Wimbledon 2007

[Giselle]

Ladies thanks for the pics...I knew it was over after the second set, for some reason he woke up to late...I think its great you can watch the matches on the site even paying for it...it is probably one of the few tournaments to do so and I think its awesome cause espn here only shows the american players...it could be a player raked 108 and federer on the court next and they would still show the 108 US ranked player....

Last year when he played against Gonzales was a great match, I really though he came back after the game even though he lost but apparently that has never fully materialized...This years game against federer he was missing something, the shots were like too long I like it when he does the quick shots that leaves the other player saying "what the ..." He was there but too late...it could have been worst.

[hipponette]

Awww! *hugs Marat*

There were plenty of times where he'd just smile as if to go, "What the hell?" and those smiles were really painful. For me anyway.

And darn ESPN pretty much showed the whole Roddick-Verdasco match. And now they're showing a rerun of the Serena match.

[justsafin]

I think Marat played quite well in the 3rd set, though he lost in the tiebreaker. But he managed to play better and better and gave some incredible shots!!

Had it been another opponent, with this kind of level he had, he could've entered the 4th round. The first set was tragic, he was not there. But Marat started to pick up something from the 2nd set......Too bad that he was broken back after he broke Roger's 1st service game in the 3rd set, otherwise, we could get to see another set, and maybe magically, another match......

Well, I guess Marat takes this match positively. Move on and play your best in the future tournies.

Thank you girls for the pics. He looks so gorgeous with white outfits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!OMG!!!!!!

[Mariana]

I guess I will never watch a Marat´s game on tv again because when I watch he always loses the match

I didn´t expect much of this game but with Marat you never know so I had a little hope
The 1st set was horrible, only 20 minutes The 2nd one was little better but when he lost I didn´t believe anymore that he will win the match after losing the first 2 sets The 3th was the best set, good points and great shots But unfortunately it wasn´t enough

Thanks for the pics girls He looks great

[maryb]

My last Wimbles update. I head back up to Scotland on Sunday.

The day did not start well when I was perved on the train to Southfields by this weirdo that was wearing a keyring from his belt that had a photo of a blonde in a dominatrix outfit. He liked my curls and started rambling. Why do I always get them? (He got off for the tennis at Southfields and headed down to a ticketed gate). If I had known how long I would be in the resale queue today, I would have skelped his arse in return for a centre court ticket if he had it. Granted I would have had to shut my eyes as well.

After over 4 stricken hours in the resale queue (plus 2 in Church Road remember) and a damp arse from the wet grass, I was rewarded with a centre court ticket. For row Z! The bloody back row! I had to take the lift up to it. My legs would never have coped. Got in just as Serena flattened her opponent.

First set best forgotten.

The Big Yin woke up and started well in the second set, breaking for a 2-0 lead. But fell away again. He finally upped a gear in the final set. He should have won the tiebreak - he deserved it, but it wasn't to be. He fluffed it from 4-4. You just kept feeling that as soon as he got ahead, he started to think too much about it.

This Fedifurry person had better go all the way now after putting out my boy. He ended my Wimbles dream as well. I really wanted him to lift that trophy and prove that to himself that he can play on grass. Hope that he is not too disheartened and comes back next year.

I'll still buy him a plate of spaghetti for his efforts.

I have lots of videos that you'll love. I'll get them off to Annie for you guys and to Denise for the official site. Hope you like them.

Don't get too down on the boy, he's the one that has to learn from these matches and go out again and do better. Which I know he will. ;D

[fancy]

it was expected anyways
BUT i still beleive he looses his matches psychologically , he lacks confidence he doesnt lack the game
but anyways i hope he is back soooooon , GO MARAT!!

[fancy]

thanks gurls for the pix , u re the best !

[Anne]

Thanks everyone for pics and reports etc.. does anyone know why there isn't a interview taken or at least posten on the OS website?? There is a little report of the match where they quoted one sentence but it isn't actually an whole interview..
Kisses

Here are the articles I found :

Friday, 29 June, 2007

The Roger Federer bandwagon rolls on. This time it was Marat Safin who was left flattened by its irresistible progress, beaten in straight sets, just like the four-time champion's first two opponents.

Federer won this much-anticipated third round match more easily than he could have hoped, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) in one hour 39 minutes and his pleasure was evident as he took a prolonged bow on Centre Court.

Although Safin had won only two of his nine matches against Federer, the Russian is a winner of two Grand Slams and always a difficult, and potentially dangerous, opponent. It does tend to depend, though, which Safin turns up on the day. Today he was a pussy cat for two sets before belatedly finding his touch in a tight third set that could so easily have gone his way.

Federer has been warning the past couple of days that he is finding his best form, and he was right. It was early evening before they managed to start their match but he was immediately into his stride, inducing mishits, errors and loud groans from the Russian.

