The remaining sixteen men and women took the courts to play out the singles quarter finals at Wimbledon. The women played their matches yesterday and for once, the men out shadowed them today. The only previous women's Wimbledon champion remaining, Maria Sharapova, wasted no time in booking her place in the semi-finals; she beat Cibulkova 6-1 6-1. Sharapova will face Sabine Lisicki in the semis and I think the winner will win the tournament. Lisicki beat ninth seed Bartoli 6-4 6-7 6-1 to progress and remain as the real dark horse of the competition. Fourth seed Azarenka also won in straight sets against the unseeded Paszek, winning 6-3 6-1. Azarenka will face eighth seed Kvitova as the Czech beat Pironkova 6-3 6-7 6-2.
But it was the men's quarter finals that produced the drama as they took place today. Up first on centre court was third seed Federer who was against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The twelfth seed looked extremely nervous in the first set and quickly lost it 6-3. But the Frenchman battled back in the second set and showed us all that he really is quite a good player. The second set went into a tie break which Federer easily won 6-3 to make it two sets to nil and looked certain to progress into the semis. But Tsonga wasn't finished and took the third set 6-4 before repeating the feat in the fourth set. Unbelievably, Tsonga was able to complete the comeback and won the final set also by 6-4 to dump Federer out and progress into the semi-finals.
Tsonga will meet second seed Djokovic in the semis but faced his fair share of drama on court one. Djokovic played the unseeded Australian teenager Tomic and looked to be cruising when he took the first set 6-2. But Tomic showed fantastic character and equalised by taking the set 6-3. Unfortunately, Tomic couldn't keep the momentum up and Djokovic took the third set 6-3 and the fourth set 7-5 to progress.
Andy Murray had arguably the easiest test against the unseeded Feliciano Lopez, the ladies favourite. But Murray eased to victory with set wins of 6-3 6-4 6-4. Murray has unsurprisingly set up a semi-final battle against Nadal. The top seed faced tenth seed Mardy Fish but found himself two sets down as Nadal won them 6-3 6-3. But the American fought back to take the third set 7-5 but Nadal stopped any chance of a Tsonga-style comeback and won the fourth set 6-4.
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
New Women's Era? No Change In The Men's
The second week of Wimbledon got under way yesterday and today marks the quarter finals stage. As expected, the men's quarter finals are rather predictable as Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Murray have all made it through and look set to progress further. Nadal had a injury scare in his last match but his MRI scans show that his foot has no real injury and should be fine to take on tenth seed Mardy Fish. Murray will face the unseeded Feliciano Lopez and Djokovic will also face an unseeded opponent in Bernard Tomic from Australia. Federer has arguably the toughest test against Queen's runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who is seeded twelfth.
But it is the women's singles that is still throwing up the surprises as the draw has been blown wide open. Third seed and French Open winner Na Li lost in the second round to Sabine Lisicki and this was followed by second seed Vera Zvonareva losing in the third round to thirty-second seed Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 2-6 3-6. But this was nothing compared to the drama of the fourth round; top seed Caroline Wozniacki was beaten 6-1 6-7 5-7 by twenty-fourth seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia. The both of the Williams sisters were also knocked out, Serena lost 3-6 6-7 to ninth seed Marion Bartoli and Venus lost 2-6 3-6 to Pironkova. This means that the highest seed that can win the tournament is fourth seed Victoria Azarenka who faces the unseeded Tamira Paszek of Austria in the quarter finals. Fifth seed Maria Sharapova will face Cibulkova. Petra Kvitova is seeded eighth and will face Pironkova while ninth seed Bartoli will face Lisicki.
But it is the women's singles that is still throwing up the surprises as the draw has been blown wide open. Third seed and French Open winner Na Li lost in the second round to Sabine Lisicki and this was followed by second seed Vera Zvonareva losing in the third round to thirty-second seed Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 2-6 3-6. But this was nothing compared to the drama of the fourth round; top seed Caroline Wozniacki was beaten 6-1 6-7 5-7 by twenty-fourth seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia. The both of the Williams sisters were also knocked out, Serena lost 3-6 6-7 to ninth seed Marion Bartoli and Venus lost 2-6 3-6 to Pironkova. This means that the highest seed that can win the tournament is fourth seed Victoria Azarenka who faces the unseeded Tamira Paszek of Austria in the quarter finals. Fifth seed Maria Sharapova will face Cibulkova. Petra Kvitova is seeded eighth and will face Pironkova while ninth seed Bartoli will face Lisicki.
