Grazing in the Grass - Wimbledon 2010 Day 7

by Savannah

Match of the Day

Lu Yen-Hsun is a player that tennisheads, and I mean hard core tennisheads, know about. He's been around for awhile now doing well sometimes but not making a big splash. Today he scored the biggest knock out of the 2010 edition of Wimbledon by taking out the Number 5 seed, American Andy Roddick.
I wasn't really watching the match to tell the truth. It was on the HDTV on mute because another men's match was taking place at the same time and given the choice between showing Roddick's match and a match featuring a non American I don't think you need a long time to figure out what ESPN would do.
In the end it was the best decision they could've made. The only thing I wish I'd been able to hear was the commentary.
I thought that Lu, who was the first man from Taiwan to make the Round of 16 at a Major - read Grand Slam - would be out in straight sets. Instead every time I looked up Lu was hanging tough.
No way Lu could possibly win a tiebreak with the big serving Roddick I thought. Looked up and damn it he had. In fact he won two tiebreaks against Andy. When Roddick won the fourth set tiebreak if Wimbledon had not banned them the grounds of the AELTC would have reverberated with the sound of vuvuzelas.
The joy was not to last. Lu did not panic when once again the score stood at six all. There was no "Oh shit" moment on his part. Instead he stuck to what he was doing and won the fifth set 9-7.

I really don't know what to say about Roddick's play. As regular readers know I don't like discussing the men's draw or rankings at all. I've read that he played passively, as if he was waiting for Lu to make a mistake. When that didn't happen he had no Plan B, or couldn't psyche himself up to execute it.
Roddick had not played any clay matches. In fact he hadn't played much at all since the spring hard court swing in the United States. Some will argue he wouldn't have won a clay tournament anyway so why should he have bothered? All I have to say is match play is match play and that a long layoff can have surprising results.
There are no more American men left in SW 19. Both Venus Williams and Serena Williams are still alive on the women's side. There seemed to be some hope that Maria Sharapova would dispatch the world number one but Serena pulled off a straight sets victory after a shaky start.
Wimbledon is the Holy Grail of American tennis. Once again it's American women who have picked up the flag.

I usually get predictions wrong. I said that Tsvetana Pironkova could trouble Marion Bartoli. Tsevetana troubled Marion right out of the tournament. In straight sets.

Is Petra Kvitova's win over Caroline Wozniacki really an upset? If you look at the rankings it is. If you look objectively at how Caroline got that ranking it isn't.

Lindsay Davenport had better watch out. While commentating todays match between Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters she said that Henin's coach had been sending signals to her the entire match. Only certain people get called for coaching. Justine has never, to my knowledge, been even warned about it. That means that it has never happened right? As one fan put it today "Where is Cedric Mourier when you need him?"

Too Much Too Young

The first reports came from gossip site TMZ.com last night. Former tennis prodigy Jennifer Capriati had been rushed to the hospital after an apparent drug overdose. Initial reports said she had been found in a place called Riviera Beach, a location that apparently is not what it sounds like. An official spokesperson said later this afternoon that Jennifer had taken ill in her condo located on Singer Island and was rushed to the hospital from there.
Unless Jennifer chooses to tell us I doubt that we'll ever know what really happened. Some are saying it was a suicide attempt as if that makes what happened better than an overdose. Either way it's a tragedy.
I hope that Jennifer gets the help she needs and that she not only recovers physically but mentally and emotionally as well.

World Cup Fever
By now everyone is aware of the great actors that play football for various countries around the world. My favorite is the guy from Spain who tripped himself, fell the the pitch as if mortally wounded, and got a player from Chile ejected. Maybe by the time the next World Cup comes around the people who hand out Academy Awards will have a special category for Best World Cup Acting job.

Which brings me to Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic.

Jelena down 6-1 and 3-0 retired from her match against Vera Zvonareva. Her fans on Twitter were insulted by those who implied that the injury came because of her being about to lose not that she was trying to win and overexerted herself.
Djokovic was stricken with digestive issues during his match against Lleyton Hewitt. Hewitt, never one to mince his words, implied that Djokovic had faked injury, saying that he looked fine to him. Djokovic said he doesn't know why Lleyton felt that way since he hasn't taken an injury time out in a long time.
I remember that crap Djokovic pulled against Gael Monfils at the US Open a few years ago. Dyed in the wool tennisheads haven't either. Apparently Lleyton Hewitt hasn't either.

Miscellany
Nicolas Mahut has been given a Wild Card into Newport next week and no, John Isner is not on the entry list.