Wimbledon 2010 Day 7: JJ v Zvonareva

Sunday was a much needed a day off from tennis. I was looking forward to NO fluffy tennis balls. ANYWHERE.
No – I had the football… hmmph… less said about that fiasco, the better!

I tried for returns tickets on Sunday lunchtime and was astounded to get them!
I kinda half-heartedly tried to get tickets for the Andy’s match on Monday and again – was astounded to get them – although this was going to cause a few logistics issues as mum was going to come for the returns – so the plan was she’d let herself in and make herself at home, and I’d come back after the tennis.

The bonus of course was that JJ had been put on Court 12 – there’s been some good matches here – I’ve spent most of my time this year on this court… but …
The stewards bring a lot of the queuers in much earlier and keep them gathered in a central area – and then walk them past most of the other gates and only let them ‘loose’ once the other gates are opened.

Which means all e-ticket holders are kept waiting outside … until the gates open.
Ticket holders can get in earlier and go have something to nibble… mehhhh

I was stood in front of two guys from Glasgow (hello Zahir and Manoo) and one of them was a JJ fan so we got chatting and initially all headed off to Court 12 where healthy queues were building up.
Cat was in the main queue and was in the queue for 12 on the other side from me so we were pinging texts back and forth, determined to at least make it in…
The guys decided to go check out some other courts but I wanted to cheer on the goat (sigh - SUCH a glutton for punishment!)

I just managed to get in before the start – hmmm… JJ arrived with strapping on her leg which was not a good start.









To make it all worse – she got broken straight away.



Vera had a few yips on her serves but that was nothing on JJ not being able to find the court with a pair of binoculars! She got broken again and was DFing all over the place or leaking UEs.









She finally picked up and broke Vera in the fifth game and had started to look a bit more competitive – uh huh – Just no. She got broken straight back again and Vera held for the first set.



JJ had taken a slip in the first … but what was really doing for her was the amount of DFs on critical points – Vera was chucking in a few but JJ was choking all over the place.

2nd set started almost exactly the same as the first – DF and broken in the first, and JJ went to Carlos Ramos and asked for the trainer – I have to admit I thought she was going to retire at that point, but she had the MTO for her back…

She did shoot Sneki a filthy look at the ever present “come on JJ come on [/clap]” and retired the very next game – but it was obvious that her movement was really compromised in that game – she’d gone through the motions in the previous game – hardly moved for a ball…







Very disappointed to see her end like that … with the Oudin match she had her MTO but played it out so it’s rare for her to do that and Vera was very sweet at the net. I heard that she went to Sneki for a hug – mum’s forgive filthy looks!

Time for me to retire too – hungry and headed for Fish and Chips!