Oh the carnage! Opening day at Wimbledon has come and gone, and half of those who took the court today are disappointed. The other half are not. (Deep - I know…)
I got home from work today and flipped through the draw to see who was still alive and kickin’. This morning I mentioned that Lleyton Hewitt and Svetlana Kuznetsova both dropped their first sets in tiebreakers. Kuznetsova bounced back with a 7-5 second set and 6-3 third set to move on to the second round.
Hewitt had to go five rounds with Robin Haase before finally getting the go-ahead into the second round. The Aussie won the next two sets at 6-3 each before losing the fourth in another tiebreak. With everything leveled at 2 sets apiece, Hewitt came out smoking and won the decider at 6-2. Glad to see the ole backwards hat wearing man from Down Under still has a little fire left.
As Wimbledon always brings, the intensity is often balanced out with laughables on the other side of the scale. Today’s biggest goof was *drum roll* David Nalbandian! The man’s streaky to say the least (and also a bit chubby-ish), but his crash-out in the first round of Wimbledon made me laugh. I’m not sure if that is really the correct response I should have had, but when I saw it - all I could do was sit there and try to hold in my laughter. ‘Bandy only had three sets worth of time during 2008 Wimbledon before Frank Dancevic dismissed him 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.
Other interesting things on the men’s side? Novak Djokovic needed four sets to get past Michael Berrer (although granted, Djokovic handed Berrer a big fat zero in the fourth set). That’s trips the interest wire a little bit. But what sends up red flares is who Djokovic is set to slug it out with in the second round: Marat Safin. It’s true. Safin is very close to the ultimate has-been, but I think somewhere, deep-down Dinara Safina’s older brother has just a little bit more awesome to give.
Not gonna lie though…Nole is a pretty tall order for the best of the best, let alone for a past-his-glory-days Safin. 
(Image: Newscom) Steeeetch! David Nalbandian tried and failed to get past the first round of Wimbledon. Shucky-darn.
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