Mondays with Bob Greene
STARS
Wimbledon (First Week)
Sam Querrey beat top-seeded Novak Djokovic 7-6 (6) 6-1 3-6 7-6 (5)
Jana Cepelova beat second-seeded Garbiñe Muguruza 6-3 6-2
Juan Martin del Potro beat fourth-seeded Stan Wawrinka 3-6 6-3 7-6 (2) 6-3
Coco Vanderweghe beat sixth-seeded Roberta Vinci 6-3 6-4
Julia Boserup beat seventh-seeded Belinda Bencic 6-4 1-0 retired
Jiri Vesely beat eighth-seeded Dominic Thiem 7-6 (4) 7-6 (5) 7-6 (3)
Ekaterina Makarova beat 10th-seeded Petra Kvitova 6-4 6-2
SAYING
“It’s incredible, especially to do it at Wimbledon, the biggest tournament in the world. I am so ecstatic right now, so happy, and that’s about it.” – Sam Querrey, after upsetting top-ranked Novak Djokovic.
“He just overpowered me.” – Novak Djokovic, after losing to Sam Querrey.
“Obviously would have liked to win, but in our sport there is no draw.” – Dustin Brown, after losing a second-round match to Nick Kyrgios 6-7 (3) 6-1 2-6 6-4 6-4.
“I might take a day off tomorrow just because I can. I have to take them when I can. I’m an old guy.” – Roger Federer,
“Every time I step on the court, well, they want to beat me so much. They’re all loose because they don’t have anything to lose.” – Garbiñe Muguruza, the French Open champion after losing 6-3 6-2 to qualifier Jana Cepelova in a second-round match.
“I think that the short balls just killed me today, unfortunately. I missed them a lot.” – Petra Kvitova, after losing to Ekaterina Makarova.
“I’ve had a fantastic few weeks, and this has been great, but there’s life after Wimbledon, and I want more. More experiences like this. I have to knuckle down and work harder.” – Marcus Willis, a part-time tennis coach who made it through qualifying and the first round at Wimbledon before falling in straight sets to Roger Federer.
“You’re the worst umpire ever in the world.” – Viktor Troicki, after umpire Damiano Torella over-ruled a fault call as Albert Ramos-Vinolas was serving for the match.
“I feel alive again. After sitting at home for two years this feels like a second or third career.” – Juan Martin del Potro, who has undergone four wrist surgeries, including three in the last year, following his upset of fourth-seeded Stan Wawrinka.
“As we all say, it’s great for tennis to see him back. He’s a great guy, a really good player, big champion.” – Stan Wawrinka, talking about Juan Martin del Potro after their match.
“We don’t want more, just the same amount, that’s all.” – Venus Williams, accusing Wimbledon officials of discriminating against women when it comes to scheduling matches on its two biggest show courts.
“It’s tough because you have this tension. Not this match, but of my first-round already from Tuesday, then Wednesday, then I finally played on Thursday. Then right away you have to play on Friday. Then Friday it doesn’t end. The tension is still there.” – Timea Bacsinszky, who suffered more than most through rain delays at Wimbledon.
“I’m just doing my job.” – Umpire Marijana Veljovic, to Svetlana Kuznetsova after giving the Russian player a code violation for coaching.
“Well, you’re not doing it very well.” – Svetlana Kuznetsova, to umpire Marijana Veljovic.
“I was just really, really, really angry.” – Serena Williams, on smashing her racquet after a hawk-eye call went against her during her three-set win over Christina McHale.
“The thing is it’s not about winning or losing. It’s about playing. It’s a game. You win or lose. When you go step on the court, you don’t think about the end result. You just think about point by point.” – Svetlana Kuznetsova, on playing a match.
“People, in general, have this infinity inside of them. None of us feel old. None of us feel unable. We all feel able, no matter what age we are.” — Venus Williams, at age 36 the oldest woman playing at Wimbledon.
SAM’S THE MAN
It wasn’t that Novak Djokovic didn’t know what hit him. It was that he couldn’t see it as Sam Querrey slammed 31 aces and pulled off the shocker of the year by upsetting the world’s top-ranked player 7-6 (6) 6-1 3-6 7-6 (5). “Congratulations to Sam,” Djokovic said. “He played a terrific match. He serves very well. I think that part of his game was brutal today.” It appeared as if rain had come to Djokovic’s rescue. Querrey, all parts of his game working beautiful, took the first two sets before their match was halted by rain. When they returned to the court the next day, Djokovic ran through the first four games en route to taking the third set. The Serb’s calendar Grand Slam bid appeared to be back on track. Djokovic served for the fourth set at 5-4, but Querrey broke back to level the set and send it into another tiebreak. When Djokovic pulled a forehand wide, the American had his biggest career victory. “I think that today I played the break points really well,” Querrey said. “Every time he had a break point I was able to come up with a big serve. And in the end I just fought the tiebreak and got a couple of loose errors and that was it.”
