MIDDLE SUNDAY RECAP

Wimbledon`s middle Sunday is traditionally a day for the players to rest before an intense 2nd week and for the fans to analyze the outcomes of the first rounds also trying to predict what may happen next.

The very first day of the tournament saw major upsets. If Sara Errani`s loss against the Puerto Rican Monica Puig was only to a certain extent unexpected (the Italian is not at her ease on grass), Rafael Nadal`s exit at the hands of Belgian Steve Darcis (ranked 135) was as astonishing as it was his last year`s loss to Lukas Rosol. In 2012 Rafa clearly wasn`t at his best and in fact didn’t play any other tournament following Wimbledon. This year, however, he didn’t seem to have any particular problem with his knees, therefore the main reason behind his shocking defeat is probably a lack of match fitness on fast surfaces.

Monday though was only a tease compared to what happened on the promptly labeled “Black Wednesday”.  A combination of injuries, withdraws and unpredictable results shook the tennis world to the core. One after the other past champions, former number ones and main favorites` heads dropped at a frequency that wasn`t experienced since the French Revolution. In chronological order: John Isner, 18th seed, retired 2 games into his match against Adrian Mannarino. World number 3 Victoria Azarenka failed to recover after tweaking her ankle on Monday and forfeited before her match against Italian Flavia Pennetta. Former world number 1 and 2002 Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt lost in 4 sets to the Jamaican-German qualified Dustin Brown. Marin Cilic (10th seed and finalist at the Queen`s) withdrew due to a knee injury. Former number 1 and 12th seed Ana Ivanovic got outplayed by Canadian youngster Eugenie Bouchard. Former number 1 Caroline Wozniacki (partially injured after a bad slip) was eliminated by the Czech Petra Cetkovska. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga retired when he was 2 sets to 1 down against Ernest Gulbis. Maria Sharapova slipped several times and complained to the Empire about the court`s condition before losing to qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito. Jelena Jankovic gave way to fellow Serb Vesna Dolonc and if it wasn`t enough then came the biggest shock of them all: 7 times winner and defending champion Roger Federer lost 6-7 7-6 7-5 7-6 to Ukraine Sergiy Stakhovsky, number 116 in the ATP ranking.

Normality was restored on Thursday and the last 3 days of play failed to produce other big upsets, leaving both draws quite unbalanced. Most of the favorites are still in the running in the top halves while there is barely any left in the bottom halves.

Let`s then take a look at how the draws shaped starting from the Men`s Single

MEN`S DRAW - TOP HALF – 1ST QUARTER

The 1st seed and world number 1 Novak Djokovic cruised through the 1st week without dropping a set. He defeated dangerous players like Florian Mayer (2 times Wimbledon quarter finalist) in the 1st round and Jeremy Chardy (quarter finalist at the last Australian Open) in the 3rd. Nole, will have to keep on playing his best tennis if he wants to avoid troubles against his next opponent, Tommy Haas, who already beat him twice on grass (including at Wimbledon in 2009) and once this year in Indian Wells. The German, seeded 13, confirmed his good moment beating an established grass court player like Feliciano Lopez in the 3rd round. If he gets through the clash with Haas, Djokovic will face the winner of another interesting encounter between Tomas Berdych and Bernard Tomic. Both players achieved their best Grand Slam result at the Championships (the Czech reached the final in 2010 while the Australian got to the quarter finals in 2011). Berdych had to work hard to beat Kevin Anderson in the 3rd round. The 6` 8`` South African served to force the match to a 5th set, only to lose the last 4 games and the eventually the match. Tomic, despite some off court problems (his father got banned from the stands by the ATP after he allegedly assaulted one of Bernard`s sparring partners), played in impressive fashion and upset the 10th seed, Richard Gasquet, in one of the best matches of the tournament so far.

MEN`S DRAW - TOP HALF – 2nd QUARTER 

David Ferrer has been forced to a 4th set in both the 1st and the 2nd round. In the 3rd round he trailed 2 sets to 1 against Dolgopolov , eventually winning comfortably in 5 . He now faces, for the first time in the tournament, an opponent who`s at very good ease on grass, the Croatian Ivan Dodig. Ferrer is in collision route with either Juan Martin Del Potro or the Italian Andreas Seppi, 23rd seed, who eliminated the number 12, Kei Nishikori, reaching the last 16 at the Championships for the 1st time in his career. Del Potro hasn`t dropped a set yet and proved to be very effective on grass, but he`s raising concerns after he awkwardly fell towards the end of his 3rd round match against Gregor Zemlja, slightly twisting his knee and ankle. He had a scan today and hopefully won`t be added to the list of players who had to withdraw from the tournament.

