Tuesday 26 June 2012

England 0 Italy 2 (But Britain Still Going Strong)

After the heartbreak of losing to Italy on penalties, poor Laura Robson had the unenviable task of facing 2010 French Open champion, Francesca Schiavone. Just like the penalty shoot-out, England took the lead and there was strong hope of a victory. Robson performed some her best tennis on television and took the first set 6-2. Schiavone wasn't 100% and she required medical attention, there were slight hopes that the 24th seed would be unable to continue but she came back on court and started to perform.


The second began to go young Robson's way, the was 3-2 ahead and up 40-love verging on breaking serve. But Schiavone fought back to level the set before going onto win the set 6-4. With Schiavone looking the more dominant with Robson's inexperience beginning to show, it was no surprise to see the Italian take a 5-2 lead. But Robson showed her heart to hold serve and then break to make it 5-4. Unfortunately, Robson couldn't level the set and Schiavone would take the final 6-4 to set up a second round match against Czech Republic's Kristyna Pliskova.


But it's not all bad news for Britain's hopefuls at SW19. Andy Murray began his campaign against a tricky sounding, Nikolay Davydenko. However, Murray looked in fine form despite his poor results on grass. He took the first two sets 6-1 before winning the third set 6-4, setting up a second round tie against either Ivo Karlovic or Dudi Sela.  


Jamie Ward is also through to the second round after going the full five sets against Spain's Pablo Andujar. Andujar took the opening set 6-4 before Ward responded with a set to love. The Spaniard re-took the lead with a 6-3 win in the third before Ward won 6-3 in the following two sets to win the match.


Jamie Baker is the only other potential second round entrant for Britain, but he faces a tough first round match against Andy Roddick. This is because Josh Goodall lost in four sets to Slovakia's Grega Zemlja (4-6 6-3 6-7  4-5) and Oliver Golding lost against Russia's Igor Andreev despite taking the first set (6-1 6-7 6-7 5-7)


The women look a lot better though despite Robson's defeat along with Johanna Konta's loss to America's Christina McHale (7-6 2-6 8-10) and Naomi Broady's exit courtesy of Lourdes Dominguez Lino (4-6 6-7)  . Heather Watson did produce her best television performance on centre court against Iveta Benesova 6-2 6-1. She will face American, Jamie Lee Hampton, in the second round.


Anne Keothavong is also into the second round after beating Spain's Laura Pous-Tio 6-3 6-3. She will face either Coco Vandeweghe of America or tenth seed Sara Errani next. Elena Baltacha will face fourth seed Petra Kvitova after beating Karin Knapp 4-6 6-4 6-0. 


The biggest shock of the first round saw Venus Williams lose to Russia's Elena Vesnina. The Russian surprisingly took the first set 6-1 before winning the second 6-3. There was no such drama for Maria Sharapova who won her first round match against Anastasia Rodionova 6-2 6-3, she will face Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova in round two.


Novak Djokovic won in straight sets against Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero. The Serb won 6-3 6-3 6-1 and will face America's Ryan Harrison in the second round. Roger Federer had an easier task against Spain's Albert Ramos, he won 6-1 6-1 6-1 to stroll into a second round match against Italy's Fabio Fognini. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat veteran Lleyton Hewitt 6-3 6-4 6-4 to take on Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in round two. Rafael Nadal is also comfortably through to the second round despite a poor start. The Spaniard took on Brazil's Tomaz Bellucci and found himself 4-1 down in the first set. But Nadal fought back to take the set with a 7-0 tie-break victory before winning the second set 6-2 and the third 6-3 to play Lukas Rosol in round two.            
  

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