
Credit: Lou
Everyone's favourite umpire
We're now rolling towards the end of Wimbledon, with each day bringing closer and closer matches, and more and more excitement. Yesterday saw the surprising defeat of Roger Federer, who took it very gracefully, as he always does. We also saw Murray and Nadal both beat off their opponents to secure a meeting between them tomorrow. That's going to be a tough one for Murray.
Today, though, we are back to the women's side of the draw, with Ladies' Semi-Finals Day. On Centre Court today, we have up first Victoria Azarenka versus Petra Kvitova. I don't know much about these two, except Azarenka is a shrieker, but she comes on court listening to her iPod which is fun. Kvitova knocked out Pironkova who I quite liked, so I'm not sure about her yet.
After that match, we'll see Maria Sharapova versus Sabine Lisicki. I'm torn on this one. Lisicki has been doing an amazing job, and she's very smiley which helps. But Sharapova seems to have improved her attitude tenfold this year, and it'd be nice if she could do well after her shoulder thing.
On the other courts, there are all kinds of doubles matches taking place. I'm not particularly partial to doubles myself, but I like spotting names such as Goran Ivanisevic. He was in the crowd yesterday, but will be out on court in the Invitation Doubles Final event.
Court 12 has the event with Mansour Bahrami and Andrew Castle that Lou has been waiting for, but the only question is if it will be shown on any streams. The action gets underway at 12pm, and the Centre Court battles will begin at 1pm.
Another dramatic start from Ms Barker.
ooohhh! Bahrami is playing now!! Christine you're awesome, thank you for pointing it out. tis on red button too!
i've missed two sets cause ive been packing but i dont care :)
also thanks to wimbledon 3 of my pics are on the spc homepage :)
We don't have many tennis correspondents :)
I do like that Azarenka's top has longer sleeves.
That silly alarm came back!
Interesting that these two stopped and stared at the umpire, whereas the other two got on with it last time.
Looks like Kvitova has the edge so far. 4-1 at the moment.
Azarenka took the long sleeves off and now she's losing. Coincidence?
she has detachable sleeves?
I think it might have been a jumper.
oh.
First set Kvitova 6-1. Took 27 minutes.
Branson is there.
Blimey, Azarenka 3-0 in the second set. Weirdest match ever.
Robert Redford is there.
Then she's won, hasn't she?
Quite shocking to see Sharapova losing that way.
Sharapova hasn't started her match yet.
If Azarenka gets this set, they'll go into a third.
Thanks, it seems I am still asleep hehe.
One question. Will you go to the Wimbledon before the tournament ends?
Me? No.
Kvitova's coach has left his seat. Perhaps he got bored.
He came back again.
Did he find her mojo?
You know, I think he did.
Gooo Vika!
(which one is that?)
Azarenka :)
Second set to Azarenka.
Uh oh, early break points to Kvitova.
boo I want a super screechy masha Vika final
That is definitely what mute buttons were made for.
Kvitova sounds like she's barking.
Cliff Richard's suit is the Wimbly green and purple.
Random guy from the crowd playing in jeans and tshirt in the over 45s doubles. Officials won't like that!
Double faults to end the match are never great
Azarenka loses. Boo.
That wasn't nice
I am interested to see a leftie in the final. I think I'm hoping for Lisicki to meet her in the final.
Lisicki is also listening to something as she walks out. Mr C will approve.
Lisicki is clearly just trying to finish a podcast before the match... #affinity
I think she just said, "that's unchartered territory"
I haven't personally booked this territory to take me to Spain?!?!
:)
Of all the places to explode into life... I wasn't expecting Birmingham to be the place.
I can exclusively reveal that Lisicki was listening to the Farming Today podcast. She's well behind though, and if she loses it will be because she's worried about a proposed badger cull in September 2009
Shh, spoilers.
He he :)
How far behind are you really?
What is up with Sharapova? Lisicki breaks already!
Unexpected!
A few months. I don't want to talk about it :)
Ok :)
2 Aussies in the junior boys semifinals, commentators are stoked.
Every morning I go down my list of podcasts and update all of the ! ones so I don't lose any BBC ones. #sameproblem
perhaps she knew I went and had a shower between matches and wasn't watching. Back now though. I don't mind who wins this one, I like em both :)
Double faults galore for Maria.
Sue Barker earlier said Lisicki had a misdiagnosed ankle. Misdiagnosed as an elbow? A shoulder? Sue didn't say.
