Murray's Late Show

Andy Murray had to play past the witching hour to book his place into the second week of Wimbledon. His third round opponent was much respected Cypriot, Marcos Baghdatis. With centre court being held up by the previous matches, Murray and Baghdatis began their match a little later than build and that brought fears that the match wouldn't be able to finish until Monday.

The magic time was 11:00pm where only a couple of minutes of extra time would be allowed to finish a game. Before they got anywhere near that time, Murray took the first set 7-5 in just under an hour. Baghdatis responded with a 6-3 second victory before Murray made it 2-1 with another 7-5 victory. The question was begged as to whether play should continue with only 20-minutes until 11.

But the fourth set went ahead and Murray went 4-1 ahead with five minutes left. The Scot then broke Baghdatis' serve to make it 5-1 as the clock struck 11. The umpire gave the nod to allow Murray to attempt to serve out the match. Baghdatis didn't really offer much fight and Murray would win the game to love to win the match with the clock saying 11:02.

As expected, Murray will be the only Brit into the second week after Heather Watson crashed out at the third round. Watson took on third seed Agnieszka Radwanska and looked to be a little starstruck, losing the first set 6-0. The Pole continued to assert her authority and took the second 6-2 to ease into a fourth round match against Camila Giorgi.  

History was made at Wimbledon today during Yaroslava Shvedova's and Sara Errani's battle. The Kazakhstani became only the second player to win a golden set. Shvedova beat the tenth seed in the opening  set 6-0, without conceding a single point. Errani tried to restore some pride in the second set but still lost it 6-4, Shvedova will now face a tough task in Serena Williams in the fourth round. Williams beat China's Jie Zheng 6-7 6-2 9-7.

After Nadal's surprise defeat, the other top seeds must have been a little anxious to not follow suite. Novak Djokovic faced Radek Stepanek and lost the opening set 6-4. The Serb then regained his ominous form to take the other three sets 6-2 to book a fourth round match against fellow Serb, Viktor Troicki.

Roger Federer also wasn't immune to a potential shock. He took on France's Julien Benneteau and lost the first set 6-4 before finding himself two sets down, losing 7-3 in the second set tie-break. But Federer regained composure to win the third set 6-2 before finding himself in danger of losing in the fourth. But the world number three held out to take the fourth set 8-6 via the tie-break. That seemed to have broken the Frenchman's fight as Federer would take the final set 6-1 to set up a fourth round tie against Belgium's Xavier Malisse.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's passage into the fourth round was a lot easier against Slovakia's Lukas Lacko. The Frenchman won 6-4 6-3 6-3 to find himself up against a tougher test in tenth seed Mardy Fish in the next round.

Maria Sharapova is also safely into the fourth round after beating Su-Wei Hsieh. The world number one took the first set 6-1 before taking the second 6-4 to set up a last 16 tie against last year's semi-finalist Sabine Lisicki.

The world number two, Victoria Azarenka, will face former world number one, Ana Ivanovic, in a tasty sounding fourth round tie. Azarenka beat Jana Cepelova 6-3 6-3 with Ivanovic winning against Julia Georges  3-6 6-3 6-4.

Fourth seed, Petra Kvitova, is also into the fourth round and will face the 2010 French Open champion, Francesca Schiavone. Kvitova only dropped one game against Varvara Lepchenko while Schiavone dropped four games in the second set against Klara Zakopalova.

Mario Bracetelli

Germany line-up: Neuer, Lahm (c), Hummels, Badstuber, Boateng (Muller, 71'), Schweinsteiger, Kroos, Khedira, Podolski (Reus, 45'), Gomez (Klose, 45'), Ozil
Italy line-up: Buffon (c), Chiellini, Balzaretti, Barzagli, Bonucci, Pirlo, De Rossi, Marchisio, Montolivo (Motta, 64'), Cassano (Diamanti, 58'), Balotelli (Di Natale, 69') 

A brace from Mario Balotelli was enough to set up a final date against Spain. Italy took more chances than they did against England and it was enough to survive a late scare against a surprisingly inefficient German side.

Italy's long ball technique looked to bamboozle to the German centre-back pairing, meaning that Balotelli was always an outlet. At the other end, Gianluigi Buffon surprisingly looked nervy and this showed within the first five minutes when he failed to collect a corner. Mats Hummels belatedly swung a leg at it and the effort was cleared off the line by Andrea Pirlo.

