Thursday 28 June 2012

England 0 Italy 3 (But Murray and Watson Through)

Sara Errani became the latest Italian to heap misery onto English shoulders. The tenth seed faced Anne Keothavong in the second round of Wimbledon and the French Open runner-up continued her good form to face Yaroslava Shvedova in the third round. There wasn't a lot the Brit could do against Errani who ran out 6-1 6-1, sending a message to her fellow competitors.

Elena Baltacha is also out after facing another seeded star, fourth seed Petra Kvitova. The Czech took the first game to love before Baltacha began showing what she can do. She took four games against Kvitova but it wasn't enough to prevent the fourth seed from going through. Kvitova will now face Varvara Lepchenko of America in the third round.


Britain are also down to just one man after Jamie Ward lost a five set thriller to Mardy Fish. The tenth seed looked extremely comfortable, taking the first set 6-3. Ward fought back to take the second set 7-5 but found himself behind again when Fish took the third 6-4. But Ward wasn't about to bow out and despite facing match point, he took Fish to a tie-break and subsequently won it 7-3. Unfortunately, Ward couldn't continue his fantastic resistance and the American took the final set 6-3 to stumble into the third round to take on David Goffin.


It's not all bad news for Britain though, Heather Watson became the first British woman into the third round for ten years. She took on American Jamie Lee Hampton and only needed two sets to set a date against third seed Agnieszka Radwanska. Watson took the first set with only conceding one game before winning the second set 6-4.


Andy Murray is also into the third round, squeezing past a tough test against Ivo Karlovic. The Scot took the first set 7-5 before the 6" 10' Croatian levelled the match via a 7-5 tie-break. Murray then responded with a 6-2 third set victory before taking the fourth set 7-4 on the tie-break. Murray will now face Marcos Baghditis in his tricky draw.


The news gets even better for Murray as Rafael Nadal has been knocked out by world 100 Lukas Rosol. The Czech's ambition was shown straight from the off, forcing a tie-break which Nadal eventually won 11-9.  Any thoughts that that would ultimately defeat Rosol mentally were diminished when he fought back to take the second and then the third set 6-4. The world number two levelled the match with a 6-2 fourth set victory and would have been the favourite to go on to win the match. But Rosol was again undeterred and won the set 6-4, finishing with an ace to create the biggest shock of the tournament so far.


World number five, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also suffered a set back, but he fought back to beat Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. The first set went into a tie-break which Lopez won 7-3. But Tsonga avoided any more scares, taking the second set 6-4, the third 6-1 and the fourth 6-3, setting up a third round match against Lukas Lacko.


It was a bit easier for Novak Djokovic who went through in straight sets against Ryan Harrison of America. The Serb won all three sets 6-4 to take on Radek Stepanek in the next round. Roger Federer also strolled into the next round after beating Fabio Fognini 6-1 6-3 6-2, he will take on Julien Benneteau. 


Maria Sharapova wasn't immune to the SW19 scares. The world number one faced Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova in the second round and won the first set 7-3 on the tie-break. The match had to be finished today after bad light postponed the conclusion of the match. Pironkova came back and took the second set 7-3 on another tie-break. But the Russian then regained her composure to take the third set to love and will now face Su-Wei Hsieh from the Chinese Taipei. 


The world number two, Victoria Azarenka, strolled into the third round. She beat Switzerland's Romina Oprandi 6-2 6-0 to face either Anabel Medina Garrigues or Jana Cepelova. Serena Williams is also through after beating Melinda Czink 6-1 6-4 and will face China's Jie Zheng in the next round.         




    

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