Wicked Week in Wimbledon

If there's anything good about the Middle Sunday of Wimbledon, is that it lets you breathe out the air you've been holding inside since the tournament began - for a week now, I've been feeling something along the lines of "Aaaaaah, there's too much tennis to follow everything properly!". Those are the joys of the Grand Slams - at any given moment, there's something going on that you must be watching, but you're also feeling that you're missing out on most of the action.

My predictions so far are mostly wrong: Del Potro does get to meet Nadal. Petzschner couldn't take Soderling out (though he should've, in my opinion - he was playing better, had a lead in every set, but the mental side wasn't enough) - but Soderling did go out early, almost losing to Hewitt and falling eventually to Tomic (while being sick). My only correct prediction so far - Isner did beat Mahut in three sets, but he didn't get to the fourth round as I though he would, and Federer will be playing against Youzhny, instead. Llodra didn't meet Troicki, who lost to Lu, but he will meet Djokovic tomorrow, so this one is half true. As for my last two predictions... I'm waiting for Friday and Sunday.

On the Ladies' side, I didn't make any predictions, but there's exactly one thing that I want right now - seeing Sabine Lisicki lift the Wimbledon trophy.

Please, make it happen. (Photo: Getty Images)

The talking point of this week at Wimbledon was, of course, the court scheduling. With rains disrupting play almost every day, those who got to play on Centre Court were the lucky ones who got to play their matches mostly uninterrupted. But apart from that, there seem to be quite a few ego wars regarding this issue, not as much between the players themselves, as in the appalled media. They grilled Serena with questions about her being scheduled for court no. 2, making it look as though she was complaining about it - which, as far as I could see, she wasn't.

So, my take on the matter: First of all, the problem is mainly with scheduling only three matches on Centre Court, and starting play at 13:00. It would be much better to put 2 men's and 2 women's matches there, and start playing a bit earlier, like they do on the outer courts.

Apart from that, I think that the women's matches that were held on CC, were really worthwhile. Schiavone against Dokic? Serena  against Rezai? Date-Krumm against Venus? Lisicki-Li? These were much more interesting than Federer beating Kukushkin, Nadal passing Russell and Djokovic disposing of Chardy, weren't they? So even though it's a pity that Roger plays three straight matches on CC, and Serena only plays one - I applaud the match choice itself.

It's been that way for some of the men's matches, as well - both Tsonga-Dimitrov on court no. 1 and Soderling-Hewitt on CC were very much worthwile. Exhibit A:

And exhibit B:

To sum it up - yes, the scheduling needs to be improved. But it isn't as bad as people are trying to portray it.

Andy Roddick vs. Feliciano Lopez was another great match (played on CC, incidentally), with Lopez surprising Roddick in straight sets - 7-6(2), 7-6(2), 6-4. But Feliciano made the news for a bunch of other reasons, as well - mainly, being the subject of Judy Murray's crush. She's been tweeting a lot about his good looks for a while now, embarassing Andy on the way. So while Feli is finding it funny...

Q. Do you realize your nickname here is actually Deliciano. What do you say to that nickname?
FELICIANO LOPEZ: It's coming from Andy's mother. She's so funny. It's just something that everybody knows now because somebody post it on Twitter.
Q. Do you like that nickname?
FELICIANO LOPEZ: I have to like it. It's kind of funny. I mean, it's okay.

... Andy is disgusted, but also getting back at his mother:

Q. If you get through on Monday and López keeps winning, I'm curious who you think your mum might be supporting if you meet Deliciano?
ANDY MURRAY: I think it's about time she stopped with that nonsense. Makes me want to throw up. It's disgusting. Yeah, it's disgusting.
I was practising with him before the tournament. It's quite funny because she'd been writing about it on, you know, Twitter like all the time. And I was practising with him before the tournament and my mom was on the side.
I said, when we were warming up, I shouted across the net, I said, Feli, if we sit down for a drink, if you could take a picture with my mom, because she thinks you're beautiful.
She went bright red. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. Refused to take the picture. Quite funny. Not like her.
Yeah, I hope she'll still be supporting me.

In the meanwhile, I tweeted Judy about Feli playing twice on the same day (singles against Roddick and doubles with the charming Andrea Petkovic, who encourages Judy's antics), and her response to me is now part of a Daily Mail article (both online and printed):

So I'm famous now, appearing in British newspapers ;)
(Thanks to @emmaphickey for the alert!)