... basically, instead of flooding this blog with a new entry every day about the tennis and clogging it up, I'm just going to keep re-editing this one. I'll try to break it up and play around with the fonts, etc., but I have pretty much exclusively (apart from the occasional exception) kept this about films and I intend to keep doing so. I have a new entry to talk about so I'll get on with that and keep re-editing this over the next fortnight because ... well, I want to talk about it and that's how I roll 
.
Day 1
Well first off I ignored any national urges and watched Sam Stosur of Australia play the Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru, because I saw Olaru play Justine Henin in the US Open last year and was impressed with her fighting abilities even when being totally outclassed. Had Ioana's serve been working then this match would have been close, but it wasn't, so it wasn't. Sam served and volleyed her way (so nice to see) to victory 6-2, 6-2, but Olaru did show that patented fighting spirit, twice coming back from 0-40 down on her serve in the second set to get back to deuce.
After that I caught the end of the Elena Baltacha/Angelique Kerber match and it was a very tight, emotional affair. I cannot stand it when people don't apologise for luckily hitting the net and Baltacha annoyed the crap out of me for not apologising once, even though it happened 4 or 5 times. Everything was on her racket and she absolutely deserved to win, but the manner in which she did with the net repeatedly influencing her winning points ensured she did so in a very fortunate manner.
Then came the complete surprise and early contender for match of the tournament. Svetlana Kuznetsova can either be brilliant or beyond atrocious and today she was playing a French girl (via Sweden) called Mathilde Johansson. I thought I'd never seen her play before but as soon as Mathilde served I knew I had as she has such a distinct action (she puts her arm into a back-scratching position and just lets rip) and it turns out it was at the US Open last year against Martina Hingis when the Swiss Miss played out of this world and blew Mathilde off the court, thus ensuring she didn't make much of an impression.
In this match though she was utterly brilliant and has made me an instant fan. Stayed with Sveta with the power at the back of the court and had the ability to keep the power and switch play with ease, she's a good mover and was extremely competitive. This was like the Jankovic/Safarova match from last year, just two girls going after each other and bashing the ball all around the court at pace, it was so much fun. The standard also was ridiculously high, they combined for 74 winners and only 46 unforced errors. The final 5 games where Sveta just went into overdrive and hit winners left and right and cruised away with the match were a tad anticlimactic, but after the competitive match which had preceeded it I could have no complaints. Wonderful stuff, now a genuine fan of Mathilde (who has no right not being in the top 100 if she can play like that) and hope to see more of her.
After that I saw the ends of Bartoli/Lisicki and Mauresmo/Harkleroad, both of which with the French girls just playinig far too well for their opponents, I also caught the end of Anna Chakvetadze hanging on against the hapless Stephanie Dubois - she's in appalling form and this going 8-6 in the third is just more proof of that.
Lastly though was the 2nd british player of the day, Melanie South who dumped out the #1 doubles player in the world last year in the mixed doubles before losing to eventual champions Jamie Murray and Jelena Jankovic. Mel was playing seeded Alona Bondarenko (with a HEAVILY strapped right knee) and I thought she had a genuine chance of winning as Mel is so attacking and everything is on her racket - if she played well she had every chance. Sadly though, it was a bridge too far, despite winning the second set she just couldn't quite keep the errors down and hit something like 48 winners and 51 UEs while Alona hit 21 winners to 19 UEs. Those 5 points basically were the difference between the two players. So many times South looked down and out in this but competed beautifully and gave an excellent account of herself despite the tough draw (you have basically a 1 in 4 chance of getting a seed in the first round ... and she did).
Oh well, 1 Brit through, I expected 2 (it's weird typing this a day later as I know what's happened on day 2, but it's what I thought so it is what it is) with either Mel or Katie O'Brien tomorrow to win along with Elena and so far Elena's proved me right and I expect Katie to do well against a totally out of sorts Shahar Peer tomorrow. We'll see. Oh and Dani's playing so that's brilliant (as she's been injured) and Magdalena Rybarikova, who I really like the look of, is 2 games away from victory with them having stopped for bad light. Good luck Slovakia (and bad luck Cibulkova who lost today but she is NOT a grass court player)!
Day 2
This was a very truncated day for me as I got an offer to go and see Hulk, which took a huge bulk of the tennis watching day from me. Firstly ... Magdalena lost the remaining 4 games and the match. God, it's so frustrating but I've seen a picture of how dark it was last night during the Mauresmo match (the tv always has filters on the cameras to make it as watchable as possible) and they couldn't have gone on. Small consolation that apparantly her opponent played flawlessly this morning, but it's a horrendous thing to be denied the chance yesterday to finish the match.
Before the cinema I watched the first set of Anne Keothavong (british #1, in the top 100 who unfortunately SUCKS on grass) against Vania King and both were in poor form but Anne even more so. I detest her demeanour on court. One game at 3-4 when serving her opponent hit 3 unforced errors and Anne shouted "COME ON!" after every one of them. Pathetic. I bet she won't try that disrespectful crap against Venus Williams in the next round (as somehow Anne turned it around and won the match).
