
What did she do at the Australian Open?
she ignored every single person who asked for her autograph, even on practice courts when there was only about 10 people around. She kept yelling at ball kids, and rolling her eyes at linespeople. It was mostly the autograph thing that bugged me it was like 'you're a junior, you should be happy anyone even knows who you are'
At her final there were two guys there that had a big sign that said WE <3 LAURA and it was all glittery and they must have put some effort into making it and she just pretended not to see them when they asked her to sign it.
the mens towels are prettier than the womans. Purple > pink.
That's just mean.
+1
I was disappointed, I only went to her final to cheer her on but by the end I wanted her to lose.
oooh. Nikolai wraps it. :D
I am going to go have a shower and shall be back in 10!
Hello all, just caught up with Twitter & the comments. Some great tweets from @Wimbledon, thanks Christine for linking to them earlier :)
I am back. Appears I haven't missed much :D
You missed Switzerland getting downed and the L girl getting broken.
Which isn't all that much.
JJ has 30 minutes to wrap this up as 2.30am is my scheduled second bedtime for all of this week.
:D
it works on the assumption I can be asleep by 2.40am and then wake up at 6.40, but I don't think I've ever fallen asleep in 10 minutes in my life.
During my 5-9 sleep I don't think I got to sleep until about 6.30.
Roger has now won 200 slam matches #factoftheday
bedtime!
Sleep well :)
night amy!
oooh. JJ won. :D
Oh my! Schiavone is downed.
R-andy through. :D A rather routine performance, that.
Goodness. What happened to Novak?
i really wish i could watch the Djokovic match at the moment, but i need the bandwidth :( sounds like it's an awesome game though!
Is djokovic still playing? I am at work and they are showing a roger replay. Its much easier now that i know how it ends
yep he is! poor him!
score = 4/6 6/2 3/6 6/4 3-2 in the final set... everything to play for! come on Djokovic!
apparently there is an 11pm curfew so it may continue tomorrow...
@DavidLawTennis'Apparently it's a local area curfew. They are only allowed to go on until 11pm. Such a shame. Great tennis, great atmos. What it's all about'
@Wimbledon History is made. It’s now the latest Wimbledon match of all time!
hehehe (hearts) the roof
yeeesss!!!! Djokovic broke him!!! final game!! come onnnnn this is scary now.. 6 mins left!
I miss Christine and Amy, i've realised i'm live commenting this on my own.
i am following the live text. as much as i like watching roger, live tv fail
30 - 0! :)
do yo have a link for it? I was searching for one in the morning and didn't find it :-(
40-30 seriously djokovic! time to finish this set!! finish the game tonight!!
i just go to bbc.c.uk/tennis
wooootttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D and with 2 mins to spare!!!! awe.some!!! :D
what an awesome first day of tennis for Wimbeldon!! perfect!! :)
thanks
go nole! not a great day for the seeds today, i cant believe robredo lost to luczak.
i don't know who they are...so i'm taking my reaction from you...
so..
i can't believe it either!!!
#iamlearnin'
robredo is one of the spanish armada so welove him. i think he was seeded 30th. luczak is australian so he is expected to lose early