Hello everyone, Lou here bringing you day 1 of everybody’s favourite grass court grand slam! It may be the only slam played on grass, but it’s certainly many people’s (especially the players!) tournament of the year.
This year marks the 125th Wimbledon championships, unfortunately we’re predicted rain for the first few days of the competition but with the roof now on centre court we shouldn’t see any disruption there!
Credit: Lou
Can Andy Murray continue his recent form?
We’re in for an exciting couple of weeks down at SW19 with our top 4 male players looking on their best form. Nadal, having lost to Jo- Wilfred Tsonga at Queens two weeks ago, has won here before (2008 and 2010) and despite his recent loss is still looking strong! Roger Federer, after a rest following his strong performance at Roland Garros, and Novak Djokovic following his amazing form this season are both looking like tough opponents too! Oh and of course, Andy Murray, lets not get carried away but his chances seem positive as well! We’ve also got Mahut vs Isner take 2! How exciting!
Players have been busy preparing for Wimbledon over this past week doing press conferences and practicing on court. Djokovic had an interesting addition to his preparations though when his press conference in Monaco got hijacked… by Caroline Wozniacki [1]! Gotta love that ‘Monaco Spirit’
Talking about the women’s round Serena and Venus have recovered from some rather horrible injuries (Serena with a foot injury and lung condition, and Venus with a hip injury!). Serena was practicing last week in Eastbourne and tomorrow takes to the court again to start her championship defence. It will be interesting to see how the powerful two get on over the next few weeks, any predictions?
Right, lets get on with the schedule, who can we expect to see playing today?
On Centre Court from 1pm we have;
- Rafael Nadal vs Michael Russell
- Francesca Schianvone vs Jalena Dokic
- Andy Murray vs Daniel Gimeno-Traver
Over on Court 1 from 1pm;
- Alison Riske vs Vera Zvonsreva
- Fillippo Volandri vs Tomas Berdych
- Andreas Beck vs Andy Roddick
Court 2 has recently been renovated and now becomes the third show court, notable matches set to start there from 12pm include Venus Williams facing Akugul Amanmuradova.
Today really is an action packed day (providing the weather holds!), you can find a full copy of the schedule here, so you can all find out when you’re favourite players are set to hit the court!
It’s also worth looking out for the two British girls, Anne Keothavong and Naomi Broady who are last up to face each other on court 12 today.
If you’re having trouble keeping up with all the news, Wimbledon has an official twitter you can follow, a podcast to listen to and there is even an iphone app!
With an exciting tournament last year, and a cracking season so far, I can’t wait to see how today and the next two weeks pan out. Will there be any surprise exits? Will we be able to keep up with all the matches? How much will it rain? Will Murray turn into the incredible Hulk? and how long will Mahut and Isner’s match last this time?! Bring on the tennis!
Excellent post, thanks for kicking off these two weeks for us Lou :)
Centre Court sounds like the one to watch today, have only heard of Roddick on Court 1.
Yaaay for Wimbledon! and Yaaay for the photo working in the post (first time for everything!)
No problem Christine :) Tomas Berdych is seeded 6th so his match should be pretty good :)
I'm also looking out for Gael Monfils who is on court No.2 as he's pretty entertaining when he plays from what i remember.
this is so unfair. wimbledon comes round every year, but there's no world cup for me to geek out on while you watch all this tennis :(
join us! :) tennis is fun :)
U21 Euro is on, for few more days, 4 more matches to play :-)
hmmm.
is that football?
The Euro championships are next year. :)
But tennis is cool! :D
please give it a chance. Lukeh did and he likes it.
yes.
but it in semis stage now so obviously no England games any more :-)
i'll give it a go. today though, i shall leave you lot to it while i... y'know... go to work and stuff.
Murray's match may be on when you get back depending on how quick play is today, you may not have escaped all the tennis just by going to work :)
yea, work and stuff, day almost over but still one to hire and one to fire before leaving office. after all those years still not comfortable in those situations
it's probably not a good thing if you ever become comfortable firing someone.
If you want some high-tech sporting geekyness the americas cup is having a world series with high tech catermarans.
