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    Simon Reed

    Extraordinary Lisicki can go distance

    Sabine Lisicki celebrates beating Maria Sharapova at WimbledonMaria Sharapova was beaten by a very good player on a very good day. It was a similar match to the semi-final last year, but Sabine Lisicki just played extraordinarily well.

    I still think that — while not totally at her best by her own admission — Serena Williams is the best player in the tournament, but on that form Lisicki will be a nightmare even for her.

    Lisicki is a terrific kid with a massive game and that win will have done her a power of good. But she's shown herself to occasionally be vulnerable emotionally, which may still resurface at SW19.

    Still, she held it together well at the end of both sets against Sharapova, when one expected the Russian to come right back at her and close it out. But Lisicki was just too strong, and has made herself the woman to beat.

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    There were no real surprises for the men as only three matches were completed in the end — and they saw the two best players on grass come through in Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

    Roger Federer during his Wimbledon win over Xavier MalisseFederer has not been at his imperious best so far at Wimbledon, and this time he seems to have been helped by the delay when they decided to close the roof.

    He was struggling with a sore back after the first set against Xavier Malisse, and the delay in play while they drew the roof does seem to have assisted somewhat.

    He was on painkillers, and the extra time was most welcome as he seemed to play better and better after the break. Yes, he did drop a set, but Malisse has been in excellent form and by the end Federer was pretty much up to par.

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    There's been a fair bit of criticism for the organisers, who elected to wait until it actually started raining before drawing the roof. They have been criticised for not just playing the whole day at Centre Court 'indoors' from the start, because everyone knew it would rain on Monday.

    However, I feel a lot of sympathy for them as they were accused of getting it wrong on Friday by closing the roof when it didn't rain, despite the forecasts saying it would. So, if they were going to make a mistake today, it would have been better to err to the other side.

    And in the end they completed all the scheduled matches on Centre Court anyway. The rules state that a started match should not be moved courts unless absolutely necessary, and that was not the case in any of the matches.

    I suppose they could have moved David Ferrer's match with Juan Martin Del Potro to Centre Court, but that would almost certainly have been left unfinished. And there was no question of Andy Murray's clash with Marin Cilic being moved mid-match. So in the end it had little impact on the day's tennis.

    About Simon Reed

    Simon Reed"s career began with BBC Radio in the late sixties when he worked for BBC Radio Sport, BBC World Service and BBC Radio London. From 1973, he was a presenter and reporter for Thames TV before freelancing in the early days of Sky Sports. In 1995, he became Head of Commentators for Eurosport specialising in tennis. He has covered three Olympic Games and has commentated on the last eight Wimbledon Championships.

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