All the top stories from Day 5 of Wimbledon
Rafael Nadal is in Boss Mode
World No. 2 Rafael Nadal may be the King of Clay, but the two-time Wimbledon champion is clearly no slouch on grass. Despite not having played a single grass-court warmup, Nadal continued his faultless juggernaut through the early rounds of the Grass court Slam with a straight sets win over the dangerous Karen Khachanov.
21-year-old Khachanov, part of the ATP’s NextGen players, is considered quite a danger on grass and recently took Roger Federer to a tiebreak at the semi-finals of the Gerry Weber Open in Halle, Germany, where Federer would end up winning the title against Alexander Zverev.
In fact, Nadal’s draw was considered perhaps the toughest of all especially considering he has not had any practice on grass.
That appeared to hamper absolutely nothing for the Spanish champion, with Nadal winning 6-,1 6-4, 7-6.
After the match, Nadal said “I’m absolutely happy with almost everything about my game.” Not sure what the ‘almost’ might be about judging from the way he’s playing.
Venus Williams serves a masterclass
Former World No. 1 Venus Williams is the oldest woman in the Wimbledon draw. She’s also the most decorated Wimbledon champion there too, with a staggering five titles at SW19. Today she fought through a third-round challenge from young Japanese ace Naomi Osaka, who considers Venus and Serena her inspirations.
Venus, who has been struggling emotionally of late with a lawsuit brought against her, has appeared to have been able to keep that separate from her work, putting in serious – and improving – performances with each round.
Venus is the 10th seed here, with younger sister Serena nearly at the end of her pregnancy.
Vika Power!
Although Monica Puig – the Puerto Rican one-hit wonder who won the Olympic gold medal at Rio in 2016 – goes by Pica Power, this is certainly all VIKA power! Returning to professional tennis after the birth of her son Leo, former World No. 1 Azarenka – who has won two Grand Slam titles – both of them Australian Open wins – looks to be running along smoothly.
Azarenka defeated British hope Heather Watson 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 .
Nishikori is out!
Kei Nishikori, who lately has been struggling with pain and a number of injuries, has recently become known for pulling out of tournaments. That said, the Japanese ace was absolutely schooled by his determined rival Roberto Bautista Agut.
Nishikori described ‘RBA’ as he is popularly known, as “Mr. Conistent”, and it appears that consistency has paid off for him.
Bautista Agut is the 16th seed here, while Nishikori was seed #9.
Sharan – Raja crash out after mammoth effort
The unseed Indian pair of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja played experienced 7th seeds and 2016 Wimbledon semifinalists Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram in Round 2. It was a tough battle for anyone, but Raja and Sharan lost the first two sets before marking a thundering comeback to take the next two.
In the end it was the decider that let them down, but even that was close with the Indians only edged out by a couple of points. Ranking aside, the two gave it their all and more for Wimbledon 2017.
But all is not lost for Indian fans, with the players, fresh off the title in Aegon, putting in a tooth-and-nail finish before only just losing out.
Unfortunately, today also spelled the end for both former World No. 1 Leander Paes and recent French Open mixed doubles winner Rohan Bopanna at Wimbledon 2017 with their respective partners.
Sania Mirza remains in the draw, however, and with her experienced Belgian partner Kirsten Flipkens (the two are #13) has already shown fans her trademark on-court aggression.
