Wimbledon 2008 Day 4: JJ v Suarez-Navarro

So – Duck Boy and Tipsy were going to take the field, so I scampered my little self off to go see literally the end of Dinara Safina and then…



JJ!





The only irritating thing was that I had a bunch of really chavvy kids who were mispronouncing her name and I almost spat out my (by now yukky and warm) 7-Up when they marvelled at JJ’s 105mph serve… Heeee!





First set – JJ’s serving was up in the 100s and whilst I wouldn’t say she was ruthless, there was no messin’ about.





Early break after the first 3 games (and lots of idiotic comments from the chavs) so I thought I’d confuse the living hell out of them and yell “Ajde Jelena” … lots of “what did she just say? And how’s that name pronounced”… mind you around this time some other perkins with their resale tickets were now sat next to the chavs and basically told them all to shut up before he got them kicked out… and blissfully… we had silence!!!

And Sanchez…. Oh god bless the Sanchez… I could hear him at the start – all “ESO” and lots of Spanish… and JJ would look up and smile at him… and that’s when I realised – he and Sneki were in the row in front off to my right.
That guy is making copious notes on every element of JJ’s game – I love this guy. Can we get him sainted, or something? Really?



2nd set – JJ’s serve speed dropped – not a huge amount but definitely more under 100mph but it was breezy and that definitely was bothering her.

Also as Wayn said – half way through the first set I think, there was an audible “oooooh” from the crowd and the buzz swept around (quite loudly) that Shreiky was packin’ her bags and movin’ on out… which also kinda threw JJ off a bit.

But this time I wasn’t as nervous as she approached the magic “set and x breaks” scoreline.
Carla didn’t play especially badly – and I don’t think I can hand-on-heart say she was overawed…. She ripped some amazing shots past JJ (love her when she applauds) but she just wasn’t consistent enough with them. I mean at some stage JJ did shrug up to Sanchez “what am I supposed to do” but then would immediately deal very well with the aftermath.





At the end of the match she was asking for a fresh towel and talking up at Sneki, and then she went over to the far end to sign autographs – a bunch of little kids were yelling at he to come back and she didn’t couldn’t so there was a mass “aaaaah” and even a few boos which I thought was a bit much.





Then… I came down the stairs to find the throng – I was the other side of where Cat was – possibly obscured by the Reeechar graphic on Sarah’s screencap… I can’t believe I was within hollering distance of Cat!!!

I did think of trying to get a pic of her as they took her up the stairs (she did pause for a photo for someone) but there was the small matter of the Pretty Tipsy…..