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Vettel Reigns In Spain (Again)
For the first time this season, all twenty-four drivers finished the race in Valencia. Unfortunately, the race as a whole wasn't as much as a spectacle as there were so few incidents but there were a lot of battles for position.
From the start, Vettel and Webber got away cleanly but the Ferrari's both overtook Hamilton and Button was overtaken by Rosberg. Six laps into the race Button finally managed to pass Rosberg back into sixth but that was all Button managed to do throughout the race. Hamilton managed to overtake Massa on lap sixteen during the first set of pit stops, but from there Hamilton went through the race without any hiccups and arguments between him and the McLaren team about tyre wear meant he didn't compete for a podium.
Michael Schumacher came out from that first set of pit-stops and instantly collided with Petrov which resulted in the Mercedes car losing its front wing and ultimately ended Schumacher's hunt for any points. The stewards dismissed the incident much as we did the race. The only drama throughout the race was the battle for second between Webber and Alonso. Alonso managed to overtake the Red Bull on lap 21 but Webber pitted a lap earlier and it paid dividends as he over-took Alonso on lap thirty. But Alonso got his own back by doing virtually the same thing on lap forty-six to stop Red Bull from sealing a one-two. Race results in full:
1.Vettel (Red Bull), 2.Alonso (Ferrari), 3.Webber (Red Bull), 4.Hamilton (McLaren), 5.Massa (Ferrari), 6.Button (McLaren), 7.Rosberg (Mercedes), 8.Alguersuari (Toro Rosso), 9.Sutil (Force India), 10.Heidfeld (Renault), 11.Perez (Sauber), 12.Barrichello (Williams), 13.Buemi (Toro Rosso), 14.Di Resta (Force India), 15.Petrov (Renault), 16.Kobayashi (Sauber), 17.Schumacher (Mercedes), 18.Maldonado (Williams), 19.Kovalainen (Lotus), 20.Trulli (Lotus), 21.Glock (Virgin), 22.D'Ambrosio (Virgin), 23.Liuzzi (Hispania), 24.Karthikeyan (Hispania).
From the start, Vettel and Webber got away cleanly but the Ferrari's both overtook Hamilton and Button was overtaken by Rosberg. Six laps into the race Button finally managed to pass Rosberg back into sixth but that was all Button managed to do throughout the race. Hamilton managed to overtake Massa on lap sixteen during the first set of pit stops, but from there Hamilton went through the race without any hiccups and arguments between him and the McLaren team about tyre wear meant he didn't compete for a podium.
Michael Schumacher came out from that first set of pit-stops and instantly collided with Petrov which resulted in the Mercedes car losing its front wing and ultimately ended Schumacher's hunt for any points. The stewards dismissed the incident much as we did the race. The only drama throughout the race was the battle for second between Webber and Alonso. Alonso managed to overtake the Red Bull on lap 21 but Webber pitted a lap earlier and it paid dividends as he over-took Alonso on lap thirty. But Alonso got his own back by doing virtually the same thing on lap forty-six to stop Red Bull from sealing a one-two. Race results in full:
1.Vettel (Red Bull), 2.Alonso (Ferrari), 3.Webber (Red Bull), 4.Hamilton (McLaren), 5.Massa (Ferrari), 6.Button (McLaren), 7.Rosberg (Mercedes), 8.Alguersuari (Toro Rosso), 9.Sutil (Force India), 10.Heidfeld (Renault), 11.Perez (Sauber), 12.Barrichello (Williams), 13.Buemi (Toro Rosso), 14.Di Resta (Force India), 15.Petrov (Renault), 16.Kobayashi (Sauber), 17.Schumacher (Mercedes), 18.Maldonado (Williams), 19.Kovalainen (Lotus), 20.Trulli (Lotus), 21.Glock (Virgin), 22.D'Ambrosio (Virgin), 23.Liuzzi (Hispania), 24.Karthikeyan (Hispania).