SPECIAL SUNDAY
Because of the rain that repeatedly halted matches during the first week, matches were played on the middle Sunday at Wimbledon for only the fourth time, and the first time since 2004. The middle Sunday was also used in 1991 and 1997. Play this year was disrupted by rain on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, meaning all second-round matches were not completed until Saturday. Normally, the first Friday would be the first day of third-round matches in both the men’s and women’s singles competitions. This year is the 25th anniversary of what was dubbed “People’s Sunday” – when the general public could buy tickets and the normally staid grounds fill with fans who rarely get an opportunity to get tickets. The All England club said all 22,000 tickets for the middle Sunday sold out in 27 minutes.
SPANISH SHOCK
It was just last month when Garbiñe Muguruza won the French Open and her ranking jumped to number two in the world. None of that impressed Jana Cepelova. The 124th-ranked Slovakian needed just under an hour to crush Muguruza 6-3 6-2 in their second-round match. “I think my energy was missing a little bit today,” Muguruza said. “Today during the match and after the match I’m like, it’s a tough day today. I feel empty a little bit, and I start to be sick. But I think it was a little bit of a combination.” It was Cepelova thrashing her Spanish opponent. Muguruza was not the first highly-ranked player Cepelova has beaten. She topped then-third ranked Simona Halep at Wimbledon a year ago, and beat Serena Williams at the 2014 Charleston Open. Muguruza had played just two matches on grass since her Roland Garros win. The 22-year-old Spaniard lost in the first round of the Mallorca Open before beating Italy’s Camila Giorgi in three sets in her Wimbledon opener. “One day it’s going to go my way, another day no,” Muguruza said. “Hopefully, my consistency will improve and I’ll be able to be deep in all the tournaments.”
STUNNED STAN
Four wrist surgeries – including three in the last two years – almost forced Juan Martin del Potro to quit tennis. Instead, the 27-year-old Argentine playing in his first Grand Slam tournament since the 2014 Australian Open, stunned fourth-seeded Stan Wawrinka in four sets. Still, del Potro worries that his once-feared backhand is now so weakened by surgery that he will never recapture the form that took him to the US Open title in 2009. “I still need time to feel 100 percent with my wrist,” he said. “Sometimes I am scared to hit harder with my backhand.” The last time del Potro played Wimbledon, in 2013, he reached the semifinals where he lost a five-setter to Novak Djokovic. “It was really tough to come back on the sport after my third (surgery),” del Potro said. “But now I’m enjoying tennis again. I don’t know if I can be in the top positions again, but if not, I will be happy just to be playing tennis.” Once ranked as high as fourth in the world, del Potro lost his third-round match to Frenchman Lucas Pouille 6-7 (4) 7-6 (6) 7-5 6-1.
SO LONG PETRA
Petra Kvitova will have to wait at least one more year to capture her third Wimbledon title. The two-time champion lost her second-round slugfest to unseeded Ekaterina Makarova 7-5 7-6 (5) in a rain-delayed clash. The 10th-seeded Czech won the grass court major in 2011 and 2014. “I felt stuck in the second round for a while,” Kvitova said of the start-and-stop competition that marked the opening week of play. “I think that the tournament was really weird for me this time. I was waiting all day long almost every day to be scheduled on, and didn’t really have a chance to finish or step on the court.” The match started on Friday, but rain suspended play. After several delays on Saturday, Makarova was finally able to close out the final women’s second-round match.
SAID WHAT?
Viktor Troicki shared more than a few words with the chair umpire after a questionable call on Court 17. Serving for the match at 5-3, Albert Ramos-Vinolas’ serve was called out. It was not known who changed the call, but umpire Damiano Torella ruled Ramos-Vinolas had hit an ace, giving him match point. “What! Look at it,” Troicki screamed as he took the ball to Torella to show that there was no white-chalk marks on it. Then, after smashing the ball away, Troicki told Torella, “You’re the worst umpire ever in the world.” After Ramos-Vinolas closed out the victory, Troicki continued his tirade. “Do you know what you did,” he asked Torella. “You’re horrible. What are you doing here?” Wimbledon’s bigger courts – Centre and numbers 1, 2, 3, 12 and 18 – use hawk-eye, an electronic line-calling system, and players can challenge a call. The technology has yet to spread to all of Wimbledon’s outer courts.
