Qualifier Melanie Oudin is through to the third round of Wimbledon

Good win for Hewitt, knocking out Del Potro to give himself a clear run to the quarters. Is there a bit of hope for Hewitt or more of a case of Del Potro’s aversion to grass? Stosur came back to end qualifier Malek’s nice run but Oudin’s still going. Otherwise all seeds won and Ferrero took care of Santoro’s wizardry. Cibulkova and Zvonareva both pulled from doubles, either because they have injury concerns or they just hate their partners.

The Guardian has noticed that lots of tennis players are from Eastern Europe. Starts well though: “There was a lovely moment at a tournament in the United States a few years ago when Vera Zvonareva of Russia was fretting over the thought that she might be overwhelmed by reporters who wanted to speak to her. In stepped the Australian Jelena Dokic, never one to mince her words. "I don't think you need to worry about that, Vera," she said.”

Kamakshi Tandon’s Wimbledon live blog.

Sharapova out, Llodra down

Llodra cleaned up a suitably terrified ball girl and ended his participation in the tournament, Dani finished off the best Chinese chance, Cibulkova beat Radwanska the Lesser, Vesnina had a good win and Dulko earned herself a spot on the Wimbledon Director’s hate-list as well as that of every TV sports executive. She who is money, the Great Maria Sharapova is out. Is there any point continuing?

The surprising Vinci run continues as does Kulikova’s. Jelena Dokic did commentary on Oz TV for the Groth match. Rather a short gig as Serena carved the new Australian up. A new career for Dokic perhaps? Oh and Serena's writing a script.

Few surprises for the men, only Sela beating Schuettler and claycourter Almagro taking down Beck in five. Is Dent losing a surprise? Bolelli (back) gave Tsonga a walkover. Fish did beat the dangerous Tipsarevic.

More Ana Ivanovic Adam Scott rumours. Apparently he's skipping some golf tournament to watch her play at Wimbledon. Hope he hurries or he may be too late...

Ana Ivanovic gets air

Oudin won, Glatch lost, good day for lucky losers and qualifiers, but what is it with Dokic? Li Na covers up her tat for Wimbledon, Sammy choked a little, Marat took his bows early (even for him) and more tears for Alize Cornet.

The Vaidisova slump continues but we can’t blame the Worm anymore. Some Scottish guy won, the Williams both cruised, Jankovic got her act together but Ivanovic struggled (as usual). Santoro showed he still has it and Kiefer doesn’t. The Bandana man is running out of time. Lisicki showing more signs of arriving, but Chaky is being left behind.

Sven Groenefeld from Adidas is working with Wozniacki, not Ivanovic, although the Woz nearly wasted it all against 38yr old Date. Does this mean former number one and French Open winner Ivanovic, who walked out on Adidas before recently returning, has been supplanted as Adidas’ top player? Though she does get Darren Cahill instead.

Vaidisova and Stepanek the Worm are over.

Anne Keothavong was asked if she should apologise for letting people down. Poor little overhyped Brit. Will they ask Murray that when he fails to win it all?

Kamakshi Tandon’s Wimbledon live blog.

Taylor Dent blamed for upsetting Ana Ivanovic.

Nike gets all excited about Federer. http://niketennis.com/rf/

Sharapova down but not out.

Sharapova’s got a new bag, but then so has Federer. They both won anyway as did Hantuchova after a spot of 15yr old bother.

Robson did beat up Larcher de Brito off court. "It's such an unattractive sound, isn't it," said Robson. Take that! And held off renaming Henman Hill after her just yet.

Blake’s not getting any better. Tammy ran out of luck. Rybarikova ruined her pre-tournament success and Beck ousted Lopez. This is the Beck back from suspension, not the Beck beaten by Granollers. I know, try to stay with it.

Djokovic gets hammered by The Tennis Expert’s Blog but has less trouble with Benneteau. Apparently he bounces the ball a lot. Half an hour of bouncing in total. That’s going to get the punters in – it’s even worse when he plays Nadal as the latter has his own form of go slow. Now if we can only get them to grunt too.

