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By Rosangel Valenti, TW Contributing Editor
Good morning. As usual, please use this post for discussing or match-calling today's tennis-related events at the All-England Lawn Tennis and Crocquet Club. We'd be grateful if you could keep the subjeect on tennis until today's matches have finished. After that, it's OK to go off-topic here.
Daily Weather Report:
I live just a few miles away from Wimbledon, and I've been outside this morning. Right now, we're being menaced by leaden-grey low-hanging clouds. There's also a strong breeze whipping the leaves on the trees. I spite of this unencouraging start to the day, the forecast suggests that we may avoid rain, and that at some stage today the sun may break through in Wimbledon.
Matches of the Day:
Men - I think many eyes will be on Marat Safin's third-round encounter with Andreas Seppi, to see whether the Russian can follow up his defeat of Novak Djokovic by defeating the Italian and advancing to the round of 16. The two men have never met before on court. Seppi i is certainly capable of playing well on a faster court (having taken out both Lleyton Hewitt and Rafael Nadal in Rotterdam earlier this year), and also reached the semifinal in Hamburg, on clay. Ranked 30, to Safin's 78, on paper Seppi should advance - but it's Marat we're talking about, so who knows what might happen?
The other match I'm focused on is between Mario Ancic and David Ferrer. While Ancic has the game that looks most suited to grass, Ferrer leads their head-to-head 2-0, including a 6-4, 7-6 victory during this year's grass tune-up tournament in the Netherlands, at 's-Hertogenbosch, which event Ferrer went on to win. Lleyton Hewitt versus Simone Bolelli also looks like a good match, as does Fernando Verdasco versus Tomas Berdych.
Women - Casey Dellacqua meets Nicole Vaidisova on Court 18. The two have met twice so far, both times in 2008, on hard courts, and the head-to-head is 1-1, with Dellacqua winning their last match, in Indian Wells. Both matches went to three sets. I'll also be keeping an eye on the match between Serena Williams and Amelie Mauresmo, though I feel that Serena is the strong favourite. The two haven't played each other since the US Open in 2006, an encounter won by Mauresmo, but Williams leads their head-to-head 9-2, and won their only match to date on grass - six years ago.
Player of the Day:
WTA - Alla Kudryavtseva.
ATP - Janko Tipsarevic
As always, enjoy today's tennis.