We arrived at the queue on
Monday at around 12.45. There were the usual warnings that we wouldn't get in and would have to wait many hours blah. An hour later we were in.
We watched the end of
Berankis vs. Ball on Court 17. Ball is a big server and reminded us of Rusedski. Not sure how he got broken 5 times in 2 sets. Probably because Berankis is an excellent returner, very quick arms and fine technique. He's also quite cute. You will hear a lot more from him. He played a good tieb-break going up 6-2 but Ball came back to 6-5. Berankis finished him off with an ace. 6-2 6-0 3-6 7-6.
We then went to watch the 4th set of
Bozoljac vs. Massu on Court 6. The reason for this was that since last winter we have a new Serbian coach for our men's team who has been (and still is occasionally) the coach of Bozoljac. So we followed his progress in qualies and then of course had to watch him. He has a huge serve and a great backhand but an awful forehand. It's two-handed but most of the time he chipped and sliced it with one hand. Massu was strange. He had trouble in each of his service games because he insisted on serving to Bozoljac's backhand, almost as if to give him the chance to play great returns. He didn't seem to care all that much, and still he led 6-3 in the tie-break. But then "Bozo" played some nice points to win 7-6 3-6 6-3 7-6.
At the same time we followed the Fed scores on CC. There was a lot of buzz in the crowd and a huge congestion on Henman Hill. There I watched Falla not serving it out in the 5th. Federer looked so old and sluggish and it really reminded me of Sampras vs. Bastl. He should lose in this form but I wouldn't mind him finding some brilliance in the upcoming rounds.
We did a lot of court-hopping later on. We watched the fifth set of
Wawrinka vs. Istomin. I already noticed Istomin at Queens, his technically sound baseline game is very suited for grass. Wawrinka was too subdued and after getting broken he seemed to lose believe and lost the 5th 3-6.
We also watched the end of
Barrois vs. Koryttseva. Barrois played very well. Until 6-3 5-2 40-0, that is. But I knew it wasn't over. Then choking commenced and she lost the game and then got broken, although Kory did well there too. The last game was comical because Barrois couldn't put a return in from the backhand side but finally she won on her 7th MP with a drop-shot that appeared to be out. Kory was furious and took about 2 minutes before finally shaking Barrois' hand.
Molik vs. Kucova. There were tons of Aussies at this match and they were very supportive as usual. When Molik won she was surrounded by fans and she seemed to know them all personally and took about 20 minutes to take pictures with them etc. It was quite nice.
Ilhan vs. Daniel. Ilhan had a nice comeback from 0-2 down, admittedly against one of the worst grass players in the draw. He had a loud Turkish cheering section which was funny.
Llodra vs. Witten. We didn't see much, probably should have stayed longer. I just Llodra and his game. Witten is so fat you wonder what he's doing there until you see him be quite fast and play with nice touch. But Llodra was in good form, too bad he sucked against Roddick.
Clement vs. Tipsarevic. They both play and look very similar. Clement played really well, while Janko is far from his best form. A deserved victory, won't be too easy for Fed if he continues to play like shit.
Last match was
A-Bond vs. O'Brien. Katie fought tremendously. She is quite big and she can really whack the ball from the baseline. She's very one-dimensional though. So is A-Bond, she is moving so well and always ready to take the ball early, but at the same time she rarely attacks shorter balls. All her shots have the same pace. O'Brien won the dramatic second set but was too inconsistent in the 3rd. A-Bond had 5-4 40-0 but O'Brien fought back and had 4 BP until A-Bond won. Still the crowd was happy with O'Brien's showing, certainly among the better ones out of the dismal British contingent.
From Monday (if we get in) till Wednesday. 
From Monday (if we get in) till Wednesday. 
