I woke up this morning to rain drumming on the skylight over my bed. YES! As much as we normally complain about the rain here, I’m ready for a rain delay. I’m behind in my editing, I’m tired, and an extra couple of hours without matches would be welcome. I know, I know they would still play on Centre Court, but one court would be a huge relief after running around to nineteen courts.
My big entertainment last night was hanging out with the security guards at Camp Queue, I know them all now, after crossing late every night, and having a beer with one of the campers. So much for fab nights out at Wimbledon.
Okay, we took a little break from Tennis yesterday, so now we’ll get back to what is going on at the Big W.
So it’s Bye Bye American Pie. Once again it’s up to the Williams sisters and the Bryan Brothers to carry the stars and stripes to victory in London. Both Andy Roddick and Sam Querrey bit the dust .. or in this case grass yesterday.
Big serving Sam losing to Andy Murray wasn’t really shocking, but Arod is another story. The American hope bid farewell on Court 2 in a five-set stunner to No. 82nd-ranked Yen-Hsun Lu fron Taipei. The 26-year-old Chinese has not made it past the first round in the last five Grand Slams and was out of Wimbledon on opening day for the last four years.
What is going on here? When I checked the schedule in the morning I didn’t even move my pink highlighter across that match, thinking I’d catch Andy in the next round. Right! Think again. I was up at the photo position overlooking Centre Court, shooting Murray and Querrey, as I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be seeing Sam again, when a little voice in my head, said, “check on Andy’s match” Oh my word! They were in a third set tiebreak, and Lu … I love Chinese names with two letters… was ahead.
So much for Sam, Roddick’s possible loss was a much bigger story. Off to Court 2 for me. By the time I got there Lu has won the third set 7-6. That meant Roddick was down two sets to one. Lu was serving great.. probably the best of his life, but shouldn’t the man with the laser arm be able to out serve this guy who is normally playing on the Challenger circuit? A player who has never won a tournament? Even Lu alluded to this in the post match press conference, “The fifth set,” Lu said, “I don’t believe I can win because he is a better server than me”.
At 28, it’s doubtful that Arod will get another chance at the Golden Wimbledon trophy. After last years shattering loss to Roger Federer everyone’s opinion in the press room was that 2009 was his last hurrah. Always the optimist, I thought he’d get one more chance. I’d love to see him win, it took Goran Ivanisovic four finals to finally raise the gold over his head, so I was hoping that after three finals losses here, it the fog would clear, and sun would be bouncing off Roddick this 2010 as he paraded around Centre Court with the coveted title.
Sadly it was not to be.
As for Venus, she looked completely off-balance, making lots of errors, and awkward shots. I wrote the first part of this before her match. Last year’s finalist went out to Tsvelana Pironkova, with a current WTA Tour ranking of 82. Hmmm is that the magic number here? Remember the player that took out Roddick Monday… yep, 82. Well, the good part is, she gave us a great match point right in front of me. I was wishing I had a shorter lens so I could have framed her up laying on the court, but I got a decent shot anyway.
Next up on court one were Petra Kvitova and Kaia Kanepi. Who in the world are they and how did they get to the quarters? To tell the truth I have not been paying a lot of attention to the women’s draw … obviously. I ask myself, did I really want to walk back to court one, do photos and then edit? Will they sell? Does anyone care about these two? You see how the media’s mind works, what we really care about is if a photo, blog, article will sell. We’re like merchants, deciding what product to put on our shelves.
In this case, the answer was no, whoever wins will be in the semi-final and that will be a story. I opted for Serena and Li Na, I’d much rather type four letters than struggle with the Estonian and Czech.
So we have two women in the semifinal with unpronounceable names who I have never heard of. It should be interesting. Does this herald a new cast of characters coming up in the ranks? I hope so tennis could do with some new fresh faces.
Cynthia
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Cynthia Lum is one of the world’s most celebrated sports photographers and has traveled the world covering all the major tennis events for 18 years. In addition to tennis she is currently shooting horse racing, golf, surfing, and beach volleyball. Visit her on-line photo archive at www.cynthialum.com where her photos are for sale for professional and personal use. She is available for hire for corporate and editorial clients. She is based in Hermosa Beach, Calif.