It doesnt start until august, and i am struggling to find out much about it, but they are super high tech
There is also the extreme sailing series which is less high tech, uses smaller but heavily overpowered boats http://www.extremesailingseries.com/inside-the-series
it's the one event adrian newey always wanted to win outside of F1. i've heard patrick head mention it once or twice too.
too bad for mr. c it isn't in june. :)
we have an official app... that's pretty high tech.. and hawkeye! that's better than football :)
I guess not...
so, on topic, as a person not exactly following tennis, what should I watch out for these 2 weeks ? who is hot who is not who will win who will not ?
OUCH!!
;)
for the men, nadal is the defending champ. federer's favorite playing surface is grass. djokovic has only lost once all year. murray is still playing for his first GS.
for the women, the williams sisters are back. li na would love to capture her 2nd straight GS. sharapova hasn't looked this good in a while - and won her first major here. and caroline has yet to win a GS despite being world #1.
oh my god, and I thought F1 is complicated :-)
:)
we need some f1 associations. which player is like vettel and who is hamilton?
schiavone v dokic is the weirdest centre court match in a while.
crazy wimbledon schedulers.
who crashes out most often ?
I did notice though that those 2 record breakers for longest game ever and all the other records that came with it are playing each other again
yep Isner and Mahut :) They're not on todays schedule so look out for their match tomorrow.
Amy is best placed of all of us to compare them i think as she knows them all better.
I would say Djokovic is like Vettel (in that he's winning alot of slams and doing exceptionally well) .. only Djokovic is more likeable than Vettel :)
that sounds good :)
i'm leaving the rest up to you :)
Wimbledon have a live blog too;
http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/news/log/index.html
its not just in F1 were the bbc like dramatic intros then...
I will join you all shortly, currently expanding my mind with a History Channel documentary :)
I have missed the daily Wimbledon threads :) yaaaay!
Although now I have to go back and work so I shall quickly say come on Andy! Have fun everyone :)
Andy's not on till later, you may get to watch it after work :)
Ooh, I am back. I can watch the build up on silent while I keep on editing on.
Tim Henman!
something i learnt yesterday. murray's dog has a twitter account - https://twitter.com/#!/maggiemay_hem
I'm sure I've mentioned that before! Maggie rules.
Oh lord.
:D and McInroe! All we need is Andy Castle and Pat Cash and i'd be happy :)
you probably have.. my memory isn't great. It's supposedly Kim isn't it?
I think its a bit of everyone, theres definitely been tweets on it when Kim's been away at a tournament with him.
aw that's sweet! least their new dog doesnt have twitter too! :)
omg Katie lost the first set in 16mins? not good then.
the twitter convo between Judy, Petkovic and Feli the other day where Petko offered Judy 5% of the prize money and a picture with Feli to be their coach and she replied with "I'd rather have 5% of Feli and a picture of the prize money" made me laugh so hard.
oooh bageled. Ouch.
hehe i must follow more tennis people. Do you have a twitter list of them Amy?
I am following some on http://twitter.com/#!/amystennis but theres lots more too. I unfollowed a lot of journalists recently because oh my god they're annoying. Mostly @neilharmantimes and his shameless Murray love. You might like him ;)
What is Venus wearing?
ooh from the full length shot I thought she was playing a dude. Oops.
hehe! i support Murray but that doesn't mean it doesn't irritate me when journalists are so biased! ;)
My thought process went: "Ooh, I approve of ladies wearing shorts if they want, but she could at least have put some style into it. Woah, Venus put too much style into it!!"
and now that I've seen her up close I realise she's wearing a garbage bag with shorts. Nice.
i feel like it's inspired by a dressing gown...
indeed, theres quite a few who often wear shorts, like Kuznetsova, but they don't look like they've stolen them from their brother.
hehe tracy ' it's a very creative outfit' hmm yes you could say that.
no slamtracker! I'm dying!
is she on day release from hospital or something?
Who knew it would be fashion that sucked Mr C into the tennis talk?
ooh I can choose between coverage on FTA or on Pay TV. Wimbledon hasn't been on FTA for years. Spoilt!
she created it herself and everything apparently!
