Roger Federer Upset in Wimbledon Quarterfinals

Six-time champion Roger Federer was upset in the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the second straight year Wednesday, squandering a two-set lead for the first time at a Grand Slam tournament and losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 3-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Federer barely looked challenged while winning the first two sets against the 12th-seeded Frenchman. But the Swiss star, who had been 178-0 in matches in which he had won the opening two sets at a major tournament, was broken one time in each of the last three sets.

Roger Federer

Andy Roddick Upset at Wimbledon

Three-time Wimbledon runner-up Andy Roddick was eliminated in straights by Feliciano Lopez in the third round on Friday, the American's first loss to the Spanish left-hander in eight matches.

The 44th-ranked Lopez served 28 aces and piled up 57 winners to beat Roddick 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2), 6-4 on Centre Court, the biggest upset of the men's tournament so far.

In a surprise on the women's side, second-seeded and 2010 runner-up Vera Zvonareva was knocked out 6-2, 6-3 by 33rd-ranked Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria. The Russian converted only one of seven break points and had 18 unforced errors, compared to five for Pironkova, who upset Venus Williams here in the quarterfinals last year.

Williams Returns to Wimbledon With Title to Defend and Ground to Make Up

The last time Williams played at Wimbledon, she was on top of her power game: No. 1 in the world rankings and No. 1 on the All England Club lawns, too, after sweeping to the 2010 title without dropping a set.

A year later, she finds herself trying to reclaim lost ground and form after two surgeries on her right foot, blood clots in her lungs and a hematoma that required emergency treatment in Los Angeles in February. After 11 months away from the game, she returned in Eastbourne this month and lost in the second round in three sets to Vera Zvonareva, the Russian she defeated in last year’s Wimbledon final.

Wimbledon 2011 prize-money upped to £1.1m for singles champions

Wimbledon's singles champions will each receive a record £1.1million this year.

 

The All England Club have increased the winners’ pot by £100,000 on last summer with the total prize fund up to £14.6m – a rise of 6.4 per cent.

‘Leading international sports events such as Wimbledon are all about the quality of the players on show,’ said All England Club chairman Philip Brook.

‘In the competitive world of top-level sport, it’s important we offer prize money which suitably rewards the players for the box-office appeal they bring to the event and for their supreme performances on court.’
Wimbledon will unveil the new No.3 and No.4 courts at this year’s tournament, which will increase the overall capacity by 1,000 to 38,500.

Court Three will become the fourth court on the complex to be equipped with Hawkeye technology.

Wimbledon 2011 offered @ 

 

 

Wimbledon Draw

The draw for the third Grand Slam of the year at Wimbledon has been released and Maria is seeded No.5 and will play Anna Chakvetadze of Russia in the first round on Tuesday.

Maria has played 50th ranked Chakvetadze six times before and leads the series 6-0 - the last meeting was in 2007 and they have never played on grass.

The first seed, Maria can meet is No.32 seed Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic in the third round.  Maria is seeded to meet No.10 seed Samantha Stosur of Australia in the fourth round.  Top seed Caroline Wozniacki is a possible opponent in the quarters.

This will be Maria's ninth Wimbledon and the highlight of course was her magical run in 2004 when she won.  Last year Maria lost in the fourth round to the eventual champion Serena Williams.
 

Vera ends Serena's comeback

After playing - and winning - her first match in 49 weeks at Eastbourne on Tuesday against the above-mentioned Tsvetana Pironkova, Serena Williams was halted on her comeback trail against the woman she defeated in last year's Wimbledon final. Vera Zvonareva, who will be No.2 seed at The Championships after the withdrawal of Kim Clijsters, came from behind to win 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 in an epic match which lasted over three hours.

Though Serena will be disappointed to have lost, the fact that she was given such a thorough test of her capabilities can only stand her in good stead for next week, where she will be now seeded No.7.

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Lucky losers on red alert

The withdrawal of Kim Clijsters after she aggravated her ankle injury at 's-Hertogenbosch meant that 2010 semi-finalist Tsvetana Pironkova moved up into the top 32 and thus is one of the seeds.

