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Post by Admin on Jun 25, 2014 22:11:42 GMT
Eugenie Bouchard raved about the privilege of using the members’ locker room. Milos Raonic said how much he appreciated the priority for practice courts. And Frank Dancevic? Well, he nearly had to have a post-match ice bath in a garbage can. Such is the difference in circumstances for Wimbledon’s have and have-nots: Bouchard and Raonic, seeded 13th and eighth respectively, get all the privileges rank affords. Dancevic, who got into the main draw as a lucky loser, took to Facebook to have a little rant about his experience during the qualifying rounds, and explain that life on the professional tennis circuit isn’t all glamour. At end of play Tuesday, though, they were equals, at least in terms of their results at this year’s tournament. The three Canadians made it through their opening matches — Bouchard and Raonic defeating unseeded opponents, Dancevic upsetting a more highly rated player — and are into the tournament’s second round. On Court One, where Bouchard faced veteran Daniela Hantuchova — and where she won her 2012 junior title — there was a different vibe. Hantuchova sits quietly still between games, her eyes closed. (Had she been miked, one could have listened for an “ohhhm.”) But she is not laid-back. For a first-round match, Bouchard didn’t have it easy: Hantuchova is intense, good on grass and was once ranked as high as fifth in the world. “I expected a tough match and it was a tough one,” Bouchard said after her 7-5, 7-5 victory. “I definitely feel like I didn’t play my best most of the match, but competed when it counted, raised my level at some big points. The first match of a tournament, especially a Grand Slam, is always a bit nervy. I think there was a bit of nervous tennis out there.”
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Post by Admin on Jun 26, 2014 23:16:41 GMT
French Open champion Maria Sharapova booked her place in the Wimbledon third round with a crushing 6-2, 6-1 win against Swiss qualifier Timea Bacsinszky on Thursday. Sharapova lost just one game in her first round victory against Samantha Murray and the 2004 Wimbledon winner was almost as dominant in her second outing at the All England Club. The 27-year-old needed only an hour to see off Bacsinszky on Court One, and will face Alison Riske, the American world number 44, for a place in the last 16. "We had a few close games and I was happy with the way I stepped it up a little more than the first round," Sharapova said. "I was a bit nervous in the first round and I knew I needed to step up my game this time. Starting off a Grand Slam is never easy, especially on grass. You always get a few butterflies stepping onto a court where you've had so many good matches, but I'm happy with the way I'm playing." The fact that Sharapova is the new queen of Roland Garros, where Williams stumbled in the second round, would add some frisson to the contest, as would the fact that the American last year described the Russian as “boring” adding that she would never be invited to “the cool parties”. If that is not enough, Sharapova’s boyfriend, the exciting men’s No11 seed Grigor Dimitrov, is Williams’ ex. “The guy with a black heart,” says Williams. Going back to the tennis, the top seed Williams and No5 Sharapova dropped just five games between them in their second matches on Court One on Thursday. Neither was tested. Sharapova progressed to a third-round meeting with Alison Riske without mishap, beating the Swiss qualifier Timea Bacsinszky 6-2, 6-1 in exactly one hour. Bacsinszky, 25, had been here before – this was her fifth appearance in Wimbledon’s main draw and she reached the second round in 2009. But the only real inconvenience she caused Sharapova in a baseline battle of a match was when she broke her service in the seventh game of the first set, when the former champion put two weak forehands into the net. Sharapova, who was making her 12th appearance at Wimbledon, said afterwards: “I haven’t had a chance to watch too many of Serena’s matches but it doesn’t really matter. I mean, she’s been here. She’s done it many, many times. If we do get to the stage of playing against each other I’ll be happy to be in that stage, in the quarter-finals. We played each other many times. I haven’t had the best results against her. I always look forward to that opportunity and the challenge to play against the best, to try something a little bit different to try to get a win out there.”
