Friday 24th June 2011 - Murray makes it through but unlucky Robson misses out

With outdoor matches being abandoned at 7pm due to rain all eyes were on Andy Murray on Centre. Murray started brightly and took the first set 6-4 but his opponent Ivan Ljubicic wasn’t going let the Scot have it all his own way. The Croatian won the second set and it seemed as though we’d been in for a long haul match. Something special happened though and Murray stormed through 6-1 in the third.

The fourth set was tight; Murray broke Ljubicic but as the Scot was serving for the match the Croatian broke back. The set ended up in a tie break, Murray took the advantage and sealed the win with a thumping cross court strike. The World No.4 will now face Richard Gasquet in the fourth round.
Another Brit to put on a great performance was Laura Robson. Even though she lost in two sets to fifth seed Maria Sharapova the standard of tennis she produced was outstanding. In the first set she broke the Russian in her first service game to go 3-0 up but Sharapova broke back and forced a tie-break. Again the tie break was close but Sharapova stepped it up a gear and won the set. The second set was too a tight affair but Sharapova had that extra power and speed to make it through to the third round.

Another Brit who departed was Elena Baltacha. She started her match against 20th seed Shuai Peng well winning 6-4 in the first set but the Chinese player started making shots she’d been missing and eventually won the match.

There was a shock departure in the mens draw earlier in the day for Andy Roddick who went out to Spaniard Feliciano Lopez. Both players served well and the first two sets went to tie-breaks in which Lopez edged. In the third set Andy Roddick did not look comfortable and once he gave away a break it was all over. After the game Roddick praised the Spaniard’s effort, he told the BBC: "He came out and served as well as a person can. He played an outstanding match." Lopez will now go on to play the winner of the Gael Monfils vs. Lukasz Kubot match, which was one set all before it was suspended because of the weather.

Yesterday’s rain had affected some of the mens second round matches which were completed today. Qualifier Bernard Tomic made it to the third round along with seventh seed David Ferrer and No. 11 Jurgen Melzer. Nadal took a one set lead before the rain as did Del Potro, both games should be completed tomorrow.

Back to the women’s draw and Venus Williams eased into the fourth round with a 6-0 6-2 win over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. There was a shock result for 32nd Tsvetana Pironkova who beat No.2 Vera Zvonareva in straight sets. Other women to make it to the fourth round include seeded players Victoria Azarenka, Andrea Petkovic and Yanina Wickmayer. Caroline Wozniacki won her second round match easily and will play again tomorrow.

The doubles matches had been heavily disrupted due to the rain yesterday but there was some good news on the British front. Jamie Murray and Sergiy Stakhovsky lost out in the second round tie but male pairs of Jamie Delgado and Jonathan Marray and Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins made it through in their first round ties.

Tomorrow is a busy day, the rain delayed matches will recommence and we have the delights of Federer, Djokovic and Serena Williams to look forward to.