Wimbledon 2013: Talking Points from Day 7

The dethroned queen

Serena Williams

In a tournament that will be forever remembered as one of the most shocking of all time, the exit of reigning champion, world number one and overwhelming favorite Serena Williams, is arguably the biggest shock of them all.

I say arguably because unlike names like Darcis, Stakhovsky and de Brito, Sabine Lisicki has a lot of pedigree on grass. She is one of a dying breed of tennis players left in the world, a grass court specialist. And this is why for the last four years that she has competed at Wimbledon, she is the most dangerous floater for the big names to face. The wildcard has beaten Svetlana Kuznetsova, Caroline Wozniacki, Li Na, Marion Bartoli and Maria Sharapova all on the grass courts of SW19 and has never failed to reach the quarter-finals here.

So why is the dethroning of Williams a bigger upset than that of Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal?

Well, it was because Williams was such an overwhelming favorite for the tournament that every point of discussion on the women’s side of the draw was ‘who is going to reach the final to get beaten by Serena’ after Sharapova and Azarenka had been knocked out early. The fact that we now have to think again on who is actually going to win the title is slightly peculiar. Whilst Federer’s loss was huge, he wasn’t the actual main favorite for the championship, it was more the end of an era.

The match itself was also surprising. After being blitzed in the first set, she returned the favour in the second and seemed to have restored normality to the match. But then she tightened up, missed easy balls and went into a ‘don’t lose’ mentality and Lisicki punished her timed play with a series of winners to take the match.

The whole tournament had been geared towards Serena winning her sixth title, but the pressure finally took a toll on Serena with no Sharapova and Azarenka in the draw. That is why it was so unbelievable to wave Williams goodbye.

Poland’s moment in the sun

Jerzy Janowicz

On Wednesday, Polish tennis will see its biggest match in men’s tennis history when Lukasz Kubot and Jerzy Janowicz face each other for a chance to reach the Wimbledon semifinals. The elder statesman of the two Kubot has always been a solid grass court player. Someone who finds it easy to exploit any weaknesses a player has on the surface.

He reached the fourth round two years ago when he lost to Feliciano Lopez after beating Gael Monfils on route. This year he beat two more Frenchman, the highly rated Benoit Paire in straights and the lucky Adrian Mannarino in a five setter. He has had some luck in the draw, but he himself has beaten a seed en route and deserves this chance in the sun.

But many people will be seeing this as a changing of the guard and the emergence of a future Grand Slam champion. Janowicz has impressed many with his 140mph serve and power game. He’s certainly got the power to progress in the rankings but as he showed against Jurgen Melzer, if someone can return his serve he still has a lot to learn about movement and developing points.

I don’t think Kubot has the game to exploit this weaknesses though as Janowicz’s power surely will be too much for someone ranked outside the top 100.

While Janowicz is a possible star of the future, Agnieszka Radwanska is now arguably the favorite for the Wimbledon crown and her first major. As usual, she flew under the radar in the draw mainly because she was in the same half as Williams. Now though, the Pole is the highest seed left in the draw and after reaching the final last year, will be confident of doing the same again this year.

Li Na stands in her way. but Radwanska is the more consistent and the better player on grass in my opinion and has had to beat some very good floaters in Madison Keys and Tsvetana Pironkova to reach this far.

Although Janowicz and Radwanska are probably going to be at the forefront of the Polish game for a while as their strength in depth isn’t what it used to be, Wimbledon 2013 could be seen as the zenith of Polish tennis in years to come.

How is Del Potro still playing?

Juan Martin Del Potro

I hadn’t seen Juan Martin Del Potro‘s match against Grega Zemlja but heard that he took a very nasty fall chasing down a drop shot and was considering pulling out of his match with Andreas Seppi.

When I saw the amount of strapping on his left knee I thought it was a miracle that he had even made it out on the court, and it would be formality for the Italian to pull through because surely the big Argentine wouldn’t be able to move freely for almost three hours and push off on his leg for his forehand. How wrong I was.

Del Potro defied his injury and played brilliantly, easily dispatching Seppi in straight sets. According to Del Potro, his knee is still giving him discomfort but isn’t too bothersome to affect his play to a huge degree. He has all day today to rest it and hopefully its condition will improve because there are few better sights in the game than seeing the massive wingspan of Del Potro wind up for a forehand.

The bad news for Del Potro is that awaiting him in the next round is David Ferrer, a player who destroyed him on Centre Court last year. By his high standards, Ferrer has not played well this tournament having lost at least one set in each of his matches. But Del Potro’s knee will have to be braced for a lot of running because even a sub-par Ferrer will force you to work exceptionally hard for your victory.

If his knee does hold up enough to get past Ferrer, Del Potro could face Novak Djokovic in the semifinals and after what he did to the Serb at the Olympics, we could see yet another upset at Wimbledon 2013.