Wimbledon 2005 .. (Sania/ Hesh/ Lee ..)

[PKBasu]

[R2] S.Aspelin/ S.Mirza l. (7) L.Friedl/ J.Husarova, 26 46

So, this one was not much of a match I guess, against the seeds.

Jay

Actually, it was much better than the scoreline suggests. Our pair started with a flourish, winning the first game on Simon's serve, then winning the first three points on Friedl's serve to have three break points. Sania's spectacular groundstrokes almost converted the first of these, but she missed the line by a whisker at the end of mid-sized rally. After that Friedl quickly made it Deuce. In retrospect, that was a key momentum-breaker. Husarova had also been feigning an injured knee before the match, but began playing some amazing passing shots from the third game. After 1-1, there were three consecutive service breaks, but Friedl held his serve to make it 4-2 and then Simon was broken in the seventh game of the set. Husarova has a very weak serve, but she was able to overcome some of that with very deft placements.
In the second set, we were quickly down 2-5 but some spectacular play by Sania saw us break serve to make it 3-5, then 4-5 on Sania's service game before Friedl managed to again crank up his serves to end the match. Our pair couldn't quite lift their game the way they did on Saturday, but Sania's groundstrokes continued to impress -- nay, amaze.
And a very big thank you to Mrs (Nasima) Mirza for giving my daughter and I ground passes for the day: I am still reeling from the sheer pleasure of a wonderful day watching Sania, Leander, Mahesh and Vivek play. More reports once I get some dinner before the last restaurant in London closes...
The other news is that Sania will soon have a travelling coach. They are not ready to announce the name yet (although they have decided on who it will be). But a travelling coach should be a huge plus for Sania, who is clearly a top-class competitor already. Simon is a gracious chap as well, but I think I've seen a few weaknesses we could focus on for the Davis Cup doubles match... . He's an excellent chap though, so I'll leave that for another day!

[PKBasu]

I watched the second half of the second set, most of the third and almost all of the fourth set of Leander's match.

To me, the most interesting aspect of this match was that Leander was almost singlehandedly keeping the ball in play, and lifting the quality of play to a level his opponents couldn't ever manage (although Leach demonstrated his craftiness every so often). LP's reflexes at the net are legendary, but his hard, well-placed driven forehands and deft backhands were what usually tipped the scales our pair's way. Rick Leach and Travis Parrott (IIRC) had knockd out Leander-Rikl in R2 last year, so it was wonderful to see Lee get a measure of revenge. Soon after I arrived Nenad had a couple of bad misses in Set 2, and his frustrations (taken out on his own racquet) caused him to receive a code violation. But Nenad's serve was a big strength too, while LP displayed very few weaknesses on the day, including serving with panache. Our team generally went after Parrott's serve (with success in set 2) but also broke Leach once. LP-Zimo is looking good.
After the match, I congratulated LP with some vigour, but he immediately winced, as I had touched his injured left hand: it is still clearly hurting, so he is taking a risk by playing at Wimbledon (although wisely focusing only on Men's Doubles, and staying out of MxD).

[PKBasu]

As LP-Zimo won the third set, I noticed that Vivek Shokeen was in trouble at 2-5 in the first set of his match on Court 6. So I went there, only to find him down 3-6, and struggling to hold serve in the first game of set 2. But lusty cheering seemed to prove a tonic for him too, as he ran away a 6-0 winner of the set! I slipped out at 1-1 in the third, as I didn't want the magic to erode...
Vivek Shokeen is called the Safin of India, but is a bit less tall (about 5' 11" would be my estimate). He has a spectacular serve (both first and second) and superb ground-strokes. His opponent looked like a little boy but also possessed a terrific baseline game. There were some terrific rallies, but Shokeen seemed to win each of them (at least in the second set). His net game, on the other hand, is virtually non-existent, and I didn't see him succeed with any of his net approaches or volley attempts. The way he took charge of the second set, however, suggested he has good temperament -- but needs some crowd encouragement to play his "A" game.

[PKBasu]

I'm extremely tired and sleepy, so this one will be short. Mary Pierce played breathtaking tennis through the first set and a half of the MxD match against the defending champions, Wayne and Cara Black. Then Mahesh took over in the last quarter of the match.
The story of the match is simple: we broke Cara's serve midway through set 1, which was won with ease. The Blacks fought tooth and nail in the second set, and worked specially hard to ensure that Cara didn't lose her serve. But at 4-4, we managed to break Wayne, after some terrific play from both Hesh and Mary.
If Mary can sustain her game, and Mahesh can raise the consistency of his booming serve, the title is theirs for the taking. MB had easily the best serve of the four, but he was having consistent trouble holding serve (although he succeeded in holding throughout the match, after hard struggles almost each time; it was Pierce who held serve with consummate ease).

[Sandeep]

Nice reports PKBasu

[jayakris]

Tuesday's matches ...

Court 3 12.00 noon Start
2. [R3] (5) Leander Paes/ Nenad Zimonjic (SCG) vs Karol Beck (SVK)/ Jaroslav Levinsky (CZE)
4. [R3] Mahesh Bhupathi/ Mary Pierce (FRA) vs Martin Garcia (ARG)/ Mara Santangelo (ITA)

Court 9 11.00 am Start
1. [R2] Sanam K Singh (IND,37) vs Antal Van Der Duim (NED,23)
4. [R1] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan/ Sanam K Singh vs Sho Aida (JPN)/ Jiri Kosler (CZE)

Court 19 11.00 am Start
1. [R2] Vivek Shokeen (IND,28) vs (17) Thiemo De Bakker (NED,21)

Come on, let us see a 5-0 record!!

Jay

[jaydeep]

Great reoprting PKB ... Nice to hear about Vivek's game ... Great to know that u r having hell of time at Wimbledon ...

Lee/Zimo pulled off good win against talented pair ... Now they almost playing match on everyday as their team is only having remaining third round match ... Good win by VIvek and hoping he will repeat last week stuff against De Bakker ... Sanam also having tough second round match ... Lets hope Jeevan with Sanam give us winning start in doubles.

Jaydeep.

[amr090]

Come on Sanam and Vivek get into the 3rd round of wimbledon!!!

[atulra]

Note:- Indians have not won a Grand Slam Title of any sorts from 2003 till Date, that's quite a while now.

Hope that we win a Title at Wimbledon.

[insideout]

we can count on our boys....Vivek and Sanam's performance has been promising...hope they win a title....

[completelyconked]

Thanks for the great reports PKB .great job Vivek and Sanam.
Hesh and Pierce seem to be doing great too.Hope they reach the finals so we can see them on TV.

[PKBasu]

Now an unsavoury aspect: there was a horrible old curmudgeon in a blazer and tie (who I thought was some kind of sports official) who kept on baiting Sania (saying things, "arre ek game tho jeete yaar; kya khel rahe ho tum log", etc. and worse) and he was sitting right behind where Sania and Simon sat between games. This is the sort of person who should be banned, as he hurls abuse in a language the officials won't understand. I don't know why we manage to produce such pathetic sorts.

Apart from this, it was a very memorable day indeed. I was also surprised to discover that Sania is about 5' 9" or so; she looks small on the court, but she's actually well above the average Indian woman's height!

[atulra]

Has action started at Wimbledon?

[atulra]

I think i myself have to answer this question. Yes the action has begun, Sanman Singh has lost the 1st Set 6-2 and Shoukeen is 5-5 in the 1st set.

[atulra]

I think I myself have to answer this question. Yes the action has begun, Sanman Singh has lost the 1st Set 6-2 and Shoukeen is 5all in the 1st set.