Youngest Sister Takes The Title
Serena Williams powered through both her sister and many people’s expectations to become Wimbledon Women’s Champion 2009. It was the fourth time she had met her sister in the final, and the third time she has taken the title after winning in 2002 and 2003.
Serena put an end to Venus’ hold on the title and her bid to get it for a third consecutive year.
It wasn’t exactly the most enthralling final to be played out at Wimbledon, but an entertaining match nonetheless. Lots of fuss was made over which celebrities, past superstars of the sport and royal dignitaries had turned up to watch them (if anyone was interested, the most impressive faces in the royal box today were Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child fame, and Ben Stiller. How…American). There was strong suspicions that they had already etched Williams onto the honours board and were just waiting to fill out the all important first name to distinguish between the two (makes sense).
Still, the first set was taken to a tie-break, as both sisters responded to everything the oth more »
Written by:The Andys Make an Impact
But it wasn’t just the two Andys in action today. It will go largely forgotten, but Tommy Haas and Roger Federer also came head to head for the coveted final place:
Federer vs. Haas
A different story to the semi-final about to be discussed, but a semi-final nonetheless. Roger Federer came out onto Centre Court under a cloudy sky with a cool breeze following. It seemed quite obvious to all watching, even Boris Becker himself, that it was doubtful the German would give the Swiss much of a scare.
In the end, Federer moved to his seventh final at Wimbledon with 3 sets: 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 6-3. Not a walkover by any means, but Tommy Haas soon became frustrated at his inability to make a dent Federer’s game. He didn’t give Federer a single break point in the two hours but Federer couldn’t break him until for almost two sets. Still, Haas played well and tested Federer, even if only for a three set semi-final.
Written by:A Sisterly Affair
Wimbledon 2009 will once again be a sisterly affair, with both Venus and Serena making their way through. The matches they played to achieve this, however, could not have been more different. Whilst Serena slogged through an intense two hour 48 minute match that tested the nerve and mental stamina of both players, Venus’ match against Dinara Safina was over in a blink of an eye.
The world no. 1 even bagled in her last set, the final score being an embarrassing 6-1 6-0. The American trampled all over the Russian’s game, and no-one could help but agree with Safina when she said about her opponent ‘She’s just too good on grass’.
Looking at the statistics, there wasn’t much chance of Safina being able to fight past Venus. Whereas this is now Venus’ 8th final, this was Safina’s first semi-final at Wimbledon. Her mental strength and play were simply blown away by Williams’.
The word ‘whopped’ comes to mind.
Written by:The Semis Are Set Up
Today’s matches determined the places for the semi-finals; the final four all gunning for the final frontier.
1) Roger Federer battled against the mighty Croat Karlovic and his even mightier serve. Despite the breath-taking force and speed of Ivo Karlovic’s serves, Federer found a way to break it on a number of occasion. Whilst Karlovic pounded around the court as though his height and build created some sort of impassable air resistnace, Federer was dancing on the air with his characteristic athleticism. Karlovic is certainly a lean mean serving machine, but it was Federer class of play that allowed him to move the Man Mountain. He will play Tommy Haas for the final.
Written by:Monday Madness
Apologies for the lateness of this blog: the mixture of the stress of travelling and the general stress of the Murray/Wawrinka match itself the cause of the delay. If I had known that the game was going to be that gruelling I would have taken a power nap before watching.
There’s a lot to cover as to what went on the first day of the second week. Firstly, there’s the women’s fourth round matches for the coveted quarter finals place. The Venus W./Ana Ivanovic match was predicted to be a gruelling test for both top ranked players. If either pulled through to beat the other, their name would be chalked up as a strong potential for the finals. Unfortuantely, it never got that far. Venus took control of the match by all accounts, and it appeared as though Ivanovic was going slowly dwindling. Her serve was all over the place and compared to the clout that Venus has, she wasn’t making a dent in Venus’ games at all.
In a darkly ironic way, it was the improvement of her serve which became Ivanovic’s downfall. After her first ace, she doubled over her heavily strapped knee. Between points, she burst into tears. And that was the end of the match; Ivanov more »
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