Wimbledon – Day 5 + 6 (2R/3R)

Unfortunately rain again reminded itself on Friday, three second-round matches were concluded, but 5 out of 8 three-round encounters were suspended to Saturday…
Two youngest players on the tour, Ryan Harrison [122] and Bernard Tomic [158] played five-setters (2nd round) with a different outcome – Harrison lost on Friday two sets, Tomic won two. On the following day, Tomic made the biggest upset dismissing in straight sets Robin Soderling. I guess it’s interesting that Tomic hasn’t lost a service game in the last two days (two sets with Andreev, three with Soderling). The 18-year-old Australian hasn’t got spectacular game, but he has absolutely amazing timing, anticipation and clever strategy. Beside this he is tall, so we can expect some progress considering his 1st serve. Among young guns (born in the 90’s) who are already known, now then Raonic, Dimitrov, Harrison & Tomic, I expect the latter might have the most successful career. It should be a breakthrough tournament for him, especially that he now faces instable Xavier Malisse, thus chances of reaching the quarterfinals are high.  “I really came in today giving myself a chance. I think I played really relaxed in the first set,” Tomic said, “I didn’t think I could win at the start. But the way I was playing, I was questioning myself. [And] after that first set, it opened up a lot of doors.”
Three players (Rafael Nadal, Juan Marin del Potro and Feliciano Lopez) won their matches in straight sets needing tie-breaks in the first two sets. Nadal was surprised by great service performance of Gilles Muller. The defending champion saved a double set point in the 1st set, was two points away from losing the 2nd set. Del Potro had some troubles in each set of his match with Gilles Simon, which won 7-6, 7-6, 7-5. ‘DelPo’  fought off two set points in the first tie-break, was *2:4 (30 all) down in the 2nd set and *4:5 (15-30) in the 3rd set. F.Lopez [44] avenged seven straight defeats to Andy Roddick. The Spaniard won both tie-breaks 7-2 thanks to three great passing shots, two from his weaker backhand side. He fired 28 aces (Roddick 23). Unexpectedly Lopez’s opponent in the next round will be Lukasz Kubot [93], who much more better dealt with a two-day encounter. His match with Gael Monfils was suspended at one set apiece and 3:3 (deuce) in the 3rd set; after the resumption Kubot got a break and notched a streak of six winning games! 4th round at Wimbledon is arguably the biggest success in career of ‘Q-bot’. The 28-year-old Pole a year ago played the 4th round at the Australian Open, but won only two matches then (walkover in the third round), this year in London he’s overcome six rounds (three in the qualifying tournament).
Roger Federer [3] and David Nalbandian [23] joined a relatively narrow group of 16 pairs # to play against each other in all major events. Federer missed an overhead from the easiest possible position on his first match point, but stayed cool and a couple minutes later converted his 4th match point to get an easy 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win.

Longest match:
3 hours, 30 minutes – David Ferrer d. Ryan Harrison 6-7(6), 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2

Most aces:
28 – Feliciano Lopez, defeated Andy Roddick in three sets

5-set barometer:

14-9 David Ferrer
6-9 Igor Andreev
0-2 Ryan Harrison
1-1 Bernard Tomic

# Pairs of players who have faced each other at all four majors (in parantheses – years between they did it; in brackets – their H2H records in majors):

(1985-1987) H.Leconte vs. A.Mansdorf [4-0]
(1980-1989) I.Lendl vs. J.McEnroe [7-3]
(1983-1989) M.Wilander vs. J.McEnroe [3-2]
(1991-1993) J.Courier vs. S.Edberg [4-2]
(1991-1994) P.Sampras vs. J.Courier [6-2]
(1989-1995) P.Sampras vs. M.Chang [4-1]
(1990-1995) P.Sampras vs. A.Agassi [6-3]
(1992-1996) P.Sampras vs. T.Martin [6-1]
(1994-2000) P.Sampras vs. M.Tillstrom [5-0]
(1995-2000) P.Sampras vs. M.Philippoussis [5-2]
(2004-2006) R.Federer vs. N.Kiefer [4-0]
(2002-2006) M.Safin vs. O.Rochus [3-1]
(2005-2007) D.Tursunov vs. T.Henman [3-1]
(2001-2009)  L.Hewitt vs. A.Roddick [3-2]
(2007-2009) R.Federer vs. JM.Del Potro [3-1]
(2007-2011) R.Nadal vs. A.Murray [4-2]
(2003-2011) R.Federer vs. D.Nalbandian [4-2]