Wimbledon - Round 4: Andy vs Stanislas Wawrinka

steven · Tennis legend

Wimbledon - Round 4: Andy vs Stanislas Wawrinka

The Hoose · Satellite level

Important match for Andy. I thought against Troicki he was a bit slapdash and not completely switched on mentally, so was expecting a tough one here. This will hopefully help his focus for the rest of the tournament, although he doesn't seem quite there yet.

Andy's play requires him to keep his first serve percentage up and cut his unforced errors down to virtually zero - he did this very well in the second set but at other times - notably the first set and start of the third - his level dropped and he dumped too many forehands into the net. Lacked a bit of punch in his volleys too. I note that Andy has blamed the humid conditions for reducing the weight of his shots last night.

On the positive side, I thought the placement and kick of the second serves was very good towards the end (or was Wawrinka just not good enough to capitalise on the slow pace?) and Andy's first serve returns were getting better and better as the match wore on - not just getting tough serves back, but getting them back with the right length.

He should beat Ferrero, and I think his game matches up well with Hewitt and Roddick, but I'd be worried if he did end up in a dogfight with Lleyton. Fed will have been watching this match with interest - I fear he'll have seen enough to have worked out some decent tactics for securing a straight sets win in the final.

johnnylad · Tennis legend

Andy has said today how the match being indoors changed it completely. Really humid and sweaty etc...

Not a great advert for the roof. Though the fact the match went on late and the external shots of the court were a great advert.

Luckily he said if he knows in future the roof will be on he will adapt quicker. And he has confirmed my thoughts that he couldn't get anything on his serve

The Hoose · Satellite level

johnnylad wrote:

Andy has said today how the match being indoors changed it completely. Really humid and sweaty etc...

I'm hoping those comments were actually last night as they were posted on the BBC website at 7.30 BST and I was rather hoping that Andy would get a good night's sleep!

indiana · Tennis legend

Regarding the roof, I would be very interested to Know from folk that were at Wimbledon yesterday evening or in the near vicinity, how much of a risk there was of any further rain, given what rain there was had I believe passed on well before the end of the Safina v Mauresmo match.

I wouldn't like to think that Wimbledon were more interested in getting some big publicity for their shiny brand new roof by leaving it unnecessarily deployed in such a high profile match than maintaining the ethos even after the development of the roof that where possible Wimbledon was still an "outdoor daytime event". If it was much more to do with publicity than the prevailing weather then that to me would be utterly unacceptable.

It was no doubt a great atmosphere, and of course you don't want to be keeping opening and shutting the roof with the time that would take. But was there any real likelihood that it was going to need redeployed again ? And anyway clearly there was time during the break between matches to open it again.

I had wondered about whether the roof had slowed down things markedy, that being my impression. But was reluctant to suggest there was as an element of the "it's the roof that dun it" for Andy's performance. Very clearly anyway there was much much more to it, he basically just did not play very well compared to how he can play.

However, I have recently been out and purchased the Scotsman, which reveals more considered post match comments on the roof, as distinct to his immediate courtside post match interview.

"It's very, very heavy and humid. You're sweating from the start. The humidity slowed it down a lot and I was struggling on my serve" ( Don't imagine it can be blamed for bringing down your first service pecentage, Andy, but leaving that aside... ) He added that he and Wawrinka had been given little notice of the roof.

Just imagine that a change in conditions on top of the fact that Andy just simply wasn't playing that well had contibuted to his defeat last night.

As I said at the start, I would be really interested to know whether there was any real need for it remaining deployed at all or if there was little threat of any further rain.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Not Murray's best performance and there is a lot in his game that would have to improve based on that performance last night, but the important thing was he got the job done in the end and is still in Wimbledon, which when Wawrinka broke back in the 5th set, I wasn't sure would happen.

Didn't serve at all well compared to his earlier matches where he was excellent on serve and someone who attacks the return more than Wawrinka (such as Federer...) would have caused Murray so many more problems with their returning.

Murray was also helped by Wawrinka's forehand disappearing completely on the big points.

Wawrinka played a good match and served very well, but had Andy been playing like he did in the last two rounds, he would have beaten him a lot easier than he did.

He may be able to get away with playing like he did on Monday against Ferrero, but he will need to step it up a level for the semis and the final - hope it was just the one poor match that everyone seems to have at some stage in the tournament.

It probably did him a bit of good to have a close match, but then, having to keep playing long matches will take it's toll in the end and even though he has worked on his fitness a lot, you cannot keep playing long matches.

Madeline · Admin:Moderator + Tennis Legend

I'm back - though only half alive! Ye gods, that was a worrying match. To make matters worse, it went on so late that I had to leave at two sets all or I would have missed my overnight bus - luckily my daughter, who left even earlier as she had to cross London to St Pancras, has an internet phone so she texted me the result as we were travelling to our respective homes. If I had had to wait until this morning to find out I think I really would have needed a defibrillator.

Andy's serve was just completely AWOL in the first set, and patchy in the third and fourth.
He seems to be breaking strings much more often than he used to do - shouldn't they have sorted that out by now? Admittedly probably yesterday he had the racquets strung with hot weather in mind, and that would contribute, but I noticed in other matches he has often had strings go.

The roof - well, it was fine for the spectators, but I can imagine it was difficult for the players. They were going through towels like nobody's business. They actually ran out and had to send to the locker rooms for more. I don't think it was the thought of more rain that made them leave the roof closed after the ladies. It was pretty late to be starting a five set match, and if they had opened it they would almost certainly have had to close it later to finish the match because of light problems. That would have meant another 30-45 minutes delay.

Incidentally I watched the fifth set on the BBCi player this afternoon, and was annoyed to hear McEnroe and the other commentators complaining about people leaving before the end of the match. It's all right for them, with their plush hotels no doubt close to the grounds and chauffeur-driven cars to get them there. I had a nearly 300 mile overnight coach journey to get home, and it takes quite a while even to get back to Victoria from the grounds - I certainly didn't want to leave before the match, and I expect the others leaving had similar problems!