Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Wimbledon Day 2 recap: Bouchard, Halep tumble

No. 12 seed Eugenie Bouchard, last year's Wimbledon
runner-up, lost in the first round to qualifier Ying-
Ying Duan of China. 2013 photo by Paul Bauman
   Upsets of the day -- Eugenie "In A Bottle" Bouchard and Simona "I Need" Halep -- who reached the Wimbledon final and semifinals, respectively, last year  -- lost in the opening round to players ranked below 100.
   The 12th-seeded Bouchard lost to 117th-ranked qualifier Ying-Ying "Yang" Duan of China 7-6 (3), 6-4. The third-seeded Halep, meanwhile, fell to No. 106 Jana "Orlando" Cepelova of the Czech Republic 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
   Bouchard, 21, said a torn abdominal muscle had limited her tournament preparation, and Halep, 23, was treated for a lost toenail late in the first set.
   Bouchard, also a semifinalist at the Australian Open and French Open in 2014, has lost 12 of her last 14 matches. Halep exited in the second round of the recent French Open after advancing to the final at Roland Garros last year.
   Match of the day -- Borna "Again" Coric, 18, of Croatia overcame leg cramps to edge Sergiy "Prokofiev" Stakhovsky of Ukraine 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1, 1-6, 9-7 in 3 hours, 55 minutes. Stakhovsky stunned Roger Federer "Express" in the second round at Wimbledon two years ago, ending the Swiss star's run of 36 Grand Slam quarterfinals.
   Notable -- Petra "Fied Forest" Kvitova opened her title defense by demolishing Kiki "Dee" Bertens of the Netherlands 6-1, 6-0 in 35 minutes. Kvitova won 28 of 29 points on her serve, double-faulting in the last game. 
   Men's seeded winners -- No. 2 Federer, No. 3 Andy "Bill" Murray, No. 6 Tomas "Free As A" Berdych, No. 10 "San" Rafael Nadal, No. 12 Gilles "Paul" Simon, No. 13 Jo-Wilfried "Sing A" Tsonga, No. 15 "Jose" Feliciano Lopez, No. 18 Gael "Sayers" Monfils, No. 20 Roberto "Clemente" Bautista Agut, No. 22 Viktor "Leon" Troicki, No. 23 "Dr." Ivo Karlovic, No. 25 Andreas Seppi "Blatter," No. 30 Fabio "Lanzoni" Fognini. 
   Men's seeded losers -- No. 29 Guillermo "Vilas" Garcia-Lopez, No. 31 Jack "Anybody Seen My" Sock.
No. 3 seed Simona Halep, a Wimbledon semifinalist last year, fell
to Jana Cepelova of the Czech Republic. 2015 photo by Paul Bauman
   Women's seeded winners -- No. 2 Kvitova, No. 5 "Sweet" Caroline Wozniacki, No. 8 Ekaterina "Do The" Makarova, No. 10 Angelique "Jolie" Kerber, No. 13 Agnieszka "Moorehead" Radwanska, No. 15 Timea "Ted" Bacsinszky, No. 17 Elina "Horne" Svitolina, No. 18 Sabine Lisicki "To My Stomach," No. 20 Garbine Muguruza "Bader Ginsburg," No. 25 Alize "Doolittle" Cornet, No. 26 Svetlana "Turner" Kuznetsova, No. 28 Jelena "Weird Al" Jankovic, No. 31 Camila Giorgi "Girl."  
   Women's seeded losers -- No. 3 Halep, No. 12 Bouchard.
   Stars and stripes -- Sock, seeded in singles a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, lost to Australia's Sam "Adams" Groth 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. Sock is defending his Wimbledon men's doubles title with Vasek "Anything Is" Pospisil of Canada. Groth holds the unofficial record for the world's fastest serve with a 163.4-mph (263-kph) missile in the 2012 Challenger in Busan, South Korea. See my story here.
   Pending the outcome of No. 21 Madison "Where The Hell Are My" Keys' suspended match, the United States has seven or eight women and four men in the second round. Keys is tied with Stephanie "Powers" Voegele at 2-2 in the third set.
   Fast fact -- Bouchard became the first Wimbledon finalist to lose her opening match at the All England Club the following year since Steffi Graf in 1994.
   Northern California connection -- "Yosemite" Sam Querrey, a 27-year-old San Francisco native, had 30 aces in his 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 victory over qualifier Igor "Stravinsky" Sijsling of the Netherlands. Querrey next plays Federer, who leads the head-to-head series 2-0 without losing a set. They last met seven years ago in the first round of the French Open.
   "Cookie" Jarmila Gajdosova, who is scheduled play for the new Sacramento-based California Dream of World TeamTennis after Wimbledon, lost to Lisicki 7-5, 6-4. Lisicki reached the Wimbledon final two years ago, losing to Marion "Cotillard" Bartoli.
   Quote -- Bouchard, on her tailspin: "It's really just been kind of eye-opening, a learning experience. But I'm good for the learning experience to be over now.''
   Wednesday's top matches (beginning at 5 a.m. PDT on ESPN) -- Centre Court: Novak "It's No" Djokovic (1) vs. Jarkko "LeRoy" Nieminen, "Special" Kei Nishikori vs. Santiago Giraldo "Rivera," Serena "Vanessa" Williams vs. Timea "Lincecum" Babos.
   Court 1: Milos "And Otis" Raonic (7) vs. Tommy "White" Haas, Daniela "Radcliffe" Hantuchova vs. Heather "Elementary My Dear" Watson, Stan "The Man" Wawrinka (4) vs. Victor "Hugo" Estrella Burgos.

No comments:

Post a Comment