Eurosport - Fri, 26 Jun 23:36:00 2009
Reaction from the key protagonists on a busy day of third-round action at Wimbledon.
Andy Murray finds a way to fill his downtime at Wimbledon, coming up with food-based names for tennis players and posting them on Twitter: "John MacEnrolo, Cod woodbridge, mardy fishcakes, prawn borg, martina haggis, mince spadea, egg rusedski, spotted dick norman. Too good."
Olympic champion Elena Dementieva on her improved form from the French Open: "I took some time off after the French Open and was working on my fitness. I was more focused on the footwork and just the core build exercise. It has really worked for me."
Serena Williams is more interested in talking about Michael Jackson than tennis after her match: "I think any celebrity who met Michael Jackson was completely in awe. I know I was. I kept thinking, 'Oh my God, Oh my God, it's him, it's him'. So for me he was the celebrity of all celebrities. Michael Jackson goes way beyond the black community. I mean everyone of every colour, every nation, every race is Michael Jackson's fan. The guy literally couldn't walk the streets. I wouldn't even mention my name and his in the same sentence".
Roger Federer is similarly pre-occupied by Jackson's death: "Back maybe in '88 or ;89, he came to Basel. I was outside of the stadium because there was such excitement that he would come. I was still very young. I think I went there with my sister and we just listened from the outside. I love his music. He touched many people and I will listen to his music for many years to come."
Daniela Hantuchova gives her opinion on the grunting row in women's tennis after beating doubles partner Ai Sugiyama in the third round: "I don't think I had any chances to make any noise anyway today with my voice like this. But, you know, I think me and Sugi are the players from maybe the older generation where we were taught always to play with fair play, it's the way to play. Making an extra sound to disrupt the opponents and the game, I don't think it's nice. I already said sorry (to Sugiyama). It's never a nice feeling having to play Sugi because she's one of my best friends. We've got such a great history together. She's a great person."
Veteran Sugiyama is also happy to give her opinion on the grunting row: "I think some people are just too noisy. I understand that they grunt when they hit the ball or say "ughh" or something but not like the extra noise which goes on until their opponent hits the ball. That's way too much. For me it's extra effort to do it, so I'd rather not do it. If they are trying to bother the opponent playing, it's not fair I would say."
Novak Djokovic believes his is approaching the kind or form required to challenge for the title at Wimbledon: "It was a very solid performance and I played really good tennis and it's encouraging that I was winning a lot of service games quite easily. I was always dreaming of winning Wimbledon, it's the most prestigious event so hopefully I will have the opportunity and honour."
French ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on his third round loss to Ivo Karlovic: "Nothing... nothing. What I can say? He served well, and that's it. You cannot do anything. I think it was just mental. I've never felt like that before in a match on the ATP circuit. I feel like I didn't even play a match. I knew what to expect but you can't prepare for that."
Karlovic lists Goran Ivanisevic and Boris Becker as his influences as a young player: "If I can win with only one shot, I don't know, I'm a genius. I modelled my game on him a bit. When I was young in Croatia he was big, I mean a star. I was watching him a lot and other like Boris Becker."
Dudi Sela on becoming the first Israeli man to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for 17 years, emulating Amos Mansdorf's run to the Australian Open last 16 in 1992: "I was watching him when he was playing and after on tapes. I think we have a similar game. He was also very good on grass. He gave me a lot of tips."
Comment 1 - 3 of 3
Recently, I discovered a hot place – SeekTall Co m -- where many sexy tall singles who like sports and chatting there. I'm an open minded girl from UK, I also like discuss sports and love with tall guys on it.
Tsonga's comment is revealing. Has to be frustrating. Fed suffered a similar fate in Cincinnati last year as did Djoko in Madrid. Rafa squeezed through 7-6 in the final set breaker at Queens 2008 and spoke of the difficulty maintaining concentration as you watched the serves go by. Karlovic seems like a nice guy and he has got more than a serve (nice touch on the volley IMO). In the rallies, he's got the problem of moving that enormous frame around. If Verdasco can't stop him, it'll be down to Fed. Karlovic's matches mightn't be the most appealing but his presence adds a point of interest.
The sooner they stop the grunting the better, if they all grunted it would be a night mare.
DSGM
Please login to post a comment
Not already a Yahoo! user ? Sign up to get a free Yahoo! Account