It was another rainy day as tennis continues to get battered in Europe. June is normally a good month in the UK but the last few weeks have been just dreadful. They actually got more play completed today than I expected but there are 14 first round matches still to be played. Thursday’s schedule is WILD with so much going on. I’m going to Wimbledon tomorrow with my brother and i’ll be on court 2 so more pictures to come. Anyway, here are Wednesday’s Set Points.

Andrea Petkovic was the first winner of the day as she needed just seven points to wrap up a three set victory over Nao Hibino, 3-6 7-5 6-2. Petkovic now faces Elena Vesnina in the second round, which should be a good one.

The only other winner in the women’s draw on the outside courts during the first spell of play was Evgeniya Rodina who defeated Lesia Tsurenko in straight sets, 6-3 7-5. Rodina won the ITF $50k tournament in Ilkley just over a week ago. Tomas Berdych’s first round match with Ivan Dodig continued in the rain with both slipping all over the place. Berdych threatened to make life difficult for himself but managed to see off Dodig in the fourth set tiebreak having missed a match point earlier in the set.

Over on Centre Court, Agnieszka Radwanska, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer all won in straight sets. Radwanska was solid in a 6-2 6-1 victory over Kateryna Kozlova in 63 minutes. The scoreline was a little harsh on Kozlova who played pretty well. The pair each hit 14 winners, but Kozlova’s unforced error count was her undoing.

Djokovic failed to serve out the match against Adrian Mannarino in the third set but eventually took it in an entertaining third set tiebreak, 6-4 6-3 7-6(5). Mannarino played a good match and should have broken at the start of the third set when he played three magnificent points to go up *0-40 on Djokovic’s serve. The Serb though just proved why he is the world number one.

And the most anticipated match of the day saw Federer take out the qualifier, Marcus Willis, 6-0 6-3 6-4. It was a really fun match… it was kind of weird because it felt like an exhibition at the start!

Centre Court got two extra matches, starting with Belinda Bencic v Tsvetana Pironkova. Bencic produced arguably her best performance of the year to win, 6-2 6-3. The scoreline didn’t do this match justice AT ALL. Seriously, it was a fantastic match. The pair combined for 48 winners (BB 32 and TP 16) to just 27 unforced errors (BB 15 and TP 12). Pironkova didn’t play a bad match at all but Bencic was taking the ball so early and playing aggressively.

It was BB’s first time on Centre Court and she looked so happy to be out there!

And I loved this from BB hahaha!

I feel bad for not believing in Bencic as I thought Pironkova was winning this one… Bencic had been struggling in Birmingham and Eastbourne but she looked great today. She could play Elena Vesnina (who defeated her in Eastbourne) in the third round but in this form, she could be set for a deep run. Bencic has a favourable draw in the second round where she plays Julia Boserup. One match at a time…

The final match of the day saw Eugenie Bouchard finish off Magdalena Rybarikova, 6-3 6-4. It made sense to move this match since it was the only one in the eighth of the draw that hadn’t finished. Still, I found the scheduling to be baffling on Wednesday with second round men’s matches being played before some first round matches had even taken to the court. Bouchard had a few jitters trying to close but she got there in the end!

Play did resume on the outside courts for a time with Petra Kvitova and Jo Konta both wrapping up straight set wins. Kvitova was in superb form, defeating Sorana Cirstea, 6-0 6-4 in just 54 minutes. Cirstea won just four (!) points in the first set as she struggled to find the court. When I saw Cirstea get on the board in the second set, I was convinced that P3tra was happening but surprisingly, there was no drama! Kvitova looked goooood out there.

Konta recovered from a break down in the second set to beat Monica Puig, 6-1 7-5. Konta’s serve was really impressive and mentally, she kept it together for a first EVER win at Wimbledon.

Play was eventually suspended with quite a few players slipping on the grass. Annika Beck hurt her ankle, while Peng Shuai took a nasty tumble too. The following women’s matches are in play…

Court 5: Stephens-Peng 6-6

Court 9: Minella leads Tatishvili, 3-1 *15-15

Court 12: Beck leads Watson, 3-6 6-0 1-0 *30-15

Court 14: Kontaveit leads Strycova, 3-2 15-40*

Bacsinszky-Kumkhum, Mladenovic-Sasnovich, Makarova-Larsson and Krunic-Niculescu have yet to take to the court. Thursday’s schedule is manic haha!

I enjoyed this piece by Reem Abulleil on Maria Sakkari who plays Venus Williams in the second round of Wimbledon. I’m shocked the match is out on court 18. Perhaps I need to calm down but I find this to be pretty disrespectful to a five-time Wimbledon champion.

Petra makes me laugh!

Since today was lacking in tennis at Wimbledon, a few alternative tennis pieces to end Set Points! A heads up for the Smashbook Tennis Tracker… this app allows you to track your tennis scores, stats, friends and foes like a pro. It is a data driven cloud app that brings sophisticated tennis analytics to all players, which allows you to do the following.

• Track a live match or log a finished match with your iPhone or iPad
• Log your practice sessions
• Stay connected with players and find new players
• See connected player’s match and practice results from anywhere.
• View your activity and stats. Head to Head, All time or by year.

Seaters, a company that provide innovative solutions to allow organizers and sponsors of sports events to fill seats, have tickets available to the Davis Cup, which you can find out more details about by registering an account HERE.

Jamie Murray talks in the video below about how his mum was key to his and brother Andy’s tennis success. You can find out more information HERE.

And finally hahaha Judy! I’m looking forward to a Pimms at Wimbledon tomorrow 🙂

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