Top four seeds move on in mixed
One, two, three, four … Those were the seeded pairings that progressed in the mixed doubles draw on Day 9 at Wimbledon. It sets up some potentially mouth-watering contests as the business end of the tournament approaches, and judging by the playing standard the top teams displayed in their respective wins today, fans at the All England Club could be in for a treat.
The Bryan brothers, second seeds in the men’s doubles, and Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber, top seeds in the women’s doubles, have joined forces in the mixed – Bob with Huber (the top seeds) and Mike with Raymond (seeded second). Both pairs progressed on the outside courts today, but in vastly different circumstances.
Bryan and Raymond comfortably took the opening set against No.16 seeds Alexander Peya and Anna-Lena Groenefeld and found themselves serving for the match in the second. With Raymond moving ahead 40-0 on her serve in the 11th game, it seemed they were on the verge of a fairly routine victory. They eventually secured it, but not without a wobble – Raymond committed three consecutive errors on those match points before Bryan steadied the ship with a winning volley.
The second seeds triumphed 6-3, 7-5 on their fourth match point when Peya erred into the net, moving through to the quarter-finals.
In contrast to that straight-sets win, the No.1 seeds were pushed every step of the way on Court 14. They dropped the opening set against the unseeded Swedish-Slovene combination of Johan Brunstrom and Andreja Klepac, before Bryan levelled proceedings thanks to an athletic swinging forehand volley winner.
With Bryan’s power overhead paying dividends, the top seeds held comfortably in their service games while Brunstrom and Klepac looked less assured on serve, forced to save three break points in a competitive sixth game. Yet the set progressed on serve until the tenth game, where Bryan and Huber made their move. Each struck a clean return winner to take scores to 0-30, and clinched a third round birth 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 following a pair of errors from Brunstrom and Klepac.
Earlier in the day, fourth-seeded Indian-Russian combo Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina cruised to a 6-3, 6-3 win in just over an hour against Australia’s Ashley Fisher and German Mona Barthel.
Across on No.2 court, the unseeded British team of Kenneth Skupski and Melanie South threatened to upset the apple cart when they reached match point against third seeds Nenad Zimonjic and Katarina Srebotnik deep in the final set of their match.
The wildcard pairing had snared a tight second set tie-break after dropping the opening set, and appeared poised to record a stunning upset over the two-time French Open champions. Yet Zimonjic snuffed out that chance with an ace, and the favourites eventually went on to break serve for an 8-7 lead when Skupski dumped a volley into the net.
The Brits saved a pair of match points in the 16th game thanks to winners, but were unable to withstand a third – Skupski’s forehand error long of the baseline allowed Zimonjic and Srebotnik to wrap up a 6-4, 6-7(5), 9-7 win and secure a quarter-final berth.
There was happier news for the home fans over on Court 18 – Brit Colin Fleming and Taiwanese partner Su-Wei Hseih recovered from the loss of the second set to post a 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1 victory against No.7 seeds Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Andrea Hlavackova. The win pits Fleming and Hsieh against more Brits – Laura Robson and Dominic Inglot – in the third round.
The loss of the seventh seeds was not the only upset on Wednesday. Ninth seeds Mariusz Fyrstenerg of Poland and American Abigail Spears fell to unseeded Kazakh duo Mikhail Kukushkin and Yaroslava Shvedova, while No.6 seeded Italians Daniele Bracciali and Roberta Vinci went down meekly against 10th seeds Rohan Bopanna and Jie Zheng, 6-0, 6-3.
In the last match of the day, No.8 seeds Daniel Nestor and Julia Goerges overcame a slow start to defeat Russian-Kazakh pairing Mikhail Elgin and Galina Voskoboeva 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
