Nominations are now closed for the first annual Forum Dumbbell Central USA Award. I win! It only hit me today, while keeping up with Daniela's doubles match, that all my frenetic fretting about her getting to play in Carlsbad was a total waste of paranoia. Even if all worst case scenarios happened for singles, she'll play doubles. All together now.... "You figured that out, huh?"

Daniela's Mixed Match will start at 11:30am on Court 6

Klara d Beck 76 63 making twice the amount of unforced errors than she did against Daniela..at least Daniela won't get the golden spoon..

It is so typical that someone who plays great against Daniela plays nowhere near as well the rest of the time.

How was your day at Wimbledon, eddy? It's a shame it rained but you still have had the chance to see a lot of tennis.



- interesting article on the courts and all the injuries. There's a new head groundsman since last year's tournament although he was in charge for the Olympics.


Wozniacki & Sharapova talking about the court conditions in their press conferences:

Q. Maria just went over, and the BBC have put out that she said the court was dangerous under her breath. Would you go that far?
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I think I don't know. I mean, I don't know if I was unlucky, if I ran too far on the side, on the baseline. I definitely slipped straight on, which I wasn't expecting.
Normally on the grass you can expect to slide on the sides with your foot, but not really when you have a full grip underneath with your shoes, you know, you should be able to stand comfortably.

Q. Is it coincidence that Victoria, yourself, and Maria...
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I don't know. I think we're all fighters and we want to give it our all when we're out there. I don't know if it's coincidence or if the court is a little bit more slippery or what exactly it is. I don't know.
I just know that it's just not really fun to be out there when you feel like you can't really push off on your foot.

Q. Do you find the courts different from previous years?
CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I find them a little bit different. I find them a little bit slower, first of all. I don't know if the grass is a little longer, what it is. But, yeah, I think they're more similar to the Olympics last year than they were to Wimbledon last year.


Q. You seemed to be unhappy with the state of the court. You slipped a couple of times. Were you unhappy with the surface today?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I don't think I've ever fallen three times in a match before in my career, so that was a little strange.
But that's certainly not an excuse. I think today I've seen a lot of players fall and take a few hits and a few injuries. So I think that's just part of the game, part of what we have to deal with.

Q. How would you describe the court conditions and what you experienced today?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: It was a bit slippery on the outside.

Q. Are the courts different in any way this year that you've noticed?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I just noticed a few more players falling a bit more than usual. And understandably the first couple of days, they're always a bit like that, but I don't think I've seen as much as I have maybe in the last few years.

Q. The lip readers who looked at the television pictures think that you said to the chair that, This court is dangerous. Is that what you said to her?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Well, after I buckled my knee three times, that's obviously my first reaction. And because I've just never fallen that many times in a match before.
Those are the conditions that are there for my opponent, as well. Just took a lot more falls than she did today.

Q. After you slipped once or twice, is it now in your mind every time you try to stop that your feet could leave you?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I'd probably be lying if I said that you don't think about it, because obviously when you do, you know, fall twice or three times, I mean, yeah, you do think about it. Maybe if I fell all the time on the court, that's just part of the way I play, but I rarely see myself on the ground, so a little bit.

Q. How much does that uncertainty about your footwork or the surface seep into your entire game? There were returns you were missing. Did it generally leave you completely rattled?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: No, that's not an excuse. I'm not making an excuse about the court. That's not why I made errors or I didn't make returns.
As I said, the situation on the court was exactly the same as it was for my opponent. I just didn't deal with it as well as she did.
I can't make excuses for my errors. Those are in my own hands.

Q. Do you think Wimbledon needs to check the courts just to make sure they're safe?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I'm not sure. I'm not a groundsman. I've never really worked on grass courts before. Especially those courts, even Centre Court, Court 1, 2, 3, maybe having the opportunity to practice on them a few days before, because no one can practice on them. The first few days, you just know that they're going to just be really different. Other than that, I have no clue how to change that.

Golden spoon is the person who lost in first round whose opponent lost in the 2nd round whose opponent lost in the 3rd round whose opponent lost in the 4th round whose opponents lost in the QF whose opponent lost in the SF whose opponent lost in the Final!! Lol!!

Mixed doubles:

1-0, Daniela & Bhupathi hold to 15.
1-1, Knowles & Lisicki hold to 30.
2-1, Daniela & Bhupathi hold to 15.
2-2, Knowles & Lisicki hold to 0.
3-2, Daniela & Bhupathi save a BP and hold after a couple of deuces.
3-3, Knowles & lisicki hold to 0.
4-3, Daniela & Bhupathi save a BP to hold.
4-4, Daniela & Bhupathi had a BP but Knowles & Lisicki hold.
5-4, Daniela & Bhupathi save 3 BPs to hold.
5-5, Knowles & lisicki hold.

Have to go now.

7-6(2), Daniela & Bhupathi win first set.
4-6, Knowles & Lisicki win 2nd set.

3rd set
3-2, Daniela & Bhupathi up a break.
3-3, Lisicki & Knowles break on their 3rd BP after Daniela & Bhupathi came back from 15-40.
3-4, Lisicki & Knowles hold.
4-4, Daniela & Bhupathi hold to 15.
4-5, Daniela & Bhupathi had 3 BPs - 15-40 & then ad but can't break.
4-6, Daniela & Bhupathi broken to 0.

Thats really disappointing as they had break points to go 5-4 up in both the 2nd and 3rd sets..Daniela can now focus on winning the womens doubles now.

I wasn't too bothered about Daniela losing in the mixed doubles because if she does well in that it's nice but if she doesn't then it's usually no big deal, but to lose like that when she had a good opportunity to win the match and then to withdraw from the doubles before a very winnable match is a bit depressing. I'm a bit disgruntled at the moment.