Wimbledon Day Five: Waiting out the gloom for more fireworks

By James Borg

Friday, June 27, 2008 | 1:51 p.m.

LONDON – A gloom descended on the All England Club today. The gods of meteorology had bestowed blue skies and sunshine for the first four days; today the gifts of gray skies and intermittent showers were on offer.

There was another kind of gloom too; that unspoken atmosphere that pervades when both No. 3 seeds – Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova – are eliminated. Then dependable “second weeker'”Andy Roddick was upset late on Day Four.

Not to mention the near-misses, like the No. seed Ana Ivanovic in that net-cord incident on match point. Is anybody safe in this year's Wimbledon?

The clouds shifted a little allowing Roger Federer to begin his match against Marc Gicquel. The 90-minute delay merely turned out to be a stay of as Federer romped, winning the first set in 32 minutes, the second in 29 minutes and then, as the rain clouds appeared again, a final third set in 20 minutes, completing his 6-3 6-3 6-1 win.

Asked whether he "accelerated" the third set because of the prospect of rain? "Yeah, it woud be great if I could just turn on a button and say, let's get this over quickly. This is Wimbledon."

Lleyton Hewitt set up a showdown with his "good old mate" Federer after a convincing straight sets win over Italian baseliner Simone Bolelli. This was Hewitt's second straight sets victory after his five sets opening round victory. He may be playing through the pain, with his hip injury, but he's playing powerful tennis too.

How will he cope with Federer?

"You know, you got to work out tactics. Last five years no one's been able to get it right here. Rafa's come close the last couple. I'll probably get some chances. against roger you really have to take those half chances when you get them."

Hewitt now has won 117 matches in Grand Slam play, the second highest among active players, behind Federer. In fact he and Federer are the only two Wimbledon champions appearing in this year's draw.

Serena Williams was participating in one of the longest rivalries in the women's singles – up against Amelie Mauresmo, a former Wimbledon champion. They had played eleven times before with Serena winning nine. The first set proved to be a testing encounter in the blustery conditions and Serena edged through on the 7-6 tie-break (7-5) only after making 19 unforced errors in the set. She then moved into another gear and finished off the match bt taking the next set 6-1.

"I didn't play my best tennis," she said. "I'm just glad could pull through. It was so windy I just couldn't make my shots. But I'm thinking positive for the second week."

She now faces fellow American Bethanie Mattek.

So no shocks today? We were getting used to the buzz and excitement of the last few days.

The general feeling was that something might happen to Ana Ivanovic, was the general feeling, after her lucky win. She was up against the diminutive Chinese player Jie Zheng, who is ranked No. 133 in the world.

Ivanovic struggled with her serve and backhand and Zheng hardly broke a sweat in the 6-1 6-4 win.

It seems Ivanovic’s crowning at the French Open and the mantle of being No. 1 seed was a little too much too soon.

"She has a very powerful shot" said Ivanovic, "She keeps the ball so low. And she was reading my serves very well.

James Borg, a freelance journalist, has covered the All-England Lawn Tennis Championships for 31 years. He spent a few months in Las Vegas and did work for Caesars Palace. He lives in London.