Wimbledon – Day 3 (1R/2R)

Today’s matches started more than three hours later than had been scheduled due to rain. Despite this inconvenience, only one match has been postponed to tomorrow (Del Potro-O.Rochus 6-7…) because all second round matches in the top half of the draw were finished in 3 or 4 sets. The only today’s 5-setter comes from the two-day encounter between Kevin Anderson and Illya Marchenko which was suspended at the end of the 4th set on Tuesday. In the other two-day 1st round clash of two ‘ball-bashers’, Dmitry Tursunov [53] won two tie-breaks on Wednesday against Ernests Gulbis [75], which gave him a 4-set win. Especially the first tie-break was interesting as Gulbis had squandered three set points (6:5, 10:9, 12:11), before lost it 12-14, and the whole match 3-6, 6-3, 6-7(12), 6-7(1). Yesterday I mentioned amazing streak of long tie-breaks won by Mannarino, Gulbis is in opposite to the Frenchman. The  gifted Latvian (but very annoying in regard of lack of positive attitude), loses long tie-breaks regularly #. Against Tursunov, he really should have finally notched a winning long tie-break, but at 10:9 instead of finishing the point with a forehand winner, decided to play a drop-shot and lost the point four strokes later. Gulbis, once a Grand Slam quarter-finalist, has lost eight consecutive matches in majors…
The best grass-court players in the top half of the draw, Rafael Nadal, Tomas Berdych, Andy Murray and Andy Roddick won their matches without any troubles, Nadal for the third time this year destroyed Ryan Sweeting. The No. 1 in the world said with a courtesy after his first Wimbledon match played indoors: “I think I was playing aggressive and with good feelings. But 2-1, 40-Love, I had a few mistakes, and he broke me back. And after [that], the match was tougher and closer.”

Longest match:
3 hours, 52 minutes – Kevin Anderson d. Illya Marchenko 6-7(4), 7-6(7), 6-4, 4-6, 6-1

Most aces:
28 – Feliciano Lopez, defeated Rainer Schuettler in 4 sets

5-set barometer:

3-4 Kevin Anderson
0-2 Illya Marchenko

# Gulbis’s all (at least) 18-point tie-breaks at the main level:

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