Wimbledon 2014: Sharapova, Federer and Nadal all in action – live!
It looks ominous for Shvedova when she nets a forehand to make it 0-40. A
big serve saves the first break point and Lisicki then lets out a yelp
after putting an awful backhand wide when she only had to be put it in
back in play. But she makes up for that atrocious miss with a thumping
forehand winner off a tame second serve to secure what could be a
crucial break. Lisicki leads 4-2 and she's eyeing up the first set
greedily now.
It looks ominous for Shvedova when she nets a forehand to make it 0-40. A
big serve saves the first break point and Lisicki then lets out a yelp
after putting an awful backhand wide when she only had to be put it in
back in play. But she makes up for that atrocious miss with a thumping
forehand winner off a tame second serve to secure what could be a
crucial break. Lisicki leads 4-2 and she's eyeing up the first set
greedily now.
Simona Halep has strapping on her left thigh but it doesn't seem to be bothering her. She leads 3-2 in the first set against Zarina Diyas, who is battling gamely. Only one break in it so far.
It was coming. Simona Halep, poised and settled and throughly
focused on the task in hand, breaks to love against her inexperienced
opponent to lead 2-1 in the first set. Simona Halep of Romania returns to Zarina Diyas. Photograph: Tatyana Zenkovich/EPA
Updated
But Lisicki hits back straight away in near-identical fashion,
cancelling out that early break when Shvedova finds the net to be an
insurmountable hurdle. Lisicki is finding her range and increasing the
power on her groundstrokes. Shvedova only seems to have wound her up.
Updated
And we've had a break of serve already on Court 3. What a
start for Yaroslava Shvedova, who grabs the early advantage as Sabine
Lisicki nets a forehand, the German able to save one break point but not
two. Meanwhile Simona Halep is threatening and Zarina Diyas is having
to perform miracles to keep her at bay.
Play is underway. We have tennis. This is good. Life is instantly better.
"Temperatures up to 21, 22, possibly even 23 degrees!" chirps the BBC's weather correspondnet. Scorchio! Have some of that, "Manaus"! Fans arrive for the start of day eight, taken with an infrared camera. Photograph: Al Bello/Getty Images
Updated
The BBC are playing Welcome to the Jungle by way of previewing today's action. "Yeeeees, bring it on," growls Sue Barker. The All England Club is many things, but a jungle it is not.
Three Czech players left in the women's draw, by the way, and three lefties. What does this teach us?
Ladies and gentlemen, we have players on courts. Specifically
Simona Halep and Zarina Diyas on Court 2 and Sabine Lisicki and
Yaroslava Shvedova on Court 3. On Court 2, people are amusing themselves
with - get this - a Mexican Wave! Oh what fun we have. Consider me
amused.
A few clouds in the sky but the sun is shining and the sunglasses are on.
It's been a chaotic couple of days but everything's poised to run
smoothy today. Fingers crossed. Famous last words, ha ha ha, tee hee
hee.
Good morning. Mutiny is in the SW19 air. It's all the fault
of that blasted weather, of course, but the affable Stan Wawrinka isn't
happy, the Swiss taking aim at the tournament organisers for messing up
his schedule, making him play a possible five matches in seven days and
potentially wrecking his hopes of adding to the Australian Open he won
in January. His words yesterday were as piercing as his one-handed
backhand and Novak Djokovic also added his voice to those who believe
that, tradition be damned, there should be play on the middle Sunday.
But
there's nothing to be done about it, even if the bottom half of the
men's draw has been thrown into a state of flux, all their fourth-round
matches still to be played. Wawrinka and his opponent today, Feliciano
Lopez, will both have to grit their teeth and get on with it after their
respective wins over Denis Istomin and John Isner (a lot of tie-breaks
in that one, would you believe).
Elsewhere we've got Kei
Nishikori, who can count on a sizeable backing from Japanese fans,
against big-serving Milos Raonic, who's largely gone unnoticed. Then
there's Roger Federer up against the doughty Tommy Robredo, who beat the
world No4 at the US Open last year. They're on Court 1.
Sir is
likely to be displeased about being shunted off Centre, but sir has had
to make way for Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios, the rising star of
Australian tennis. The kid play without any inhibitions and his exciting
game could give Nadal problems. The world No1 dropped the first set in
each of his first three matches - but he's a different animal in the
second week and as thrilling a prospect as Kyrgios is, is anyone really
willing to back him? If so, let me know.
Meanwhile let's not
forget that we've got some intriguing matches in the women's draw. This
is usually quarter-finals day but the rain means we've also got a couple
of fourth-round matches to get through - Maria Sharapova, the favourite
after Serena Williams' exit, and Angelique Kerber face off on Centre
Court first up, while last year's finalist, Sabine Lisicki, who quelled
Ana Ivanovic's resistance yesterday, meets the dangerous Yaroslava
Shvedova - the Kazakh who once played a golden set in these parts.
Shvedova
is the only player from Kazakhstan in action. There's Zarina Diyas, 20,
against Simona Halep, the Romanian pocket rocket who packs quite the
punch. Halep should win but Diyas is improving all the time. Elsewhere
it's Lucie Safarova against Ekaterina Makarova - a nice ring to that one
- and Petra Kvitova, the 2011 champ, against Barbora Zahlavova
Strycova, conqueror of Li Na and Caroline Wozniacki.
Let's do this. I am definitely not dizzy after back-to-back game-by-games last night
g up the first set
greedily now.
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