Hancock Conquers Cardiff
The Speedway GP series headed to Cardiff's Millennium Stadium for the fifth round of eleven. After this round there will be a break as the Speedway World Cup takes place. But there was drama before the round started as Artem Laguta failed to get his visa in time, meaning that Magnus 'Zorro' Zetterstom made a one off welcome return the roster. The closeness of the competition was shown again as only three of the sixteen riders failed to win a heat.
The first heat saw Zetterstrom and the British wildcard Scott Nicholls enter the fray, Zorro finished second and Nicholls fourth with Crump starting with a win. This was followed up by current leader Gollob winning with his closest rival Hancock finishing second. Nicky Pedersen continued his form this season with an opening heat win in heat three. The fourth heat saw Chris Holder out-numbered by three Swedes as Lindback took the flag from Jonsson and Lindgren with the Aussie down in fourth.
Janusz Kolodziej took heat five and his compatriot Bjerre took heat six. Heat seven saw Zetterstrom win on his return and Gollob could only manage fourth. This opened the door for Hancock and the American took full advantage by winning heat eight with Crump finishing fourth.
Nicky Pedersen became the first of only five riders to win two heats in the ninth. The first bit of drama came in heat ten when Hampel's bike packed up, then Rune Holta's bike had too much acceleration and flew up into the air, knocking Holta to the floor. The restart saw Chris Harris battle Lindgren for the win and British crowd got to see the Brit take the chequered flag. Heat eleven was won by Holder as Hancock could only manage third but this was matched by Gollob in heat twelve. Crump was looking to be victorious in the twelfth heat but Emil Sayfutdinov took Crump on the last corner to steal the win.
Holder won his second heat in the thirteenth with Gollob continuing his miserable time in third and the wildcard Nicholls finished second. Hancock again took full advantage by winning his second heat and Sayfutdinov also made it back to back heat wins in the fifteenth. Kenneth Bjerre also won his second heat in the sixteenth with Crump finishing second.
The final set of heats saw their fair share of drama; Freddy Lindgren took out Sayfutdinov in the seventeenth and was rightly excluded. Hancock took the restart to win his third heat of the night. Andreas Jonsson won heat eighteen with Gollob second and Hampel took heat nineteen. The final heat saw Pedersen make a false start but was allowed to restart, but the Dane then did it again but went through the tapes and was subsequently excluded. This allowed reserve driver Tai Woffinden take part and the young Brit, who took part in last year's GP series, finished second after leading for two laps. Holder won it with Crump in third.
The first semi-final saw Sayfutdinov beat Hancock with Jonsson finishing third and Crump fourth. The second semi-final saw Bjerre unfortunately start too early and drove straight through the tapes, prompting his exclusion. Holder took the semi-final with Pedersen second and the returning Zetterstrom unfortunately came third. The final saw Pedersen knock into Holder who then knocked into Sayfutdinov and the Russian came down. Sayfutdinov was harshly excluded from the restart which saw the veteran Hancock win ahead of Pedersen and Holder.
Surprisingly, Gollob failed to make the semi-finals and only scored seven points compared to Hancock's twenty. Pedersen scored sixteen with Holder fifteen and Sayfutdinov thirteen. Bjerre took eleven points with Jonsson ten. Zetterstom accumulated nine points on his one-off return to this year's GP series and Cump finished with eight.
This means that after five rounds, Hancock is now back in the lead on eighty points, Gollob has fallen a little to sixty-eight. Holder is now fifty-seven with Hampel and Pedersen both only four points behind. Crump is on a round fifty with Sayfutdinov now only two behind and Lindgren is on forty. The only three not to win a heat in this round were Lindgren, Holta and the wildcard Nicholls.
