The smell of crisp green grass, the feel of tension rising, the sound of thousands gathering to watch a match. Yes, it is the world cup Wimbledon. With the queen in attendance, the higher-ranked males did not dare to disappoint, and marked yesterday as the first day when all seeded players in the gentlemen's singles won their matches. The ladies failed to rise to the challenge however, as Daniela Hantuchova, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Aravane Rezai and Jie Zheng failed to make it to the next round.
But enough name dropping. Let us instead recap the matches that did matter - like that epic record-breaking spectator-consuming robot zombie Court 18 match. Yes, that match.
It's only a matter of time...
But what a difference it makes. Years after this batch of tennis players has passed on, and Federer and Nadal have become heroes of aged great-great-great-grandmothers, and Germany has won it's 10th world cup, still the legend that is John Isner will live on. Well Nicholas Mahut too, but it is always the victor who gets the front page. So let's get back to the legendary giant robot zombie John Isner.
John Isner is a typical American tennis player (save for his gigantic height) and has a typical American way of playing tennis. A huge serve, lots of aces, and good at persevering no matter what others say. With Andy Roddick and the Williams sisters representing his country, it is not often that the quiet and unassuming giant gets the headlines.
The journalists won't have a choice now, as Isner has thread where no one else dared and conquered what no one else can even hope to approach. He has made history and will forever be remembered as the man who stood tall (and I do mean tall) by beating a random French qualifier 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (7-9), 7-6 (7-3), 70-68. For over eleven hours, he had held firm on serve to come out the victor, and for that Isner will be exalted as the savior of US tennis. In fact, he may become the savior of the whole Earth once they decide that his consistent pounding serve (traveling at 143 miles per hour) is a better weapon than a machine gun. Cutting down on arms production will lead to world peace as everyone tries to replicate the robotic accuracy of Isner's aces.
Let's put that in perspective
11 hours. Almost half a day. You could get a million things done in that time. You could have won the 5 and a half F1 races required to clinch a F1 WDC (523 minutes) and do a full run around the Monaco Street Circuit. You could have won Wimbledon with time to spare for hugging mystery Caucasian men. You could have won the world cup (630 minutes) with the finals going into extra time and just maybe the dreaded penalties.
But what did the match really mean to Isner? Quite simply - entry into the 2nd round of Wimbledon. And all the hero has to say about his day job as a tennis player (as opposed to the unorthodox work of a record-breaker) is this:
I've got to come back tomorrow and try to get (my match) done.
John Isner
It wasn't the final, just a 1st round match. But that is the beauty of tennis isn't it?
In other news...
Brit's-only-hope Andy Murray and number-1-slayer Robin Soderling won their matches in straight sets, while Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Rafael Nadal joined in the 5-set action by dragging out their victories for as long as possible before finishing their opponents off. Denmark can rejoice Caroline Wozniacki's entry into the ladies' 3rd round while trying to forget their world cup misery, and Maria Sharapova yells her way through together with hug-loving Serena Williams.
What you can look forward to today is more tasty match ups like:
Centre Court
- Justine Henin vs. Nadia Petrova
- Gael Monfils vs. Lleyton Hewitt
- Roger Federer vs. Arnaud Clement
Court 1
- Novak Djokovic vs. Albert Montanes
- Alisa Kleybanova vs. Venus Williams
- Philipp Kohlschreiber vs. Andy Roddick
Court 2
- Kim Clijsters vs. Maria Kirilenko
- Alona Bondarenko vs. Jelena Jankovic
- Feliciano Lopez vs. Jurgen Melzer
- Serena Williams/Venus Williams vs. Timea Bacsinszky/Tathiana Garbin
Other courts
- Thiemo De Bakker vs. John Isner (Court 5)
- John Isner/Sam Querrey vs. Michal Przysiezny/Dudi Sela (Court 19)
- Andre Sa/Vera Zvonareva vs. Jamie Murray/Laura Robson (to be assigned)
Players with support have been italicized so those who are new to tennis can come join in the action by cheering them on! I promise Amy and the others here won't bite (much) if you choose to support the underdogs too.
Yay for Quisner finally playing! Boo for them playing on court 19 so I can't watch it though. I missed them at RG. Stupid Sam.
LITTLE JOHNNY!
my commentator thinks it's ironic that John got broken on his opening service game, when he didn't get broken in a million hours in the last round. That's not ironic, it's :(
Agreed. Come on Isner!
my GOD that was a quick set. Poor little Johnny :(
that trainer looks like he's trying to kill him
Kim clinches the 1st set. :D
Johnny noooooo. Sams going to have to do a lot of work if he has a hope of getting through his doubles match.
my friend is on court 6 at the moment, she tweets:
"Mo is umpire, he's so giggly and smiley <3 he keeps looking over his shoulder to check the Isner score lol"
aww, Mo and John have a 'we did that for way too long' bond now :D
Kim wins her match! Shall switch to watching Novak now...
