Wimbledon Diary: Day 4

 

Originally published on: 29/06/12 00:00

Hot seat
The Royal Box was steaming today as temperatures topped 80 degrees and Pippa Middleton and her brother James took centre stage. During one of the changes of ends, we sneaked a look at the family run business website to see how the balloons banners garlands and bunting were going. All seemed jolly fine.

Serena says Maria is hot
As regular readers of this diary will know, we have ducked out of the equal prize money debate but we were delighted with a couple of the comments passed by two women who have a gazillion facebook followers between them. Maria Sharapova said of Gilles Simon, who ignited the debate at the start of the week: ”I mean, I'm sure there are a few more people that watch my matches than his.” When this comment was relayed to Serena, she agreed: “Definitely a lot more people are watching Maria than Simon. She's way hotter than he is.”

Natural lefty
Sharapova came back to complete her match against Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova, which she won 7-6, 6-7, 6-0. Interestingly, she played a winning forehand in Wednesday night’s tiebreak with her left hand. Growing up, she played tennis for a year or so with her left hand and is a natural lefty. “I actually kick and throw left handed all the time,” Sharapova said. “There are many things that I like to do left-handed.”

Writing Japanese history
With his victory over Frenchman Florent Serra, Kei Nishikori became the first Japanese man to reach the third round of Wimbledon since 1995. This year’s Australian Open quarter-finalist acknowledges that Wimbledon is a special place for him: “I think that all the tennis begins from here, the grass court, and everybody's dreams this tournament. For me, also.”

Smell the roses
Serena Williams is a bit of a romantic, apparently, and reckons she could be cheered up by some flowers, “Well, I haven't gotten any flowers in a really long time from someone of the opposite sex that doesn't have to do with business.  When I did get flowers I didn't appreciate 'em, so…“ As locals, we can recommend a great florist. Serena may not need that much cheering up as she defeated Melinda Czink 6-1 6-4 in one hour and one minute. P.S. Roses are her favourite flower and pink is her favourite colour – as if you couldn’t tell from those underpants…

Snapper’s delight
There’s an upcoming third round women’s match we reckon might win the prize for attracting the most number of snappers and that’s Ana Ivanovic against Julia Goerges. Ivanovic saw off Kateryna Bondarenko and the German defeated AnastaysiaYakimova. One to savour for Saturday.

Rare mistake
Today we were eagle-eyed enough to spot that the little typo on the mostly accurate and legendary Wimbledon weather forecast (ref: M034) that is issued in hard copy to us by the AELTC. On Thursday it was dated 28 June 2011. That aside, Chris Tubbs’ forecast was spot on.

Size 15s….
Ivo Karlovic reckons he lost his match against Andy Murray because of the number of foot faults that were called. He estimated he had been called 11 or so times. “After this match, the whole credibility of this tournament went down for me,” he said, adding:  “I feel cheated.” Asked if he will take it further, he said: “Right now I'm angry about it, little bit pissed, because I don't expect it here.  Even though it is against [an] English guy who they always want to win, but I don't expect it here.”  Hrumph.

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