Wimbledon day four featured a thrilling five-set Centre Court battle between Lleyton Hewitt and Robin Soderling. But Li Na's surprise loss to Sabine Lisicki means there will be one billion disappointed people today.
Hewitt loves Wimbledon and rolled back the years with a feisty performance against Soderling. In the days
before his two hip surgeries and three children, Hewitt was a real force at SW19. He may be a tennis veteran now, but the 2002 champion pulled out some breathtaking shots in the opening two sets. The shot of the tournament came from Hewitt diving into the corner to return a backhand down the line.
But Soderling, who had never come from two sets down to win before, surged back to drag the match out to 3 hours 54 minutes and win 6-7(5), 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.
Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer cruised through with wins over Kevin Anderson and Adrian Mannarino respectively. Serena Williams continued the defense of her title by defeating Romanian Simona Halep on Court Two. She wasn't happy about the court scheduling though.
"Yeah, [the men are] never moved across. Venus and I have won more Wimbledons together than a lot of the players, or by ourselves in doubles even. They like to put us on Court Two, me and Venus, for whatever reason. I haven't figured it out yet..."
Tournament spokesman Johnny Perkins has figured it out and said it wasn't an intentional snub.
"We obviously have a duty to the paying public, plus the international audiences around the world." Which presumably means we'd rather see Federer and Nadal in action? Fair enough.
Court 2 was good enough for Juan Martin Del Potro, who started the day a set down against Olivier Rochus. The Argentine ensured there would be no giant-killing antics and easily reeled off the next three sets. 'Delpo' unleashed the fury with 30 aces, making 70% of his first-serves, and cracking a staggering 75 winners.
Ana Ivanovic is sticking around, much to the delight of TV audiences everywhere. She seems to have rediscovered her winning touch, albeit by beating little-known Eleni Daniilidouto to reach the third round.
Tomorrow, Robin Haase will have to steady himself for world No 10 Mardy Fish. Fish warned on Twitter: "Im so gangster, when safari unexpectedly quits I dont even send the report to Apple."
- HERALD ONLINE