Toni Kroos' first appearance of the tournament almost brought a goal, but his 13th minute effort was neatly saved by Italy's captain. Italy responded with Riccardo Montolivo firing a long shot that bounced just in front of Manuel Neuer and Antonio Cassano also tested the Munich keeper.

Italy then broke the deadlock on 20-minutes when Pirlo played Cassano down the wing. Cassano then sent in a superb cross which was headed home by Balotelli. Germany couldn't find a response and any chances they did create failed to find the target.

That was until Sami Khedira sent a curling shot that Buffon prevented going into the top corner. But Italy countered and Balotelli was found in acres of space in the German half. He made his way into the box before smashing the ball past Neuer.

Germany were shell shocked following the second goal and needed to change if they were going to get back into the game. Joachim Low decided to bring Thomas Muller and Marco Reus in place of Lukas Podolski and Mario Gomez.

Reus instantly showed spark, but his early efforts were easily stopped by Buffon. Philipp Lahm then had a great chance to pull a goal back when he played a one-two with Bastian Schweinsteiger, but the German captain placed his effort over the bar.

Italy's defence was largely solid throughout the game, keeping the Germans out. Balotelli burst through on the hour mark, but his shot from an acute angle went inches wide. Germany's next chance once again came from the young Reus, whose free-kick was agonisingly tipped over the bar by Buffon.

Italy could have killed the game off once again when Alessandro Diamanti put Claudio Marchisio through on goal, but his effort went inches wide of Neuer's post. Diamanti also had a chance of making it 3-0 when he forced himself into the box, but any chances of a shot were thwarted when the Italian slipped over.

Germany ultimately ran out of ideas but were given a late late lifeline when Federico Balzaretti handled in the box in injury time. Mesut Ozil stepped up and coolly converted the penalty but there wasn't enough time for Germany to equalise. They had a chance in the last kick of the game when they received a free-kick on the half-way line. But instead of launching into the box, they played it short and the referee blew the whistle to put Italy into the final.

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.         




    

Iberia Separated By Penalties

Portugal line-up: Rui Patricio, Pepe, Pereira, Alves, Coentrao, Meireles, Veloso (Custodio, 105'), Moutinho, Almeida (Oliveira, 81'), Ronaldo (c), Nani
Spain line-up: Casillas (c), Ramos, Pique, Alba, Arbeloa, Xavi (Pedro, 87'), Busquets, Silva (Navas, 61'), Alonso, Iniesta, Negredo (Fabregas, 54')    

Spain become only the second nation to progress into three consecutive major tournament finals. With the tournament no having a 0-0 draw until Sunday, and now we've had two in two games. With two nations whose attacking force is much better than their defending, the anticipated skill-fest didn't quite happen and we were treated to two hours of extremely cagey football.

By the end, it was no surprise to see the game roll into the penalty shoot-out which would be the most exciting part of the semi-final. With no goals throughout the game, perhaps it was no surprise to see Xabi Alonso and Joao Moutinho's initial efforts saved by the keepers. We finally got the first goal of the contest when Andres Iniesta and Pepe made it 1-1.

Gerard Pique then stepped up for Spain and made it 2-1. There was slight drama as Bruno Alves looked to be taking the third penalty but Nani jogged up to send the defender back. Nani smashed his effort into the top corner before Sergio Ramos did an Andrea Pirlo to make it 3-2. This time it was Alves to step up but nerves got the better of him and he hit the crossbar. Cesc Fabregas converted Spain's fifth and final effort to go through without Cristiano Ronaldo taking a penalty.

Not for the first time this tournament, question marks were raised over Vicente Del Bosque's team selection. With Fernando Torres and Fernando Llorente in good form, the Spanish coach decided to start with Alvaro Negredo. Unsurprisingly, Negredo provided very little and was substituted just nine minutes into the second half, but not for either the Fernandos but for Fabregas.

The first half saw Spain get extremely rattled by the pressure Portugal were putting on them. Spain did have more of the possession but it was mainly in their own half and around the half-way line. Portugal looked the more menacing with Fabio Coentrao, Ronaldo and Nani providing crosses that required Iker Casillas to collect.