In the men's draw, Sam Querrey and Benjamin Becker have been forced to withdraw, each of them suffering from elbow injuries. Their places in the main draw will be taken by lucky losers, i.e. the highest-ranked players from those defeated in the final round of qualifying. Lukasz Kubot and Flavio Cipolla, seeded No.2 and No.9 respectively, stand to benefit should they lose on Thursday, but they would obviously prefer the ranking points, prize money and of course confidence that goes with a third-round win in qualifying.

Wimbledon 2010 - REVIEW

The 124th Championships, a Royal tournament thanks to the first visit to the All England Club by Her Majesty the Queen for 33 years, was also a record-breaking occasion in many ways, most notably in that unforgettable first round men's singles between John Isner of the United States and France's Nicolas Mahut, which smashed every existing record in the sport. Then there was the wonderful weather, which ushered the tournament to a prompt conclusion and was described by the All England Club's historian, Alan Little, as "the sunniest I can remember". And finally, there were the champions, Rafael Nadal clocking up various new marks by winning the men's championship for a second time, and Serena Williams, who rounded out in thunderous fashion a decade in which she and her sister Venus have utterly dominated the women's singles.

In defeating the 12th seed, Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 Nadal confirmed his clear status as world No.1. He became the first Spaniard to win Wimbledon twice and he again matched Bjorn Borg's 1980 mark and Roger Federer (2009) by coming from triumph at the French Open on clay to capture Wimbledon on grass, just as he had done two years ago. Nadal had been unable to defend that 2008 title last summer because of knee problems but his return to action this year has been sensationally successful as he swept unstoppably through the clay court season and then won the world's premier prize and the one he covets most of all, Wimbledon.

Nadal needed only two hours 13 minutes to do the job, the quickest men's final since Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick in 2005, and Serena Williams did an even more rapid job in the women's final on the preceding day. She dismissed Russia's Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2 in 67 minutes to complete an astonishing decade of Wimbledon domination by the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus. Between them they have captured the women's title nine times in the 11 years since the Millennium and, says Serena, they intend to be back next year to carry on the good work.

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Wimbledon 2011: With Grass-Court Season Underway in Tennis, What May We Expect?

The move has been made, and it has happened all so quickly.

As always, tennis now pursues its annual trans-channel migration to the land of grass tennis—ye fair olde Englande.

Wimbledon awaits in just over a week, while this week, all tennis players involved are anxiously racking up ranking points and confidence in preparation for this greatest of grand slams.

Queen's in London is already underway, and we have had our fair share of shockers—grass is a more relenting, but at the same time surprising surface. In Germany, the Halle Gerry Weber Open has been giving the continental folks something to admire.

Bigger questions lie ahead and hidden are the subtexts to the humble openings of this year's grass season. Will Nadal win a third title? Or Federer, a record-equalling seventh? Will the Williams sisters really be back?
These and more, but for the now, the viewing pleasure of all, from London and Halle.

Dallas Heats at Game 2

In an instant, these NBA Finals went from being a potential sleeper to a possible classic.

When the Miami Heat took a 15-point lead with 7:13 remaining in last night's Game 2, you were thinking sweep. Miami already had a 1-0 series lead, and the Heat looked unstoppable. Dwyane Wade had 36 points, and both he and James seemed to be dunking at will. In the second-half, Dallas starting throwing the basketball around like a bunch of Little Leaguers — you know, the ones no dads want on their teams. Dallas turnovers led to a slew of easy Heat baskets.

Then, everything turned. The Mavericks finished the game with a stunning 22-5 run, and won the game, 95-93, on a crafty Dirk Nowitzki layup with 3.6 seconds left. One moment, we were asking if anyone could wrestle a title away from the Heat over the next five years. Now: can Miami recover from this implosion?

Game 3 is Sunday night, in Dallas. Here are three things we learned from one of the greatest comebacks in NBA Finals history, a game that will be remembered as a classic.