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Wimbledon Diary: Day 5


 

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

The morning after the night before
There was much talk about Lukas Rosol’s scalp of Rafael Nadal on Friday. Kim Clijsters said she was curious to see how Rosol plays in his next match against Philipp Kohlschreiber (Saturday, second match Court 12). Novak Djokovic’s view was: “Even though somebody is ranked 100 places lower than you are, on a given day, especially on the grass, if somebody serves that big, anything can happen.” Sam Querrey observed: “I'm sure the British press sees a nice little path for Andy.  He's lost to Nadal the last couple times. I mean, he's been in the final I think five years in a row.”

Timbo calls for calm
Tim Henman today recalled the pressure that was heaped on him in 2002 after he had won his first round at Wimbledon. The next day Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Marat Safin all lost their matches and The Mirror newspaper famously posted the headline: “No Pressure Timbo, But If You Choke Now, We’ll Never Forgive You”. Without Rafa in the bottom half, the draw takes on a different shape but the assumption that Andy Murray’s path becomes easier is premature. Murray is third up on Centre Court on Saturday, when he takes on Marcos Baghdatis.

This is your player-captain speaking
Arnaud Clement, recently named as France’s new Davis Cup captain, was in action in the doubles today with partner Michael Llodra but the French pair were beaten by Eric Butorac and Jamie Murray. Elsewhere in the mens’ draw, No.1 seeds Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor were gazumped by Daniele Bracciali and Julian Knowle.

Watson’s run comes to an end
Heather Watson said would take plenty of learnings away from her match today against world No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska. Defeated 6-0 6-2 she said: “I'm learning new things, adding new things to my game, and always trying to learn and do anything I can to make myself a better tennis player.” Later in the day she and mixed doubles partner Ross Hutchins defeated the Slovakian pair of Filip Polasek and Daniela Hantuchova. Watson who next time the rankings are produced will break into the Top 100, won’t, however, be eating any more salmon for a while.

Fashion faux pas
Radek Stepanek arrived on court today for his match against Novak Djokovic wearing a colorful pair of trainers. Unfortunately they were a little too colorful for the All England Club and he had to change them. “Before the match I asked in the locker room if I could play with them because they are not entirely white but I felt very comfortable with them,” he told us. “I asked in the locker room if I could play with them and they said 'yeh', then I came on court and the chair umpire said it’s not allowed so I just changed the shoe. Not a big deal”.

Fastest match of the day
Shuai Peng defeated Arantxa Rus 6-1 6-2 in just 47 minutes.

National first
By defeating Colombian Alejandro Falla, Denis Istomin became the first player from Uzbekistan to play in the round of 16.

Big Goran
Goran Ivanisevic was kicking around the pressroom today, so we hurdled some desks and gave him a copy of tennishead magazine so he could look at the feature on him on page 70.  He said: “Thanks!”

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Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.