At the other end, Pepe was in ominous form, clearing everything that came his way. This included the un-Spain like tactic of lumping the ball long. The best chance for Spain came just before the half hour mark when Iniesta was found via the long ball, he tried a curler which looked have beaten Rui Patricio, but it landed just on the roof of the net.

Ronaldo had Portugal's best chances of the first half, but Casillas wasn't called into action for either of the efforts as the sailed high or wide. The second half had even fewer chances but Hugo Almeida was guilty of wasting two opportunities, he decided to shoot from 25-yards from a counter attack when Ronaldo and Nani were either side of the striker. He then decided to shoot from impossible angles which again relieved Spain of any pressure.

Ronaldo then had the best chance of the half in injury time when Portugal broke four on two. Raul Meireles found the Madrid man who was now seemingly through on goal, but the Portugal captain fired horrendously over the bar and the game headed into extra time.

Spain suddenly found their rhythm in the extra half hour and if anyone was going to win it in extra time, it was them. The best chance came just before half-time when Iniesta tried placing a shot from eight yards but it was fantastically saved by Patricio. The other chance before half-time saw Ramos curl a free-kick just over the bar. The second half didn't see many more chances and the game was destined for penalties which Spain squeezed through.

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.            
  

Dream Débuts In Gorzow

Slovakian Martin Vaculik becomes the sixth different winner in this year's GP series with a fantastic debut win. Following him in third was fellow debutant, seventeen year-old Bartosz Zmarzlik. Chris Holder finished second on the night and moves up to joint second in the overall standings. Tomasz Gollob finished fourth in front of his home crowd when it was feared he wouldn't even make it into the semi-finals.

Zmarzlik won his semi-final ahead of Holder. Emil Sayfutdinov finished in third with defending champion and overall leader, Greg Hancock, packing up to finish fourth. Gollob would make it three wins a row in the second semi-final ahead of Vaculik. Freddie Lindgren finished third with Andreas Jonsson in fourth.

The meeting itself proved why this year's series is so open, 13 of the 16 riders won a heat with only Chris Harris, Bjarne Pedersen and Kenneth Bjerre failing to win a single heat. The night started with Peter Ljung winning the opening heat. The second heat saw wildcard Zmarzlik and Vaculik, who was only in the meeting due to Jaroslaw Hampel's injury, compete. Vaculik took it with Zmarzlik in second, Gollob came third with Bjerre languishing in fourth.

Jason Crump won the battle of the Aussies in the third heat. Hancock could only finish in third in his opening heat with Sayfutdinov in forth. The fourth heat ended in agonising fashion as Jonsson pushed Nicky Pedersen out of the way to win the heat on the final corner.

Hancock recovered from third place in his opening heat to take the fifth heat, Vaculik finished second. Gollob finished third for the second heat in a row while Freddie Lindgren won the sixth heat. Harris would pack up in the seventh with Nicky Pedersen winning it. The only incident of the night came in heat eight when Antonio Lindback and Crump came together. The referee adjudged it was Crump that caused the collision, despite the Aussie being the one to hit the deck, and was excluded. The restart saw Lindback take the chequered flag.

Gollob could only muster up another third place in heat nine, Hans Andersen finished victorious ahead of Sayfutdinov. Vaculik finished second again in heat ten with Lindgren taking his second race of the night, that was followed up by Hancock also taking his second heat. Lindback would false start in the 12th heat and ultimately finish fourth in the restart. Zmarzlik won his first ever GP heat ahead of Holder and Jonsson.

Ljung won his second heat on the night in the 13th, but it wasn't enough to see him get into the semi-finals. Sayfutdinov took heat 14 before Harris would once again pack up, this time at the start. Heat 15 continued without Harris with Holder winning and Vaculik second. Gollob began to turn his night around in heat 16 with his first heat victory over Hancock, Lindback and Nicky Pedersen.

Holder took his second consecutive heat to put himself through to the semi-finals. Nicky Pedersen could only manage third and it wasn't enough for him to progress. Hancock won his third heat of the night before Gollob made it two heats from two in the penultimate race. The Slovak, Vaculik, won his second heat of the night before rounding the meeting off with his debut victory.