With only 12 minutes played, Federer was already 4-1 ahead and a second break of serve helped him to close out an easy first set in just 19 minutes.

Needing to stem the avalanche, Safin managed to well start in the second set, breaking for a 2-0 lead. But he could not maintain that sort of form. The seventh game, so often the vital one in a set, was where Safin came to grief. Falling love-40 down on serve, his resolve cracked and so did his racket as he twice hurled it to the floor, without incurring a penalty.

On break point, a Federer shot "died" when it struck the baseline but Safin by then was cheerful enough to manage a wink.

Even so he found himself two sets behind with less than an hour played when Federer rounded it out with the fifth of his total of 12 aces. That marked the end of Federer's comfortable ride. Safin upped his level of commitment, started to extend, and pass, the champion with some brilliant shots and deserved to take the set to a tiebreak.

It proved to be the highlight of the Russian's evening. Two more aces showed how Federer was bearing down and although the Russian got to 4-4 safely he dropped the next point on serve with a poor touch volley into the net.

Two more errors, a forehand long and a backhand service return that also sailed over the baseline, meant that Safin had completed his own destruction without further input from Federer.

Written by Ronald Atkin

and another one..............

Friday, 29 June, 2007

In what was another comprehensive display of professionalism, Roger Federer took out former world No. 1 and Grand Slam winner Marat Safin, and then revealed that he had been nervous at the start in the knowledge that he would have a tough battle on his hands.

“I was very pleased with my performance,” he commented, “because I knew that Marat was dangerous and the conditions were tricky with swirling winds. With the sun shining from one end, it was really hard to play from the baseline or to pick out the serve. I expected him to serve well which is why it got close in the third, but the wind stopped and it got easier.

“I played the right way against him, keeping the ball in play and serving well when I had to. I neutralised him from the baseline and it was hard for him with a quick first set which put him under pressure right away. I got a pretty good start in the second so he was down two sets to love and then it was too late and I played a great tie-breaker.”

Winning ways are established by consistency and with Federer clocking up his 51st consecutive win on grass, he knows he is an intimidating figure for other players to face. “That is what comes from streaks and when you are on such a big streak like I am now you wonder who is going to win a set. I still believe that grass is easier to win a set on, because if you serve well it kind of falls your way. For me it’s good to keep on winning in straight sets and maybe the intimidating factor is there, but I don’t really care about that, I just want to play good tennis.”

The serve remains an important element in his armoury. “You go through different serves throughout a match and when it comes to the crunch you pick the best you have and you have to take into consideration where his best return is, what your best serve is, are you going to stay back or go in, or mix it up.

“So you have to make the right decision at the right time. I thought my serves down the ‘T’ were working well on both sides and it took only one mini-break to win the tie-break which was crucial.”

Any comparisons with Marat Safin’s approach to the sport were quickly brushed aside, as were any attempts to compare the two players’ development over the years with Federer seemingly benefiting much more from his dedication to hard work.

“I’m sure Marat has worked hard also. You have to work hard to get to the point where we are and play all year long on a solid base. He’s won plenty of big matches, especially five-setters. He’s got a phenomenal record so he must be fit and match tough. He has never changed on court and is very emotional and you saw it again today. I changed that. That is why I maybe look much more professional now. I don’t know if I am, but I’m trying my best and work extremely hard off court and I would expect Marat does the same.”

The change itself for Federer was far from easy, he said. “It took me many years to understand why I’m working hard, and what I am working for. Tennis is very confusing with changes of surface; you play opponents who are always going to play to your weakness and try and make you play bad. It’s a big jump from juniors but thank God I made the step pretty quickly so there is an advantage if you have talent on your side.”

Despite this, Federer still gets nervous before a big match and it takes him three or four games to get into a rhythm. And even with all the success he has had over the past few years, Federer describes his game as ‘work in progress’ but stresses: “First you have to have a passion for the game, otherwise there is no point travelling the world and going through jet lag.”

The motivation to continue comes from the various coaches players mix with over the years. “They always feed you with a lot of information, tell you how it used to be and motivate you to achieve, You start to dream a little and you chase the dream as far as you can, and then you eventually start to realise you also have capabilities and possibly lots of talent.

“You want to get the best out of yourself so when you eventually retire, you want to feel happy with your career. And then there are parents, they always motivated me. I’ve had great parents and then my girlfriend over these last seven years.”

And so the Federer formula for success remains intact, and on current form he looks odds-on favourite to equal Bjorn Borg’s modern day record of five consecutive titles at Wimbledon.

Written by Henry Wancke

Kisses!!!

