Wimbledon – Day 2 (1R)

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic began their title quest with straight sets victories. If they meet each other in the semifinal, they will make a first pair in the Open era to play in four consecutive majors! Federer has already made an irrelevant milestone winning 300th tie-break in his career (against Kukushkin), he joined Pete Sampras as the second player in history to achieve such a feat #. The Swiss is self-confident: “It feels like if things go well for me, I can go extremely far here; whereas at the French Open I feel it’s a bit more on other opponents’ racquets. But here I feel it’s a bit more on mine.”
Fernando Verdasco [22] is commonly known as a choker, considering “the best of three” matches, but he is one of the best specialist of 5-set matches. Today for the third time within the last four majors, he won a match from two-sets-to-love down, and every time he did it against an experienced opponent ##! Today he saved a match point in the 4th set tie-break against Radek Stepanek [60], despite the Czech played three volleys at the crucial rally. It’s funny that during this year’s Australian Open, Verdasco saved  one out of three match points against Tipsarevic, playing also three passing-shots on match point down! ‘Nando’ showed today mental resistance in the 5th set too, as he played patiently very long rally at *7:7 (0-30), putting away backhand DTL winner – it was a turning point, the Spaniard won 9 of the last 11 points since then.
It was a day of five-setters in general, nine matches went to the distance. Frank Dancevic [164] lost his match arguably in a more bitter fashion than Stepanek – leading 2-1, he was 5:2* (deuce) up against Ricardo Mello [89], later on had a double match point in the tie-break. It is the second Dancevic’s loss to Mello from a 2-0 advantage ###! James Blake [102] confirmed his status of the biggest 5-set choker beside Ivo Karlovic among active players, losing to Marcos Baghdatis [30] despite a 3:1* lead in the 5th set. Lukasz Kubot [93] in the third consecutive Grand Slam tournament, wins his opening match after a five-setter, each time making it with a two-game advantage in the decider. 23-year-old Adrian Mannarino [55] became one of 5-set winners today as well, coming back from a 1:4* deficit in the final set, but I noticed something perverse in that win – he won a tie-break ‘9-7’; I associated that he’d won ‘9-7′ and ’16-14’ tie-breaks at Queens Club two weeks ago, so I checked his activity and discovered that the guy has won on different levels the last 15 tie-breaks he played, when at least 14 points where required (!!), which is absolutely incredible in my opinion, totally against probability ####.
John Isner [47] and Nicolas Mahut [94] created that unforgettable epic match at Wimbledon ’10 in the first round, the fate/chance caused their another first round clash at the All England & Cricket Club, but this time on court No. 3 (No. 18 twelve months ago), and Isner needed only three sets (7-6, 6-2, 7-6) to set up a 2-1 lead in the  H2H against the Frenchman. Here is a comparison of their two Wimbledon first-round encounters. It’s the eight time in the Wimbledon Open Era history that players met in the first round in back-to-back tournaments #####. Three matches have been suspended at 9.26 p.m. due to darkness: Gulbis vs. Tursunov (1-1, 5:5), Anderson vs. Marchenko (2-1, 3:5), Dimitrov vs. Stebe (2-0, 3:3)…

Longest match:
4 hours, 3 minutes – Karol Beck d. Carlos Berlocq 4-6, 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-2, 6-4

Most aces:
39 –  Andreas Haider-Maurer, defeated Florent Serra in 3 sets

5-set barometer:

15-8 Fernando Verdasco
15-9 Mikhail Youzhny
12-18 Radek Stepanek
12-19 Arnaud Clement
11-20 Olivier Rochus
10-6 Marcos Baghdatis
8-4 Lukasz Kubot
6-5 Karol Beck
6-8 Igor Andreev
5-2 Ricardo Mello
4-14 James Blake
3-5 Juan Monaco
2-0 Adrian Mannarino
2-3 Teimuraz Gabashvili
2-7 Frank Dancevic
1-4 Conor Niland
0-1 Carlos Berlocq, Kenny De Schepper

# Five players with the most winning tie-breaks in history:

1) Pete Sampras – 328
2) Roger Federer – 300
3) Andy Roddick – 288
4) Goran Ivanisevic – 276
5) Greg Rusedski – 256

## Verdasco’s three wins from 0-2 down in sets in the last four majors:

US Open 2010, 4R: David Ferrer 5-7, 6-7(8), 6-3, 6-3, 7-6(4)
Aussie Open 2011, 2R: Janko Tipsarevic 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(0), 6-0
Wimbledon 2011, 1R: Radek Stepanek 2-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(6), 9-7

### Mello’s two wins over Dancevic from 0-2 in sets:

Davis Cup 2007: Mello d. Dancevic 3-6, 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-3, 11-9
Wimbledon 2011: Mello d. Dancevic  3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(6), 6-2

#### At least 14-point tie-breaks of Mannarino since Autumn 2008:

<<< 9-7, 8-6, 12-10, 8-6, 8-6, 8-6, 8-6, 8-6, 9-7, 8-6, 11-9, 9-7, 9-7, 16-14, 9-7  >>>

##### Repeating matches in back-to-back Wimbledons (1R) in the Open era:

1970-71 Marty Riessen vs. Jim McManus [2-0]
1988-89 Richey Reneberg vs. Christian Saceanu [2-0]
1990-91 Shuzo Matsuoka vs. Luiz Mattar [1-1]
1993-94 Mark Woodforde vs. Shuzo Matsuoka [2-0]
2000-01 Arvind Parmar vs. Andre Sa [2-0]
2006-07 Benjamin Becker vs. Juan Ignacio Chela [1-1]
2007-08 Fernando Gonzalez vs. Robby Ginepri [2-0]
2010-11 John Isner vs. Nicolas Mahut [2-0]