After an enthralling Day 1 at the All England Club, anyone who thought that drama in England is reserved to London’s West End must surely think differently. With the men’s No. 1 seed in grave danger and marathon matches galore, we were transfixed. (And where else will commentators wax poetically about the beauty of a well lit night match on Centre Court or analyze the “dew factor”?) So, let’s get to it:
Most Exciting Men’s Match: Roger Federer (1) vs. Alejandro Falla, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(1), 6-0. It’s been said many times today, but Falla was on fire – at least in the first two sets, which he decidedly took from defending champion Roger Federer. Don’t let the 6-0 final set fool you; pushing Federer to a fifth set makes Falla (ranked 60th in the world) a winner in our eyes and gives hope to the 63 others who make it past the first round.
Most Exciting Women’s Match: Alona Bondarenko (28) vs. Katie O’Brien, 6-3, 6-7(10), 6-4. What can we say … After watching British hopefuls Laura Robson, Melanie South, and Elena Baltacha fall earlier in the day, we had big hopes for 131st-ranked Katie O’Brien. She saved three match points and got four break points before finally giving way in the third set.
Early Exits: French Open champion Francesa Schiavone (5), Marin Cilic (11), Ivan Ljubicic (17), Stanislas Wawrinka (20), Tommy Robredo (30), Kateryna Bondarenko (34)
Centre Court Roof’s 2010 Debut: Because of fading sunlight rather than because of rain, play was temporarily stopped during the Novak Djokovic vs. Olivier Rochus match in order to close the roof and turn on the lights. Also …
Record Set: The Djokovic vs. Rochus match ended at 10:58 p.m. – the latest end ever of a match at Wimbledon.
First Five Lines from Today’s Official Wimbledon Poem by Matt Harvey, entitled “Thwok!”:
bounce bounce bounce bounce
thwackety wackety zingety ping
hittety backety pingety zang
wack, thwok, thwack, pok,
thwikety, thwekity, thwokity, thwakity
We would mock the lines (full poem found here) … except it does sound rather cool when read aloud.
