Things We Learned on Day 3 of Wimbledon 2015

1. It is summer

As I am typing my FINGERS ARE SWEATING ONTO MY MELTED KEYBOARD. #FingerSweat

2. Djokovic isn’t afraid of a little heat

Novak Djokovic’s second round match against veteran Jarkko Nieminen was always going to be an emotional affair regardless of the result. On Monday, Nieminen ended Lleyton Hewitt’s singles Wimbledon career and today called a close to his own by losing in straights to the world no.1.

Djokovic didn’t let the context, nor the bright sunshine, bother him. He has moved through to the third round fairly comfortably despite facing two classy opponents on the grass. Another interesting match up with Bernard Tomic awaits him next, but judging by his form so far it’s going to take something very special from the Aussie to cause him problems.

Djokovic through, 6-4 6-2 6-3

3. End of the road for Nishikori

Kei Nishikori’s career is a tale of one injury after another…after another. In round 1 heavy strapping on his leg seemed to be hampering him severely and his five set marathon versus Bolleli certainly didn’t help the situation. It seems the pain in that fifth set was too much, as Nishikori has withdrawn from the tournament to recover from his calf injury.

Santiago Giraldo though, walkover

4. Five set matches are brutal, brilliant, heart-wrenching

Ricardas Berankis will be heavy hearted tonight. Berankis, the world no.90, put in a fantastic performance against the current US Open champion and world no.9 Marin Cilic for five extremely tough sets on Centre Court. It wasn’t to be though, as at 5-6 down in the final set Berankis finally showed some weakness, losing the match on an incredibly close double fault that he will remember for a long time.

With Nishikori out, Cilic’s draw is looking very healthy indeed provided he can get past John Isner in round 3, which will be a very tasty match up.

Cilic through, 6-3 4-6 7-6 4-6 7-5

5. Heather Watson has had three great days

The British no.1 needed two days to defeat France’s Caroline Garcia in the first round of the Championships, which meant that when she took the courts today it was her third straight day out on the courts. In the court 1 sunshine, she faced a big fan favourite in Daniela Hantuchova, who is not the player she once was but is by no means an easy opponent.

Heather played well, showcasing the progress she’s making in adding more aggression to her game. She’s still very much a lightweight figure, but it’s nice to see her working hard to develop her game and building her ranking back up. Also she totally understands how sports work:

Next Heather will face…Serena Williams.

Watson through, 6-4 6-2

6. The Williams sisters are still on a collision course

Serena Williams faced the hard hitting Timea Babos in her second round match today, facing a good contest for the first set but rushing away with the second once she had hit her stride. Williams looks more than comfortable so far on her quest for her 21st singles slam title and her second “Serena slam”, and she should be able to overcome Heather Watson in the third round.

Big sister Venus Williams, five time singles champion here at Wimbledon, had a tougher fight with the ever-gritty Yulia Putintseva. She needed a tie break to survive a close first set before finding greater rhythm in the second. Venus will face Krunic in the third round.

Should they both win their next rounds, the Williams sisters will face each other in round 4.

Serena through, 6-4 6-1

Venus through, 7-6 6-4

7. Kyrgios likes to swear or something

BREAKING NEWS – NK swore a bit and then argued with the umpire and then talked about it in press. He also won his match.

Kyrgios through, 6-7 6-3 6-4

8. Wawrinka making the most of his great draw

Stanislas Wawrinka couldn’t ask for much more than this draw after the emotional high of winning the French Open. It would be very easy to have a let down against a big challenger at Wimbledon, but the line up for Wawrinka is one he should be able to handle at least to the quarter- or semi-finals.

The world no.4 made steady progress in the second round today, coming through against Estrella Burgos in straight sets to set up a third round encounter with Verdasco.

Wawrinka through, 6-3 6-4 7-5

9. The seeds have held strong

It’s been a pretty good day to be a seeded player at Wimbledon. Of those I’ve not yet mentioned:

In the men’s draw, we saw fairly straight forward progress from Raonic [7], Dimitrov [11], Anderson [14], Goffin [16], Isner [17], Gasquet [21], Mayer [27] and Tomic [27]. The 32nd seed Dominic Thiem, who is talented but generally patchy in form, lost in five sets to Fernando Verdasco.

For the women, Sharapova [4], Safarova [6], Petkovic [14], Keys [21], Stosur [22], Azarenka [23], Begu [29] and Bencic [30] all made it through to the third round.

The USA’s Coco Vandeweghe took out 11th seed Karolina Pliskova in straight sets – Vandeweghe is a very dangerous player on grass, with an absolutely wonderful serve that can simply overpower her opponents. Meanwhile Bethanie Mattek-Sands took out 7th seed Ana Ivanovic, again patchy by nature, with some brilliant tennis that highlighted why she’s always a fun figure to watch out for in a draw.

10. Doubles is ridiculous

I don’t need to say much:


Andrew can be found in the mountains of Switzerland, watching tennis and trying not to eat too much Swiss cheese. You can follow him on twitter @BackSwings

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