Wimbledon 2010 kicked off on Monday and a couple of firsts have already occurred by day three.
A first round match stretched until one minute prior to the 11 pm curfew and it happened with the roof closed. The number three seed, Novak Djokovich needed every second of the time to get past a very game Olivier Rochus of Belgium in five sets, 4-6. 6-2.3-6. 6-4, 6-2.
It was the first match that began in daylight and ended at night after dark. The very strict curfew was tested and there was no need to make the competitors come back the next day. If it had taken any longer for the roof to to be closed and the lights fired up that might have been necessary.
It was necessary however, for a match that began late Tuesday between American John Isner and Frenchman, Nicolas Mahut. The fifth set of their match began on Wednesday after darkness had suspended play a bit more than 12 hours prior. It has now entered the record books.
The fifth set by itself has extended longer than any match in Wimbledon history. As of this writing, the competitors were still on serve at 50-50 in the fifth set. It doesn’t look like this one will end until someone can’t stand up any longer.
Roger Federer has played two matches, won both but it wasn’t easy. Coming from two sets down against unseeded Colombian Alejandro Falla on Monday in his first round match, he then survived a close four-setter on Wednesday afternoon against Serbian, Ilijah Bozoljac, 6-3, 6-7(4),6-4, 7-6(5).
You can either say that Roger is a bit shaky or that he’s getting a good work out prior to advancing in the tournament.
Some of the men’s top seeded players that were upset in their first round matches were Marin Cilic (11th) and Ivan Ljubicic (17th).
On the women’s side of the draw, both of the French Open finalists, Sam Stosur of Australia and Francesca Schiavone of Italy were knocked out in the first round.
ESPN-2 is broadcasting the matches live on a daily basis and DirecTV has five extra channels available to its subscribers in its Wimbledon Mix. The Tennis Channel is offering a wrap-up show with commentary that begins at 8 pm ET each evening.
When World Cup Soccer gets in the way, ESPN coverage gets pushed to its online home: espn3.com as well as ESPN U on the cable-satellite provider schedule. NBC picks up some match coverage on the first weekend and does so on a tape-delay basis.
Re-printed with permission of the author.
Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles.
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