MEN`S DRAW - BOTTOM HALF – 3rd QUARTER

After the draw, the 3rd quarter definitely looked like the toughest, fielding the likes of Federer, Nadal, Wawrinka, Isner and Hewitt. Now that all the above are out, there`s a great opportunity for an outsider to make it to the semi finals. The only seeded player left in this section is 6` 8`` Jerzy Janowicz. Ranked 22nd in ATP Ranking, the Pole came to fame reaching the final at the 2012 Paris-Bercy Master Series. In France he displayed a huge serve and a powerful offensive game from the baseline. In 2013 he only reached the quarter finals twice (in Montpellier and Rome) but has now a great chance of being the first Polish male player to ever get to the semis in a Grand Slam tournament. He is joined in the last 16 by fellow countryman (2 players in the 4th round is an all-time record for Poland) Laszlo Kubot, who already reached the 2nd week at Wimbledon in 2011 and now faces the French Adrian Mannarino in the most unexpected match up of the 2nd week. Both players are ranked outside the top 100 and have a very poor recent record. Kubot has won only 4 ATP Tour matches in 2013 while Mannarino, who mainly played Challengers, hasn’t won any since January 2012. They took advantage of Darcis and Isner`s retirements, but, to their credit, haven`t lost a single set so far. Janowicz will play Jurgen Melzer, an ex top-10, who dropped in the ranking following his best ever season in 2010 (when he reached the semi finals at the French Open and the last 16 at the Championships) but has achieved some good results in 2013 like the final in Zagreb and the quarter finals at the Miami Master Series. In the 3rd round he knocked out Federer`s executioner, Stakhovsky.

MEN`S DRAW - BOTTOM HALF – 4th QUARTER

He tried to avoid the topic during his press conferences, but Andy Murray has for sure enjoyed Tsonga`s and Cilic`s withdraws and to a greater extent Nadal and Federer`s losses which clear up his road to the final. On his part, he has been quite solid and didn`t drop any set on his way to the 2nd week. However his next opponents Mikhail Youzhny and Fernando Verdasco (the Scots could play the Spaniard in the quarter finals) are players who can`t be taken lightly. Both have been in the top ten and reached a Grand Slam semi final in the past. The Russian (who 2 weeks ago played the final at Halle forcing Federer to the 3rd set) in particular is a very good grass player having reached the 4th round at Wimbledon 7 times already in his career. Verdasco, who is the last 16 at the Championships for the 4th time, faces the Kevin De Schepper. Like the other two underdogs Kubot and Mannarino, the Frenchman took advantage of Cilic`s withdraw but didn`t lose a set on his way to the 2nd week. His successful campaign comes completely unexpected having lost to the likes of Kyle Edmund (a British player ranked 442) and the American Denis Kudla (ranked 112) in the build up to Wimbledon.

WOMEN`S DRAW - TOP HALF – 1ST QUARTER

Serena Williams extended her impressive winning streak to 34 matches and is even more confident on her chances of clinching a 6th title at the Championships (her 4th in the last 5 years) after Sharapova and Azarenka`s premature exits. She only dropped 11 games in her first 3 matches but in the 4th round she faces one of the few possible threats left in the draw, the German Sabine Lisicki. The 24th seed, who now lives in Bradenton (Florida), has struggled with serious injuries all throughout her career, but this didn’t prevent her from reaching the quarter finals twice and the semi finals once in her last 3 appearances at Wimbledon. She is one of the few players who can, on a good day, compete with Serena`s powerful groundstrokes and has been outstanding in her wins against Schiavone, Vesnina and Stosur in the previous rounds. Also the Estonian Kaia Kanepi`s career has been filled with injuries (the last one prevented her from starting the season before April), but, just like Lisicki, she plays her best tennis in the big events as proved by her 4 quarter finals in Majors, including one at Wimbledon in 2010. Kanepi, will play British 20 years old talent Laura Robson. She`s the first Brit to reach the 2nd week of the tournament since 1998 and has impressed so far in her young career having beaten Kim Clijsters at the US Open and Petra Kvitova in Australia. She defeated number 10 seed Maria Kirilenko in the 1st round and is the first female player who had a big crowd gathering on the Aorangi Park Hill to watch her matches on the big screen outside the Center Court. Something that only happened to Tim Henman and Andy Murray before her.

