Wimbledon Third Round Review

Performance of the round:

Marin Cilic beat sixth seeded Tomas Berdych 7-6, 6-4, 7-6 in the latest finishing match in Wimbledon history (21:39). The 26th seed hit 20 aces, won 81 percent of his first serves and hit 46 winners to 27 unforced errors as he knocked out the 2010 finalist. The Croatian’s game is big enough to hit through even the slower grass now seen at Wimbledon and if he can hold his nerve as well as he can hold his serve, great things could come his way next Sunday.

Contest of the round:

Grigor Dimitrov and Alexandr Dolgoplov put on a shot-making fiesta in a match that for four sets was as entertaining and close as they get. The fifth set may have been something of a washout as Dimitrov took it 6-1 but he had to produce his best to get the win and his best was quite the spectacle.

Shock of the round:

Serena Williams’ 6-1 impeccable first set against Alize Cornet held no signs at all she would go on to lose the match. But the tide quickly turned as Cornet managed to get Williams on the backfoot and then swung freely to shotmake her way to the win of her career- the first time she had ever beaten any top 20 player in a slam. Williams has failed to go past the fourth round of this year’s three slams and her upcoming events will be much anticipated as talk of her decline increases.

Best turnaround:

Rafael Nadal once again dropped the first set to his opponent as Mikhail Kukushkin stepped inside the court and attacked, but Nadal shrugged of the loss of the first set and dropped just three more games as he revved up his serve- his first serve went in 67 percent of the time and he won 77 percent of the points behind it-and hit 41 winners to 12 errors. He did it under the roof, too.

Slip-up of the round:

Novak Djokovic’s performance against Gilles Simon was note perfect  when it came to being aggressive-he came to the net 36 times- but the slip at the start of the third made all the wrong noises as his shoulder dislocated. Though he was able to joke about it after the match was won, fans will hope his shoulder holds up as the 2011 semi-finalist Tsonga waits in the next round.

Biggest upset of the round:

Stanislas Wawrinka’s coach Magnus Norman did not take well to the AELTC’s decision to cancel Wawrinka’s match. Rightly, too. Wawrinka or Istomin and the other players whose match was cancelled, Isner and Lopez, will have to play three days in a row if they want to make it into the semi-finals. And their scheduled opponents, Federer and Nadal, will have to play two consecutive days if they want to make it to the last four, too. Quite unfair, and hard to understand when center court play was done by 6pm and there was plenty of time for another match.

Biggest sense of humour of the round:

Berdych may have kicked up a stink, and with great reason, too, on the court when hawkeye was down in the dark but he still had to play, but he was able to joke about it after. See his tweet below.