The first heat saw Zetterstrom and the British wildcard Scott Nicholls enter the fray, Zorro finished second and Nicholls fourth with Crump starting with a win. This was followed up by current leader Gollob winning with his closest rival Hancock finishing second. Nicky Pedersen continued his form this season with an opening heat win in heat three. The fourth heat saw Chris Holder out-numbered by three Swedes as Lindback took the flag from Jonsson and Lindgren with the Aussie down in fourth.
Janusz Kolodziej took heat five and his compatriot Bjerre took heat six. Heat seven saw Zetterstrom win on his return and Gollob could only manage fourth. This opened the door for Hancock and the American took full advantage by winning heat eight with Crump finishing fourth.
Nicky Pedersen became the first of only five riders to win two heats in the ninth. The first bit of drama came in heat ten when Hampel's bike packed up, then Rune Holta's bike had too much acceleration and flew up into the air, knocking Holta to the floor. The restart saw Chris Harris battle Lindgren for the win and British crowd got to see the Brit take the chequered flag. Heat eleven was won by Holder as Hancock could only manage third but this was matched by Gollob in heat twelve. Crump was looking to be victorious in the twelfth heat but Emil Sayfutdinov took Crump on the last corner to steal the win.
Holder won his second heat in the thirteenth with Gollob continuing his miserable time in third and the wildcard Nicholls finished second. Hancock again took full advantage by winning his second heat and Sayfutdinov also made it back to back heat wins in the fifteenth. Kenneth Bjerre also won his second heat in the sixteenth with Crump finishing second.
The final set of heats saw their fair share of drama; Freddy Lindgren took out Sayfutdinov in the seventeenth and was rightly excluded. Hancock took the restart to win his third heat of the night. Andreas Jonsson won heat eighteen with Gollob second and Hampel took heat nineteen. The final heat saw Pedersen make a false start but was allowed to restart, but the Dane then did it again but went through the tapes and was subsequently excluded. This allowed reserve driver Tai Woffinden take part and the young Brit, who took part in last year's GP series, finished second after leading for two laps. Holder won it with Crump in third.
The first semi-final saw Sayfutdinov beat Hancock with Jonsson finishing third and Crump fourth. The second semi-final saw Bjerre unfortunately start too early and drove straight through the tapes, prompting his exclusion. Holder took the semi-final with Pedersen second and the returning Zetterstrom unfortunately came third. The final saw Pedersen knock into Holder who then knocked into Sayfutdinov and the Russian came down. Sayfutdinov was harshly excluded from the restart which saw the veteran Hancock win ahead of Pedersen and Holder.
Surprisingly, Gollob failed to make the semi-finals and only scored seven points compared to Hancock's twenty. Pedersen scored sixteen with Holder fifteen and Sayfutdinov thirteen. Bjerre took eleven points with Jonsson ten. Zetterstom accumulated nine points on his one-off return to this year's GP series and Cump finished with eight.
This means that after five rounds, Hancock is now back in the lead on eighty points, Gollob has fallen a little to sixty-eight. Holder is now fifty-seven with Hampel and Pedersen both only four points behind. Crump is on a round fifty with Sayfutdinov now only two behind and Lindgren is on forty. The only three not to win a heat in this round were Lindgren, Holta and the wildcard Nicholls.
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Red Bull Reign Qualifying In Spain
The Formula One show returned to Spain this weekend for the European Grand Prix in Valencia. It's another street circuit that is destined to have all the major thrills and spills, last year it saw Mark Webber suffer that aerial crash that he was lucky to escape unscathed. Today, we welcomed back Sergio Perez who returned to qualifying after his crash in Monaco two races ago.
Q1 turned out to be the usual six plus one, but it was an extremely close encounter as both Massa and Webber lingered above the drop zone at times during the session. Unsurprisingly, Karthikeyan starts twenty-fourth but Liuzzi out-qualified Virgin's D'Ambrosio into twenty-second. Glock remains behind the Lotus' although both Lotus drivers were close to progressing into Q2. Trulli span on the last corner of his last qualifying lap which allowed Kovalainen to out-qualify him yet again. For the third time this season, Jaime Alguersuari of Toro Rosso was also eliminated in Q3 in front of his home crowd. Massa was the fastest for the seventh time in a Q1 session.
