Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Wimbledon Day 2 highlights: Nadal ends skid

Rafael Nadal, practicing at Indian Wells in March,
snapped a three-match losing streak on grass.
Photo by Paul Bauman
    Match of the day -- The encounter lacked high drama, but No. 2 seed and two-time champion Rafael Nadal ended a three-match losing streak on grass with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Martin Klizan of Slovakia in the first round. Nadal will meet Lukas Rosol, who stunned the Spanish star two years ago on Centre Court in the second round.
   Biggest upset -- Actually, Kaia Kanepi's 6-3, 6-2 victory over seventh-seeded Jelena Jankovic was an upset waiting to happen. Kanepi, a 29-year-old Estonian ranked 42nd, has reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals twice (2010 and last year), whereas Jankovic, formerly ranked No. 1, has never advanced past the fourth round in 11 appearances at the All England Club. Jankovic now has won one match at Wimbledon in the last four years. 
   Biggest rout -- Fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova, who won her first Grand Slam title 10 years ago at Wimbledon, crushed British wild card Samantha Murray (no relation to Andy) 6-1, 6-0 in just under one hour. 
   Notable -- Fourth-seeded Roger Federer, seeking a record eighth Wimbledon men's singles title, dismissed Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 6-1, 6-1, 6-3. ... Top seed and five-time
No. 7 seed Jelena Jankovic, also shown
at Indian Wells in March, lost to Kaia
Kanepi. Photo by Paul Bauman
champion Serena Williams cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Georgia-born American Anna Tatishvili. ... Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 Wimbledon champion, lost a tiebreaker 16-14, but the 33-year-old Australian recovered to beat Michal Przysiezny of Poland 6-2, 6-7, 6-1, 6-4.  
   U.S. report -- After one round, eight of 13 American women (including Tatishvili and Uzbekistan native Varvara Lepchenko) remain but only four of 10 U.S. men. And it could get worse fast for the men. Three will face seeds in the second round: Jack Sock vs. No. 8 Milos Raonic, qualifier Denis Kudla vs. No. 10 Kei Nishikori and Sam Querrey vs. No. 14 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a two-time Wimbledon semifinalist. Meanwhile, No. 9 John Isner of Tampa, Fla., will take on 32-year-old Finn Jarkko Nieminen, who reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2006.
   Northern California connection -- No. 32 seed Dmitry Tursunov, a Russian based in the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay, lost to Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan for the fourth straight time in their fifth meeting of the year. This time, it was 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. ... Querrey, a San Francisco native and former Sacramento Capital in World TeamTennis, completed a 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-1, 7-5 victory over Stanford graduate Bradley Klahn in a match suspended late in the fourth set by rain on Monday.
   Statistic -- Six-foot-11 (2.11-meter) Ivo Karlovic, a Wimbledon quarterfinalist in 2009, fired 32 aces (the equivalent of eight games) but lost to lucky loser Frank Dancevic of Canada 6-4, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5).
   Quote -- Caroline Wozniacki, whose engagement to Rory McIlroy recently was ended by the golf star, on whether she might try Internet dating: "I'm not that desperate."

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