Wednesday 22nd June 2011 - Wet weather delays play but there's plenty to talk about

The rain started pouring today at SW19 before play could begin outside time so all eyes turned to Centre Court. The roof came on, and Venus Williams took to the court along with veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm. The 40 year old Japanese player started the first set well and managed to win the tie-break to secure an early lead. The five time Wimbledon Champion wasn’t going to give up easily and broke back in the second to win the set 6-3. The final deciding set was tight all the way to 6-6 but Williams’s found something extra and went through to win 8-6 in the final set of what was a tremendous game of tennis.

Play on the outside courts began at 15.30 today after the showers delayed proceedings. Tomas Berdych outplayed his opponent Frenchman Julien Benneteau in the first match on Court No.1. The Czech sixth seed won convincingly 6-1 6-4 6-2. Next up was Britain’s last man standing Andy Murray, and even he myself admitted his performance was lacking in areas. He told the BBC: “I served well but rest of my game needs work.” The conditions weren’t brilliant for Murray either but still he came through in straight sets. He will next play Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky or Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia in the third round.

World No.1 Rafael Nadal showed his prowess again as he breezed past the American Ryan Sweeting. Sweeting won his first ATP title this year but Nadal was too strong and will now go on to play Gilles Muller from Luxembourg whose opponent Milos Raonic had to retire early in the first set of their second round tie.

Other players to make it through in the men’s draw included 10th seed Mardy Fish, Giles Simon, Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet and Simone Bolelli who all won in three straight sets. Bolelli defeated 14th seed Stanilas Wawrinka to book his place in the third round.

Turning to the women’s matches and British hopeful Heather Watson fell at the first hurdle in her maiden game of the tournament. The youngster started the game magnificently with a 6-2 win in the first set but an elbow injury in the second set gave her opponent Mathilde Johansson an advantage and the Frenchwoman went on to win the game 2-6 6-4 6-4. Anne Keothavong also departed after she was outclassed by eight seed Petra Kvitova in the second round. It wasn’t all doom and gloom though as Laura Robson won her first round game against Angelique Kerber. She now faces former Wimbledon Champion Maria Sharapova tomorrow.

Other females to make it through to the third round include second seed Vera Zvonareva, Victoria Azarenka and Andrea Petkovic.

The women’s doubles kicked off today with top seeds King and Shvedova getting an easy ride into the next round after their opponents retired. Elsewhere Brit’s Broady and Webley-Smith lost out to Voracova and Voskoboeva.

Tomorrow see’s Robin Soderling take on former champion Lleyton Hewitt in what should be an interesting game on Centre Court. Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer are also back in action and there’s Brit Laura Robson’s big game against Maria Sharapova.