Hancock now stretches his lead to nine points on 87. With Holder finishing second, that puts him on 78 points, level with Crump. Nicky Pedersen is now a further six points behind with Gollob still way back on 64 points.

Alonso Takes Dramatic Valencia

Fernando Alonso wins in Valencia for the first time to become the first driver to win two races this season. It wasn't as simple as that though as the 11th placed man saw Sebastian Vettel and Romain Grosjean suffer technical faults to put themselves out of the race. To help the Spaniard's case in the overall championship, Lewis Hamilton also didn't finish after crashing with Pastor Maldonado. All these incidents allowed Michael Schumacher to gain his first podium place since his return to F1.

Timo Glock was unable to take his slot on the grid so the race would commence with only 23 cars. From the start, Vettel charged into a comfortable lead. Grosjean managed to overtake Pastor Maldonado into third with Kamui Kobayashi in fourth and Raikkonen in sixth. Alonso had managed to get himself up to eighth with Jenson Button falling to 13th.

Grosjean then began his hunt to become the eighth different winner by overtaking Hamilton to move up to second on lap ten. Raikkonen was able to overtake Maldonado on lap-13 to gain fifth before then managed to get ahead of Kobayashi in the first pit stop stint. Alonso then did the same to get himself ahead of the Finn on lap-16.

The first piece of unusual drama on the Valencia track came on lap-20 when Bruno Senna and Kobayashi come together. The Williams suffered a puncture and was also adjudged to have caused the collision, therefore receiving a drive through penalty.

Eight laps later, it was Jean-Eric Vergne and Heikki Kovalainen to collide with both cars suffering punctures. For Vergne, who looked to have caused the collision, the damage was too bad to continue. The debris was also too substantial for normal racing to continue and the Safety Car was deployed. With the Safety Car out, many took this opportunity to pit. But it turned out to be a bad stop for Hamilton who found himself overtaken by Alonso. 


The Safety Car came in on lap-33 and the following lap was utter carnage. Alonso managed to overtake Grosjean to gain second place. Felipe Massa and Kobayashi then contacted, causing the Ferrari to sustain a puncture with the Sauber losing its front wing. Kobayashi couldn't continue and has been handed a five place grid penalty for the next race for causing a collision. Hamilton was then also able to overtake Grosjean to take third. But the biggest drama on lap-34 saw the comfortable Sebastian Vettel have his car stop on him, forcing the German out of the race when it looked like he was going to win it at a canter.


Narain Karthikeyan received a drive through penalty on lap-40 for speeding in the pit lane. A lap later, Grosjean suffered the same fate as Vettel as the Lotus' alternator failed, causing another retirement. This left Alonso firmly in the lead with Hamilton now in second and Raikkonen in third.


The next collision came on lap-48 when tenth place Vitaly Petrov lost his front wing courtesy of Daniel Ricciardo trying to overtake the Caterham. Fortunately, Petrov was able to continue but it ruined his chances of getting a surprising point from an impressive weekend.


Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber began a late charge in the final five laps, overtaking Sergio Perez and Paul Di Resta to gain sixth and seventh respectively. With two laps remaining, Hamilton made a mistake as his tyres started losing grip and it allowed Raikkonen to overtake the McLaren to gain second place.


Maldonado then tried his hand at overtaken the stricken McLaren. They went abreast on the penultimate lap and the Venezuelan had no choice but to collide into Hamilton while trying to come back onto the race track. The Williams lost his front wing while the McLaren was in the tyre wall. This collision allowed Schumacher and Webber to gain another two places with the German sealing the final podium spot. Race result:


1.Alonso (Ferrari), 2.Raikkonen (Lotus), 3.Schumacher (Mercedes), 4.Webber (Red Bull), 5.Hulkenberg (Force India), 6.Rosberg (Mercedes), 7.Di Resta (Force India), 8.Button (McLaren), 9.Perez (Sauber), 10.Maldonado (Williams) (suffers a ten second penalty so will drop further places) 11.Senna (Williams), 12.Ricciardo (Toro Ross), 13.Petrov (Caterham), 14.Kovalainen (Caterham), 15.Pic (Marussia), 16.Massa (Ferrari) DNF: Vettel (Red Bull), Hamilton (McLaren), Grosjean (Lotus), Kobayashi (Sauber), Vergne (Toro Rosso) DNS: Glock (Marussia)