Forget the rain, today was a scorcher and some familiar faces visited Centre Court. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge came to cheer on Andy Murray in his match against Richard Gasquet. Murray started slowly and neither player managed to take the advantage in the first set, so it went down to a tie break. The Scot improved and snatched an early lead. Murray’s confidence grew and he started to take control of the match. A few errors by Gasquet gifted Murray some breaks, which he converted, sending him on his way to a 7-6 6-3 6-3 victory. Next up for Murray is his mum’s favourite Feliciano Lopez, who beat Lukasz Kubot in five sets. The Brit knows he needs to up his game as he progresses. He told the BBC: “I need to improve – the best players are still in the tournament, so I need to get better.”The Centre Court crowd were treated to an epic match this evening as Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin Del Potro battled it out. The match had everything, there were injuries, to both players, drama, and Del Potro had clearly been watching Djokovic’s racquet smashing antics and must have wanted a piece of the action. The first set went to a tie-break, which was a clash in itself with the Spaniard eventually pulling through. Del Potro fought back and got the much needed break, which helped him on his way to the second set. As the match went into the third and fourth sets Nadal started to take control as Del Potro began to look tired. Nadal eventually wrapped up proceedings with a 7-6 3-6 7-6 6-4 win but both players deserved their standing ovations after that match. The World No.1 will now play Mardy Fish, who defeated sixth seed Tomas Berdych in straight sets.
Roger Federer beat Mikhail Youzhny in four sets. The five time champion lost the first set tie-break but this spurred him on as he fought back to win 6-7 6-3 6-3 6-3. Federer now goes on to face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who eased by seventh seed David Ferrer in straight sets.
Novak Djokovic looked a different player when he stepped out to face Michael Llodra. There was no racquet smashing today as the Serb only produced 6 unforced errors in the entire match. Djokovic will now play the 18 year old Australian Bernard Tomic. The qualifier pulled off another win on his dream Wimbledon run, as he defeated Xavier Malisse.
The top four men made it to the Quarter Finals but the Williams sisters didn’t have quite so much luck. Serena lost out to Marion Bartoli in straight sets. The American had battled hard to get to the fourth round but she couldn’t get past the ninth seed. Bartoli will now face Sabine Lisicki who beat Petra Cetkovska 7-6 6-1. Venus was outdone in similar fashion. Her opponent Tsvetana Pironkova had won only 4 games this year before Wimbledon but she seems to be at home at SW19. Pironkova eased through 6-2 6-3 and will now face Petra Kvitova who eased past her opponent Yanina Wickmayer.
Caroline Wozniacki started her match against Dominika Cibulkova superbly with a 6-1 first set but then the 24th seed started to really play. She fought hard and went on to win the match 1-6 7-6 7-5 in another shock result. The Slovakian will now face Maria Sharapova who eased past Shuai Peng in straight sets. The only top four female left in the competition Victoria Azarenka progressed after she beat Nadia Petrova in an easy win. Her opponent in the quarter finals will be Tamira Paszek who came through in 3 sets against Ksenia Pervak.
The junior’s tournament kicked off today and there was plenty of good news for the GB boys. Kyle Edmund, Evan Hoyt, George Morgan, Liam Broady and fourth seed Oliver Golding all made it through their first round matches.
Tomorrow is ladies quarter finals day and with only a few top seeds left in the competition it’s a close one to call.
Source image - flickr
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