Wimbledon 2008 Day 10: Zheng v Serena

By now Cilla and I were texting results back and forth – she’d had the bonus of having the Schuettler/Clement match that honestly seemed to be taking FOREVER!!!

So – with the weather now looking decidedly iffy, out came little pocket-rocket Zheng and Serena – and for the first time that raincoat did not look utterly stoopid!



Oh and in Ump-Watch 2008 we have Serena’s all time FAVE ump Mariana Alves!



(At least I think I have them the right way round – I always get my Azderaki’s and my Alves’s muddled up!)

Anyway… the gals weren’t on for very long – spits and spots of rain suddenly gave way to a mass of their bigger wetter brothers and off they went … time to see if me and Cilla could catch up so we bagged a couple of extra seats in Café Pergola (seriously – their clotted cream, scones, strawb jam and a hot cuppa – fabulous!)

Cilla arrived just as the announcer… well… announced that the rain was letting up and play would start almost immediately – and it is quite a way from C1 to the Café (JJ take note… helicopters optional :devil: )

We had a quick natter and then headed off back to our courts – they had just started when we got back, and so again I started cheering for Zheng Jie (again – almost sounds like JJ, right??)



First set was so eerily like the first set in the Demented game it was uncanny – but Serena was spot on with her serving and Zheng could do little to trouble her in the first set at all.



2nd set – very much like the Venus match – Zheng hitting low and flat and giving Serena a lot more trouble – also yanking her all around the court and she just seemed to have a better grip on the game.



It was absolutely awful for the 2nd rain break to come at such a crucial point towards the end of the match – and this time the wet stuff meant business.

We stayed put this time – ugh – that rain gets EVERYWHERE!
What was amusing was that the naval officer who’d sent me back at the end of the Kuzy match because of old-codger-gate came out to chat to us and she actually recognised me!!! She kept telling us it was clearing up (and then giggling when the people in front kept looking up and dripping rain down their backs from their brollies… they did it EVERY time!! Arf!!!)

So – to keep my Rozzie self amused – I went star spotting and in the seats below me there was:
Nerys Hughs (Brit actress – prolly best known for a sit-com called The Liver Birds)
Sir Ian McKellen (I was actually taught English by his older sister)
AND… just for Cilla… GORGEOUS Gethin Jones, formerly of Blue Peter and Strictly Come Dancing!!!!






They came out for the restart and Zheng had to hang in – off to a TB which was a lot more tightly contested that the Demented one – but Serena was not in the mood for messing – closing out with some superb serving…



The next match up was Nestor/Zimonjic v Dlouhy/Paes but the rain and the cold was taking its toll, plus I had to go get my friend from the airport, so we decided to call it a day at that point…

Only one more day to go….