Federer and Serena are the reigning champs. Serena and Sharapova got into a war of words before the Wimbledon started. Sharapova won her opening 1st round match. Federer won his opening 1st round match. #5 seed on the women's side Errani lost to a 19 year old in the first round. Victoria Azarenka was able to win her match, but suffered a scary fall/knee injury at the beginning of the second and final set. That's the excitement so far.
first loss in the first round of a major for Nadal. I'm in a contest and people are upset because I picked it :lol: http://forum.askthebookie.com/sport...mbledon-bigger-prizes-3-46577.html#post237357
So, will the talking heads on ESPN who were so outraged by Nadal having been seeded only fifth now admit that they know nothing about tennis?
They just went with the usual process (ATP rankings+grass court performance). I don't see why people were making a big deal out of Nadal being ranked fifth. The FO win was irrelevant because he won FO in 2012 as well, so he didn't earn additional ranking points for that.
It's all part of the anti-numbers backlash agenda of some of the talking heads - anything that isn't "obvious" from a so-called gut point of view is evidence of how stat geeks are ruining sports. Wilbon is particularly moronic about this; just last week he was complaining bitterly about Felix Hernandez winning the Cy Young Award in 2010, for God's sake.
Any reason you picked Nadal for that, or just a guess he wouldn't go far and to maximize it as early as possible? To be fair, the tennis rankings are confusing and are weird, but it's silly to think numbers are useless. Also, if Nadal went to the semis last year, I'm sure Wimbledon would have considered making Nadal 4 and Ferrer 5 (Wimbledon is the only major that changes from the ATP rankings I believe), but Nadal lost 2nd round last year. There was no legitimate grass court reason to move him to 4 except because he's Nadal. You can't rely just on eyes and you can't rely just on numbers. It takes both. It was the "Rudy Gay" argument this year in basketball. The people who used numbers said trading Rudy Gay was the right move, the people who avoided numbers like Wilbon said I see what Rudy does and the numbers are wrong, trading him was bad. Well I went on a tangent there, either way this was a fun match. I think Rosol was the bigger upset, but this is still crazy.
To his credit, Rafa deflected repeated attempts by the media to get him to blame his loss on his cranky knees. Lleyton Hewitt upsets 11th seed Stan Wawrinka in straight sets.
Hewitt played Vegas a few times and I've been able to talk to him a few times and he's a pretty nice guy. Def has one of the more interesting personalities because he plays the role of rock star pretty good.
good value on the 50/1 I felt, relative to what I was getting for the other rounds. I've had good success going against Nadal in select points. I didn't have Rosol over him last year (second round of Wimbledon, btw), but I had Soderling in the 2009 FO.
Querry goes down in his 1st match, saw a ridiculous stat today.... No American male has won a major since 2003 and none Wimbledon since Samprass in 2000.
Not for me because the failure of the American men has been well-documented (and I know the recent major winners). Andy Roddick the only major since Sampras/Agassi and that was early in Roddick's career. He was the guy who was supposed to be big for US tennis and he never won another major. There hasn't been an American even considered to be a legit threat to win a major in like 4 or 5 years (Roddick). Fish, Blake, Isner, Querrey, etc. have not been top contenders. On the women's side, Serena has been the only American threat for the past three years or so. Oudin was a very brief flash in the pain, still waiting on Stephens.
What failure? Roddick went to 5 finals include the 09 Wimbledon Final. He played in an era with arguably the best player of all time in front of him. It would be like arguing the only successful mens tennis programs in the world today are the Swiss, Spainish and Serbs. The last 5 years has been the greatest assembly of mens players ever. To expect a country to dominate is absurd on it's surface. Serena may well be the greatest women's Tennis player every.
Good post. My 2 cts, Roddick would've probably had 2 and possibly 3 Wimbledon titles if not for Federer. The winner of their 2003 semi-final was a heavy favorite over Philippousis in the final (Fed ended up being Philippousis easily). Roddick played Fed tough in the '04 final but lost in 4 sets and the 2009 final went something like 16-14 in the 5th. I remember Fed was serving down 15-40 at one point in the final set. Roddick converts one of them and Roddick serves it out for the win. But Fed being Fed, no dice. Mardy Fish's good results were when he finally put in the fitness work but now his heart issues have shelved that. Blake (Yonkers native), big forehand, but whose best days are behind him, his easy 1st round win today aside. Isner could be a threat with his serve and forehand except his return of serve is lousy on the lower-bouncing grass (6' 9"). One of the reasons he went 70-68 at Wimby with Nicolas Mahut - he couldn't break him. Querry? IMHO, he just doesn't have the 'skills' (athleticism) of the big boys. Women: Serena. Stupid as this will sound, I almost wish that Sanchez had this woman's snarling fire. I love her. Oudin, as you mentioned, had her little "believe!" 15 minutes of fame a couple of US Opens ago but she's a runt with no weapons. Stephens beat another up & coming Yank, Jamie Hampton today 3 & 3. Madison Keys beat a Brit teenager but overall it was not a good day at Southfield for the US women.
Maybe a more interesting fact coming out of today is that Kumiko Date-Krumm became the 2nd oldest women in history to win a singles match at Wimbledon at the ripe age of 42. However she still has 5 years before she can surpass Martina who won a match at 47. I didn't even know that she was still playing. One of the very sexy ladies of the WTA Maria Kirilenko was beaten by Brit/Aussie Laura Robson who in doing so became the first Brit female to beat a top 10 player since 2008.
Who is expecting a country to dominate? Did you read what I wrote? Roddick won ONE major. Ten years ago everyone was projecting him win a lot more. He was the only American male who was even a legitimate contender to win a major recently, and the last time for him was maybe four years ago.
Retirements: Isner, Stepanek Withdrawals (before the match): Darcis (who of course just beat Nadal), Cilic (#10 seed) and Azarenka The big story is Azarenka because she is #2 in the world and a legitimate threat to take the tournament. Most I've ever seen pulling out of a major in one day .