Bye bye gentle robot zombie giant. :(
Novak wins the 1st set! This is a good day so far (except for Isner).
Also JJ Is about to bagel for the 1st set...
And she does it. :D
@Wimbledon
No doubles for @JohnIsnerTennis & @samquerrey - they've withdrawn from today's match v Michal Przysiezny & Dudi Sela @Wimbledon
Andrew Castle is commentating with Borris Becker on the Hewitt match, this makes me sad cause i wanted to hear McEnroe and Castle commentary for the Federer match.
Oops. Missed Novak's win. But come on Gael!
Just tuned in to Mofils vs Hewitt. I don't know who I want to win!!
Oops. Monfils. Perhaps I should cheer on the one who's name I can actually spell.
i've only heard of Hewitt so i'm supporting him.. but that's only really cause i want to see the federer match and he's close to winning..
If I took that stance I'd be supporting noone as apparently I couldn't even spell Tim correctly
C'mon Tim!
I'm hoping the BBC show Jamie and Laura's doubles match today :)
Monfils is French, though, you see.
ahhh... i see i can see why that might be problem..
If it helps Amy was supporting Monfils
oh no.. now i feel bad for supporting Hewitt..
... then again if hewitt wins federer gets to play sooner... so that should gain me some points :)
Is Amy sleeping? She won't be impressed if he comes on and she's not ready.
Isn't he the racist one?
i'm not sure where she is, i'm assuming she's sleeping.
no idea, all i know is hopefully he's going to win the next game therefore rapping up the match in straight sets and letting Federer play. :)
I see. I think he made racist comments regarding James Blake at one point. I ♥ James Blake so I don't really like Hewitt anymore
I just searched for hewitt racist and got 387,000 hits. THey all seem to be about him
And now he is facing a black Gael. :(
GAEL!!! :(
So Lou wants a racist to beat a black man?
Let's not go any further with that, ta.
Eeek. Feli is also 2-1 down. :(
Here comes Roger. Is he against another French man?
Yup. Arnaud Clement.
hehehe Roger talking about the roof :)
oooo scary commentator voice.. where is Andrew Castle? :(
although.. yay for John! :)
Andrew castle is GMTV man right?
erm?.. i've no idea. i know him as the commentator that is often with John McEnroe and is awesome.
He was commentating with Boris earlier though.
Should we headping Amy or let her recover more?
Or is she lurking?
He is, yes. He used to be a tennis player too.
I have devised a diagram that will help me in the future to remember
http://i47.tinypic.com/2v34f1z.jpg
ooo tilt shifting at Wimbledon.
http://tinyurl.com/2ue47zy
Perfect :)
They look like minature figures :D
Bye bye Feli. :(
Cheering on R-Andy now.
I was disappointed by the kid that got to train with Nadal. He didn't seem to be a fan at all. They should have picked someone else.
I can finally sit down to watch some tennis, yay!
Woo!
The Lets Go "Insert Name" chants always make me laugh in any sport. Where are they going to take them? They are trying to do their job
They should come visit their fans at work and chant "Take your break now, person, take your break"
That is a big headband he has on. Very pat cash
It's purple, so a big thumbs up.
Much Well Doneness, by the way, Lukeh.
#nottennistalksorry
Thanks :D
Clement needs to pull a set back to make it relevant so the sets are 2:1 ;)
woah! i just realised i'm not watching the federer match.. why do bbc change their red button channels round!
On the actual TV, they switched away from Fed to Rod and then back again.
Hehe, it's unlikely though. Amy is missing Fed being quite good.
it's no longer on the red button anymore... why take it off half way through the match!
Our Rog' is doing better today
King Rog!
ahhh that's better back to the tones of McEnroe :)
What happened to King Our Rog'? I went to get an ice cream and now Andy Roddick is on!
he won. :)
but... but... i went for an ice cream :cry:
Blink and you miss it.
I knew I should've listened. Damn you Stephen Moffat.
federer waits for no one.. he didn't even wait for Amy to wake up!
YES!!! they are going to show Jamie's match!!! yes!!
she lied. it's not on the red button :(
I can't be the only one who keeps thinking it says Jaime as in Hi-me/Tim
Also you might want to reconsider the ways in which you have been turning in different directions.
it's not even on the internet either :( boooo bbc stop lying! :(
they are on centre court and everything.
The one with the roof?
I hate how there are two centre courts, or at least two in the center. More confusion!
there is centre court.. which is the main one with the roof.. and then there is court 1, which the other one.. they aren't that confusing :)
woohooo! it's arrived on the red button... that's better
goo jamie! .. with your stupidly short hair..
The Williams sisters are playing on the same team!
They do that sometimes. I imagine it is quite a scary thing to face!
But they're both really good! That's madness. They must be the female tennis version of going up against McLaren
Like facing a wall, I would think.
R-Andy wins!! :D
yes. yes i was sleeing. but now i am at work watching all i missed. hopp roger!