Q2 was red flagged with eight minutes to go when Williams' Maldonado suffered an electrical fault which left him stranded in the middle of the track. Despite this, Malonado will start fifteenth tomorrow as Buemi and the returning Perez couldn't find a time quicker than Maldonado's earlier effort. Kobayashi didn't seem comfortable throughout qualifying and will start fourteenth behind Barrichello in the other Williams. Di Resta will start twelfth but his team-mate Sutil managed to sneak into Q3 at the final attempt, pushing Petrov out and into eleventh place. Unsurprisingly, Vettel led the pack in the Q2 to set the toll in Q3.
Unfortunately, both Sutil and Heidfeld decided not to make a time to save the tyres for tomorrow's race. The two Mercedes' will then line up side by side with Rosberg edging Schumacher into seventh. Button looked well off the pace and will start behind both of the Ferrari's with Alonso out-qualifying Massa for the eighth time this season. Hamilton will start third behind the two Red Bulls and there was no surprise seeing Vettel make Pole position yet again.
Q1 turned out to be the usual six plus one, but it was an extremely close encounter as both Massa and Webber lingered above the drop zone at times during the session. Unsurprisingly, Karthikeyan starts twenty-fourth but Liuzzi out-qualified Virgin's D'Ambrosio into twenty-second. Glock remains behind the Lotus' although both Lotus drivers were close to progressing into Q2. Trulli span on the last corner of his last qualifying lap which allowed Kovalainen to out-qualify him yet again. For the third time this season, Jaime Alguersuari of Toro Rosso was also eliminated in Q3 in front of his home crowd. Massa was the fastest for the seventh time in a Q1 session.
Q2 was red flagged with eight minutes to go when Williams' Maldonado suffered an electrical fault which left him stranded in the middle of the track. Despite this, Malonado will start fifteenth tomorrow as Buemi and the returning Perez couldn't find a time quicker than Maldonado's earlier effort. Kobayashi didn't seem comfortable throughout qualifying and will start fourteenth behind Barrichello in the other Williams. Di Resta will start twelfth but his team-mate Sutil managed to sneak into Q3 at the final attempt, pushing Petrov out and into eleventh place. Unsurprisingly, Vettel led the pack in the Q2 to set the toll in Q3.
Unfortunately, both Sutil and Heidfeld decided not to make a time to save the tyres for tomorrow's race. The two Mercedes' will then line up side by side with Rosberg edging Schumacher into seventh. Button looked well off the pace and will start behind both of the Ferrari's with Alonso out-qualifying Massa for the eighth time this season. Hamilton will start third behind the two Red Bulls and there was no surprise seeing Vettel make Pole position yet again.
Friday, 24 June 2011
Women's Or Men's?
No disrespect to the women but, as an inexperienced watcher of tennis, I didn't expect to be more entertained by the Women's Wimbledon Championships than the men's. It all started with that epic between Date-Krumm and Venus Williams on Wednesday and it has just grown and grown since. Yesterday saw a fantastic second round encounter between Sabine Lisicki of Germany and China's French Open winner Na Li. The third seed took the first set 6-3 but the highly rated German retaliated in the second set and won it 6-4. We knew the final set would be very close and we weren't disappointed, as there is no tie break the match had to continue at 6-6. Lisicki pulled out serves of 120-124 consecutively to blow Li away and win the match 8-6.
The reason why the women's tennis has been the most exciting is because it's a lot closer. Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Murray haven't had to face anyone too challenging whereas the top women players haven't had an easy ride. Serena Williams lost the first set 6-3 in her second round match against Russia's Halep. But Williams fought back to win the following sets 6-2 6-1 to progress.