When I got back there wasn't much interesting on, Nadal versus a schlub, Tursunov and Mahut, so I watched a bit of Lindsay Davenport (stuggling away against a girl outside the top 100, Renata Voracova) then settled on Vera Zvonareva against Aiko Nakamura. Nakamura is an interesting one because like last year's finalist Marion Bartoli she hits double handed off both wings and I thought she could do some damage. The first set Vera was pretty much unplayable but Nakamura came back strong and deservedly won the second on a tie break. The third though was a bridge too far.
After that I was snubbing Andy Murray (because ... while his game is nice he's a moody git on and off court and I don't like him at all) and left to go and play football just as he clinched the second set. Daniela won though! Thank God. She has 140 pts to defend for her 4th round appearance last year and this win (her first match back on tour since the start of the clay court season) gets her 60, so even if she doesn't get too far in her first tournament back she's already ensured the drop won't be too much. Hopefully she gets on a court covered by BBCi for her second round match, Kleybanova is not a name, but she is top 50 and that thing should get on one of the bigger courts.
Turns out I was wrong with saying one of Katie O'Brien and Mel South would get through as Peer won in straight sets (wow, not playing to form there) and considering Katie took a set off Daniela in an exhibition a week ago she must be very disappointed. Oh well, 2 British girls through, Elena the only one with a shot at the third round, which would do wonders for her ranking. She's up first on day 3, but I think I'll watch Nicole Vaidisova and Sam Stosur and then dip in to Elena at the change of ends.
Day 3
Well I chose the right match to start off with. What a ridiculous match. First set Nicole was returning brilliantly and Stosur serving terribly, thus ruining her tactics. Then at 5-2 serving out the set Vaidisova was getting extremely frustrated and even broke a racket (I have no problem with that strangely enough, I've broken many a badminton racket over the years ) but somehow pulled through. I was thinking "If only Stosur could get her serve going this would be a contest". Then in the second set she did and Nicole completely fell apart, going for increasingly low percentage shots as the set progressed. By 4-0 down in the second she stopped trying, it was incredible, she gave up on points and literally tanked the set, it was disgraceful. In the third she was trying but still losing and Sam raced out to a 3-0 lead and had break points for 4-0 ... then out of nowhere Stosur missed a couple of returns and suddenly Nicole's confidence came flooding back. By the end she was the absolutely deserving winner but it was a shockingly unprofessional stint in the middle there.
So after that, the daddy of them all, you may have noticed I've been gravitating towards the women (I just have much more of an interest at a lower level, hence the first week of a grand slam I prefer the women and in the latter I watch the men more) but Ivanovic on a show court had *nothing* on the prospect of Novak Djokovic taking on Marat Safin. What ... a ... match. Djokovic just couldn't handle him and the upset (rather than surprise, as we ALL know what Safin is capable of) win was delightfully impressive. He just owned Novak in every department. It's so sad his motivation has never been the best, especially on grass, but it's great to see him rise to the occasion and put in a performance for the ages. Only area of Djokovic I was especially disappointed in was the serve, which was particularly poor today. Fair play to Marat though, obviously he doesn't like his little sister getting all the headlines.
Thereafter I saw Ana Ivanovic making a complete meal of a match with Nathalie Dechy. She ended up winning it 10-8 in the third after 2 tiebreaks and had a huge slice of luck from the net on a match point against her. Absolutely should have lost, incredibly fortunate. Let's be fair, she's the world #1 and even losing a *set* off a player like Dechy is poor, let alone taking 3 and a half hours and having match points against you. Her on court demeanour is getting beyond a joke with her incessant shouting, which is frankly intimidation and completely unsportsmanlike. She's handled herself increasingly poorly this year and Henin's retirement has left a very questionable person to be the figurehead for the game on the women's side both in terms of quality and behaviour.
That match left a very bad taste in my mouth and thereafter I stopped watching. Came back an hour or so later and dipped into Chakvetadze's match a bit, finally she was playing well and was in complete control. Ended up watching the Cricket and that was extremely controversial too, then following that with Germany's appalling performance which I cannot believe got me to actually feel sorry for the Turks. They kill English fans and Germany had me pulling for them, *purely* on the performance of the sides. That's actually impressive. Oh well, Hantuchova on Court 3 tomorrow so weather permitting I should get to see her. Finally, it's been months.