[jenhatter06]

just finished watching the match on tape cause I went into work ... *shrug* it's Fed, the grass genius ...... so close to getting that set though, which would have been great just to do that ... he looked more alive than in his first two matches I thought, which was nice to see ... but a yay for getting two wins in a row this tourney, better than just one ... gotta take it one step at a time ...


re: ESPN ... I think they've gotten better at showing other players more recently, was a lot worse the last couple years, but still could use some work (nobody's perfect) .... but I was a bit peeved when they showed Serena/Venus' entire doubles match the other night -- I can see why, of all the doubles, they would show them, but it's sad that other than that, they don't show hardly ANY doubles .... another reason why I'm loving Wimbledon live (it's definitely been more than worth it) .... plus it gives me plenty to watch when they are in a rain delay and they show the same match for the third time (although they've gotten a (little) bit better with that too)


thanks all for the pics and thanks mary for the daily updates

[jenhatter06]

post-match interview wimbledon.org ...


M. Safin - 29 June
Friday, 29 June, 2007


Roger Federer (SUI)[1] beat Marat Safin (RUS)[26] 6-1, 6-4, 7-6

Q. You talked yesterday about playing this match with nothing to lose, and yet it looked like until the third set, and when you really let the ball fly, you just played freely. It didn't look like you were playing with nothing to lose until then.

MARAT SAFIN: No, well, the problem was that I never played it's my first time I've played on Centre Court since many years, so I kind of it was a strange feeling for me, so it took me about two sets to get used to it.

The ball is a little bit sliding a little bit more than other courts, and of course the distance between the court is much bigger. So this was my problem. I couldn't get used to it, and the wind was into the wind of course I'm not taking any credit away from Roger, but still, it was a difficult sensation to get used to because it was a lot of wind, and the circumstances was tough for me to be in my game.

Q. On that crazy point at the end of the second set where the ball seemed to die in front of you as you tried to hit an inside out forehand, what happened there?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, tough conditions. It was a lucky shot, and but he made it. It also counts.

Q. Did you misjudge where it was going to bounce?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, it's kind of it was going away, then it was staying, so it was kind of difficult because it was supposed to fly out, and then it just bounced it didn't really bounce at all. So it's tough for me.

Q. In the tiebreak, you played a great tiebreak, almost no balls were coming back, and then that very casual volley at a key point. Did you play that one just too casually?

MARAT SAFIN: No, it just was a lot of spin and then just I misjudged the power that was going, actually. I thought it was going a little bit faster than was actually going, the ball, so just all of a sudden it catch me by surprise.

Q. If you had played the first set the way you played the third one

MARAT SAFIN: It would have been a different story.

Q. could it have been a different set, match?

MARAT SAFIN: Big time, because he was a little bit uptight, also, at the beginning of the first set. And then when he broke me he started to have more confidence and it was easy for him. But the first set if it were 7 6, it would be closer or a different match for sure.

Q. Do you think anyone can beat him this year?

MARAT SAFIN: I don't see anybody who can hurt him because everybody knows how to play against him but they don't have enough weapons to beat him, unfortunately.

Q. Could you tell that he was uptight with you at the beginning?

MARAT SAFIN: I could feel at first, the first game he didn't serve that well, missed a couple of easy shots, so he was also a little bit nervous because he didn't know with what I'm going to come up. Then when he broke me. It was a completely different game.

Q. How inspired were you to play against Roger? I mean, you've had some fantastic matches in the past. Is it more fun to play a match like that today?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, it's a little bit well, for me it's anyway great because just to see it's another opportunity for me to see that actually I can still play at some great level, and for me it's a challenge and for me it's another push to bring back my game.

Even lose or win this match, it's just a different approach, and I can see that I still have a lot of tennis, and I need to I know what I have to do a little bit to improve my game. So kind of it was a help actually. Even though this court was pretty easy, it's a huge help for me.

Q. Where are you in terms of your relationship with grass?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, I think it's okay. My game is pretty suitable for the grass, but you need to have enough confidence and enough matches to play against players like him. Not the first and second round where he's good and you're not really used to the grass and then maybe closer to quarterfinals, semifinals, it's a different game.

Q. Let me move to your best surface, hard court. How many US Open Series tournaments do you plan on playing?

MARAT SAFIN: All of them. Well, which ones?

Q. There are six tournaments in the US Open Series leading up to the US Open.

MARAT SAFIN: Well, this year is tough. I don't even know how it works, the points, and then it's like if you make something, you win, you have double prize money, so it's really I cannot get it. It's the second, third year that I'm making it and it's still too complicated to understand.

Q. You'll still be in Cincinnati, Canada. Anywhere else?

MARAT SAFIN: LA.

