Wimbledon: Just Another Manic Monday

Hey Y'all. Galileo here.

Well, a lot of things happened on Manic Monday. It’s one of those days marked down in any tennis fan's calendar. It's like Christmas day. Or the Fourth of July. It’s a magical day with upsets a-plenty and too much tennis to watch. There is more to see than can ever be seen. Kyrgios crumbled while Federer gave Agut a lesson. Djokovic was blown away by the big man Anderson (temporarily). And on the women's, Venus paid the price for Heather's insolence.

But more than that, it is is a day to celebrate tennis. Whether you're playing doubles, singles or even just a spectator. It is a magical day for all. And on this glorious day, fans, writers and commentators wonder where they should focus. But here there is no wondering. All seven must be covered. And so they shall.

There is a lot to get through. So I will leave you with a quick stat before we look back on Monday: Federer has held 106 service games in a row. Since coming through again Kohl early in Halle he has won every single service game.

Right, let us get started..

Question: Can you name the player who has played against Venus more than Serena?


CENTRE COURT: FEDERER D. BAUTISTA-AGUT
...Sometimes the danger signs are correct. Sometimes the warnings come true. And they were there. For the first five games, the Spaniard held serve. But then at 2-3, Federer broke his serve. His spirit remained unbroken. Federer came through in 85 minutes on his sixth or seventh match point. At the end, down 3-5, the Spaniard put up stern resistance. But it was never going to be enough. Fed hit seven aces but his opponent could only win eight points on his serve. Thirteen break points to none -- and six breaks to none -- told the story. I hope that was a free lesson. For making the fourth round the Spaniard gets a nice check. So everyone wins. Except Agut. He really did not win though he was never given a choice. Federer now plays Simon. And it is going to be trickier than it looks on paper. But, really, Federer is the heavy favorite here. This won't go five but it may go four. There's also a good chance Simon will break. Then again Federer is in ominous and unforgiving form.
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CENTRE COURT: MURRAY D. KARLOVIC
....Karlovic is the kind of player who would be deadly at club level. You do, in fact, get that kind of player frequently. A big server who builds victories around the serve. And it is very effective. But Wimbledon is not club level. And his opponent is certainly not a club level player. But that serve always gives him a chance and it is effective at all levels. 29 aces and 75 winners could not stop Murray from prevailing. Murray won 7-6[7], 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. He hit just nine errors. The key problem for Ivo was Murray's defense. The Scot got a ridiculous amount of balls back into play. He and Djokovic both have mind boggling defense. Federer and Murray look destined to meet in that semi. And right now Federer looks the favorite. He is serving better and his forehand is singing a pretty tune. Murray just looks a little off the pace right now. Of course anything could happen and that semi is not written in stone, but perhaps it is written in wet cement.
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COURT ONE: WAWRINKA D. GOFFIN
...Seedings at a slam are more a rough guide. They are an outline for how the tournament should go. But really there are some perennial fourth round players who one just expects to be there. Wawrinka is one and Goffin is turning into one. It was nice, too, in a way to see a clash in the fourth round where the seeds matched the round. And it had upset potential. A rather flat Wawrinka edged past Goffin 7-6[3], 7-6[7], 6-4. Goffin had his chances and if he had just been able to raise his game even a modicum more, he would have seriously threatened the Swiss. Wawrinka showed us the mark of a true champion -- the ability to win when playing badly. There were overall 67 unforced errors, or roughly two a game. And for players of this calibre that's a high amount. Wawrinka moves on and Goffin adds Wimbledon to his collection of fourth rounds. Two down, two to go. Wawrinka now faces a great grass player. Gasquet is just as good as Tsonga, though in a different way. An underrated returner with good scrambling defense and a ridiculous ability to turn defense into attack, this is a match where Wawrinka must be careful. Wawrinka needs to serve to the forehand and try to overpower Gasquet.
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COURT TWO: GASQUET D.KYRGIOS
...Well, well, well. Gasquet won 7-5, 6-1, 6-7[7], 7-6[6] but that hardly seems to matter anymore. In all of the furor the only party coming out it looking good is Gasquet. And the umpire. The crowd booed and Kyrgios was a mess. The media have been all over it, too. It has been a mess.
You've no doubt read all about it. Kyrgios was accused of not trying and of tanking. But it's not true. He went off the boil and lost his head for ten minutes. He's allowed to crumble like that. He's 20 not a veteran. And it was a big match. It went four and the Aussie saved match points. So, therefore, it can't be all bad. He should not be fined. He should be given a stern warning for tanking. And the swearing is really not acceptable. But BACKSPIN is not here for that kind of thing. It's here to talk about tennis. And let's not forget this happened back when both were very young. And that's all in the past now, too. This will blow over. And it really doesn't matter in the long run.



Gassquet is 100% in grand slam quarterfinals, though he won both in five sets. He defeated Ferrer in five in New York in 2013. And he beat Roddick in 2007 in Wimbledon where he came back from two sets down. Ferrer was seeded fourth in 2013 and Wawrinka is Wimbledon's fourth seed. Also during that US Open Gasquet did this:



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COURT TWO: SIMON D.BERDYCH
...If I had predicted this you would have laughed at me. I would have laughed at me. In fact I would have put Simon beats Berdych in three sets. Just kidding. But it hath come to pass. And so now Simon has two quarterfinals and needs just two for the set. And really who thought it would come at Wimbledon? There was a good chance of two French players in the quarterfinals but who thought one of them would be Simon. Simon romped home 6-3, 6-3, 6-2. And it is the scoreline that make the victory so shocking, so unbelievable. It's not five, or even four, really tight sets where Simon just sneaks through. Gilles has embarrassed his opponent here. And he's done it without a major weapon. He only hit 21 winners. On grass. Berdman could only find one break point and won just 26 per cent of receiving points. Berdych blew it. He just seemed to crumple. And now he heads into the US hard court swing where he does well. He will be looking for some confidence there before going to the US Open. No doubt he will be looking to wrest the fourth seed off Wawrinka. Though if Wawrinka wins he could rise to number three. Or maybe even higher.
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OUTER COURT SELECTION : POSPISIL D. TROICKI
...Technically this is an upset. Realistically it is not. Remember seeds are just a rough guideline. Pospisil exited the doubles 10-8 in the fifth. But he came back from the dead to win 4-6, 6-7[4], 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. And it begs the question, with Nestor still around, how does Canada not do so much better in the Davis Cup then it currently does? They have two good singles players and Nestor. Nestor/Pospisil and Raonic should be enough. Especially if Pospisil plays a singles rubber. Pospisil faces Murray next and that will be a battle.

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Any other notes?
* - Djokovic did not apologize for a fluke return. He should have.
* - Saw a women's double match today where player B volleyed a ball at player D. Player D waves away the apology. Later player A misses and player B volleys the ball away. It accidentally hits players D. Player B apologies and is forgiven. That's the right way to do things.
* - Two of last year's eight semi-finalists still remain. Just one is in the quarterfinals the next year.
* - The Spanish have hired Conchita Martinez to run their Davis Cup. That is an interesting decision.
* - Casey Dellacqua and her partner Shvedova triumphed in the doubles. They beat Vinci/Knapp 4-6, 6-2, 10-8. They now play the top seeds Mirza/Hingis. And they could be the team that finally gives the top seeds a challenge. In the mixed she lost 0-6, 6-3, 6-3 with Hewitt. Hewitt is out of everything at Wimbledon now. That's all folks.

ANSWER: Davenport owns a 14-13 head-to-head record over the elder Williams. Serena leads Venus 15-11.


Well, I'm out for now.

Thanks all and visit WTA BACKSPIN please.

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