:D
she just needs an IV drip on casters to set the whole look off.
shes been doing that for years and it does seem that as her tennis gets worse her dresses do too, it keeps people talking about her I guess.
hehe you're gonna love wimbledon Mr C! i can tell )
that's true, people are certainly talking about it..
its nothing compared to that criss cross thing she wore at the AO
i shall have to google, i didn't watch any of the woman's matches at AO.
you might know it when you see it, everyone was talking about it for a long time
Oh my..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1348584/Australia-Open-2011-Venus-Williams-worst-outfit-seen-tennis-court.html
he's 25, lady
"this will be an entertaining match, of course Nadal will win it"
I hate when commentators say things like that. Nothing is ever 100% certain, even if it's 99.9%.
yaaaayyy <3 this umpire! :)
mo! love him.
he was very funny at queens when i saw him :) Was kinda amused by the electric chair :)
I do not approve of the weird circles highlighting Rafas armpits.
is Venus designing for Nike now? :)
Who is this Russell chap? He has the measure of Nadal so far.
Phew, the universe is back to normal.
and Rafa breaks back.. goodness Rafa isn't on top top form at the moment.
Rafa almost lost his first round match in Paris too. He won the title anyway.
Perhaps it is a superstition thing. It worked in Paris, so he's trying it again here too.
Two double faults in a row. Tut tut.
right, i'm off out to my aunts to look after her dog as she and mum are golfing till late. i shall be back soon with a lovely big tv :)
I feel bad for Russell now. Might have to watch the game on the other side instead.
Wimbledon: where you queue all night to get tickets to centre court and then fall asleep during the matches.
Turned on the tv just in time to see rafa take his shirt off.. that was a strange moment. Lol
Hope he wins؟
Schiavone isn't frilly anymore.
Jelena is rather strapped up
Radarguru: In other news: A good start to Wimbledon #tennis, but the heavens are about to open. Heavy rain expected at 17:00 BST, lasting for 1 hour
uh-oh!
Why is Dokic Australian?
tennis players feet are lovely :)
I mean... has she always been Australian? I recall her from years ago and I don't remember that.
she was, then she wasn't, then she was again.
I have wikipedied her. I must have noticed her when she wasn't, then I saw a tweet from Wimbledon saying, Aussie's she's doing well! I was confused. People should pick a country and stick to it :)
Australia clings to her like nothing else, although now that Stosur is doing well maybe it's not quite so bad.
RAIN!
i love watching them run across the court :)
Give the umpire a bit of a push.
they're trying to make me go to bed aren't they. I was enjoying this match! Your roof is too slow, England.
i do wish it was an almost instant thing... :)
We only just got the roof, you can't expect it to be fast as well.
@Wimbledon Players coming off court at #Wimbledon If only we had a roof... Oh, that's right :-)
it closes fast, its just the stupid waiting for the "atmosphere to be right" that annoys me. They don't need to do that down here! Hmph!
I like the big cheer when it meets in the middle.
8-10 mins for it to close and then 20-30mins for the air temp to be right?.. oh goodness i'd forgotten that.
its so stuuuuupid
maybe it's their way of keeping up tradition :) rain always stops play.. maybe it's their way of keeping that up. you know how much us brits like tradition :)
it has to create an "outdoor atmosphere" Bah, it was outdoors a few minutes ago! Things can't be that different out there! argh! it's 2am! argh! ARGH!
hehe! :)
i love that McInroe calls Novak 'Jokervic' :)
nooo! Most of the Americans do it and it drives me nuts
hehe it just makes me giggle. i'm sure by the end of the week i'll have had enough of it :)
oooohhh! I don't wanna go and get soaked on my own tomorrow. gosh i wish it was summer here...
oh wait.. it is!
hehe noel fielding!
noel fielding just said jacqui stewart is there today? that's cool!!
my mum has started packing for their trip, she says "your father isn't taking a rain coat"
I advised that was not wise.
he always seems to turn up on day one! Here he is this year. And last year.
they'll need a rain coat an umbrella and maybe some wellie boots. :)
aw! he's so lucky!
they also aren't taking sunscreen and I told them that wasn't wise because it might just one day get mildly warm in Britain, plus they have two days in Singapore on the way.
hehe exactly! last monday i got burnt but tuesday it was cold and raining.. you seem to have the measure of the weather already Amy! :)
I hope there is more cover at Wimbledon for fans than there is at Queens..