Q. Do you wish that you'd come to this understanding of grass earlier in your career?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, I can't complain about my career anyhow, because let's put it this way: If you would have seen me in 1995, 1996, you would really understand what actually what became from me, because it's really for you guys who started to meet me in 1998 where I started to make my first money and I started to win some matches.

If you would have seen me in 1996, then you would have really surprised even that I'm still playing that I'm playing tennis.

Q. But in 1992 here, Hewitt won.

MARAT SAFIN: In 2002.

Q. Yeah, sorry. That would have been a year maybe you would have had a good chance if you were happier on grass?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, I had a chance 2001 when Ivanisevic won. He won three sets pretty tough: 7 6, 7 5, 3 6 7 6, and I think it was my best year, quarterfinals, my best year. I was playing pretty well, and I think I would have Henman in the semifinals, which is a good draw.

Q. Will you ever be a top ten player again?

MARAT SAFIN: Well, why not? I still have a few years left. Why not? If I'm not, then I'm not. I'm still playing because I still believe that I can get there, anyhow, and it doesn't matter when.

Q. You still don't like Wimbledon; maybe you said it's very expensive in London.

MARAT SAFIN: Well, the most expensive city is Moscow, first of all. It's not like I

dislike because everybody tries to pick on me and tries to put the words in my mouth because I said something that I don't like London. I love London, first of all. Wimbledon is a pretty good facility. It's okay.

So then I have my few things about the food, but it doesn't really matter. I don't make a big deal out of it, what I'm saying. But of course the press wants to start the sensation, Safin said and complained, and who cares about this.

But for sure there are people that like it. That's why I'm in this situation and that's why you're asking me this question.

[ginapants]

well... i guess i was expecting this to happen, it wasn't a surprise but the 1st set hurt like hell ,19 min? WTF?it was like Fed was all alone on that court then he started to wake up in the 2nd set and in the 3rd one he played really good... just like he said if the 3rd set would have been the 1st one we would've seen a different match! it was a good third set that should give him some confidence it's not like he loves grass and Fed is the best grass player ever ... i don't see him loosing this tournament.
If it had been someone else on the 3rd round maybe we would've seen him longer at wimby...
thanks for the pics and the articles guys
you've done a great job!

[maryb]

Quote from today's Telegraph:

'When it comes to natural talent for hitting a ball, Safin comes second only to Federer.' ;D

Too true. Denise, get him to Liverpool to get more grass experience under his belt before Wimbledon. I'm sure Borg will happily give him some practice!

PS Today there's no more tennis for me. I'm off to the National Gallery to check out a Dutch masters exhibition and then off to the Portrait Gallery to see the annual portrait competition.

I think it's going to be a really miserable day tennis-wise - the rain is falling steadily. My heart, and sympathy, goes out to those in the queue today - particularly those who have been there all night. I'm going to write a letter to Roger Draper when I get back to Scotland and suggest that it's time that they put 50% at least of the show courts tickets out for sale on the day. The real tennis fans deserve better. A plate of spaghetti for the overnighters wouldn't go amiss either.

[Alya10]

Just wanted to say thanks to everybody for pics and reports and a special to Maryb for the constant updates and funny reports
kisses

[davis]

I deliberately didn't watch last night's match and from what I've read by now I think I'll also skip the "Video on Demand"

I really did like his post-match interview. Good job in keeping your head up, Marat! Nobody realistically expected you to win and to take the match as an analysis for your own progress is a wise choice. He's still optimistic and the damn word "confidence" was mostly left out for once, thank you ! The guy can take a couple of weeks of holidays now and then it's off to the US hardcourt season. Good luck over there, Marat

As for Wimbledon: Did anyone watch Gonzo's drama against Tipsarevic? Especially the fifth set was amazing, perfect Grand Slam material! Also really good: A fired-up Tsonga demolishing Lopez. The Frenchie has such a fighting spirit, amazing! Verdaso managed to make only set 3 against Roddick a little bit exciting. As a spectator watching Wimbledon TV I got excitement of another kind: Boris Becker was commentator! Strange guy with an even stranger English accent! I preferred Martina Navratilova who is on for the Ladies' matches. Björkman/Mirnyi lost their fist-round match in the Doubles competition, when did that happen? And of course: Richie Gasquet cruised through another 3-set-win Next up: Tsonga...

So don't give up on the tournament yet. Just today's line-up promises some amazing matches:
Hewitt - Canas
Baghdatis - Nalbandian
Davydenko - Monfils
Kiefer - Djokovic
It'll be a great afternoon! Hail to my stupid stomach that has punished me with excruciating pain for the last five days - the only thing I can do relatively pain-free is watching TV...

[davis]

Right, I shouldn't forget: Thanks maryb for your tour de force!

You cleared up one thing for me: As long as they don't change the ticket system I'll NEVER go to Wimbledon, LOL!