I was back in row Z on the same side as MJD, and the cap was clearly visible throughout.  I flippantly asked him afterwards how he felt rubbing shoulders with a famous (hmmm, that's over-egging it a bit, but you know what I mean) soap actress, and to his eternal credit, he had no idea who or what I was talking about.

Anyway I was out on Henman Hill with blade("get this over with Tim, I came to watch some tennis, not a TV screen" )tiger watching the end of Tim's epic (well actually, not quite ON the hill, it was so packed that we were off the grass at the side with security regularly calling out that we should all 'please move onto the grass' to keep the access clear - if only we could!) and got into Court 1 a few games after the start.

Richard played a brilliant game to break as I watched the screen waiting to get in and when I got back to my seat, my dad (who had stayed in there rather than braving 'the Hill' and is not known for being easily impressed by GB tennis players!) said he thought Bloomers "has some really good shots" and was playing like he'd been on the show courts for years.

I was hugely impressed too, I never realised he was quite that good, and it was a great match to watch. He must have actually been extremely nervous, but he certainly wasn't showing it, giving as good as he got from Hewitt most of the time.

Just two things that were a pity - the first that he didn't manage to sneak a set and have a bit more to show for his efforts, the second that he had quite such a tough draw, especially after having a string of tough draws the last few weeks and with over 50 points to defend over this fortnight. Playing like that, he would have had a really good chance against any of the unseeded players and probably against many of the low-seeded players too.

Still, if he's ever wondered how he'd react to being out on a show court against one of the top players, he got a very encouraging answer yesterday, and those close to him must have been very proud of the way he played.

I would echo mjd's comments about the WC debate. All the courts with Brits on them were packed and the non-GB WCs were generating relatively little interest.

They surely should have put Boggo v Guccione on a bigger court too - there is nothing the hordes of Aussies with ground passes like better than an AUS v GB match and they seemed to be outnumbering the Brits inside.

It was almost impossible to get in and get a seat, all standing room on the hill above was packed 2 or 3 deep and there were pairs of eyes (mine included for a while) all along the bottom of the fence at the points where you could see the action through the crowd. And this at almost 8 in the evening after quite a lot of people had gone home for the day!

Funnily enough, the only Brit match that didn't have that big a crowd (Blade and I had half of the front row to ourselves!) was Katie's - she looked terribly frustrated at times in the 2nd set, spraying the ball out again and again, but just as it looked like it was going to go to a 3rd set, she got a chance on Kloesel's serve, broke her and after that you could see the determination in her eyes as she held and broke again to close the match out - you could see how much it meant to her too, brilliant stuff.

-- Edited by steven at 11:22, 2007-06-27

I have just listened  to the online Hewitt's post match comments.

He said Bloomfield was a very flashy player and a lot different to 95% of most players -
Grass courts certainly suit his game and it took me a while to work him out. It was initially difficult to get into the match because he volleyed well. I'm just happy to get away in straight sets but it wasn't as easy as the scoreline suggests.


Bloomfield:
It was a good match and I can take plenty of positives
See all of Richards comments in Local Press Report