Wimbledon 2009 – The slacker’s guide to who might win

Men:
Nadal should be the clear favourite but he’s out (probably due to being snubbed as top seed although he apparently has sore knees too) leaving Federer as the one to beat though the local press will no doubt install Murray as favourite. Meanwhile the promised Djokovic breakthrough never happened leaving him fourth out of the big four who could conceivably win a tournament like this.

Del Petro is due to win one of these but is more likely to do so on a hard court. This is Federer’s to lose, but can Murray step up?

Del Potro’s Quarter
Seeds: Tursunov, Stepanek, Berdych, Roddick, Davydenko, Melzer, Ferrer
Players to watch: Hewitt, Clement, Chardy, Fognini, Starace
Winner: Del Potro

Murray’s Quarter
Seeds: Wawrinka, Simon, Safin, F Gonzalez, Kiefer
Players to watch: Dent, Gulbis, Fererro, Santoro
Winner: Murray

Djokovic’s Quarter
Seeds: Blake, Haas, Andreev, Cilic, Robredo, Fish, Schuettler
Players to watch: Querrey, Tipsarevic, Benneteau, Sela, Ljubicic, Seppi
Winner: Djokovic

Federer’s Quarter
Seeds: Verdasco, Karlovic, Tsonga, Soderling, Kohlschreiber, Lopez, Montanes
Players to watch: Canas, Bolelli, Beck, Darcis, Dancevic
Winner: Federer

Final: Murray vs Federer

Winner: Roger Federer

Women:
Wimbledon is Venus William’s tournament but she always looks a shaky pick, yet still glides through the draw. Sharapova’s back but still toughing it out. Serena Williams will threaten but hasn’t been dangerous for a while. Jankovic and Ivanovic both have problems and may fall early. Dementieva has the easiest quarter but is in worrying form. Russians Kuznetsova and Safina haven’t done much here and probably won’t this year either. Wozniacki may well be in position for her final breakthrough if she can get past Venus.

Safina’s Quarter
Seeds: Szavay, Mauresmo, Wozniacki, Pennetta, Chakvetadze, AMG, Kuznetsova
Players to watch: Vaidisova, A Bondarenko, Baltacha, Kirilenko, Garbin, Keothavong, Lisicki, Mayr
Winner: Wozniacki

Venus Williams’ Quarter
Seeds: Jankovic, Suarez Navarro, Stosur, Ivanovic, A Radwanska, Li Na

Players to watch: Voegele, Dokic, Errani, Glatch, Oudin, Perebiynis, O’ Brien, Benesova, Goerges, Makarova
Winner: Venus

Dementieva’s Quarter
Seeds: Zvonareva, Cibulkova, Razzano, Bartoli, Cornet, Kleybanova
Players to watch: Johansson, Pironkova, Larcher De Brito, Zakopalova, Chan, Coin, Wickmayer, Karatantcheva, Sprem, Kulikova, Rezai, U Radwanska, Vesnina
Winner: Dementieva

Serena Williams’ Quarter
Seeds: Azarenka, Cirstea, Sharapova, Petrova, Zheng, Pavlyuchenkova

Players to watch: Olaru, Kutuzova, Tanasugarn, Hantuchova, Robson, Rybarikova, Groth, Bremond, Mirza
Winner: Sharapova

Final: Wozniacki vs Sharapova

Winner: Caroline Wozniacki

Caroline Wozniacki wins Eastbourne

The Woz beat Razzano in a break-fest in Eastbourne and Tursunov beat Dancevic, Tammy won Rosmalen and qualifier Becker won the men’s. Second title this year for Wozniacki.

Fed is sad that Rafa won’t be there to beat him again. Murray’s sad too - really. Serena was left to say the truth, “I’m sad. I’m a huge Nadal fan but I’m sure there’s a lot of guys on the men’s tour who were probably celebrating and partying.”

The Times gets religious about Fed.

Henman tips Murray to win. Well sort of.

If Moody Maria was in charge – she’d fix tennis. And she has some decent ideas, More replays, less dogs, no bimbos in the player’s lounge, less tournaments (no end of year championship), use the internet more, boot the on-court coaching, dancers and clowns, no makeup, less injury timeouts, fashion police (boot Mattek) and more colour at Wimbledon and randomise the draw and surface each round. Anyone want to start a petition to put Maria Sharapova in charge?

