The Second Day: the daily preview
Having revelled in a rain-free opening session at The Championships 2012, fingers are firmly crossed for more of the same on Tuesday as the first rounds of the two singles tournaments move towards completion. The two other leading participants in the Gentlemen's Singles, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, will be hoping for as straightforward a time as was enjoyed yesterday by the No.1 and No.3 seeds, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, who conceded just 10 games between them as they romped to victory in straight sets.
Nadal, already twice a Wimbledon champion and brimming with confidence following his record-breaking seventh title at the French Open earlier this month, will embark with confidence on his bid for a third singles title on the turf of London SW19 as he takes on Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, a nation more noted for its football and its coffee than tennis champions, Maria Bueno and Gustavo Kuerten honourably excepted.
Bellucci stands 78th in the world rankings and has failed to take a set off Nadal in their two previous meetings. Mind you, both were on the clay of the Spaniard's home from home, Roland Garros, so no disgrace there, Thomaz. Three previous visits to Wimbledon have yielded just three victories for Bellucci, a strapping six-footer who is proud of his power on the forehand and the serve. Perhaps he will rattle Rafa but an upset would be a long-odds wager.
Murray's task looks much more demanding, though the Scot will be heartened by Djokovic's comment on Monday evening that Murray "has all the qualities of a Grand Slam winner" as he takes on Nikolay Davydenko, a Russian who used to fret that he could only play tennis seven days a week for a living.
Injuries and the restraining hand of Father Time have slowed Davydenko to the sort of schedule undertaken by normal tennis professionals and also lowered to 47 a ranking which nestled comfortably inside the top ten for five straight years from 2005-09 and peaked at No.3 in the world in 2006. He was an unexpected but worthy winner the first time the Barclays ATP Tour World Finals were staged at London's O2 Arena in 2009 and has won four of his nine matches against Murray, though none was on grass and only one, the US Open of 2006, was at a Grand Slam (when he downed the Scot in four sets).
Andy's star, and world ranking, have waxed since then and he will probably view this, as he commences his seventh tilt at Wimbledon fame, as a demanding but far from insuperable task, with big boomers lurking in the bushes capable of giving him a more hurtful time of it further into the tournament. Murray's last three Wimbledons have ended at the honourable semi-final stage, meaning that the wait goes on for those multitudes who continue to dream that, one fine day, Fred Perry's mark of 76 years' standing as the last champion from the home nation will eventually be matched.
Both these contests are "naturals" for Centre Court, and are accorded that honour following the afternoon's opener involving last year's Ladies' Singles Champion, Petra Kvitova from the Czech Republic. Kvitova's opposition is provided by that rarity in the sport, an opponent from Uzbekistan, Akgul Amanmuradova, who stands at 96th in the rankings compared to the Czech's fourth.
On No.1 Court, the reigning Australian Open champion, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, the second seed here, is challenged by the 78th-ranked Irina Falconi of the United States, while former Grand Slam champions of Roland Garros Ana Ivanovic (2008), Svetlana Kuznetsova (2009) and Francesca Schiavone (2010) are in action. Kuznetsova, who was also US Open champion in 2004 but has just made it into the seeds at No.32, starts her tenth Wimbledon against the Belgian Yanina Wickmayer on Court 12, while Schiavone has British opposition in Laura Robson on No.3 Court.
But Serena Williams, the competitor who has won more Grand Slam titles (13, including four Wimbledons) than almost all the other surviving champions in the 2012 Ladies' Singles field put together, will be truly the star on a mission on No.2 Court, the scene of her sister Venus' defeat on Monday. As a sixth seed who is perhaps fancied more highly than that by the bookmaking fraternity to cause havoc, Serena faces the multi-syllable Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, who will recall painfully that she gathered just four games against Serena in a second-round thrashing at the Australian Open in January.
