TENNIS INSIDE OUT
Alexander ZverevAlison RiskeAngelique KerberDenis ShapovalovDominic ThiemDonna VekicHarriet DartLloyd HarrisLucas PouilleMarin CilicNick KyrgiosRafael NadalRicardas BerankisRoger FedererSam QuerreyTatjana MariaTIO Featured 2

Wimbledon Day 2 — Seeds Continue to Fall

Val and J.D. 0 Comments
Dominic Thiem early exit Wimbledon 2019 press conference

So, welcome tennis fans, to yet another day of WTF YOUNG DUDES WHY YOU NO WIN AT WIMBLEDON $#@!???? Once again the old guard marches on and supposed contenders exit stage left, and we’re left asking who’s to blame?

  1. The draw gods?
  2. Too much pressure on the young’uns?
  3. Stella McCartney?

(For realz, Stella made those sexy outfits and then Garbine and her boy band back-up singers have all gone out in the first round? Coincidence? You decide.)

Seeds Continue to Fall

Watermelon seeds gif

With Sascha and Stef gone out, naturally all eyes were on Dominic Thiem to make his move at another big tournament. Sam Querrey had other ideas.

When Domi took the first set with a 7-4 win in the TB, all seemed in order. Sam and his big serve is always a challenge, but since #31-ranked Taylor Fritz just took him out in straights in the Eastbourne final, it felt like the #5 seed should have things well in hand.

Yeah….not so much.

Everyone knew it was a tough first round draw, but it was the bagel scoreline that really threw us for a loop. But anyone who was expecting Dom to partake in the #NextGen pity party had another think comin’. The Austrian certainly wasn’t cheerful about his loss, but he was pretty straightforward about the reasons:

  1. Worn out from a clay season reign of awesomeness
  2. No real grass prep for two years
  3. The other dude knows how to play tennis
  4. Stella McCartney

Okay, we made that last one up. But see for yourselves how nicely Dominic handles the difficult questions. Also, he looks really smokin’ hot, so if you’re, you know, into that sort of thing…

The other seed to crash out at Wimbledon on the men’s side was Canadian Denis Shapovalov. While everyone was fretting like crazy over the unexpected upsets yesterday, Shapo’s loss today kind of went under the radar a bit.

That’s partially due to his countryman Felix Auger-Aliassime stealing the spotlight with a streak of exceptional play — which also got him out of the first round with a first round win over yet another Canadian, the returning-from-injury Vasek Pospisil.

And yeah…..that’s kinda the other reason. A lack of confidence certainly didn’t help Shapo in his match today against Ricky Berankis. Currently ranked #77 with a 5-4 record this year, the Lithuanian wasn’t an obvious candidate for facilitating an upset, but….

Despite two notable upsets, other seeds made it through without much fuss, including Cilic, Nadal, Isner, and Nishikori. Hoping for more young blood? Berrettini, De Minaur, Fritz, and Clarke are also headed into the next round.

Federer Calls Them “Fun” Matches

We can’t even blame the Maestro for this one, for “making things interesting” when they should be simple. Instead we have to give some props to the #2 seed’s opponent, Lloyd Harris. And yeah, he totally doesn’t look like a Lloyd, unless you pronounce it as “Llllllloyyyyd, duuuuuude.”

The fun thing about The Dude was his raw energy. Many of the taller players take on a sort of lumbering style, but the 6’5 South African had a lively bounce in his footwork and a wicked inside-out forehand he didn’t just save for special occasions–he rallied with that smooth arcing stroke.

Nervous or no, there was a lot of beautiful tennis between Harris and Fed. It was a bit of a slow start from the Wimby champ, but nothing that really caused any alarm bells. The man is damn good on grass, and those frozen legs still managed to do some pretty special things.

Speaking of Special Things…

POOKIE WON! He stole that French brain from Gasquet and just whomped on this match. We freely admit there was a bobble when Pouille tried to serve the match out, but he got himself in order for the tiebreak. And it was a beautiful thing. Seeing him hit out so freely was a joy to see.

The next round pits him against bestie Greg Barrere, so Pouille will have to detach himself once again from all the feels of playing a fellow Frenchie.

Chicks Rule!

American ladies had a good showing again today, with Serena, Taylor Townsend, Sloane Stephens, Lauren Davis, and Amanda Anisimova progressing to the next round.

It was also an American gal that felled one of the seeds, #22 Donna Vekic, in possibly the best match of the day. It was a CRAY tug-of-war but in the best possible way because there was so much fantastic tennis that was keeping them in a constant battle for momentum.

In a match that was moved to Court 1, the ladies belted and sliced and drop-shotted well into the fading light, the remaining crowd bursting with enthusiasm for every point. Vekic pushed out to a 3-0 lead in the final set and seemed to have finally broken free, but Ali wrung every ounce of will out of herself to get on the board to 1-3 and once she did….the momentum shifted yet again.

And at 5-all something very special happened…..Wimby officials decided to close the BRAND NEW court 1 roof so that the lights could carry the ladies through the end of their match.

The best part was the absolute crescendo of exultation from the crowd as the roof slowly inched its way closer to being officially closed for the first time during match play.

Tennis fans that stay until ALL the tennis is done for the day are really the best tennis fans there are.

As often happens, after the 10-minute delay and all that roof drama, Ali broke Donna for 6-5 and then served it out for the win.

This was a tough loss for Vekic, who really did seem to have the edge in power and angles throughout the match. But the combo of Ali turning on the Kerber-style crouching-tiger play and whipping that ball back any way, anyhow, and Donna getting a case of service game yips like she does, the final victory went to Ali.

Our Faves

For our 5am wake-up call in our part of the world, we were treated to a totally fun McHale / Dart match that had such a lovely mix of focused power and gentle touch up at net. A compelling 3-setter that ultimately ended with the Brit’s triumph, in her FAVE PLACE IN THE WORLD, which you can read more about by clicking on the link to our Harriet luff piece above.

And you should totally catch a replay of this one if you can! And this next one…

You can always feel the tension when the defending champ is back on the court the next year, desperately hoping to claw their way through the tourney to a respectable result that won’t land them article titles like “DEFENDING TITLE HOLDER CRASHES OUT.”

And this one had upset alert written all over it, as Tatjana Maria threw 200 junk forehands, 80 droppers and the kitchen sink on court in order to disrupt Angie’s rhythmic play.

With a compelling display of grit and patience and tactics, Kerber eventually worked her way through the Maria onslaught for a 6-4 6-3 win!

(Article continues below.)

WHAT ELSE, WHAT ELSE???

The hype for this one began as soon as the draw came out, and considering the MTOs and level of fuckery NK brought to his first round match, we can’t help thinking this rematch might end up being a total dud.

Although we do totally enjoy that Rafa had the perfect response to the usual NK drama and their less-than-friendly rapport…

Im Too Old For This Shit GIF from Imtoooldforthisshit GIFs

Above is your giggle for the day, with a triumph of both sound and accurately egomaniacal content to make the perfect impression….

And then there’s something kinda mesmerizing about this moment on Day 2….

And here’s some Sad!Sascha adorableness…

This happened…

And…..here is your moment of Zen…

That wraps up Day 2 of Wimbledon!

Did you want to catch up on Day 1? Move ahead to Day 3?

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