Four double faults!
Sharapova is too tight. She needs to take a break, have a kitkat or something.
Lucky
It would be awesome if they sat down and had a drink and a kitkat. That running guy eats chicken nuggets, I don't see what harm some chocolate would do.
Exactly. They could order up interval drinks and snacks.
Or have a vending machine!
Perfect!
You'd have somebody sneaky like Nadal paying for everything in 5ps so it took ages and the other player didn't get a go.
And then it would get stuck and they'd have to give it a shove.
McEnroe getting frustrated when they didn't have a twix.
better getting stuck in the machine than stuck in his throat
Rrubbish.
These tennis players seem to have been in the wars.
Now I've seen everything.
needless to say "i have a banana stuck in my throat" is a tag on my tennis community :)
plenty of the serbs and croatians have been :)
Sharapova ahead now.
Good grief. Two more double faults in a row for Maria.
Now she is "come on" ing every point. Bah.
go lisicki? i find it hard to look past the word sick in her name though.
That might well be it for Lisiki
did she have sleeves on before? is london cold today?
I think she put them on. Whereas whatshername earlier took them off.
i like it when they wear things that make me go 'ooh i could run in a top like that' because i certainly can't run in a tennis dress.
I have shorts on. But i'm inside.
giggles, you don't have legs. i don't believe it.
Good point!
blue shirts and trousers, it's the only way. Otherwise your wee girl won't recognise her daddy :)
you could with those leggings things they wear (no idea if that's the right word), but then you wouldn't need the dress then i guess. which raises the question, can women tennis players wear shorts for a game?
Venus is wearing shorts. Sorta.
You knew they were leggings....trying to play it down and all cool like ;-)
ah-ha!
it didn't look right written down :)
...hold on, venus is playing?
Sure ;-)
I'm sure you'd look quite the catch in leggings :-)
some of them wear shorts, and some more successfully than others. I do own a pair of shorts that are technically tennis shorts :)
Before I bought all this running stuff I did sometimes used to exercise in my house in a tennis dress because it was the only thing I owned that was made of that fancy dri-fit fabric. I looked ridiculous.
No, shoulda been past tense.
*looks down*
erm...
whu?
stuff that you can sweat in without it getting soaking wet making you feel like you've sat in your clothes in a bath :)
in need that for podcasting!
Lewis met the Judy! I'm so jealous of him.
To be fair here is the entire gamut of clothing options...
Top
Are you on holiday?
- Yes - White or Blue shirt or the pink and blue short sleeved random shirt
- No - Blue Shirt
Is it Cold?
- Yes - Add a Blue Jumper
Are you going out and it is cold?
- Yes - Is it a work day?
----Yes - Suit Jacket
----No - Brown Jacket
Bottoms
Is it a work day?
- Yes - Suit Trousers
- No - Is it summer?
---- Yes - Tan shorts
---- No - Tan Trousers
Shoes
Are your legs wearing something tan?
- No - black shoes + socks
- Yes - Are you wearing shorts?
---- Yes - Deck shoes + no socks
---- No - Other brown shoes + socks
I think that's everything :)
maria is getting louder
And more annoying.
i'd hate to see how Ana would behave if she ever made it this far into a slam again.
being male sounds easy :)
It sure is.
But we do get man flu which is very bad.
:D
well done maria, its been a long time since you've been in a final!
ooh, i'll get to watch.
Boo. I've decided I don't like her.
What did she do? I was away for a moment.
ive never been a big fan. i feel like if she loses kait might crawl into a hole and i'll never see her again, she's taken this roger thing very hard :(
Dunno. Just annoying. The screaming, the come ons even when it's not you doing well, it's the other playing doing badly, that she beat Lisicki, and that she has some kind of perfected routine of waving to every side of the court when she wins.
None particularly bad but all together too much :)
:)
i fully expect to be dumped via that same due process.
- "mr c, i've decided i don't like you"
- "but, but... i've just been sat here? i didn't move."
I don't like that her legs are so long. I feel stumpy just looking at her :D
Ah ok. That was what I had been thinking too and why I was backing smiley lisicki.
her smile is awesome :)
:)
- "exactly"
:)
So I'm backing kivititititica
anyone talked about netmix this tournament?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/wimbledon/netmix/
turn down the grunting, but keep the commentary loud.
Ooh, Fun!
very fun! I don't like grunting but I do like the thwack thwack thwack of the ball though so that makes life tough