Tennis superstars Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams top the bill at Wimbledon’s super Monday when they took the advantage of the shock exits of their heavyweight Grand Slam opponents. Meanwhile, Andy Murray is also witnessed in action.
Top seed and world number one Djokovic will lock horns with 35-year-old Tommy Haas-the oldest player left in the men’s title. The 2011 champion Djokovic has not dropped his serve in his three rounds till date. He has fired 38 winners and just three unforced errors in his straight sets demolition of Jeremy Chardy on Saturday. Notably, Haas was a Wimbledon semi-finalist in 2009.
The Serb predicted that it is going to be a big challenge for both of them. He revealed that he loves playing on grass and beat Roger Federer in the final of Halle in the previous year. He doesn’t look like a 35-year-old. He is full of confidence on the court and he has been playing very close to the best tennis of his life. Actually, there is no clear favorite in that match. He needs to try to repeat this performance. If he does, he thinks that he has a good chance.
On the other side, women’s defending champion Serena Williams bracketed-up her 600th career win in her smashing 6-2, 6-0 victory over 42-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan in Saturday’s third round. Williams who is chasing a sixth Wimbledon title and 17th Grand Slam crown, will encounter 23rd seed Sabine Lisicki of Germany for a quarter-final place. In fact, victory on Monday will give her a 35th successive victory lifting her level with sister Venus’s record set in 2000. Her rival Lisicki was a semi-finalist in 2011 and entered the quarter-finals last year, knocking out Maria Sharapova from her way.
Madcap Russian Mikhail Youzhny and injury-plagued Estonian Kaia Kanepi will target to hammer British hopes. Youzhny handled second seed Murray with a 2-0 career deficit against the US Open champion and a reputation for living on the edge when his game went astray. The 29-year-old smashed the same racquet nine times, sending shards spiraling into the air and ball boys running for cover in an amazing meltdown during his defeat to Haas at the French Open. Seeded 20 at Wimbledon, Youzhny is notorious on the tour for his hair-trigger temper. While playing with Spain’s Nicolas Almagro, he hit his racquet on his head so fiercely that blood spilled onto the court at Miami in 2008. Nowadays, he celebrates his victory by calmly bouncing his racquet on his head.
In the meantime, Kanepi will face Laura Robson who is the first British woman in the last 16 years since 1998 to have already eliminated Tara Moore of the home nation in the first round. The 28-year-old and ranked world number 46, has already illustrated her capacity at the tournament by knocking out seventh seed Angelique Kerber of Germany in the second round. She also entered the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2010, the same year she reached the final eight at the US Open. She has twice crashed into the quarter-finals of the French Open. Unfortunately, Kanepi missed the last half of the 2012 season with an Achilles tendon injury. She returned to the circuit in April.
Kanepi insisted that she thinks that she is faster and fitter than before and is happy to face a hostile crowd. She believes that they are all going to be against her, the crowd and she thinks that she is going to enjoy that.