SCHEDULING SHOW COURTS
Jelena Jankovic once labeled Court 18 “a parking lot” that she “needed a helicopter” to reach. That’s where Venus Williams, a five-time Wimbledon champion, played – and won – her second-round match against Greek qualifier Maria Sakkari. “I’m not so much into disrespect,” said Williams, at 36 the oldest player in the women’s draw. “I’m willing to play anywhere, any time.” The American said all players should have to play the outside courts. “There shouldn’t be exceptions or any inequality to it.” But over the years Venus and her sister Serena – they own 11 Wimbledon singles titles between them – have found themselves playing away from the two main show courts. In contrast, the men’s Big Four of Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray have not played outside the two big courts in years. “It’s not the ideal schedule for the women,” Venus said of this year’s rain-plagued schedule that has two men’s matches and one women’s match on Centre Court every day the first week with the exception of the first Tuesday, which is known as Ladies Day. “We’d like to see equal amount of matches (on the main show courts),” Venus said. “We don’t want more, just the same amount. That’s all.”
SO PAY UP
Viktor Troicki and Serena Williams will find their paychecks a little lighter this year. The two were fined USD $10,000 each at Wimbledon for unsportsmanlike conduct. Troicki was punished for his tirade against chair umpire Damiano Torella at the end of a five-set second-round loss. Williams was fined for smashing her racquet repeatedly against the ground while sitting in her sideline chair during her three-set win over fellow American Christina McHale. The biggest fine given out during the first week was USD $12,000 to Britain’s Heather Watson for jamming her racquet into the grass.
SLIP OF THE LIP?
Bernard Tomic has apologized for using the word “retard” in a Wimbledon press conference after his comments were branded as “damaging and offensive” by a learning disability charity. “I apologize if I offended anyone,” the Australian said. “I’m sorry. It just came out the wrong way. The comment came when he was asked how he felt having to wait for his first-round opponent, Fernando Verdasco, to arrive on court. Tomic said he saw Verdasco in the locker room and thought he was leaving to go to the court. “So I just happened to walk out,” Tomic said. “I did get to the court prior to him very early, and unfortunately I had to stand on court like a retard.” Learning disability charity Mencap demanded an apology. “People clearly don’t understand how upsetting and offensive this is to people with a learning disability like me,” Ciara Lawrence, a campaigns support officer at Mencap, said.
SEED OUSTED
Jiri Vesely showed that he should be included in that group of young lions who are poised to take over the game in the near future. In a fierce battle of 22-year-olds, the Czech left-hander defeated eighth-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria 7-6 (4) 7-6 (5) 7-6 (3). Until their second-round encounter, the 64th-ranked Vesely had lost 12 of the 16 tiebreaks he had played this year. He then went on to beat 31st-seeded Joao Sousa of Portugal in the third round to reach the second week at Wimbledon.
SURVIVED
Third-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska saved three match points before escaping Ana Konjuh of Croatia in their second-round match. Konjuh opened up a 5-3 lead in the deciding set and served for the match at 5-4, only to drop serve to his Polish opponent. Radwanska then failed to close out the victory when she reached a match point of her own at 7-6. That was when Konjuh, dashing to the net, rolled her right ankle as she stepped on the ball. After receiving a lengthy medical treatment, she returned to play, but was clearly limited in her movement. Radwanska capitalized on Konjuh’s impaired play and finally prevailed 6-2 4-6 9-7.
SELECTED FOR RIO
Sisters Serena and Venus Williams will represent the United States at the 2016 Olympics, while Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Switzerland’s Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka are also scheduled to be in Rio de Janeiro. Serena and Great Britain’s Andy Murray will defend their 2012 London singles titles, while Americans Bob and Mike Bryan as well as the Williams sisters will defend their doubles titles. Sixty-four players will contest both men’s and women’ singles, while 32 teams will contest both the men’s and women’s doubles. Four women – Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Daria Kasatkina and Ekaterina Makarova – will represent Russia.
A number of players are staying home rather than compete in Rio, including Italy’s Francesca Schiavone, American John Isner, Austria’s Dominic Thiem, Australia’s Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios, as well as Spain’s Feliciano Lopez. Various reasons have been cited for their decisions.
SERENA TARGET
When top-seeded Serena Williams brushed aside Germany’s Annika Beck 6-3 6-0 in just 51 minutes in their third-round clash, it was the 300th Grand Slam match win of Serena’s career. Going into the second week of the year’s third Grand Slam tournament, Williams had won 82 matches at Wimbledon.
SUNDAY MARATHON
John Isner loves to work overtime at Wimbledon. This time, though, he ended up losing to Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-7 (3) 3-6 7-6 (5) 6-2 19-17. Tsonga, seeded 12th, saved a match point in the 32nd game of the final set. The last set alone lasted more than two hours. In 2010, Isner won the longest tennis match ever played when he beat another Frenchman, Nicolas Mahut, 70-68 in the final set of their first-round match at Wimbledon. That five-setter stretched over three days and lasted 11 hours, five minutes.
