WILLIAMS SISTERS - TRULY GREAT CHAMPIONS.

The wonderful Williams sisters are both out of Wimbledon earlier than for many years. Venus lost an epic match against the 2011 champion, Petra Kvitova yesterday, and Serena, the reigning champion, has just been sent home by the 25th seed, French woman Alize Cornet. Both gave their all and both lost only after a tremendous struggle.

However, what strikes me most about both defeats is the manner in which they were received. Both young women must have been absolutely distraught and wanted to get away as quickly as possible and yet both made a point of waiting for their opponents and walking off of the court together; so many others march off within seconds of their loss and pay no attention to their vanquishers.

Few other competitors treat the Wimbledon Centre Court motto so perfectly. Everyone who walks through the doors sees lines from the poem *If* by Rudyard Kipling, undoubtedly one of the greatest pieces of English literature, which say :

"If you can meet with triumph and disaster,

And treat those two imposters just the same"

Venus and Serena have been truly great champions. They have also been, and continue to be, truly great sportsmen. Their behaviour in defeat demonstrates just how great they are and it will be a sad day when they decide to hang up their tennis shoes.

ROBSON OUT; MURRAY CAN STILL WIN TITLE.

As Wimbledon draws to its dramatic conclusion, British interest in the main events has been reduced to just the one hope - Andy Murray - again.

 

On Monday, Laura Robson tried hard but really wasn't at her best against a good and much more experienced opponent, Kaia Kanepi. Kanepi is a superstar in her homeland, Estonia, and was good value for the win, which brought her up against a much tougher nut in Sabine Lisicki who'd achieved the unthinkable in knocking the champion, No 1 seed and hot favourite out. If anyone had suggested that Serena Williams wouldn't be in the final, they'd have been laughed off court, but Lisicki just got on with her job and won the day. Against Kanepi, it was an easier story as the hard hitting German had little trouble in setting up a semi-final meeting with  last year's beaten finalist Agnieska Radwanska. Radwanska came through a gruelling match against China's Na Li and the semi will be a fascinating match between players of wholly contrasting styles.

 

In the other half of the draw, Marion Bartoli came through relatively comfortably against the young American, Sloane Stephens, and will now play the real surprise package of the Ladies' tournament, Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium. Flipkens, after losing the first set against the 2011 champion, Petra Kvitova, won the next 2 in dramatic style to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final at the age of 27. Not only is Flipkens tiny compared with most of the other leading players, but she also suffered life threatening illness last year and wasn't even ranked highly enough to enter the qualifying tournament for Wimbledon in 2012. For what it's worth, my money would be on a Lisicki-Flipkens final, but I'm not exactly confident !

 

In the men's event, the 4th round and quarter final results were much as expected. The top half of the draw has boiled down to Djokovic against Del Potro, the latter having defeated both injury and David Ferrer to get there. Although Ferrer was the higher ranked player, Del Potro's size, power and greater  suitability to a grass court must have made him favourite in this match anyway. In the other half most of the seeds had already gone and it was left to Murray to overcome Mikhail Youzhny, while Jerzy Janowicz had no seeds left to defeat but did take 5 sets to beat Jurgen Melzer.

 

Yesterday's quarter finals were between Murray and Fernando Verdasco, and an all-Polish match between Janowicz and Lukas Kubot. While Janowicz despatched his compatriot in straight sets, Murray had an almighty struggle, going 2 sets down before clawing his way back to win in 5. Rather like Flipkens, Verdasco has had a bad time over the last year or so, but he was once a top-10 ranked player, and it showed; Murray may have been a bit 'out-of-sorts' but Verdasco was well worth his 2 set lead and, in the end, it probably came down to a matter of nerve as Murray served out for the match at 7-5 in the 5th set.

 

As in the Ladies' tournament, the semi-finals will be fascinating. World no. 1 Djokovic against the huge Argentinian Del Potro - Djokovic has to be favourite but Del Potro did win when they met in the Olympics and on the same court. Murray should beat Janowicz but he had a very hard match yesterday. A Murray-Djokovic final has to be favourite, but who knows ?

MURRAY AND ROBSON RAISE BRITISH TENNIS SPIRITS.

For the first time in 15 years, Britain has both a man and a woman through to the 4th round of Wimbledon. Back in the dim and distant days of 1998, it was Tim Henman and Sam Smith; this year it's Andy Murray and Laura Robson.

 

In 1998, Henman was our regular Wimbledon hope and often progressed to the latter stages of the competition but Sam Smith, while being our top female player of the time, made her one and only 4th round appearance in that year. Sadly, ever fulfilled their early promise.

 

Today, Andy Murray has become the 'Great White Hope' of British mens' tennis and has looked to be in imperious form in this year's tournament. If he carries on as he's played so far, he must be odds on to reach the final and he could well win that, too, adding the Wimbledon title to that of the USA which he won last year.

 

In the womens' event this year we had several starters but it is the precocious Laura Robson who has survived to round 4. After winning the junior event 5 years ago, Robson has become the darling of British tennis and has proved good enough to defeat several of the world's top players, though has also shown a depressing ability to lose matches against much lower-ranked opponents whom she should have walked all over.

 

"So far,  so good," is the story of this year's Wimbledon for Laura. A brilliant first round performance to beat the 10th seed, Kirilenko, and a workman-like showing in the second to dispose of Duque-Marino, brought her up against Erakovic in the third. For a set and a half, it looked as though this would be the end of the road for Laura as she failed completely to cope with the New Zealander's game, but then it all changed. From serving for the match, Erakovic lost 8 games in a row and, despite a blip when herself serving for the win, Laura still got home in style. If the first round was brilliant and the second workman-like, the third was full of character and determination. This girl may well go far in the next few years and her 4th round opponent, Kaia Kanepi, had better watch out.