Tennis Life UK Insider's Blog

11:30 AM

Blue cloudless sky, warm sunshine, it’s a beautiful day at Wimbledon. The sidewalk along Wimbledon Park road coming up from Southfields where I’m staying was jammed with fans hoping to see their hero Andy Murray in his first round match against American Robert Kendrick.

12:20 PM

Checking out the schedule for today, I see that it’s a big day for Americans on center court. Starting with Venus at 1PM, followed by Roddick, thenRobert Kendrick against Andy Murray. I guess I know where I’ll be spending the afternoon.

1:00 PM

Venus strides on court like the defending champion, and five time Wimbledon winner that she is... tall and regal, in a good looking white dress. The dress is simple with a cool back detail. Very nice Venus. Her opponent is nineteen year old Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland, who quite frankly, I don’t know anything about except that she grew up not far from Roger Federer.

Venus just exudes an air of confidence. She feels comfortable on grass, and Serena has said that she thinks Venus is the best grass court player ever. Well, that may be a bit of an over statement, but Venus has proven that she does know how to win here, and today was no exception. She barely broke a sweat with her 6-3, 6-2 win.

Next up Andy Roddick against Frances Jeremy Chardy. Andy was all business. Playing like he had somewhere else important to go, he went up 5- love in the first set before Chardy even knew what was happening. Chardy did finally wake up and get into the pace of the game. He took the third set, but Roddick came out strong in the fourth and won the match. The fast grass court and dry sunny weather were the exact conditions that Arod likes, allowing him to rack up a total of 21 aces.

Roddick’s new coach Larry Stefanki was looking happy with the result. They obviously feel that this is a big chance for Andy to improve his ranking and have a shot at the title.

5:00 PM

I still haven’t had lunch and I’m dying of hunger, but I’m afraid to leave the court because I don’t know if I’ll be able to get another seat. The photo pit is pretty full, and if this match is tight all the seats could be taken.

Everyone thinks that this is going to be a walk in the park for Murray, but I’ve known and watched Robert Kendrick for a long time, and he can be dangerous when his game is on, and he has nothing to loose. He’s a big server, with a forehand like a rocket when he’s on his game.

Murray came out the winner, 7-5, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4, but it looked like Kendrick’s game took him by surprise, he got the job done, but the 29 year old American made him earn it.

8:35 PM

OH MY WORD.. I still have not eaten. I just looked up on my computer screen and saw that Jesse Levine is up two sets to one 5-2 in the fourth against Marat Safin. I grab my camera, run to court 18 and hope that Marat can at least win two more games, so they will change ends at least one more time and I can get on for the end of the match. Yes! Marat has held and broken and the score is not 4-5. The crowd is chanting, “you can do it Marat”, but unfortunately, he can’t. Levine wins the forth 6-4, and the big Russian, exits the big W for the last time.

I’m happy for Levine, this is a huge moment for him, but isn’t sad to see Safin go out like this. Seeded 14^th here, everyone had hopes for him to show his stuff one more time.

The other big American winner today was Melanie Oudin who defeated 29^th seed, Sybille Bummer. Oudin is currently ranked 124, and just turned pro in 2008.

So there you have it .. News of the day from Wimbledon.