Wimbledon 2005 News
By Eleanor Preston | June 24, 2005

It took five days, but the customary rain finally made it to Wimbledon, and when it arrived, it came with a side order of lightning and thunder. Before the theatrical weather descended onto a hitherto hot and sultry Day 5 of Wimbledon, there was plenty of drama amongst the completed matches.

Marat Safin’s 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 defeat at the hands of Spanish grass court specialist Feliciano Lopez may have looked one-sided, but it had a dose of Safin’s trademark histrionics. The Russian lost his cool with umpire Damian Steiner following a couple of dodgy calls when he tried to retrieve a break of serve when Lopez was serving with a 4-3 lead. He was so furious with the call on the second of his two break points that he hit a ball onto the roof of Court No. 1, no mean feat even for someone of Safin’s strength.

“Well, he (the umpire) didn't see like a couple of big ones,” said Safin, who had recaptured his good humor by the time the post-match press conference came around. “I mean, everybody's doing mistakes on the court.  It doesn't matter which match you going to umpire, everybody will give him s*** because he's the only person who decides basically important points, and really close calls.  So he's always the bad one, no matter what he will say.”

Whether the calls were right or wrong, it proved to be a crucial game for Lopez – who is ranked 33 in the world – as he held serve and went on to take the set, making Safin’s mood even darker. The pair were neck and neck in the second set until Lopez made his presence felt again in the second set tiebreaker, which saw him step up a gear to put the Australian Open champion two sets down.

At two sets down, Safin remembered that he never really liked grass in the first place and, anyway, his knee hurt. The knee will be seen to in the coming weeks ahead of Russia’s July Davis Cup quarterfinal against France, leaving him ready for the hard courts, where, figuratively and literally, he is more sure of his footing.

“Even though I lost today and I didn't have really my day and I couldn't play my best tennis, at the end of the day I'm satisfied finally I found my game on grass,” said Safin. “I was a little bit unlucky with the draw.  Just have nothing to complain about.  I'm pretty happy.”

Andy Roddick was happy too, though not as happy as if he’d managed to beat lucky loser Daniele Bracciali in three sets instead of the five he eventually won in.

“I wasn’t happy last night, but the big thing is how you react to it,” said Roddick.

Had he done so he would have been resting on Friday instead of playing the fourth and fifth sets, but in the end he was fortunate to get through at all, especially given that he has compiled a poor record in five-setters recently.

“This was big for me. I know everyone was there with their stat books watching how many five-setters I’ve lost,” said Roddick. “I wanted to prove something out there in the fifth set. I definitely had a chip on my shoulder. It would have been a devastating loss.”

As it is, the surprising defeats of Tim Henman and Rafael Nadal have eased Roddick’s path ahead considerably, and though Igor Andreev will be a difficult test in the third round, it is one he should pass.

Lleyton Hewitt, who is on the other side of the draw, is already a round ahead of Roddick, and he ensured he had maximum time off while the American was toiling. Hewitt ended Justin Gimelstob’s brave run with a 7-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory. Gimelstob was a lucky loser in qualifying, yet despite suffering from a painful back injury, he came through to the third round and enjoyed his moment before running into the combative Australian.

Hewitt now plays another American, Taylor Dent, whose father Phil is a countryman of Hewitt’s. “He's always intimidating,” said Dent. “To me, all those guys are intimidating.  I think they can all beat me badly on any given day. So, you know, but that's part of the game.  If you want to try and be the best, you have to beat all these guys.  And Lleyton's one of the guys to beat.  So hopefully I'll go out there and put up a good fight and come out on top.”

When asked who his dad would be rooting for, Dent said there would be no contest.

“He's Dent more than Aussie, that's for sure,” said Dent junior. “He's going to want me to win out there.  He'll be chomping at the bit to tell me everything he knows.”

The majority of the women’s matches scheduled for Friday fell victim to the rain, although Amelie Mauresmo was quick enough in beating Shaznay Perry 6-0, 6-2 to give herself another day of rest.

Anastasia Myskina will need all the rest she can get after an epic 6-0, 5-7, 10-8 win over Jelena Jankovic. The Russian, whose mother is ill, is suffering from a shoulder injury, yet somehow found a way to win against Jankovic.

 Myskina now plays her friend Elena Dementieva next, the woman she beat in the final of the French Open in 2004. “Well, I really play right now match by match.  And I think next round are really tough for me, really mentally tough because I play a lot of matches with Elena.  I think she knows me really well, and I know her really good.  So I think it's going be interesting match, and we will see.”

As a parting shot, Myskina gave her own spin on the never-ending discussion about equal prize money, which Wimbledon still refuses to pay.

“I don’t care really,” she said. “If I am going to work to McDonald's, I don't think I'm going to earn that much money.  I'm happy, really, with everything.”

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