Wimbledon 2009 Day 2: JJ v Goerges

Let me tell thee... it was a real crush to get to the unreserved seating - soooo many people headed for this match... but the crowd was an interesting mix. A lot of people remembered her as "the one who won with that British dude... kissing all over the place" (heee)... but a lot of folks knew she'd slipped down a bit in the rankings... The curmudgeonly steward was waffling about how the lower seeds get these courts but it poses them a nightmare putting former high ranking seeds on the lower courts as the queues tend to stretch for miles. There was certainly a lot of pushing and barging to get onto Court 3 yesterday!

No-one really wanted to move... we were allowed to come and go until 11:45 but I'd say pretty much everyone parked themselves and stayed put! And jealously watched those people who got proper tickets for the reserved side come wandering in when they felt like it. Pfft!

Cilla was in the proper Court 2 (seriously - PAY ATTENTION!) and texted me that Tashi was saying that JJ's coach (Eastbourne dude) was called Chris Hooper?... anyway... He and Sneki arrived - so that deserved a photo...



And then... imagine my surprise when Marko (with a truly disastrous perm thing going on) and RICARDO turned up!!!! I was giddy!



Ricardo and Marko relocated to the centre of that back stand leaving Kung Fu Panda (hee) and Sneki at the back...

And then... first look at JJ!!!



A lot of warm applause for her, I think... although during the match the crowd was a bit flat - it's awfully noisy on that court (hence it's "Graveyard of the Seeds" name... you had the Brits watching Dan Evans against DavyDonkey next door and all the chanting and cheering from whatever court Dokic was on...

Anyway ... some warm up shots for ya... (and by the way... that jacket... with the ruffle? A WORLD of BAD in the fashion stakes for JJ... dress was nice enough though..











OK - so... warm up over, jacket off and JJ was off and running.

Now... about that serve.





To my mind (and bear in mind, watching in the flesh is a little different to the TV) - there does seem to be a lot more racquet head speed in her serve, and she seemed to be really going for her serve. Interesting thing about her 2nd serve... sure it was a little powder-puff as always, but it had a similar effect to that of Demented against Venus in last year's Semis... Goerges was really struggling to do anything with it - and more often than not, she dumped it straight into the net... I suspect that's more to do with a lack of experience in punishing weak second serves, myself, but hey ho... Julia's UEs were JJ's gain.

Meanwhile the girl next to me had some super-intense Julia fan who was getting in a right state over Sneki shouting "Come on JJ Come On"... she was insisting that Sneki only did this when Julia was at that end... but not so - Sneki was even handed in her shouting!! :lol: She'd holler that at JJ when she was back at that end too!

Julia is a ball basher... she just seemed intent in the early stages of sending EVERYTHING back with pace, and when JJ picknicked it was back to the familiar passive squash-shots etc... I think Jelena gave her a way in, and then picked up her game to take the first.
So... you're Jelena... you come through a tighter first set than necessary after your lack of concentration gives your opponent chance to find her range, and then you shut it down and close out the set... what do you do next...? Uh huh - no jumbotron to admire yourself on, so you whip off your shoes and call the trainer!



In the second set - JJ lost her range, and Julia found hers...



I thought at one stage that JJ was just gonna bail on the 2nd and that we'd have a third set - but then for me the turning point was the call that JJ disputed... we all distinctly heard a call of OUT ... we all assumed it was the line judge and that it was over-ruled... although I suppose it could have been someone in the crowd I guess...

For all her picknicking in the 2nd set ... she did come back well - although insane fan went berserk when JJ started kvetching at Marko.... he said something back and she was all "coaching, it's coaching"... actually I think it's just JJ whining... but (god bless the Sanchez) he was all chest pumpy and Vamos-y and there was the ever present ESO... awwwwww!

To get it back to a TB was pretty good.. and I was strangely pleased to see her doubling over and yelling "Ajde AJDE" to herself to gee herself up... about TIME JJ... play like you WANT to win, not like people should be giving the win to you! She was a bit like that (as was Novak yesterday) at the start..."ohhhh MOMMMMM, they're not doing it right"... and then to take the TB 7-0.
That was pretty damn awesome!!!!



A good win... not the most solid... and yes - as nerve racking at the end of the first and most of the second as her matches EVER are... but a win is a win, and Glitter-Gal is on her way... 6 more to go :bounce: