Foreigners dominate the English sward

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

wow!

[Janik]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Turns out the $64 YTD earnings was for doubles only. His singles earnings were previously $292.
I blame the ATP, though. The standard player template on their website has one field for YTD earnings and another below it for combined career money. However the YTD value is not combined, and will show whatever is selected on a tab elsewhere on the page. Gee, thanks, that is really helpful.

Meanwhile, Kerber beats Robson, and Evans is in a critical set 3 breaker with Struff. Evans was a break ahead at one point, just like set 2. Lose this breaker and he will be in a dreadful place mentally.

Full results for the locals completed matches are:-
Willis beat Berankis 6-3 6-3 6-4
J.Ward lost to Djokovic [1] 0-6 6-7(3) 4-6
A.Ward lost to Goffin [11] 2-6 3-6 2-6
Edmund lost to Mannarino 2-6 5-7 4-6
Klein lost to Mahut 6-7(0) 4-6 4-6
Robson lost to Kerber [4] 2-6 2-6
N.Broady lost to Svitolina [17] 2-6 3-6

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Nice profile interview etc. with Willis (and his new gf) here, before his match of today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/36640628

Seems a nice bloke.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Federer currently two sets to love up against Pella, so probably will be Willis's next opponent.

Just a thought: Nadal has famously been eliminated from his last 4 Wimbledons by players ranked over 100 at the time. It would be quite something if Federer gets knocked out of this one by a player whose ranking is greater than all Nadal's 4 last opponents put together.

[Janik]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Oh, he is not going to beat Federer. Is he? No, of course he isn't. But maybe...? No, don't be silly.

6-1 6-3 6-0 is my prediction. 75 minutes, tops.

Dan Evans won, btw. But he did so having slip and looked like he pulled something early in the fourth set, and only got to the end due to painkillers. He might not be able to take to the court for R2.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Ah, that's a real shame. On a less serious note, Evans giving Dolgopolov a walkover in R2 would rule out the possibility of an all-British R3 tie Willis v Evans. [insert winky smiley]

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Giraldo v Muller still unfinished, 11-11 in the final set. They'll be hoping not to emulate Isner-Mahut.

[Janik]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Giraldo is doing exceptionally to be making it that close against Muller, I reckon.

Slightly more time to spend on writing my day two picks

Women’s Singles
Stephens [18] vs Peng [PR]
Wozniacki vs Kuznetsova [13]
Riske vs Vinci [7]
Cibulkova [19] vs Lucic-Baroni
Puig vs Konta [16]
Pironkova vs Bencic [7]

Stephens and Peng are both former Slam semi-finalists, and pretty recently too (2013 Aussie and 2014 US respectively). It is therefore a tough draw for an opening round. Particularly when you consider that, even with her US Open run factor in, Wimbledon is where Peng has her best win-loss ratio in Slams (15-9). She has made the fourth round in three of her last four attempts, and hasn’t lost in R1 in nearly a decade. Her style is somewhat Bartoli like, getting low and staying on the baseline, which works well in the Women’s grass court game. Stephens is more traditional in big serve, big groundies. Knife-edge match, but I favour Peng.
If Stephens vs Peng is an unusually ‘name’ encounter for R1, then Wozniacki vs Kuznetsova is off the charts. No-one would bat an eyelid if it was a US Open Final. The only way it is possible is because Caro is unseeded for the first time since the 2008 Aussie Open, 33 Slams ago. That shows where her form (and fitness) are at the moment. Neither has ever been great on grass, but Wozniacki has been the more consistent recently. And as part of her 6-5 h2h advantage she has won both their previous grass encounters. So despite form, I’ll tip her for an ‘upset’ here. She definitely needs it because *gulp* she has R4 points to defend from last year!
I’ve often banged on about how Ali Riske loves grass, but it’s true, and it isn’t necessarily the case for Vinci. One might think that it should be with her slices and volleying ability, but her record at SW19 is far from wonderful, with R1 exits in each of the last two years. Riske is tall and serves well, but it’s her truncated ground shot swings that make her so effective as they mean she can deal with balls that are on to her quickly and shoot of the bounce. Vinci, for all those skills, does wind-up longer. However, I’m going for her just sneaking home here, based on her general form. It should be an interesting match, though.
Another player I’ve banged on about is Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who made the Wimbledon Semis as a teenager waaay back in 1999. Her story of an abusive father and taking a long break from the sport to escape him has been well told, so I won’t reprise it here, but let’s just say it’s nice that she is still around and having some success. Lucic-Baroni’s strength is her strength, she gives the ball a fearful crump. Her weakness is that she lacks variety. And I don’t like the match up against Cibulkova, who isn’t intimidated by the ball being thumped at her. Plus Domi’s confidence must be sky high after winning Eastbourne. The tip has to be the Slovak, but hope Mirjana puts up a good showing.
There are separate locker rooms at Wimbledon for the top 16 seeded players in the main draws. Konta, by dint of Azarenka withdrawing, has been invited into that rarefied space. Apparently the towels are no fluffier, which is a typical feet-firmly-on-the-ground reaction from Johanna. If she wants to experience that privilege for longer than a couple of days, she will need to be on her game against Puig, as Monica would have been seeded but for the one week lag between seedings and rankings. Both were in the Eastbourne Semis a few days ago, so both are primed and ready. The advantage goes to Konta, though, as she is better suited for grass. Puig plays good solid Tennis, but really it’s an unadapted hard court game. The big issue for Konta might be weight of expectation. Wozniacki-Kuznetsova take the Centre Court spot (rightly so), but this is on Court 1 and it will expect her to win. I think, I hope, she will, in three.
Pironkova vs Bencic is a match for the afficiandos. Neither is that big a celebrity, but both are exceptional grass court players. Pironkova made the Semis and Quarters at Wimbledon in back-to-back efforts a few years, and though she hasn’t won much recently at SW19 that will always give her a fund of confidence. Then you add it her completely left-field run to the Roland Garros QFs last month, and she shouldn’t be worried by who she is facing. Which is saying something, because Bencic is a former Wimbledon Girls Singles and Eastbourne Women’s Singles champion. She is another whose best surface is almost certainly grass. Her two previous attempts at the Ladies Singles at Wimbledon have been R3 and R4 respectively, so she is getting better. Like Madison Keys, she is a Future Wimbledon Champion. And she probably beats Tsvetana here.

Men’s Singles
Thiem [8] vs Mayer [PR]
Zverev [24] vs Mathieu
Verdsaco vs Tomic [19]
Fritz vs Wawrinka [4]
Isner [18] vs Baghdatis
Kyrgios [15] vs Stepanek [WC]

Thiem and Mayer are clearly in form, as was demonstrated by them winning the warm-up events in Stuttgart and Halle respectively, and having good runs in the one they didn’t win to boot. Given how deep both went in those, it is probably not a great surprise that they actually meet each other, Mayer beating Thiem in the Halle Semi. So that is worth something ahead of this match. Thiem will probably start as favourite based on his three other titles this year and top-10 ranking and run to the Semis of the French just a few weeks ago, but it really could go either way; Mayer is much more experienced on grass. It should be a damn good match.
There is a theme in Tennis in general, and Men’s Tennis in particularly these days that it takes a lot longer for a player to break through. Alexander Zverev doesn’t appear to be listening, seeing as he is still a teenager and already seeded for a Slam. He is the youngest player to break into the ATP top 30 since Novak Djokovic in 2006. And things went OK for him... Standing at 1m98 gives him power on the serve and from the ground, but with a guy that tall movement is sometimes open to question. Whether Mathieu is the player to exploit that is open to question, though. He has beautifully struck groundies, but has never quite pieced it together in the manner the cleanness of his ball strike would allow. There are questions about his mental toughness, basically, and too long spent chasing aces impacts on players like that. This is really here to focus on Zverev, I hope he wins and expect that he will.
Tomic was once a hyped youngster, the next big thing. He may even still believe he is one of the brightest new talents on the ATP, in fact he does if his public comments at the Aussie Open when he tried to get into a slanging match with Roger Federer are anything to go by. Everybody else sees a very talented waster, not willing to put in the hard yards. He does still have time to change this, but there needs to be evidence of a new mindset and that is sorely lacking. Lack of application is not something that can be levelled at Verdasco, who has made a solid career for himself. However there is promise unfulfilled on this side of the net as well, albeit of a different variety, that of inconsistent results. The key is Bernie’s head, and the signs are that it’s currently not where it should be, so I could for Verdasco to win this one, avenging a narrow three set defeat at Queens a couple of weeks back.
Match of the Round in the Men’s draw is definitely Wawrinka vs Fritz. The young American won junior Slams last year, and pushed Federer hard in Stuttgart just a few weeks back. He possesses a big serve and big groundstrokes, but is going to come up against even more enormous ones firing at him when playing Stan. It is probably too soon for Fritz to win against a player like Wawrinka over five sets, but he could get one and we could all get a vision of the future from it.
Who is older, John Isner or Marcos Baghdatis? Well, Isner by a few months. No, really! Baghdatis has been around seemingly forever, but the reality is that he got on a hot run very early in his career, making a Slam Final and a Wimbledon SF and QF by the age of 22. And not being back to that level since. But his recent form is good with a couple of grass court QFs in recent weeks and going slightly further back getting to a final this year of an ATP500 (l to Wawrinka) and towards the end of last summer at a 250 (l to... Isner). That later one could be the problem here; his career record against Isner is 0-6. That serve is just too much to handle, especially as Isner, unlikely some of the other enormous servers, is decent in the rest of his game so threatens an opponent’s delivery more often. Given how they match up 7-0 seems the likeliest outcome, but here’s hoping Baghdatis can buck the trend, as he is significantly more fun to watch.
Kyrgios vs Stepanek has absolutely no potentially for explosiveness, no siree. What could possibly go wrong in mixing the shortest fuse on Tour with the biggest wind-up merchant?!? Stepanek’s mannerisms, his way of celebrating, heck even the shots he hits in rallies all come with a dash of salt. Kyrgios will want to overpower his opponent, and he is capable of doing that. If he can restrain himself from trying to outshine him in all aspects, then he should win. But if he gets drawn into a preening contest, or worse feels the need to show he can win a touch and angles battle as well as just out-hitting Stepanek then he could be taking himself into a world of hurt.

[Etienne]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Moore wins fairly comprehensively, and epic service hold at *2-1 in the second being the key game.

[Janik]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

That's a great win. And she beat the rain as well.

Muller beat Giraldo 15-13 in the end in the longest match so far.

No seeds at all beaten so far today. With the evening forecast, it's only the ones on Centre who are under threat. Wozniacki and Kuznetsova are just knocking up under the roof, could be a 'shock' there.

Edit - I missed that Monfils and Cuevas lost yesterday evening.

[Janik]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

My selected matches so far today

Results:-
Vinci beat Riske 6-2 5-7 6-3
Cibulkova beat Lucic-Baroni 7-5 6-3
Wawrinka beat Fritz 7-6(4) 6-1 6-7(2) 6-4
Kyrgios beat Stepanek 6-3 6-4 6-7(9) 6-1

Incomplete scores:-
Konta leads Puig 6-1 2-1*
Kuznetsova leads Wozniacki 2*-1
Zverev leads Mathieu 6-3 6-4 3*-0
Tomic vs Verdasco all square at 4-6 6-3 3-6 6-3
Mayer vs Thiem 2-1*

Stephens vs Peng, Pironkova vs Bencic and Isner vs Baghdatis yet to start. Indeed Pironkova vs Bencic is yet to even have a court scheduled! I'm think Centre, if Woznaicki and Kuznetsova are quick.

[Janik]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

British results

A.Murray beat L.Broady 6-2 6-3 6-4 (getting better Liam!)
Bedene lost to Gasquet 3-6 4-6 3-6
Moore beat Van Uytvanck 6-3 6-2 (full detail to Etienne's result report above)
Swan lost to Babos 2-6 3-6

Konta is halfway through, whilst Watson is yet to start. Though both are really waiting for the rain to stop. Watson has a set of Verdasco-Tomic to go, and then the whole of A.Radwanska-Kozlova. She might as well pack her bag and get ready to play tomorrow instead.

[Janik]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Moore is back inside the top 200 on the rolling rankings on the back of her win. Another victory would take her up to ~160 or so, which would be a career high. All she needs to do is beat whoever wins between... Wozniacki and Kuznetsova. Oh.

[Janik]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

So, Day 3 then. What do we have? Well some of Day 2s matches are still to be played. But with those are also the top half of the Men’s R2 and bottom half of the Women’s scheduled in the hope that the forecast might be wrong. And one match from those stands out from the rest, but all in good time...

Women’s Singles
Kirsten Flipkens vs Madison Keys [9]
Vavara Lepchenko vs Angelique Kerber [4]
Sam Stosur [14] vs Sabine Lisicki

Flipkens run to the Semis of Wimbledon was a one-off, that much is now clear (and it seemed pretty likely at the time). However her willingness to play old-school grass court Tennis, slicing lots and using the chip-charge does make her a tricky proposition for the top players. As such she represents a good test of Keys credentials. Can Madison keep it together in the face of the unusual looks and deliver the win the rankings say she ought to do? Yeah, I think so, Flippers moment in the sun has come and gone.
Lepchenko-Kerber might seem an odd selection to make, as the naturalised American is not exactly a famous name. So why is it here? Two reasons. One is that Lepchenko’s general game, with a decent serve and decent volleys, is decently suited to grass. But mostly it’s the other one, a 4-3 h2h record in favour of Varvara. That gap has been closing in their most recent meetings (albeit a couple of years back), but even those have been tight, more often three setters than not. So Lepchenko will believe she can spring a shock, and Kerber is still a little vulnerable to such things. I suppose a third reason I picked it is a relative paucity of options amongst the top half Women’s R2 match-ups, which is why I’m thinking despite the history this will be relatively straightforward.
Some of the other matches might not shine too brightly in prospect, but Stosur-Lisicki sure does. Both are highly talented, though both have had their issues with delivering that into consistent success. Sam is at least back towards a proper ranking for herself at 16, God alone knows what Sabine is doing being the world no.81! Given surface preferences, clay for Stosur and grass for Lisicki, that ought to balance out the rankings disparity, but a glance at their past meetings actually has Stosur 2-1 up on grass. However Lisicki did win three years ago in South-West London, and she desperately needs a spark to get her career back on track. She could ride a wave of love from the crowd to claim it here.

Men’s Singles
Nicolas Mahut vs David Ferrer [13]
Roger Federer [3] vs Marcus Willis [Q]
Grigor Dimitrov vs Gilles Simon [16]

Mahut vs Ferrer presents a fascinating contrast in styles. Mahut is a bit of an anachronism by still utilising serve-and-volley, though with his thunderous serve and excellent volleying skills it does make sense. Ferrer grinds and battles from the baseline. It will likely depend on the average rally length, as from the fifth shot onwards Mahut’s chance of winning them declines rapidly. The Frenchman’s first shot of each rally will be crucial. A good serve of return that pushes Ferrer to defend and he is doing OK, don’t do much with either and its death by a thousand cuts. Given Mahut is in very good form and confidence, winning one of the warm-up events and getting to the Doubles No.1 ranking within the last few weeks, it all seems set-up for him to pull off one of his best Singles results here.
Ah, here it is; The Prince and The Pauper. A match that Hollywood would barely believe could happen (or if they did they would make a truly shit film around the idea). We know this will happen tomorrow, as it has been scheduled for third on Centre. Willis story has been well told, but one detail I didn’t pick up on initially was that he shouldn’t even have been in the pre-qualifying tournament. He was only an alternate for that, and got to the start line when another player couldn’t get there in time. Seven wins later, he is playing the match of his dreams. And what of that? Well, he will do well to win half-a-dozen games across the piece. Federer is too calm and sure of himself to go the way of Berankis. Willis can certainly play, he showed that in getting through the qualies and R1, and has absolutely nothing to lose, but he can’t surely get close to the great man.
Playing Simon represents an opportunity for Dimitrov to re-ignite his season, which has been a major disappointment so far. The run of titles and deep slam runs of 2014 are fading memories now; beating Murray in the Wimbledon QF of that season shouldn’t be the career pinnacle for a Man with Dimitrov’s skills. It is threatening to become so, though. Simon is Mr Consistency, both in how he rallies and his generally reliable performance levels. He pretty reliably makes his seeding, and showed enough on grass in recent years for the surface not to be considered a problem. If Grigor shows up, it could be a very good match. Say five sets, as Simon loves to play those. OK seems to love to play them given how many he has had.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

How does the "pre-qualifying tournament" that you mentioned work? Is it some kind of invitation thing? Willis was a WC for entry into qualifying so I'm guessing it's some kind of invitation tournament for distributing some of the WCs for the qualies? Is there info about it on the internet?

[Etienne]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

It's for British players only, and the top 2 (and in practice sometimes the top 4) get wild cards.

I think there is eligibility criteria, with the highest ranked Britons (aside from those who qualify as of right or are getting WCs) plus the leaders of the British Tour. Whether there is some discretion to add others I don't know.

[Etienne]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Ah, here it is - https://www.lta.org.uk/globalassets/play/professional-development/documents/lta-wild-card-play-offs-fact-sheet.pdf

10 by rank, 6 WC, including 2 from the British Tour.

[Janik]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Prequalifying is a shorthand. The official name is the LTA Wild Card play-offs. The Aussies do something similar ahead of their Slam as well.

Etienne wrote: and in practice sometimes the top 4

Like this year for the Men. Intriguing hypothetical question - if Willis had lost to Joe Salisbury in the final round of the play-offs, would Willis have been given a wild card anyway like Salisbury and Dan Smethurst got? Laura Deigman's experience (she didn't get one after losing to Maia Lumsden in the Women's last round) suggests not.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Thanks Etienne and Janik.

So, as Willis is currently British no.23 (if that's correct - read it on the BBC site) I'm guessing he was one of the WCs into that LTA tournament rather than a direct acceptance.

So he had a WC to enter a competition to compete for WCs to enter a competition to qualify for the main competition! Love it.

[Janik]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

No, not a wild card. He was an alternate (i.e. back-up) who got in when one of the higher ranked British players apparently couldn't get back from Turkey in time for the sign-in deadline. Not sure who it was, the report I heard this from didn't mention that.

Men's wild card play-off draw

[Janik]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

The top 10 Brits didn't need the Wild Card play-offs, as they already had either a direct acceptance or a gifted wild card for the main draw or qulaies.

Willis was 13th in line for the 10 open spots. He only got in as 15. Evan Hoyt, 20. Cameron Norrie and 22. Scott Clayton didn't sign up. I think the first two are injured, Clayton was the player who seemingly didn't make it back from Antalya in time.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

I expect he'll be happy to buy Hoyt, Norrie and Clayton a beer each next time he sees them.

[Etienne]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Norrie chose not to enter as he's based in the US, and he'd just had a tiring college season.

[Janik]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Willis in the crowd for some of Djokovic-Mannarino. Presumably trying to help get used to the arena he is about to play in. Interesting idea.

[Janik]

Foreigners dominate the English sward

Willis would have been hyping himself up ready to go out, only for Djokovic to fail to serve it out against Mannarino, lobbing in two Double Faults in the game. Now 5-5 in set 3. Unhelpful any?