Tennis Chatter

J. Henin defeated a hobbled Serena Williams (calf injury) to advance to Wimbledon semifinals today. She won 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Henin was up two breaks in the third set, but hit two double faults to allow Serena to take one back. However, Henin held on to win the third set. Henin played pretty good at the net, converting 15 out of 22 chances. However, she was a little shaky on serve, double faulting seven times and only serving 50% off her first serve. She will face M. Bartoli in semifinals after the Frenchwomen beat M. Krajicek in quarterfinals 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Bartoli played consistently, hitting only 10 unforced errors, to Krajicek’s 31.

Venus Williams advanced to quarterfinals with a win over second seed M. Sharapova. Venus won in convincing fashion, 6-1, 6-3. She dominated every aspect of the match, winning 77 points, to Maria’s 51. Sharapova looked vulnerable off of her second serve, only winning the point 39% of the time. Venus will play S. Kuznetsova in quarterfinals.

On the men’s side of the draw Andy Roddick advanced to quarterfinals with a 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 win over P. Mathieu. Roddick’s serve was on, serving 73% first serves, with 19 aces. He also limited himself to 13 unforced errors with 29 winners. He will need to that kind of performance in quarterfinals, as he will face his biggest test yet, Richard Gasquet. In his fourth round match, Gasquet defeated fellow Frenchman, J. Tsonga, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. He showed great consistency, with only 11 unforced errors to 23 winners. Gasquet continued his solid net play, winning 20 of 26 approaches. This is his first quarterfinal appearance in a Grand Slam, and I believe he has what it takes to beat Roddick. He actually is holding his serve better this tournament than Roddick is. He had a few hiccups this match, being broken twice in the first set, but if he comes out firingin quarters, he could pose a threat to Roddick.

N. Djokovic finished his match against N. Kiefer. In the end, Keifer’s 56 enforced errors did him in, losing 6-7, 7-6, 2-6, 6-7. Djokovic plays former champion L. Hewitt in the round of 16.

R. Nadal completed his marathon match with R. Soderling today. Nadal finished on top, winning 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 4-6, 7-5. This match was rather icy, as Soderling annoyed Nadal, by imitating his messing-with-his-shorts routine he does in between points. In addition, Nadal was displeased when Soderling didn’t apologize for winning a net cord point (as is customary). As a result, the two didn’t linger at the handshake. Nadal has another big test next round against M. Youzhny. Nadal had words for the Wimbledon committee after his multi-day match saying:

“I don’t understand why we don’t play on Sunday when the weather was OK,”

“It was so much better than yesterday, Monday and today too. I don’t understand why they cancelled yesterday, when at 8.10pm the sunshine is here for one hour so we can play.

“I don’t understand why we are going to the courts to play for (only) 15 minutes, and they know because they have the (information).

“That’s very tough for the players. They don’t think very much about the players here, maybe.”