.. and i hope i dont get up at 5am to get to london by 8 only not to get tickets...
from what I recall getting rained on during my tour, not really :)
based on those I know who queued for today, you'll be fine :)
oh and if you happen to go into the Wimbledon shop, don't buy the strawberry bonbons. They're awwwwful.
ohh good. i shall find a corner tomorrow sit under my massive honda umbrella eat strawberries and chat to you guys on spc. so don't go to bed early tomorrow Amy!
if i get there at 8?.. lucky some of my uni friends live in london, i've told them not to be busy tomorrow just in case it gets to 9am and i have no tickets :)
if it's gonna rain lots i'll be in the wimbledon shop taking cover! but noted :)
although heres a tweet from yesterday from @5Livetennis "Get here by 6am and you should be ok for a ground pass": steward on park gate.
but someone I sometimes read on twitter got there at 6.30 and got a court 2 ticket.
you're kidding?! *sigh*
the queue thing is ridiculous. it really is. why can't we just go online and book tickets, just like i did with Queens.. it's so much easier. It must be better for crowd control too!
you can if you time it right
http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/packages/wimbledon_2011.html?tm_link=tm_sports_f5
I don't care how much I like tennis, I'm never ever ever putting myself through that for it. I'm only going to Wimbledon if I get tickets in the ballot beforehand.
The roof makes it all echoey.
It's like a swimming pool!
hehehe mum thinks i'm crazy but i think i've got the tennis bug, i'm thinking it's less and less likely i'll go tomorrow (depending on weather cause i really don't want to get soaked on my own! - how depressing!) i just like taking pictures.. tomorrow will cost me £50 if i go.. that's alot of money to stand in the rain and get cold.
i forgot about those!
thing is, why isn't it standard?
because Wimbledon makes British people go crazy and think they love tennis when they really actually don't.
It makes me pleased AO tickets are not hard to get because the people here don't turn insane when the tennis comes to the country.
i hate it cause people don't go crazy (well that crazy) for Queens it's just Wimbledon! My friend asked me the other day why i went to Queens twice as it's played on grass but isn't Wimbledon and saw it as a pointless waste of money. :/
exactly, too many people are Wimbledon or bust and then don't care for the other 50 weeks of the year, making it nigh on impossible for people such as yourself who deserve to be there to go :(
at least i can go to queens and the finals at the O2 without too much fuss! :) It annoys me cause my school took the no.1 tennis squad to Wimbledon 3 years in a row, my friend and i were in the 2nd squad and they didn't bother to take us, yet we're the only 2 who still play tennis out of everyone in the squads, plus actively watch other tournaments. my school were mean to me.
having other opportunities is nice, we have the slam and thats it really. Theres Kooyong but its only an exhibition so it's not the same.
come and do Queens/Wimbledon! you'll love it! :) i'd say come and do the Masters and the World finals, but they are in winter and you'd hate English winter... it's very similar to our summer, only even wetter and colder :(
This is the weirdest match ever. Have all the lines moved or something? No one is happy with any calls anymore.
you know I will one day but I have so much else I want to do first.
hehe that's understandable. it wouldnt be top of my list either! :)
it'd be higher if I wasn't already seeing tennis there next year, I know it's not the slam, but its still good. The US Open is the next slam I really want to go to.
although going to all 4 is on my life list. *waves at Christine*
Yay!
hehe exactly! going to the olympics and seeing the tennis at wimbledon on centre court ticks two boxes! :)
:D
my dad emailed me a link to an article that was 'where your finances should be when you're 25'
I think he was trying to tell me to stop travelling. No thanks dad :)
:D hehe! as long as you have money to live on then why not travel and enjoy yourself? :)
hes very old fashioned in that he thinks everyones goal in life should be to stop paying rent and start paying a mortgage and mine was too for a long time until I realised theres lots I want to see and do that make me happy.
I can own a house when I'm 65 and inherit his :)
hehehe!
That's my philosophy :P
Here in Spain houses are really, really expensive. I don't know how long would you have to be paying money to the bank, but here you can find mortgages of 40 years... Without searching too much.
aw, bye bye Jelena
She wasn't happy about that at all.
Hurrah, there is still tennis on to watch! #phew
Of course I say that and a match ends.