SWISS WINNER
Going into Wimbledon’s second week, Roger Federer has won 150 tour-level matches on grass. The third-seeded Swiss is seeking a men’s record eighth Wimbledon title and his 11th appearance in the Wimbledon final. His third-round win over Great Britain’s Daniel Evans was his 305th Grand Slam singles match victory, one behind Martina Navratilova’s record of 306.
SUSPENDED
Danail Tarpov of Bulgaria has been suspended for three months and fined 5,000 Euros after admitting to a betting-related offense. A Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) investigation found that in September 2013 Tarpov set up and registered an online betting account with Bet365 for use by the son of his then-coach Novolai Ivanchev. Tarpov allowed and assisted his personal bank account to be used for operating the account and a total of 1,221 tennis bets were placed. None of the bets were placed on matches played by Tarpov, and no evidence of betting linked to match-fixing or other corruption offenses was uncovered by the TIU. Both the sanction and fine are suspended for a two-year period on condition that Tarpov not commit another offense during the two years. Tarpov, 27, is currently ranked 1,109th in singles.
SURFING
Wimbledon: www.wimbledon.com/
Braunschweig: www.sparkassen-open.de/
Contrexeville: www.lorraine-open88.fr
Budapest: www.huntennis.hu
Hamburg: https://german-open-hamburg.de/
Newport: www.halloffametennischampionships.com/
Båstad: http://men.swedishopen.org/
Davis Cup: www.daviscup.com/en/home.aspx
Bucharest: www.brdbucharestopen.ro/
Gstaad: www.ladieschampionshipgstaad.ch/
TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK
MEN
Wimbledon, London, Great Britain, grass (second week)
$118,200 Sparkassen Open 2016, Braunschweig, Germany, clay
WOMEN
Wimbledon, London, Great Britain, grass (second week)
$100,000 Lorraine Open 88, Contrexeville, France, clay
$100,000 Europe Tennis Center Ladies Open, Budapest, Hungary, clay
TOURNAMENTS NEXT WEEK
MEN
$1,471,340 German Tennis Championships, Hamburg, Germany, clay
$539,730 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, Newport, Rhode Island, USA, grass
$540,573 SkiStar Swedish Open, Båstad, Sweden, clay
WOMEN
$250,000 Ladies Championship Gstaad, Gstaad, Switzerland, clay
$250,000 BRD Bucharest Open, Bucharest, Romania, clay
DAVIS CUP
World Group Quarterfinals
Serbia vs. Great Britain at Belgrade, Serbia, clay
Italy vs. Argentina at Pesaro, Italy, clay
Czech Republic vs. France at Trinec, Czech Republic, hard
United States vs. Croatia at Portland, Oregon, USA, hard
Group I 2nd Round
Americas Zone: Brazil vs. Ecuador at Belo Horizonte, Brazil, hard; Chile vs. Colombia at Iquique, Chile, clay
Asia/Oceania Zone: India vs. Korea, at Chandigarh, India, grass; Uzbekistan vs. China at Tashkent, Uzbekistan, clay
Europe/Asia Zone: Romania vs. Spain at Cluj-Napoca, Romania, hard; Ukraine vs. Austria at Kiev, Ukraine, hard; Russia vs. Netherlands at Moscow, Russia, hard; Hungary vs. Slovakia at Budapest, Hungary, clay
Group II, 2nd Round
Americas Zone: Peru vs. Mexico at Lima, Peru, clay; El Salvador vs. Venezuela at Santa Tecla, El Salvador, hard
Asia/Oceania Zone: Philippines vs. Chinese Taipei at Manila, Philippines, clay; Thailand vs. Vietnam at Nonthaburi, Thailand, hard
Europe/Africa Zone: Lithuania vs. South Africa at Kaunas, Lithuania, clay; Bosnia/Herzegovina vs. Turkey at Odmor I Rekreaciju, Bihac, clay; Belarus vs. Latvia at Minsk, Belarus, hard; Denmark vs. Finland at Kongens Lyngby, Denmark, carpet
Group III Round-Robin
Americas Zone at La Paz, Bolivia, clay: Bahamas, Bermuda, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago
Asia/Oceania Zone at Tehran, Iran, clay: Cambodia, Hong Kong, Iran, Lebanon, Pacific Oceania, Qatar, Singapore, Syria, Turkmenistan
Africa Zone at Antanarivo, Madagascar, clay: Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda
Group IV Round-Robin
Asia/Oceania Zone at Amman, Jordan, clay: Bahrain, Brunei, Iraq, Jordan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates
