Things We Learned on Day 6 of Wimbledon 2015

1. Jelena Jankovic is not a thing of the past

Jankovic hasn’t been able to successfully challenge a player at the highest level in a long time, and basically never on grass, which is why her third round match against defending champion and world no.2 Petra Kvitova looked like a forgone conclusion. Kvitova had been playing incredible tennis in the tournament so far, ripping through her opponents with ease. At the beginning of the match, that’s exactly what she was doing to Jankovic – it looked like she was going to come through easily.

When someone tells you your best Slam of the year was going to come on grass pic.twitter.com/USntCrKTqm

— WTA Reactions (@WTAreactions) July 4, 2015

Jankovic stuck with it though, even at a set and 2-4 down, she kept trying to find ways to put a dent in the Czech’s game. Eventually she did break serve, and from there Kvitova’s solid play evaporated. When you’re Kvitova, Queen of see-saw tennis, the last kind of player you want to come against when your level is dropping is a brick wall like Jankovic, especially one who can turn solid defence into aggression at the flick of a backhand-down-the-line.

And so, Petra Kvitova is out of the championships, and the bottom half of the draw has blown wide open.

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

2. Murray and Federer may drop third sets, but not matches

Andy Murray took on Andreas Seppi on centre court today and for two sets it looked like it would be plain sailing. Come the third set, Murray had a sudden dip in form which the Italian took full advantage of, racing to take it 6-1. There were some arguments about whose medical time out bothered who the most – both took MTOs, both seemed to take advantage of their opponent losing focus afterwards – but these are experienced players who shouldn’t let pauses in the match affect them drastically, so that argument seems a little tired to me. After the third set blip, Murray regained focus to cruise the fourth and set up a R4 encounter with the big serving Ivo Karlovic.

Roger Federer took on Australia’s Sam Groth, the record holder for the fastest serve ever delivered – an incredible 163mph (that’s 263km/h for you metric system people). It was the Aussie’s first time on centre court and he looked nervous for a great deal of the start of the match, his big serve being broken quickly in each set as he struggled to make an impact on the serve of Federer, formidable itself. Roger looked comfortable handling the pace of the serve, and had no problem taking advantage of nervous net play from Groth, who spent far too much time making volley errors. (And not nearly enough time doing that hair flick thing he does).

Groth did manage to sneak the third set on a tiebreak, his reward for holding serve throughout, but in the fourth Federer upped his game further and broke down what was left of Groth’s resistance. Up next for Federer is Bautista Agut.

Murray through, 6-2 6-2 1-6 6-1

Federer though, 6-4 6-4 6-7 6-2

3. Not such a marathon for Cilic and Isner

Remember yesterday when I mentioned that more than four hour match between Isner and Cilic which was delayed at 10-10 to be resumed on day 6? Cilic won it 12-10. They played two games. On court no.1.

Cilic through, 7-6 6-7 6-4 6-7 12-10

4. German exodus in the women’s draw

It was not a good day to be a German woman at Wimbledon. Angelique Kerber and Garbine Muguruza played the set of the tournament so far in their opener, which Muguruza was able to sneak through in a tie break despite several chances for Kerber to close it out. Kerber quickly fought back in the second set but couldn’t maintain the intensity as Muguruza brought out some of her best tennis to progress to a R4 encounter with Wozniacki. What Kerber did win was this RIDICULOUS 33 stroke rally. (I apologise for the talking on the video but it’s worth enduring):

Sabine Lisicki, grass court hyper-player and lover of all things Wimbledon went out swiftly today under a barrage of backhand winners from Timea Bacsinszky. The Swiss, who is from Lausanne which is…just over there *points out of apartment window*…had absolutely no concern for the grass court calibre of her opponent, continuing the form she’s been showing all year. She has a great opportunity to reach the quarter-finals but she’ll have to get past the BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD to do so. (Monica Niculescu).

Out on court no.12, Madison Keys made solid progress taking out the last of the German challengers, Tatjana Maria, who had a great run reaching the third round courtesy of landing in Eugenie Bouchard’s section of the draw.

Muguruza through, 7-6 1-6 6-2

Bacsinszky through, 6-3 6-2

Keys through, 6-4 6-4

5. I finally get to use my Dustin pun!

Are you ready? This is going to be really good, you guys.

Speaking of German exits from the tournament, Troicki sent the Nadal-slayer…Brown and out…of the tournament in four sets.

My goodness, that was worth waiting for.

Troicki through, 6-4 7-6 4-6 6-3.

6. Can’t read Wozniacki’s poker face

Remember that press conference where Wozniacki got really annoyed with the press for asking her too much about Giorgi and said, “I really don’t know what’s going on inside of her head.”

Well Caroline, we see through you and your LIES, you clearly did know what was going on in her head which is why you destroyed her in the third round. Wozniacki’s progress was surprisingly easy – a lot of us expected the bludgeoning Italian to cause some big problems for the world no.5, but it was not to be. Wozniacki had absolutely no problem dealing with the pace, while Giorgi had lots of problems dealing with court dimensions – sending errors flying.

Playing against Wozniacki will do that to you.

Wozniacki through, 6-2 6-2

7. The roof wins again

The long running Simon-Monfils match would have had to be suspended until Monday were it not for Wimbledon’s lovely, wonderful, saver-of-damn-lives roof. The match was swiftly moved over to Centre Court, ground pass spectators were allowed in for no extra charge and could sit ANYWHERE, the roof was closed and lights turned on and boom – play resumed.

WE CAN SIT ANYWHERE. pic.twitter.com/u9GUZkoA06 — Courtney Nguyen (@FortyDeuceTwits) July 4, 2015

Magic. There was the little issue of the match needing to be done by 11pm, there are limits to what the local residents will put up with, but the match was able to be completed which means that winner Gilles Simon receives the same time off as the rest of the field before the fourth round.

All sorted. No worries. Put the kettle on and enjoy Sunday off.

Simon through, 3-6 6-3 7-6 2-6 6-2

8. This guy made a James Ward breakfast monstrosity

We wouldn’t mind a plate of this this morning. It’s James Ward in the form of a Full English #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/13myvuT2fh

— BBC Tennis (@bbctennis) July 4, 2015

And Ward lost, so. Let this be a lesson.