Day 4
Or maybe I should call it "Black Thursday", because so many seeds got sent packing today, both on the male and female sides of things. My experience started with Sania Mirza and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. I went for that rather than Venus vs. "plucky brit" because with Sania coming back from injury I thought it would be a contest. It started off nothing of the sort as Mirza snoozed her way around (not making mistakes but playing to her opponent's strengths) and Martinez Sanchez served and volleyed her way to 8 straight games. Then when Mirza woke up it became a thrilling encounter. MJ got really tight at the end of the second set and Sania figured out the serve-volley by lobbing her opponent countless times. The third set turned into a titanic battle, which Martinez Sanchez won 9-7, after saving 4 match points on her serve with blistering groundstrokes and an incredible inside-out forehand volley which she made look STUPIDLY easy. Sania's coming back from injury and her forehand is getting more power by the day but a great contest which has only been bettered so far by Mathilde and Svetlana.
After that I didn't catch much other than the occasional bit of Nadal/Gulbis. Thereafter while waiting for Daniela to come on (because that incompetent mutt James Blake went to 5 sets and lost) I saw the end of Maria Sharapova being unceremoniously dumped out by Alla Kudryavtseva (say that 10 times really fast 
), which was flat-out hilarious. Then I caught the opening set of resident tease Jelena Jankovic against the very promising Carla Suarez Navarro, who made such a splash at the French Open a few weeks ago. JJ was just WAY too good, really solid, power off both sides and the speed to chase down everything. Carla didn't even play badly and still lost the first set 6-1 (and the second 6-3, which I didn't see). Jelena is the *only* top player in the draw who's looked solid in every match so ... I guess that means she's guaranteed to slip up soon.
So on to Daniela and it was eerily similar to the Mirza match. She was playing Alisa Kleybanova, who is a top 50 player but it's her first year at the top level and she's been doing very well. Her game is so brainless, it's just power, power, power, whack, whack, whack ... and for a set and a half *everything* was going in. It was ridiculous and was an impossible standard to keep up. She was a set and 4-1 up with Daniela playing about even winners-UEs and then the wheels fell off and she got tight and Daniela ended up taking the set 6-4 with Alisa double faulting 3 times in a row to hand her the set. Third set though after a LONG service game at 2-1(which included questionable calls - no hawkeye out on court 3 - shanks, miss-hits and liberal use of the net from Kleybanova) of about 5 or 6 deuces Alisa got the breakthrough and from then on never looked back and took the set 6-1 and with it the match. A disappointing result for Daniela but considering she's 2 weeks behind Mirza in the comeback stakes a very understandable one. As for Alisa, quite often when someone beats one of my favourites by playing well I end up liking them, but her game is so ugly (she literally throws herself into groundstrokes and at times resembles Quasimodo on court) and devoid of finesse she's a player I find it impossible to take to.
That loss will be overshadowed though by the likes of Sharapova and Andy Roddick being dumped out. The Roddick one, well, it's mildly amusing, but I do quite like his personality and he was VERY honest and forthright in his interview afterwards, which is nice to see. Tomorrow then I'll probably stay with Vaidisova as her matches have been interesting and I may watch Mauresmo/Serena, but to be honest I may find Agnes Szavay (who is playing straight after Nicole and Casey Dellacqua) too much of a draw as her game is great to watch. We'll see. Should be another ladies' day for me but there are some very tasty men's matches on the horizon.
Day 5
Again, I'm writing this after knowing what's happened on the next day but I'll get it down regardless. Watched Vaidisova/Dellacqua and ... it was like Nicole's twin sister had turned up - she hit 2 unforced errors in the first set and raced away with the match. Rain came with 2 games to go, but 105 minutes later she closed out the match. Played beautifully, controlled, but aggressive. Casey way too many errors and got down on herself repeatedly.
After that I decided to watch Serena and Amelie (because they killed the court 18 stream after the Vaidisova match so I couldn't watch Agnes Szavay) and ... it was a very sloppy match. Neither could string points together, both lacked confidence but both came up with some sparkling shots when necessary. Shame it was so hit and miss. First set ended up being tight when it shouldn't have been then Serena walked away with the second. The match was so uninspiring the BBC dumped it with three games to go to concentrate on the other court.
Where Ana Ivanovic got dumped out by Zheng Jie, which was hilarious. Ana's had a problem with Chinese players over the years with some notable losses to them, but today Zheng just played way too well far too consistently and was the deserving winner (I watched the 2nd set live and the highlights later). Earlier in the day I'd caught glimpses of Bartoli before she got injured and lost and she was playing well. First chance I've had to see Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (what a NAME!) who I've known about for a while for being so dominant as a junior (she'd won 3 junior grand slams by the age of 15). She was missing a lot against Radwanska today so I'm not surprised she lost but she looks very promising.
Before the end of play though I saw a fair amount of Mario Ancic (famously the last person to beat Roger Federer at SW19) playing David Ferrer and it was a very good match. Ancic was just playing ridiculously well, but even in spite of a 2 set deficit David Ferrer is a guy who is never going to give up and he swashbuckled his way to winning the 3rd on a tie-break. Didn't see the end but no surprise Ancic won, hope to see a lot more of him next week.