WOMEN`S DRAW - TOP HALF – 2nd QUARTER

Agnieszka Radwanska is now according to the ranking the 2nd main favorite for the Women`s Single. She had a great 2012 highlighted by the Wimbledon final she lost to Serena. After a good start of the year (winning the first 2 tournaments she played in Auckland and Sydney) she didn’t impress on clay. She has only shown bites of her best tennis in tournament so far, but if Serena slips (metaphorically or literally) she is a serious candidate to go all the way to the trophy. Radwanska faces another unseeded player with a good record at the Championships, the Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova who got to the semi finals in 2010 and the quarter finals in 2011. She trashed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the 1st round and has a very effective game on grass. Na Li, on the contrary, has never played particularly well on this surface (she only reached 2 quarter finals in London, that is not much for a player of her caliber) and has struggled with her form after her Australian Open final. However, having gone through tricky matches like the 3rd round against Klara Zakopalova (the Chinese eventually won 8-6 in the 3rd set) she now has the experience and the fitness to try to at least get to the Semis. Li will play the best ranked of the 3 Italians who got to the last 16, Roberta Vinci. Italy has now more players than any other country in the women`s draw as well as in both draws combined. All 4 Italians are underdogs in their next matches but, even if their journeys ended here, these results confirm the progress that Italy, mainly in the women circuit, has made in the last 5-6 years. Vinci, whose classical style is perfectly suited for grass, is at 30 playing the best tennis of her career (she`s 11th in the last WTA ranking) and with her partner Errani is also the favorite for the Women`s Double.

WOMEN`S DRAW - BOTTOM HALF – 3rd QUARTER

This section of draw presents a good opportunity to reach the semi finals for two promising youngsters : Sloane Stephens and Monica Puig. Stephens is already an established top 20 players and has shown her potential reaching the semis at the last Australian Open (beating Serena and losing only after 3 tough sets against Vika Azarenka) and following up with the 4th round at the French Open. Puig is instead moving her first steps on the circuit and is only playing her 2nd career Major. She`s improving fast though, being already 65th in the Ranking. She impressed reaching the 3rd round at Roland Garros and beating Sara Errani in straight sets in the 1st round in London. The winner will face either Marion Bartoli or the Italian Karen Knapp. Bartoli has already reached the final in 2007 when she upset Justine Henin in one the most unexpected results of the recent history of the tournament, only to lose against Venus Williams. On grass she makes the most of her baseline double handed shots and her insufficient mobility isn`t as exposed as on clay. Knapp has just reached her best Grand Slam results on what is probably her less favorite surface. She beat the 27th seed Lucie Safarova as well as Michelle Larcher de Brito, on her way to the second week.

WOMEN`S DRAW - BOTTOM HALF – 4th QUARTER

2011 Champion Petra Kvitova emerged from the “Black Wednesday” as the main favorite for a place in the final in bottom half of the draw. This year she played her best tennis only in Doha (where she lost in 3 hard-fought sets against Serena Williams) and Dubai (where she claimed the title) and didn`t impressed in the 2 matches (she took advantage of Shvedova`s withdraw in the 2nd round) she played so far at the Championships. However, should she improve her form in the next rounds she then has the game to trouble Serena. In the last 16 Kvitova faces Carla Suarez Navarro, the solid 18th seed Spanish who`s quite confortable on all surfaces . The winner will play either Belgian Kirsten Flipkens or Italian Flavia Pennetta. Flipkens is experiencing the best season of her career and stylistically has one of the most enjoyable game in the women circuit. Pennetta seemed at 31 on her way down, having dropped to 116 following a series of injuries and bad results. She had a poor 6 wins 10 losses record in 2013 prior to Wimbledon, a record that doesn`t give justice to a player who helped Italy winning the Fed Cup 3 times and reached the top 10 in 2009. After Azarenka`s withdraw she proved to deserve a her luck beating the 27th seed Alizee Cornet.

MY PREDICTIONS FOR THE SEMI FINALS

Men`s Single

Djokovic v Del Potro

Janowicz v Murray

Women`s Single

Williams v Li

Stephens v Kvitova