It had to happen. Sport to this point somehow had remained immune from the evil clutches of climate change. However, in the seaside town of Eastbourne around 6.15pm Wednesday 15 June 2011, it rained whereas previously it had not, and a tennis match was interrupted. Now finally the climate change sceptics will sit up and take notice. Certainly Rainer Schuettler from Germany and Kei Nishikori from Japan will. They have to come back tomorrow and have another crack at battling through their second round match, and the winner will be required to play a quarter final later the same day.
All the fun and games await, and that depends on whether the rain clears for Thursday - perhaps Mr Schuettler should have chosen a more suitable first name.
What did we establish today? One Williams sister is still in Eastbourne while the other packed her bags and the last I saw of Serena was waving goodbye from the taxi after I shouted her 4 pounds for her fare to the station. Venus impressed (apparently, because I didn't see the match) by defeating Ana Ivanovic who was yesterday's impresser. The reason I wasn't taking watch over that match? I was guarding a seat court side at court 3, prime position for Sam Stosur's round two match, and to do that I needed to be there for the preceding men's match.
That started out to be a fizzer, with Russia's Igor Kunitsyn simply outclassing unhappy qualifier Illya Marchenko from the Ukraine. Illya must have had a bad night and seemed to want to be anywhere but England or at least this part of it. Then remarkably after a healthy tantrum, racquet toss or two, the first set domination was turned on its head in the second with the still miserable Marchenko barrelling through to tie things up with a third and final set to play. Both Europeans were playing clay court shots to perfection, oblivious that under their footwear was carpet smooth lawn.
Although Marchenko achieved the early break in the final set, it wasn't decisive and the more accomplished Kunitsyn proved the steadier, winning the last several games and the match.
An Aussie to watch an Aussie - maybe the Hewitt curse would not extend to Stosur. Early signs appeared to relay that hope clearly. Sam raced to 5-0 against young Serbian Bojana Jovanovski, who with Viktor Troicki belies the myth that all Serb tennis players should have surnames ending with "vic". It must be the rebel in her, but today she was a rebel without much of a cause - Stosur's serving was right on the money, her forehand sharper than in recent times and she found opportunities to move to the net and shorten points, a tactic that must be employed if Wimbledon is to be enjoyed more than one round as last year.
Apart from one dreadful service game, the first set was prim and proper 6-3 and the second pristine. Sam was through to a quarter final against Serena Williams or Vera Zvonareva, which match I was to see the conclusion of next.
Serena was a set and a break to the good, so I thought this mere preparation for the next men's match, then out of the blue serving for the match the best serve in women's tennis failed. 5-5 progressed to a tie-break which the Russian won and with the momentum also ran out a 5-2 third set lead. Twice Vera could not serve for the match, but after aching hard work and wonderful shot making to twice break back, Serena Williams let it all slide in a dog of a service game. A third chance would not slip the grasp of top seed Zvonareva 3-6 7-6 7-5
Her record against Sam Stosur recently is not good but on grass she is the 2010 Wimbledon runner-up.
Radek Stepanek from the Czech Republic is like a hibernating animal - hides away during the cold seasons then comes out around grass court season to cause trouble. His record over the years is pretty good, a former top ten player who this time last year was top twenty or thirty. Although he is now around the fifties in the rankings it is not a true measure of his competence, and today Jo-Wilfried Tsonga felt the full brunt of it. The top seeded French player was completely shut out, losing his opening serve, and not improving any from there. Stepanek played perfect grass court tennis, moving naturally forward and volleying making Tsonga look all at sea.
The match was over quicker than we expected had we expected a Tsonga loss, but he will bounce back from the straight sets defeat better than some of those balls that were hit today. Stepanek could well be a nuisance in the first week at Wimbledon.
While Centre Court devoted much time and effort to taking care of the Williams siblings, other craziness occurred on outside courts - Li Na, this year's winner at Roland Garros, lost to Daniela Hantuchova and the conquered French Open finalist, Francesca Schiavone, also bowed out, her problems caused by Agnieszka Radwanska. Top seeds moving through included Azarenka and Kvitova.
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