Wimbledon 2011 - First Two Rounds

Wimbledon, one of four Slam events in tennis is underway.  The tourney started Monday with Nadal breezing through his match on Centre against Michael Russel 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.  It is tradition for the defending champion to play his first match on Centre Court.

"I started so-so in the first set, but after that I start to hit very well the forehand and I think I finished playing a very good level," Nadal said.

On Day 3 Rafa beat Ryan Sweeting 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 and will now play in the third round on Friday against Gilles Muller.

Novak Djokovic has also reached the 3rd round quite easily, defeating Jeremy Chardy of France 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 and in the second round beating Kevin Anderson of South Africa 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.  Novak will face the always tough No. 32 Marcos Baghdatis.

Novak dives across the court to hit a backhand.

 

Roger Federer returned to Wimbledon to try and gain his 17th Grand Slam trophy.  In the first round Roger beat Mikhail Kukushkin 7-6, 6-4, 6-2 and in the second round he beat Adrain Mannarino of France 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.  Federer will play David Nalbandian who is seeded 28th and will put up a strong fight against Federer, making for a great match.

The pressure is on Murray as he plays in his home country but so far he has been able to keep it at bay as he will play in round three.  In his first round match he beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 and in his second round match Murray defeated Tobias Kamke of Germany 6-3, 6-3, 7-5.  Murray is scheduled to take on Ivan Ljubicic in round three.

Lleyton after going up two sets to zero.

No. 5 Robin Soderling of Sweden Philipp Petzschner of Germany in his first round match 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 and then went on to play a great round two match against former number one Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.  Hewitt played great and almost got Soderling going up two sets to zero but Robin came through and won the last three taking the match 6-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.

Robin celebrating his victory of Hewitt.

No. 6 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic is back after a loss in the first round of the French Open.  In his first match he beat Filippo Volandri of Italy 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 and in his second he defeated Julien Benneteau of France 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.  Berdych was the runner up in Wimbledon last year and is a real threat to make that run again this year.  He will face Alex Bogomolov Jr. of the USA.

No. 7 David Ferrer of Spain Won his first rounder against Benoit Paire of France 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.  Ferrer's second round match is postponed due to light and will be finished Friday.  He is currently down two sets to one against the up and coming Ryan Harrison of the USA.

Roddick after his victory over Hanescu.

Andy Roddick of the United States and number eight in the world beat Andreas Beck of Germany 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 and then went on to beat Victor Hanescu 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.  Roddick has performed very well at Wimbledon and was a runner up in 2009.  Andy will play Feliciano Lopez of Spain who should give him a tough match.

Gael Monfils of France who is the ninth seed in the tourney beat Matthias Bachinger of Germany 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 in the first round and beat Grega Zemlja of Slovakia 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6.  Monfils should win his third round match against Lukasz Kubot of Poland.

Monfils about to serve.

The United States also has Mardy Fish in the top ten and he is into the third round with victories over Marcel Granollers of Spain 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 and Denis Istomin 7-6, 6-4, 6-4.  The American will take on Robin Haase of the Netherlands in round three.

Mardy hitting a backhand in his second round match against Istomin.

Juan Martin Del Potro, former number five in the world and 2009 U.S. Open Champion is climbing his way back toward the top after sitting out all of 2010.  He beat Flavio Cipolla of Italy 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 and in a match that took more then one day, Delpo beat Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-7, 6-1, 6-0, 6-4.  In the third round Juan Martin will take on Gilles Simon of France.

Juan Martin Del Potro

Their are many other notable players that have made it into the third round.  As stated earlier Gilles Simon is the third round.  Richard Gasquet is in the third as well as Tsonga.  Nicolas Almagro of Spain defeated John Isner of the United States to get a bid into round three.

Some upsets were Victor Troicki losing to an unranked player in round two.  Wawrinka also lost in the second.

Jurgen Melzer won his first rounder but his second rounder has been postponed and will be played Friday.