Saturday at Wimbledon the first time was a good one - at least it was once they opened the gates and let us in. A security scare had us queued up for ages, something I had not envisaged having paid significant dollars for a Court One Debenture ticket.
Once in I confirmed that my seat was indeed excellent, not so much the construction and texture of it but the view of the court that it provided, being in the lower reaches of Level 2. The first match was a resumption of Nadal's third round encunter with Gilles Muller which Rafa led by a set. Because the players were not due on court until 1.00pm, I could, and indeed did do some wandering around other courts to see who was in action sooner.
Mardy Fish and Robin Haase were to play at 12.00 on an outside court very close to Court One, but before that I tried out the Court One Debenture Ticket Holder Lounge - specifically the bar. Initially I trialled a Chardonnay, but wasn't certain it had all the answers so I moved straight to a Guinness, the debut of that beverage for me on this excursion.
As Fish was proving elusive for the angling Haase, time to find my seat for the Nadal match. First time I had seen him live since the Roland Garros triumph. No signs of any lapse in form with surface differentiation. However, Muller provided stiff opposition once more in set two, and again a tie break needed to separate the players.
Only the first slight error from the lesser player was required for the world number one to seize the chance to win through the second set tie break and lead 7-6 7-6. No contribution from Gilles unfortunately from that moment to our pleasure as Rafa rattled off six reasonably satisfying games to cruise into yet another Grand Slam tournament fourth round, to play a dangerous opponent as circumstances would dictate, Juan Martin Del Potro.
Nothing too dangerous around for Serena Williams, certainly of the female gender anyway. Surely and not very slowly Williams the younger is finding power and touch and her hunger is frightening to see on court. The prey today was pretty young Russian Maria Kirilenko, who had done nothing wrong except appear at the other end of the court from the raging defending champion. If Rafa had been the Spanish bull released to charge at a defenseless matador in the previous match, then Serena was a female equivalent metaphor which I am not courageous enough to express even here - she scares me.
Kirilenko can play a good brand of women's tennis but that is about two or three times short of adequate when playing Serena in the form she displayed today. The serve was booming and consistent, making it immediately a pressure cooker each time Maria went to the line for her turn. Broken in her first game, she should have been the same in her second, but for some luck and resilience for which she should be given credit. Merely staying on court with the champion took gumption.
The first set rolled by swiftly enough and the groundstrokes that we saw from the Williams racquet helped to almost erase the fact that the woman had not played competitive tennis for 12 months and underwent major emergency surgery not all that many months ago.
After scrunching Kirilenko up and throwing her in the waste disposal along with many other of her victims, Serena is now possibly looking for the next Maria problem to solve. It could well be a tougher one if the two end up opposing semi finalists - form suggests that may very well happen.
One Australian singles player remained in Wimbledon in the third round following the earlier defeat of Jarmila Gajdosova on Centre Court. 18 year old Bernard Tomic, who has promised more than a roomful of politicians at an election launch, this year earned his way through to this part of Wimbledon on the back of 3 wins in Qualifying and main draw wins over 2 Russians - Davydenko who sneezes if you even start to talk of grass, and the more impressive five set win (after dropping the opening two) against Andreev.
Court One today represented the biggest challenge - fifth seed Swede Robin Soderling, who had earlier crushed another Aussie's spirit by coming from behind to defeat Lleyton Hewitt. Tomic served first and easily held, throwing in a couple of aces to thrill the five or six Australians in the crowd. For the next quarter of an hour, the whole crowd was stunned, as nearly stunned as Soderling, when Tomic tore the heart out of the Swede's game.
Not once looking in trouble on serve but breaking Soderling the first couple of times, it was 5-0 to the teenager, whose variety clearly troubled Soderling, and the brazen attitude annoyed the Scandinavian. The huge groundshots are normally expected to intimidate, but Tomic was handling them with aplomb, respecting the unplayables, but mixing up the rallies with fine shots of his own particularly from the forehand side.
In 17 minutes Tomic was a set to the good 6-1 and Soderling looked ill. In fact he claimed he was, calling for assistance from the trainer. Beware the player with the injury/illness look. Nothing though would rattle the teenager today. Of course Soderling is too good a player not to be more competitive and so the second set proved, but he could not break the Aussie serve. Again Tomic found the slight opening to move ahead, and when asked to serve the set out, he gleefully accepted for the second time of the afternoon.
6-1 6-4. Surely not a straight sets win? Soderling serving first in the third set heaped immense pressure on Tomic, and at times we expected that he would finally wilt under the barrage of firepower with which the Swede was letting loose. Credit to Tomic for remaining focussed and only concentrating on the things he could control.
The key was serving at 4-5, and Soderling had two set points. Tomic responded with a marvellous serve and then would admit received some luck when Soderling missed the line by millimetres and missed out on taking the set. Instead in the next game Tomic pounced on some wayward Soderling shots and broke for 6-5.
Serving for the match was a little nervy, but he managed it punctuating the sentence with an ace for 6-1 6-4 7-5.
Tomic into Wimbledon fourth round to play Belgian Xavier Malisse on Monday. Go Aussie!
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