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Post by Admin on Jun 27, 2014 22:50:22 GMT
Venus Williams saw her Wimbledon dream shattered after losing a Centre Court thriller but promised she will return next year. The five-time champion went down in a three-set thriller against fellow former champion Petra Kvitova. Williams, 34, dropped her serve only once, but that moment crucially came in the final game as Kvitova struck a telling blow to clinch a 5-7 7-6 (7/2) 7-5 victory. After the match, Williams said she would love to win more grand slams, but she has been stuck on five singles titles at Wimbledon since 2008 and it looks like staying that way. Yet the American has no plans to quit tennis. 'There have been people trying to retire me since I was 25,' she said. 'For some reason we do that in tennis to our players. It's weird. We don't encourage them to stick around. It's like, 'Get out of here'. So I'm not getting out of here. I think this year has been a great year for me. I've had some tough losses, but I've learned a lot from them. I'm finding my way back on my feet. I'm proud of myself for what I'm achieving on the court.' And when Kvitova returned serve well, Williams put another backhand into the net to finally surrender. 'I did the best I could,' Williams said. 'I think she played well at every single moment. I gave it my all and sometimes it's not enough. 'I feel like I was playing well and if I had the opportunity to play more that would have helped, but obviously this was a great match for me and I'm going to look forward to playing a lot of tournaments in the summer to try to improve.' She said: It was a very, very tough battle. I know that Venus can play unbelievably on the grass which she did and she was serving pretty well and there were only two breaks in the match, one unfortunately in the first set and the second I broke her in the final game so I'm happy I'm through and I'm in the fourth round. 'When I lost the first, I was sad and a little bit down mentally, but I knew I could come back and win the second set and in the third set anything could happen, without the tie-break it's very difficult to break her. Finally I did it.' Kvitova gives Williams a chance of adding to her seven grand slam titles, providing she can stay fit and active, saying: 'If she's going to be healthy, she can do it.'
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Post by Admin on Jun 28, 2014 22:12:28 GMT
Her 6-3, 6-0 win over the American Alison Riske sent her into the last 16 for the loss of just seven games, her best start to Wimbledon in 12 attempts. The shock defeat of Serena Williams means she is the new favourite for the title but Sharapova is doing what she does best, focusing on herself and getting the job done, far too experienced to get ahead of herself. 23-year-old American Alison Riske fell to Maria Sharapova on Centre Court at Wimbledon Saturday, but she was in good spirits after her third-round loss. Riske took three games off the five-time Grand Slam champion, losing 6-3, 6-0. “I’m just happy to be in the second week,” she said, having slipped out of the tournament in the second round last year. “After last year’s result, I wasn’t satisfied and I was looking forward to coming back. So I am very excited to be through.” “I felt better as the match went on,” Sharapova said. “Alison’s a great grass-court player. She’s had some of her best results on this surface so I knew it was going to be a tough challenge. I had a bit of a slow start but I am happy I am through.” Switching from clay to grass is the first challenge in moving from Paris to London but Sharapova said there was also a mental effort required, not least in getting back down to earth after the high of a grand slam triumph. Why was she so happy? English soccer legend David Beckham was in attendance to watch the match, along with Sir Bobby Charlton.
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Post by Admin on Jun 29, 2014 22:52:34 GMT
The world No 24 continually wrongfooted the sluggish American in the chill evening air out on Court No 1 following the first prolonged rain interruptions of the tournament. A dazed Cornet tried to address her amazing accomplishment soon after winning and declared: ‘I just cannot believe it. ‘A few years ago I couldn’t even play on grass, I was so bad. And she’s at home here, she plays so good here. Wow, it’s just a dream. I tried to fight on every point. I don’t know how I did it, just with heart. ‘She played very well, but I tried to focus and make sure I had nothing to regret. ‘She helped me a bit because she made two big mistakes, she is human like everyone else and that’s what I was thinking about. ‘This is the biggest upset of the tournament because she is number one and has won so many titles at Wimbledon. ‘I cannot believe that it was me who did it, I’m going to have to celebrate with my team.’ Williams has won 17 Grand Slam titles but her inconsistency in the Slams is becoming something of a problem.
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