Federer, Nadal sweat, Williams sisters cruise

While men’s top seeds Federer and Nadal scraped and struggled through to the second week of Wimbledon, the Williams sisters barely broke sweat.

By (AFP)

• Follow us on
• 
• 
• 

Published: Sun 27 Jun 2010, 4:00 PM

Last updated: Mon 6 Apr 2015, 9:05 AM

Defending champion Federer was forced to come back from two sets down in his opening match and dropped the second set in round two.

Meanwhile, Nadal had to play five sets in his second round match and come back from 2-1 down again in his third round clash.

Even the third seed, Novak Djokovic, was forced to come back from 2-1 down in the first round, in a five-set match that finished under the Centre Court roof just two minutes before closing time at 11:00pm.

The gruelling nature of the men’s draw could not have been highlighted more than the record-shattering match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, which went on for an extraordinary 11 hours and 183 games.

But in the women’s draw, the big names have hardly had to hit third gear.

Defending champion Serena Williams has dropped only 10 games in three matches to reach the fourth round, while her sister and the number two seed Venus has dropped only 11.

Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova are also yet to drop a set, while of the other women in the last 16, beside the fourth seed Jelena Jankovic, only the unfancied Petra Kvitova and Klara Zakopalova have dropped sets.

The Isner-Mahut marathon, combined with the ease with which the top women have progressed through to the second week, again puts the spotlight on the equal prize money being doled out by the All England Club, with one million pounds (1.5 million dollars, 1.2 million euros) being awarded to the winners for the first time this year.

But one man who will have no sympathy for the unconvincing starts and gruelling matches of top three men Federer, Nadal and Djokovic is Britain’s Andy Murray.

The fourth seed is yet to drop a set in southwest London and could not be more happy about it.

“Three straight sets wins and the way I’m playing is a very good start for me,” he said, as he bids to become the first British man to win a Grand Slam since Fred Perry here in 1936.

“It’s been a very good first week, to have conserved a lot of energy.”

Serena Williams, the women’s number one, took time to reflect on her three straight 6-0 first set whitewashes.

“That’s pretty cool,” she said. “It’s not humiliating. If anything, it’s courageous to be out there fighting. All these players, they keep fighting.

“In the second, it’s almost better not to win 6-0 because then the crowd really gets behind the opponent. You can’t blame them.

“I try to do the same thing in the second, but it just hasn’t been able to work out.

“When a player wins 6-0 over your opponent, you’ve got to expect them to really come out loose, like they have absolutely nothing to lose, just start going for shots.”