The Royal Box was nearly empty as players came on to court, though it was soon back close to capacity, which meant we got a glimpse of Ilie Nastase – full name Tennis Legend Ilie Nastase – in his Latin American dictator costume.
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“It was an incredibly hard match”. Amelie Mauresmo looks hot but otherwise unperturbed.
In the end, though, the whole match boiled down to one point. The big man is digging deep to hit a fabulous backhand returning Murray’s groundstroke.
Pospisil partnered Jack Sock of the US in an epic battle against Australian John Peers and Jamie Murray, eventually winning/losing 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, x-x. The Croat led 4-3 after an ace and a forehand error by Murray. Break. He tanked the third game of the third set – allowing Gasquet four uncontested points – after arguing with umpire James Keothavong over a code violation for swearing, a gesture which brought boos from the crowd. Glasgow’s Anna Brogan defeated Marketa Vondrousova 6-1, 6-2, while Maia Lumsden overcame Dalma Galfi, the third seed from Hungary, 7-5, 6-3.
Andy Murray wants to see injury timeouts shortened after his Wimbledon opponent took a lengthy break that the Briton said affected his play.
Kyrgios was booed by hundreds of fans who felt short-changed by his lack of effort, and it barely improved as he gave up the set in just 24 minutes.
If there is a weakness in the Karlovic serve, it may be in the launching of those extraordinary rockets.
Karlovic meanwhile has, what you would call, an average record at Wimbledon, his best effort being making the quarter finals on one occasion back in 2009.
From this evening the BBC2 programme, hosted by Clare Balding, is moving to a studio above Centre Court and its live audience will be axed.
Karlovic tops the tournament leaderboard with 136 aces so far and he has also won more points on his first serve than any other player thus far. He gets an appreciative giggle from the crowd though. He had earned three opportunities at 5-6 – only for Karlovic to force the breaker with three straight aces. After the ball came off his racket, Karlovic hit it again to get it over the net for a victor. But that service is just too tough to handle.
“I feel good, I like what I do”.
If a mindset can be borrowed from another player, Andy Murray could do worse than glancing at how Roger Federer defused an explosive Sam Groth.
Nadal’s Spanish compatriot Bautista Agut reached the second week, ending the run of Georgian qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili with a 7-6 (7/4) 6-0 6-1 win.
Afterwards he was asked how he did it, but his answer shone no light on how to pick the spot where Groth’s ball would land, within a fraction of a second of release. I just needed to keep him low. It would inevitably go to a tie-break. The first set was completed three minutes short of an hour, after Murray’s clinching of the tie-break 9-7. Can he break Karlovic in this next game? “It seems like his first-serve percentage has gone up though, which is key, so that he’s not vulnerable on that, which a guy like Djokovic can take advantage of”.
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– – Karlovic 2-2 Murray: Bright sunshine on court; Karlovic is resplendent in a baseball cap. But a remarkably agile Karlovic leapt for winning volley and held. He takes a seat and has a little chatter at himself.
