Day Five, Part One

Rain has interrupted play for the day, so let's catch up on the action so far.

Svetlana Kuznetsova



Russian 5th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova's marathon 2 hr 12 minute match against Nicole Vaidisova was one of the best I've seen so far this Championships. Vaidisova looks and sounds like Maria Sharapova, but she lacked the skills and consistency to put away Kuznetsova, who was not playing at her best. Kuznetsova took the match 7-5, 6-7, 6-2 and will take on Bulgarian Magdalena Maleeva in Round Four.



"Aww, shit...why won't you let me win! This is so unfair!"

Marat Safin



"I like to cuss!"

Russian fifth seed Marat Safin went down in straight sets to Feliciano Lopez, the 26th seed from Spain. What an upset! Marat Safin's frustration at not being able to convert two break points was obvious as he was warned for abusive language. Hehehehehe!

Justin Gimelstob



This guy is so entertaining. He lost in straight sets 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 7-5 to Australian third seed Lleyton Hewitt, but this dive for a Hewitt forehand was just hilarious. He had to take a medical timeout afterwards, and the entire Centre Court crowd was delighted by his whining at how much the treatment for his strained shoulder hurt. "Owww, owww, owww!" Lleyton Hewitt takes on Taylor Dent in the next round.

Anastasia Myskina

I had picked Serbian 17th seed Jelena Jankovic to win this match because she's a scrappy little fighter and Myskina has been so lethargic lately, but Jankovic's inability to handle the pressure coupled with Myskina getting lucky in the last set meant that Myskina took the match 6-0, 5-7, 10-8 in a marathon, nail-biting match. This is by far the best match all week. Incredible. It took over three hours for these two to duke it out. You hardly ever see womens' matches lasting that long. There were also several sparkling rallies with well over 30 shots apiece. They were like this:



*thump*



*thump*



*thump*



*thump*



*thump*



*thump*

Etc.

In Action Today

Centre Court is going to be jammed with great matches today. Unseeded Justin Gimelstob takes on the number 3 seed Lleyton Hewitt, then Andy Roddick and Daniele Bracciali will continue their match, which had to be suspended due to poor light. Kim Clijsters takes on Roberta Vinci of Italy, and Roger Federer meets the 25th seed German Nicolas Kiefer. I'm betting conservatively with Hewitt, Roddick, Clijsters, and Federer.

Court 1 sees number 5 seet Marat Safin take on the Spanish 26th seed Feliciano Lopez. Mario Ancic plays Gael Monfils, and Lindsay Davenport takes on Marat Safin's sister, Dinara Safina. Should be interesting. I'm betting that Davenport beats Safina, but I don't even want to guess on the others.

Court 2 sees some interesting action with Svetlana Kuznetsova playing Nicole Vaidisova and Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Martina Navratilova taking on Denisa Chladkova and Virginie Razzano in second-round doubles.

Court 13 sees Amelie Mauresmo vs Shenay Perry and Anastasia Myskina vs Jelena Jankovic. I'm betting on Mauresmo and Jankovic.

Mixed doubles play also gets underway today. Hooray!