Federer and Roddick Move to Second Round of 2011 Wimbledon

June 21, 2011 | By David Drucker
Federer_Roddick_2011

Unfortunately, day one of the 125th Wimbledon Championships was shortened due to rain, forcing half of the scheduled day one matches to day two. The only men’s match that could finish after the rains had come was Andy Murray of Britian and Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain, playing under the roof on Centre Court. The Brit came out very nonchalant in the first set, not doing anything special, which ended up costing him. The Spaniard took the first set 6-4. As Murray held serve to go up 4-3 in the second set, he finally broke serve to go ahead and serve the set out 6-3. From there Murray did not drop a game clinching the match, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-0.

Six-time champion and world number three-ranked Roger Federer of Switzerland took care of his opening round opponent Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan in straight sets, 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-2. After a pretty even first set, Federer eventually got himself together as he raised his level of play to the finish line. Also through to round number two is American Andy Roddick who took out Andreas Beck of Germany in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6(6), 6-3. Roddick seemed comfortable on court number one, with his serve dictating play throughout the match. Roddick now faces the big-serving Romanian Victor Hanescu in the second round.

Other notable names through to the second round on day two thus far are Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, who routed Italy’s Flavio Cipolla, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3; Fernando Verdasco of Spain, who rallied from two sets to none down to beat Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, 2-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(6), 9-7; and Frenchman Gilles Simon moved on taking out fellow countryman Edouard Roger-Vasselin in four sets, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(3).

As far as upsets are concerned, only a few of the lower seeds fell on day two. Number 23-seeded Janko Tipseravic of Serbia was forced to retire with an injury against the big Croatian Ivo Karlovic, otherwise known as Dr. Ivo. The number 26 seed Marin Cilic, also of Croatia, fell to fellow countryman Ivan Ljubicic in four sets. Lastly, the number 29 seed, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, fell to the young up-and-coming Bernard Tomic of Australia in straight sets.

Still left to play is world number two Novak Djokovic of Serbia, the number five seed Robin Soderling of Sweden, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, as well as American John Isner who will face France’s Nicolas Mahut in their rematch of last year’s epic first round five-setter.
 


David Drucker
Oneononedoubles banner art resize
USTA NTC

January/February 2024 Digital Edition