When I got there

Bracciali had despatched "he may have stupidly forgotten to enter but we've got to give him a WC ahead of Bloomers because he's such a good grass court player" Lopez  and Tigger was already a set and a break up against Agassi. You could tell just by listening to the crowd on centre court what happened between then and the end of the match. Well done Tim, pity I didn't get to see any of it! 

A dilemma

With Tigger-Andre almost over and Greg due on centre, Sluiter v Gimelstob (the match before Martin Lee's) was barely out of the 1st set and there weren't any matches on that really grabbed me except for Greg's (the one I couldn't get into, of course), so guessing that some of the Nobs might have hot-footed it out of centre court and into the drinks tents after Tigger's match with no intention of returning, I wondered about queuing for returns.

Should I get a guaranteed good seat for the Martin Lee match (which I really did think he might have a chance of winning) or risk queuing for centre court returns, which weren't supposed to go on sale until 4.30? I noticed that they were getting quite a few returns so I queued - in fact, having never before seen Greg play 'live' (i.e. not on TV) and thinking this might be my last chance, there was no contest really! The big risk was that he might have despatched Dupuis by 4.30 and I might miss both matches.

Going to see Greg ...

Fortunately though, they put the centre court returns on sale at 4, so I was going to see Greg at last.  Unfortunately, my random ticket was way back at the top of the East Stand, just in front of the boxes (= blocks of normal seats reserved by businesses for their staff and clients, supplied with built-in drinks cupboards!) so I was a long way from the action (as my photos prove!) and I had to listen to rubbish like the following from some ...er... true tennis fans :

Umpire: "LET, first service"
Nob: "Why's he taking that serve again, it looked fine?" (use your ears!!)

Nob: "Why isn't Andy playing doubles with his brother today like he always does?" (like he once did!)

Nob: "Why was that out? It landed on the grass!" (what do you think the lines are for?)

Nob 1: "Rusedski - hasn't he retired yet?"
Nob 2: "If he thought less about retiring and more about playing, he might not be so crap!"

Greg's match

Anyway, enough of that, Greg was 5-4 up when I got in and seemed to be playing well enough. The first serves were going in at 125-135 mph, I saw a few aces and while Dupuis was playing well enough to hold on (he was tending to just wallop the ball back as if on clay whereas Greg was alternating a bit more finesse with opening up on his impressive forehand when he got the chance), it was clear that Greg had the upper hand and no surprise that he broke three games later to take the 1st set 7-5.

When Greg walked to his chair at 30-0 in the middle of one game in the 2nd set, I have to admit, I had no idea why. I hadn't noticed anything wrong during the last three games of the 1st set and while he'd seemed a bit flat early in the 2nd set, there was no obvious evidence of a physical problem from where I was sitting. Other people noticed Greg limping from the start, so maybe that just proves how high up in the stands I was! No doubt all of you watching on TV got a much better idea than I did.

When he dropped the 2nd set though, you got the awful feeling it might not go the distance unless Greg could get on top early in the final set, and it was very disappointing when he withdrew 3-2 down in the 3rd.

I'm hoping the fact that the injury didn't seem to be hampering him TOO much means that it was just a precaution and he'll be fine for Wimbledon - hopefully for Nottingham too so that he can get some more matches in on grass beforehand.

Martin Lee

I dashed out to Court 1. It had been clear from the announcements wafting across during Greg's match that Martin was having a hard time of it. When I got to Court 1, he was serving to stay in the match, 6-3 5-1 down. During the next game (which he won) and the next, he made some good shots, but he had a defeated look on his face and Vicente was looking full of confidence.

My guess is that Martin had worn himself out winning three qualifying matches against higher-ranked players in two days in that heat - a pity, but perhaps inevitable.

Bloggo et al

Next I went into a packed Court 2 to see the start of Tursunov/Phillips v ToJo/Gonzo. The Blogmeister took the first game but ToJo/Gonzo came back from 0-40 down to take the 2nd - the first time I've seen a no-ad game. I don't think it's a bad format, I must admit. I was sitting right in the sun on that court though and it was very cramped, so I soon left

Monfils

I noticed that Monfils-Melzer was 5-5 in the 1st set, so I hurried back to Centre and caught the 6-5 game and the tiebreak. Gael seemed to be sliding around all over the place, but was clearly the better player and took the tiebreak 7-2. "Allez!" 

I went off for a wander around the other courts, saw Greul (who nearly knocked me over later!) losing to Verdasco, tried to recognise the players on the practice courts with surprisingly little success (they may have just been Queen's members, I guess) then headed back into Centre at 6-5 in the 2nd set and saw the 2nd tiebreak, which Monfils won 7-2 again to a rapturous reception - there were more people in than for Greg's match, somewhat sadly.

Murray/Grosjean doubles

A big cheer as they announce that this match will be put on Centre. I only watched the 1st set before I had to go and Andy seemed to be playing well, though his serve seemed dodgier than Grosjean's even though it actually looked more impressive.

I'm amazed they lost the 2nd set after I left - they seemed to be well on top with the Americans posing very little threat when I was there.

Rafa

I went up to the top of the stand to get out, mainly so that I could have a last look over the east side courts. There wasn't much going on away from Courts C/1/2 at that stage and there was only one practice court at the far end in use with a handful of people watching from the side. Then I realised that the speck in the distance was wearing pirate shorts, so I went to investigate.

Turned out that it was indeed the French Open Champion having a practice session. He was having a heated discussion in Spanish with his 'coach' (who as his blog at http://www.atptennis.com/en/blog/nadal.asp confirms, wasn't Uncle Toni, but one of Feli Lopez's coaches instead) that continued at the chairs (see the first pic on the blog) and really didn't seem very happy, but it's possible that his grumpiness was less to do with the grass and more to do with the fact that he missed his Eurostar (see blog again) and for some reason had to wait 2 hours for another one, so everything was a bit rushed.

Having done that detour to the practice court, I missed my train too, but it was a great day. While I preferred the Wimbledon experience, I'd go back to either in a flash.

By the way, goodness only knows how they manage to play tennis in that unbelievable heat - I have lots of respect for them!