The action only got better in the women's tennis today as twentieth seed Peng Shuai took on Britain's Elena Baltacha. Everyone had tipped this match to be close and they weren't wrong, the first set went with serve until Baltacha found that important break in the ninth game to go onto win the set 6-4. Peng game out with all guns blazing in the second set and just blew Baltacha away 6-2 to take the game into yet another deciding set. Baltacha was hoping for a dream start and she got as she broke straight away to win the first game. Unfortunately for the Brit, Peng broke back instantly and then came from 0-30 to hold her serve after deuce. Baltacha also held her serve to equalise and then broke Peng for the second time to make it 3-2 and importantly held her serve to double her lead. Peng crucially held her serve in the seventh and won it to love with an ace included before Baltacha hit a double fault in yet another game that went to deuce, Peng took it to equalise at 4-4. The women both held their serve to take it 5-5 and Peng also held her serve again to make it 6-5. This meant Baltacha had to hold her serve and it agonisingly went into deuce. Four match points later, Peng was finally able to dispatch Baltacha and progress into the next round.
The only match so far in the men's tournament that could be comparable was between Lleyton Hewitt and fifth seed Robin Soderling which took place yesterday. Hewitt took the first two sets 7-6 6-3 to need just one more set to win. Soderling took the third set 7-5 and then equalised by winning the fourth set 6-4 to set up what looked like an unlikely deciding set. Somehow Soderling found it in him to complete the comeback and take the final set 6-4 to break Hewitt's heart.
On the British front, young Laura Robson exited the competition today with an unsurprising defeat to Maria Sharapova. The former world number one won 7-6 6-3 to progress into the next round.
The reason why the women's tennis has been the most exciting is because it's a lot closer. Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Murray haven't had to face anyone too challenging whereas the top women players haven't had an easy ride. Serena Williams lost the first set 6-3 in her second round match against Russia's Halep. But Williams fought back to win the following sets 6-2 6-1 to progress.
The action only got better in the women's tennis today as twentieth seed Peng Shuai took on Britain's Elena Baltacha. Everyone had tipped this match to be close and they weren't wrong, the first set went with serve until Baltacha found that important break in the ninth game to go onto win the set 6-4. Peng game out with all guns blazing in the second set and just blew Baltacha away 6-2 to take the game into yet another deciding set. Baltacha was hoping for a dream start and she got as she broke straight away to win the first game. Unfortunately for the Brit, Peng broke back instantly and then came from 0-30 to hold her serve after deuce. Baltacha also held her serve to equalise and then broke Peng for the second time to make it 3-2 and importantly held her serve to double her lead. Peng crucially held her serve in the seventh and won it to love with an ace included before Baltacha hit a double fault in yet another game that went to deuce, Peng took it to equalise at 4-4. The women both held their serve to take it 5-5 and Peng also held her serve again to make it 6-5. This meant Baltacha had to hold her serve and it agonisingly went into deuce. Four match points later, Peng was finally able to dispatch Baltacha and progress into the next round.
The only match so far in the men's tournament that could be comparable was between Lleyton Hewitt and fifth seed Robin Soderling which took place yesterday. Hewitt took the first two sets 7-6 6-3 to need just one more set to win. Soderling took the third set 7-5 and then equalised by winning the fourth set 6-4 to set up what looked like an unlikely deciding set. Somehow Soderling found it in him to complete the comeback and take the final set 6-4 to break Hewitt's heart.
On the British front, young Laura Robson exited the competition today with an unsurprising defeat to Maria Sharapova. The former world number one won 7-6 6-3 to progress into the next round.
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Zimmer Frame Game? No Chance!
Wimbledon 2011 got under way this week and today saw, for the first time since its erection, the roof being used at the start of a day's play. And thank god that roof was there because it meant we were able to witness a breathtaking second round match. Before this match, the newspapers had dubbed as the zimmer frame game as forty year old Komiko Date-Krumm took on thirty-one year old and five time champion Venus Williams.
But this game was anything but slow and there times of absolute brilliance. Williams looked at little uncomfortable in the warm-up and her performance suffered as the returning Date-Krumm took a 3-0 lead in the opening, winning the first game to love against serve. Williams pulled a game back before Krumm went onto 5-1. All of a sudden, Williams got herself into her groove and battled back. The American hit two aces on her way to making 5-2. Williams then lead 15-40 before Date-Krumm made it the first deuce game, but she went onto make a double fault although hawk-eye revealed the second one was in and Williams reduced it to 5-3. Date-Krumm missed three set points in the following two games and Williams then produced three aces to take the lead 6-5. This time it was Williams who missed a set point and the set went into a tie break. The tie break was deja vu as Date-Krumm took a 3-0 lead before Williams aced to make it 3-1. Krumm then went 6-2 ahead before another Williams ace helped her to equalise at 6-6. But Date-Krumm wasn't going to be denied and made it 7-6 after an unsuccessful Williams challenge and Krumm took the set 8-6 on the tie break.
The second started by going with serve. Williams broke in the third game to love and went onto lead 3-1. Krumm halved the deficit and then fought back to 4-3 before Williams ran away with it to take the second set 6-3. The stat of the day had to be that only thirty-six of the participating women was born when Date-Krumm first took to the professional courts before retiring in 2005 at the age of twenty-six. But, now out of retirement, Date-Krumm battled hard in an exciting third set.
Williams aced the first game before a double fault allowed Krumm fight back to 2-1 behind. After seven deuces Date-Krumm equalised and did so again after Williams won the fifth game to love. Williams then pulled two aces out of the bag to take a 5-4 but there was no shaking Krumm off and it was soon 6-6. With no tie break in the final set, play continued and a tiring Krumm played an out shot which gave Williams the set at 8-6 to give her the 2-1 win, in what was an emphatic battle.
In other news, possible semi-final opponents Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray cruised into the third round. Nadal beat Ryan Sweeting 6-3 6-2 6-4 whereas Murray beat Germany's Kamke 6-3 6-3 7-5. Unfortunately for Britain, Heather Watson fell at the first hurdle to France's Johansson. Despite winning the first set 6-2, Johansson fought back to win 6-4 in the following sets to progress.
But this game was anything but slow and there times of absolute brilliance. Williams looked at little uncomfortable in the warm-up and her performance suffered as the returning Date-Krumm took a 3-0 lead in the opening, winning the first game to love against serve. Williams pulled a game back before Krumm went onto 5-1. All of a sudden, Williams got herself into her groove and battled back. The American hit two aces on her way to making 5-2. Williams then lead 15-40 before Date-Krumm made it the first deuce game, but she went onto make a double fault although hawk-eye revealed the second one was in and Williams reduced it to 5-3. Date-Krumm missed three set points in the following two games and Williams then produced three aces to take the lead 6-5. This time it was Williams who missed a set point and the set went into a tie break. The tie break was deja vu as Date-Krumm took a 3-0 lead before Williams aced to make it 3-1. Krumm then went 6-2 ahead before another Williams ace helped her to equalise at 6-6. But Date-Krumm wasn't going to be denied and made it 7-6 after an unsuccessful Williams challenge and Krumm took the set 8-6 on the tie break.
The second started by going with serve. Williams broke in the third game to love and went onto lead 3-1. Krumm halved the deficit and then fought back to 4-3 before Williams ran away with it to take the second set 6-3. The stat of the day had to be that only thirty-six of the participating women was born when Date-Krumm first took to the professional courts before retiring in 2005 at the age of twenty-six. But, now out of retirement, Date-Krumm battled hard in an exciting third set.
Williams aced the first game before a double fault allowed Krumm fight back to 2-1 behind. After seven deuces Date-Krumm equalised and did so again after Williams won the fifth game to love. Williams then pulled two aces out of the bag to take a 5-4 but there was no shaking Krumm off and it was soon 6-6. With no tie break in the final set, play continued and a tiring Krumm played an out shot which gave Williams the set at 8-6 to give her the 2-1 win, in what was an emphatic battle.
In other news, possible semi-final opponents Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray cruised into the third round. Nadal beat Ryan Sweeting 6-3 6-2 6-4 whereas Murray beat Germany's Kamke 6-3 6-3 7-5. Unfortunately for Britain, Heather Watson fell at the first hurdle to France's Johansson. Despite winning the first set 6-2, Johansson fought back to win 6-4 in the following sets to progress.
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