Laura Robson to lose first round (to Hantuchova).

Hewitt beat Nadal who may miss Wimbledon

photo credit: IAN KINGTON/AFP/Getty Images

Razzano beat Radwanska and plays Bartoli, Wozniacki thrashed Makarova and gets another showdown with her Canadian nemesis, Safina wore down Hantuchova in worrying typical style, Tammy beat Pennetta and Schiavone and Wickmayer had easy wins.

Nadal lost to Hewitt in a let’s-test-out-the-knees exo. Can we assume he takes Uncle Toni’s advice and heads home? Monfils is already out.

Dancevic’s still going, Santoro was losing when Ljubicic retired, Tursunov loves grass all of a sudden and Garcia-Lopez beat Tipsarevic. Llodra, Ferrer, Chardy and Sela all lost.

ESPN picks the men and the women.

Top ten men going into Wimbledon (Tennis Chick)

Video: New Fed Ad

Maria Sharapova on display

Razzano dumped Dementieva, Wozniacki beat Stosur, Radwanska the Greater got a free pass when Li Na took an early shower (abdominal strain), Bartoli showed up Chakvetadze’s form for what it is, Mauresmo hates tiebreaks and Petrova retired (lower back).

Bogdanovic looked great and still lost to Tursunov, Querrey bombed and Dancevic’s surprising run continues. Hantuchova and Schiavone beat the Bondarenko’s, Safina cruised and Govortsova crushed Dechy.

Baghdatis hurt his knee, Schuettler and Ferrer advanced and Chardy beat Dick Norman (is he still playing?)

International tennis star Maria Sharapova was today kidnapped and locked in a window display by some fashion group and forced to model futuristic designs. Apparently this is what the future will look like. But will there be grunting?

Nadal and Safina are top seeds for The Championships. Take that Venus. Safin and Sharapova got a lift, as did Schuettler, but mostly they stuck with the rankings. It’s ok Dinara, we know it’s not your fault and we don’t expect you to win or anything. Apparently Nadal “is only top seed if he plays.”

The Global Sports Forum (part 1).

Great tennis names

Are the young stars ready? Er, probably not...

Chakvetadze’s back!

Seeds in flight on Eastbourne as Kuznetsova, Jankovic and Zvonareva dialled in and dropped out. Better luck next week. Radwanska beat Radwanska (and about time for big sis), the Woz thumped the dangerous Kleybanova and Groth lost the battle of the qualifiers.

Is the real Chakvetadze back or will this pass? Azarenka joined Rybarikova on the I can’t be bothered playing injury list but was spotted playing football quite healthily. I’m sure she’ll be right for the next tournament.

Qualifier Becker beat Verdasco and the forgotten man of tennis Marcus Baghdatis beat Robredo – that’s the top seeds out in a nice effort. Don’t forget this is grass gentlemen, try to make an adjustment.

Apparently some women players grunt.

Video: Justine Henin gave up tennis for this?

Andy Murray as Fred Perry

Ivanovic managed to lose first to get any remaining expectations out of the way. Now even if she makes the second round at The Championships it’ll be seen as an improvement. In other news Murray is still the firm local favourite to win the most British of tennis tournaments. Obviously none of the locals are expecting Jet Boy or TMF to show up. Won’t they be surprised. Murray to lose in the semis. Even if he’s dressed like Fred Perry.

Wimbledon qualifying already - draws here:

Sharapova on 15 yr old Robson, who will be the youngest ever singles player at The Championships. (And Virgina Wade on everyone please backing off and having a quiet cup of tea.)

Fed answers the tough questions: Disposable or cloth diapers? (Answer: Fed hates the environment)

Pete Bodo kicks the WTA. Hey Pete why don't you become a blogger then you can do that every day. Oh wait...

Sharapova does ESPN mag. Yes, she designed the cover – that’s why she hates it so much that she’s ripping it up. Can I be paid to design magazine covers please?

Caroline Wozniacki is the new face of Stella McCartney's outfits, replacing Maria Kirilenko who will concentrate on other things like practising her tennis.

Magdalena Rybarikova wins her first title

Magdalena Rybarikova beat Li Na who admitted she played her final the match before against Sharapova. It’s Rybarikova’s first title and with her game nicely suited to grass she could make the proverbial run at The Championships. Another head-case comes good maybe.

Great White Hope Andy Murray beat Blake to set hearts racing before Wimbledon and in Halle Haas knocked off Djokovic in what many assumed would be a cakewalk for the fourth of the big four. Nadal and Federer skipped Queens and Halle to allow Murray and the Djoker to prance around centre stage a little.

James Blake smiles while holding the world's silliest trophy. That's what you get for losing.

The DampAsses face a crisis.

Magdalena Rybarikova is in the Birmingham Semis

Rybarikova beat Radwanska the Lesser, and will play Mirza who beat Czink, Sharapova tossed Wickmayer in three and Li Na overcame Voegele for the chance to lose to Sharapova in the Semi.

Ferrero justified his wildcard into Wimbledon by coming from behind to beat Darcis and make a grass semi-final, Murray beat Fish, Roddick won two more tiebreaks to squeeze past Karlovic and Blake also won.

Two Germans left in Halle: Kohlscreiber and Haas, Djokovic and Rochus make up the rest.

Is That Jelena Jankovic on Twitter?!

Sania Mirza beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

photo credit: AP Photo/Simon Dawson

Sharapova wins twice in non-rain affected Birmingham, as do Rybarikova, Wickmayer and Radwanska the Lesser. Mirza had a good win against Pavlyuchenkova. At Queens Hewitt suffers the curse of the tiebreak against Roddick (losing a match with facing a break point). Roddick will now play Karlovic as punishment. You can probably hear Lleyton’s sigh of relief from here. Djokovic won in Halle and Kiefer retired.

The Onion asks whether Federer is the GOAT.

Mad Damir Dokic update: Jelena’s father has been sentenced to 15 months in prison and will appeal. News reports that Jelena had flown to Serbia to be beside her father are incorrect.

Rafael Nadal and his girlfriend Xisca in Mallorca.

Jelena Dokic glammed up

Jelena Dokic all glammed up for a recent photo shoot. Let's hope she recovers from her injury problems for The Championships.

Simona Halep versus the idiots

The Sun newspaper wants to save Simona Halep's assets. Good luck with that. Halep has said she will undergo breast reduction surgery later this year in order to help her tennis career. It's a brave step by the talented youngster and hopefully one that will reward her.

Meanwhile 833 people (presumably all 14yr old boys) have signed a stupid petition against her operation.

More photos of Simona Halep can be found here.

Maria Sharapova (almost) wins

photo credit: AP Photo/Simon Dawson

Hewitt’s happy to be back on grass, Cilic and Baghdatis aren’t, Monfils is injured, Marat’s got a sore back and it rained in Birmingham, delaying Moody Maria’s win by one game (unless Glatch turns it around tomorrow and wins in three in which case it’s all the rain’s fault and Sharapova’s suddenly a mental midget).

A Brit actually won yesterday with WC Cavaday beating Tanasugarn who does knows how to play on grass. Is it too early to hype a Brit prospect? The other British girls all lost (including Keothavong), but Murray won. Laura Robson has a Wild Card for Wimbledon. Start queuing please.

Ana Ivanovic’s tennis might be in a slump but she’s still concentrating on her post tennis career as a fashion clothes horse.

Video: Nike pays out on the Swiss while pretending to laud Federer

Ana Ivanovic dumps coach

Warmup tournaments on in London, Birmingham and Halle. Fed’s out of Halle as he is "overwhelmed" and "exhausted" after his French Open win and saying he couldn’t give his best effort. Ana has dumped her coach and rejoined the crowd at Adidas - good luck with The Championships Ana!

Oh, How It Sucks To Be Lleyton and Bec Hewitt.

GOAT roundup.

Jelena Dokic wants to have kids.

The Djoker at Ana’s press conf.

Greatest Of All Time?

King Fed wins all and let the GOAT stories commence. Is he really the Greatest Of All Time? Or is he just lucky to have won most of his Majors in the pre-Nadal era? Is it possible to be the greatest of all time and still have a losing record against the current number one player? Let’s start by discounting Sampras. If you can’t win a Major on all surfaces then you’re not the GOAT. Let’s ignore Emerson (as most do). He won most of his Majors while the top players were off in exile playing Pro tennis. Let’s similarly dismiss Andre Agassi’s greatness (which is not so easy for most to do). Sure he won on all surfaces over an erratic career but he was clearly inferior to Sampras, and we’ve already removed him.

This leaves Rod Laver – the Rocket – ironically he was called the Rocket cause of his lack of pace, not because he was speedy. Don’t you love modern commentators? Laver won the Grand Slam twice, the real Slam not this career stuff or Serena Slam, and he did it twice. But he only did it on two surfaces and he did it at the beginning and end of his career (the middle was spent in exile in the Pros). Let’s dismiss the first Slam as the top players were absent etc. and look at his record against the other top players. He dominated all of them including Pancho Gonzales, another candidate for the GOAT, although Gonzales was then nearing the end of his career.

The fact is it’s too hard to measure players from different eras and Slams are an awkward way of doing so since we can really only count them since 1968. Let’s just agree that both Laver and Federer are both exceptional players and perhaps have another look at Nadal in a few year’s time.

Sveta dumps Dinara

The Kuz rules the tennis world again as she broke poor Safina’s heart and again underlines everything ever written about Safina’s inability to reach the highest perch of tennis greatness. 0 from three in Major finals. Redemption is fast fading from Safina but she’ll get two more chances this year. But let’s forget her for a while and remember Kuznetsova, the other form player (on clay) this year. For so long since her breakthrough she’s been a peripheral figure while others dominated, occupying the bottom half of the top ten, consistent, but never threatening. Time to notice her again – she’s a dual Major winner.

Fed vs Soderling tonight. Will history be kind to Fed to underline his greatness with a career Slam? Or will his ignominious failure restart all the GOAT tragics into disbelief since he can’t even win on clay in Nadal’s absence. And therefore any failure will be ignominious since no one rates Soderling (and no one probably will). Federer in four.

Svetlana Kuznetsova is in the final

Safina overpowered Cibulkova after her usual slow start and Kuznetsova weathered the Stosur storm and now we get the final we expected at that start now that the usual distractions of Williams’ sisters and talented but underachieving Serbs have been eliminated.

Next it’s:
Soderling vs Gonzalez
The blazing battle to see who gets to lose to Fed. Gonzalez in three.

Del Potro vs Federer
Del Potro’s already conceded this it seems, which is nice of him but takes a little of the suspense from the game. Of course he could be messing with Fed’s head but no doubt we’ll all tune in to see if Roger’s ready to ascend to the vacant title and if Del Potro has any surprises to offer. Federer in four.

There’s more doubles on somewhere too if anyone cares.

Kim Clijsters puts some nice pressure on herself to instantly perform by bagging the current players who all play the same type of tennis.

Andy Roddick Twitters: everyone leave @mrbobbybones a message if u think his pic makes him look like a douche http://twitter.com/andyroddick

Sam Stosur advances to Semi-Finals

Federer beat Monfils to end French interest in the tournament. Now the only interest is if Fed can fulfil expectations and take the GOAT title so alluringly offered to him with his only missing major. And anyone who says he only won because he didn’t have to play Nadal can be pointed back two weeks to Madrid. (Not that Roger necessarily beats Rafa in Paris but it’s a convincing out.)

Del Potro beat Robredo as expected. Stosur dusted up Cirstea and looks awesome. But Kuznetsova took Serena down and that’s all you’ll read about. Serena refused to give any credit to her opponent as usual but Sveta did play smart and kept her head (when all those around are losing theirs) and deserved to win.

Next it’s:
Safina vs Cibulkova
Dominika destroyed Sharapova but Safina will be more difficult and will return everything. She also has more weapons and the superior game (and dare we say better temperament?) But Cibulkova could win this and next year she might. Not this year sorry. Safina in three.

Stosur vs Kuznetsova
Let’s assume Sveta won’t be blown away by the big serve and forehand like Cirstea was and that Stosur maintains her cool and big booming game. This should be a good contest. Kuznetsova in three.

Ten reasons to love tennis.

Cibulkova and Safina triumph

Soderling dumps Davydenko, Gonzo ended all English interest in the tournament – except for that Robson girl: oops she lost too – Safina weathered the Azarenka perfect set storm and ignored the histrionics to pass her first real test and Cibulkova announced herself with a bullet. (Surgeons will remove the bullet from Sharapova’s head later today.)

So who is this Soderling and why is he winning matches against great clay-courters? Is he another Martin Verkerk who came from nowhere to reach the French final in 2003 before promptly returning to obscurity? Or will he parley his success into a regular place in the elite ala Jim Courier (1991). A bit difficult to care at present.

Next it’s:
Fed vs Monfils
The second best player on clay for the last four years against Action Man - licensed to thrill. Finally the French have a player who is in a position to win it all and excite the crowd at the same time. Jumping Gael Monfils. Probably the best time to play Roger too, just after a five setter and burdened with expectations that he’s never had before at the French as he’s never been the favourite here. Monfils in four.

Del Potro vs Robredo
Does it matter? Fed will beat either of them and Monfils probably will too. Oh, ok then Del Potro in four.

Cirstea vs Stosur
Stosur’s woken up ditched the doubles and decided that a big serve and big forehand will work on clay. A bit like Roddick – oh wait. Cirstea is a boom youngster on a one-way mission up the rankings and could win this if she can hang around long enough and unsettle Stosur. Otherwise the Australian will blow her away. Stosur in two.

Kuznetsova vs Serena Williams
Sveta plays the friend card and grabs a little media attention (almost impossible in the Serena vacuum) but will it be enough to save her from a beating? Although if you do need to beat Serena clay is where to do it and the Kuz is comfortable on clay (and indeed everywhere). Beware an angry Serena. Kuznetsova in three.

It’s the pink shirt obviously!

Fed tried his best to lose but just couldn’t manage it, let’s write up Haas as a chronic underachiever whose legendary ability to underperform is usually ascribed to injuries. Is Fed still the favourite or do we have to factor in Del Potro, Monfils or even the supposed long-shot Murray? Can Monfils’ knees really go the distance?

Clearly Rafa’s loss was due solely to the colour of his attire. The pink shirt. Any other explanation defies explanation. On no planet does the Swedish journeyman (and most hated man in the locker room – before he beat Rafa) beat Nadal on clay. It must be the shirt which was probably cursed by some deranged Federer fan (or Borg fan?). Luckily he’ll have to wear white for The Championships.

In the women’s Serena shut up and won, Radwanska complained and lost and one of Stosur or Cirstea will be in a semi-final. This is looking more and more like a Williams / Safina final. Although if Azarenka can get past Safina she might win it all.

Rafa blogs about the curse of the pink shirt and playing doubles with Fed... http://timesonline.typepad.com/rafael_nadal/

Uncle Toni calls the French crowd stupid.

Did Serena really say “I’m going to get you in the locker room for that; you don’t know me,” to the girl she hit who lied to claim the point.

Video: Monfils' Amazing Point

Rafa is human

Nadal lost his mojo, Djokovic lost his strength, Dementieva lost her fitness, Ivanovic just lost it. New champions abound and it’s hard not to see them named Federer and Safina. Still perhaps the surprises thrown up by this most arduous of Majors haven’t finished yet and there is still the lurking presence of both a cow on ice and a Williams sister.

Seriously how does Nadal lose to Soderling? He thrashed him just recently on clay. Did he take him too lightly? Impossible, this is Rafa who prepares for each match the same. Who knows. You can understand Ivanovic losing, it was always going to happen and Djokovic is always prepared to chuck in the towel but Rafa? Perhaps he is human after all.

Rafa blogs about drug testing but not yet about Swedish journeymen... http://timesonline.typepad.com/rafael_nadal/

Up close and personal with Nikolay Davydenko

Video: Ana Ivanovic talks about losing