Hey Lukeh
heheh tennis at wimbledon (specially as it rains) doesn't usually finish till the evening. Last match on centre court next, Andy Vs Daniel Gimeno-Traver
I was quite shocked to learn shes in the top 50 at the moment, it feels like shes been losing in the first or second round of everything since her random freak run to the QF at the AO in 2009. Apparently shes been winning things under my radar :)
Andy!! :)
There's that Andy Murray chap. He's quite good, I hear :)
wow that's alot of liquid.
Although I have to admit I found it stupid there were news articles I read over the weekend after the draw was made talking about Nadal vs Murray in the semi finals. I know it's nothing new and it's always been that way with the silly British media.
Not that I want to diminish his chances but wimbledon hadn't even begun! madness.
right, i'd best go to sleep, if this silly wind/hail/stormy rubbish doesn't keep me awake.
Goooo tennis!
Night amy :)
night amy!!
corrected for ya :)
tips on watching wimbledon from outside the uk: http://gigaom.com/video/wimbledon-2011-live-streams/
Mr C are you watching Murray's match? :) you should :)
yeah, it's on the telly. prefer women's tennis though.
yay for you watching tennis! :)
Booo for silly woman cheering in the middle of the game.
oh come on Murray!
*pokes Andy*
Wake up, lad.
Don't hulk, Murray. Too early for grrs and snarls.
oh god murray clean up after yourself!
Lou did you see on twitter that Clive Mason is there today?
yep. He'll be there for the 2 weeks.he was at eastbourne too.
Oh dear. What happened to the Scottish one? Does he always like to lose at first or something?
I'm going to take the view that as it's Wimbledon he is going the long route of winning and making it a bit dramatic for the british fans. *nods*
I don't think he likes it under the roof. I remember him complaining last time too.
he did this with Queens too all except that SF match it seemed like he was struggling then he'd pull himself together. it's not over yet.
Yeah I saw it. It's like he can only play when he's losing.... Silly stressy boy.
hehe
Hehehehe I have just seen the clip of the guy who hits his racket on the floor and it flies outside the stadium :D
Outside the court I mean, it's only a small wall
it makes it sound like a massssiiivvveeee sports stadium.
I find it really wierd. Everything seems to echo a lot.
I don't get why they don't keep the sides more open to stop that.
wohooo!!
2 set points to Andy, woop :)
Aaaaaaaaand he gets it. Yay!
wohoo! gosh he does like to get us worried.
Slo-mo Judy is scary.
Imagine it on BBC HD :)
Ohh you're right Christine. Properly snarly in slow mo!
I like this set so far. :)
I feel bad for the other guy again. I don't know what's wrong with me today.
Now he's just showing off. :)
haha Kim looks soo impressed with everyone oogling Andy lol
Hmmm is the injury real or fake?
JYS!
Jackie Stewart!
F1 talk on the BBC commentary. Awesome.
hehehe noel fielding said he spotted him earlier :) Amy said he goes every year, i love that JYS loves tennis :)
Woohoo! 2-1 up now.
bbc need to sort out the slomo refresh flicker when the flood lights are on.
that's what i like to see, a nice early break :)
Isner and Mahut on court 3 tomorrow. phew no court 18 then :)
WImbledon tweeter says ten games in a row to Mr Murray. That's quite a lot.
Well this has gotten quite a bit one sided, goodness :)
What a ridiculous way to win the match! :)
Haha, what a great shot to qualify through with. Yay Andy!
YAY!!
At least this guy waited for Murray to walk off. Not like stroppy Dokic earlier.
What happened?
@Wimbledon 13-straight games to @Andy_Murray v Gimeno-Traver to lead 4-6 6-3 6-0 5-0 #Wimbledon
I mean, nothing specific, but the final set was full of challenges and weird line calls, and they both seemed quite stroppy with each other. Then she walked off by herself. They normally wait for each other at Wimbledon.
Oooohh, I did see that as it was ending actually, I know what you mean. For some reason I read it as Djokovic. But there did seem to be a bit of a strop.
I like it when everyone gets along :)
Now I can crack on with tomorrow's wimbledon post :)
♥
here is the schedule for you :) http://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/schedule/schedule9.html
Ooooh thank you! :)