June 25, 2010

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Despite some early struggles, Roger Federer is into the fourth round of Wimbledon. After facing another tough early round match against qualifier Ilija Bozoljac, he was able to pull out a win in four sets to move onto a well-deserved easy match against Arnaud Clement in the third round. Next up, Federer will face recent Grand Slam warrior Jurgen Melzer in the round of 16. Melzer also reached the French Open semifinals last month. Rafael Nadal also struggled in his second round match against Robin Hasse who took the No. 1 player to a fifth set. Nadal prevailed with a score of 5-7, 6-2, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 and has advanced to the third round.

American John Isner collapsed with relief when his three-day match finally ended with a fifth set score of 70-68 over qualifier Nicolas Mahut. The full final score of the 11-hour match was 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(7), 7-6 (3), 70-68, making it the longest match both in games and in time ever played in the history of tennis. Both men played the match of their lives as they racked up a combined 215 aces and 980 total points. There were 711 points in the fifth set alone, with Mahut actually winning more points overall in the losing effort. However, Wimbledon ended shortly after for the exhausted Isner as he was unable to fight through his second round contest against Thiemo De Bakker, falling 6-0, 6-3, 6-2.

Andy Murray, Robin Soderling, Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych all soared through their second round matches while Melzer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were forced to play out five sets. Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic are still in the running and looking solid at this point in the tournament. Hewitt and Djokovic will meet each other in the fourth round as Hewitt took out Gael Monfils and Djokovic beat Albert Montanes.

On the ladies side, Kim Clijsters defeated Maria Kirilenko in straight sets while fellow Belgian player Justine Henin sent Nadia Petrova packing. The Belgians will face off against each other in the next round which will be a very interesting match since they are currently tied 12-12 in head-to-head competition. Maria Sharapova continues to play with confidence as she dominates the top half of the draw with Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki.