Such a shocker!
During a surreal 24 hours, it seemed as if the tennis world's invincible 'Big Three' could not, as Roger Federer summed up, "play tennis no more, right?" Well, almost.First Rafa Nadal was sent spinning out of the tournament by a Czech ranked 100th in the world, then title holder Novak Djokovic also seemed to be heading for an early checkout when he lost the first set to Radek Stepanek. If that was not enough to set off the panic alarms, Federer joined in the drama when he went two
sets down, and stood two points from defeat, against Julien Benneteau.
Back into obscurity
Lukas Rosol's star fell to earth as quickly as it rose on Saturday as the Czech lost 6-2 6-3 7-6 to German Philipp Kohlschreiber in just 97 minutes.
It was the sort of performance you would expect from a man ranked 100th in the world who had never gone past the qualifying competition at Wimbledon in five previous attempts, but not from the man who had dazzled under the bright lights of the Centre Court roof two nights before.
The perfect murder
Yaroslava Shvedova was "in such a zone" during her third-round tussle with Sara Errani that she did not even realise she had blitzed through the first set without conceding a point. The Kazakh wildcard left Errani red-faced on Saturday by becoming the first player to claim a set in a grand slam by winning every point. The first set disappeared in a 15-minute blur as Shvedova won 24 consecutive points - known as a golden set.
The perfect murder
Yaroslava Shvedova was "in such a zone" during her third-round tussle with Sara Errani that she did not even realise she had blitzed through the first set without conceding a point. The Kazakh wildcard left Errani red-faced on Saturday by becoming the first player to claim a set in a grand slam by winning every point. The first set disappeared in a 15-minute blur as Shvedova won 24 consecutive points - known as a golden set.
Equal pay
For Serena Williams, it was a bit like discussing a decade old piece of boring gossip.
France’s Gilles Simon restarted the equal pay at Grand Slams discussion by saying the concept was unwarranted. "I have the feeling that men's tennis is actually more interesting than women's tennis," he said.
"That was so 2000; this is 2012. Who is still thinking like that, like honestly? Get with the programme," Serena said in response.
Flashes of history
Sam Querrey lost the second-longest singles match in Wimbledon history, going down 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-7 (3), 17-15 in the third round to Marin Cilic (in pic) after 5 hours 31 minutes . “Just another match now, thanks to Isner-Mahut,” Querrey said.
Querrey was joking, but only to a point. When John Isner defeated Nicolas Mahut in the first round here in 2010, they played for 11:05 over three days before Isner prevailed,
70-68, in the fifth.
Last kiss goodbye?
As Andy Roddick walked off Centre Court after his third-round defeat by David Ferrer on Saturday, he blew a kiss and waved to the crowd in a manner which suggested the three-times runner-up might not be returning. The 29-year-old American's 12th bid to win the grasscourt title had ended in failure but the former world number one was adamant that he had not made any decisions about his future.
Calling fault
Ivo Karlovic has demanded an apology from the All England Club over a series of line calls made during his Round 2 defeat to Andy Murray. The Croat claims he was wrongly called for a number of foot faults and also accused tournament organisers of showing a bias towards British No1.