The top women were in a big hurry at Wimbledon on Wednesday. So was Roger Federer.
The three-time defending men's champion routed Tim Henman 6-4, 6-0, 6-2, winning 11 straight games at one stretch to move into the third round and extend his record grass-court winning streak to 43 matches.
Federer, who took 85 minutes to dismantle Henman on Centre Court, looks untouchable as he bids to become the third man in the Open era to win four straight Wimbledon titles. He dropped only seven games in his first-round win on Tuesday over Richard Gasquet, and said he's never played so well this early in the tournament.
"I've had a different kind of a draw, where people are expecting me to struggle more," Federer said.
"That I came through that convincing obviously gives me a lot of confidence. Sends out maybe a little bit of a message for the other players," he said.
Defending women's champ Venus Williams, former winner Maria Sharapova and top-seeded Amelie Mauresmo swept their first-round matches in less than an hour -- losing only three games among them.
Williams crushed 103rd-ranked American Bethanie Mattek 6-1, 6-0, in 51 minutes on Centre Court; Sharapova took the same amount of time to dispatch Anna Smashnova 6-2, 6-0, and Mauresmo beat Croatian qualifier Ivana Abramovic 6-0, 6-0, in 39 minutes.
Second-seeded Kim Clijsters needed even less time to reach the third round: She advanced by walkover after her opponent, Viktoriya Kutuzova, pulled out with a viral infection. No. 3 Justine Henin-Hardenne beat Russia's Ekaterina Bychkova 6-1, 6-2 in 55 minutes.
The one-sided trend continued late in the day with former champion Martina Hingis downing Italy's Tathiana Garbin, 6-1, 6-2, in 60 minutes. No. 9 Anastasia Myskina dropped just four games in a 6-0, 6-4 win over Cara Black in 51 minutes.
Andy Roddick fought for nearly three hours before overcoming Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, serving 28 aces in a 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (6), 6-2 first-round victory.
In one of the most compelling matches of the tournament, with both players diving full length onto the grass to reach shots, the turning point came when Roddick came from 5-4 down to win the third-set tiebreaker.
"That was huge," Roddick said. "I wanted that one real bad."
Roddick then broke at love for a 3-1 lead in the fourth set, thumping his fist on his heart, and cruised the rest of the way. He saved all nine break points against him in the match, converting three of the four he earned.
The women's mismatches didn't help the push for equal prize money at Wimbledon, the only Grand Slam tournament which pays the women's singles champion less than the men. Even British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday he backs the call for equal pay.
Williams said the easy victories had "nothing to do" with the money issue.
"We aren't involved in arguing the points of time spent on court, sets played," Williams said.
"That's a moot topic. What it's really about is being treated equal as a human being," she said.
Williams overwhelmed the 21-year-old Mattek with power, pace and swinging volleys -- 26 winners in all -- and few sloppy errors.
The match featured some unusual fashion displays: Williams sported a stick-on tattoo below the front of her right shoulder, while Mattek wore knee-high socks, shorts and a tube top over a halter top.
Mattek said she bought the socks for ?10 (US$18) at Harrod's.
"I was going for kind of the soccer theme," she said.
"She looked really cute, very 70s inspired," Williams said.
Sharapova unleashed 27 winners against Smashnova, handing the 42nd-ranked Israeli her sixth straight first-round loss at the All England Club.
Mauresmo lost only 17 points against the 192nd-ranked Abramovic, who was playing in her first Grand Slam match.
On the men's side, 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt cruised past Italy's Filippo Volandri, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3. The man Hewitt beat in the 2002 final, fourth-seeded David Nalbandian, defeated France's Arnaud Clement 6-4 6-4 6-3.
Marta Kostyuk’s maiden WTA 1000 title in Madrid came on Saturday thanks to her power, poise and a pair of unexpected lucky shorts. The world No. 23 beat eighth-ranked Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in under 90 minutes to secure the most prestigious trophy of her career, her third professional singles title and second in less than a month after Rouen. Yet as the 23-year-old Ukrainian posed for photographs at the Caja Magica, it was not just the silverware that caught the eye. Held alongside her team and her two dogs, Kostyuk showed off a piece of black men’s underwear, prompting
Throwing more than US$5 billion at a divisive new tour and walking away after five seasons does not look like good business, but LIV Golf was not all bad news for Saudi Arabia. Oil-funded LIV, which poached top stars and sent golf’s establishment into a tailspin, helped push the conservative kingdom into global view — one of its key aims, experts said. The exit, confirmed on Thursday after weeks of speculation, does not signal a flight of Saudi money from sport, even after the Middle East war that sparked Iranian attacks around the Gulf, they said. “Saudi Arabia is not
Arsenal stormed six points clear at the top of the English Premier League as Bukayo Saka and Viktor Gyokeres put Fulham to the sword in a 3-0 win, while West Ham United’s defeat at Brentford offered Tottenham Hotspur a lifeline in the battle for survival. The Gunners have stumbled toward the finish line in their quest for a first league title in 22 years, blowing a sizeable lead over Manchester City in a series of nervous displays. However, the return of Saka, making his first start in six weeks, freed up Mikel Arteta’s men in a dominant performance that shrugged
China’s Wu Yize on Monday won the World Snooker Championship for the first time with a dramatic 18-17 victory over Shaun Murphy in the final. Wu held his nerve to seal his thrilling triumph in a tense last frame shoot-out at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. The 22-year-old is the second Chinese player to win the world title after Zhao Xintong beat Mark Williams to make history as the first Asian to lift the trophy last year. Wu is also the second-youngest player to be crowned world champion at the Crucible after Stephen Hendry, who was 21 when he won in 1990. “I have been trying
RSS