 |
 |
 |
|
WIMBLEDON, England -- Top-ranked Bob and Mike Bryan found the rain delays at Wimbledon more agonizing than most Thursday.
| Advertisement |
|||
| |||
Facing match point in the fourth-set tiebreaker against Jonas Bjorkman and Kevin Ullyett, the brothers' demise was delayed by more than 90 minutes.
"To come back serving down match point is not the position we were looking to be in," Bob said. "It was a lot of time to be thinking about one serve, fortunately we won the point and had a couple of sniffs, but it didn't follow our way today."
The 2006 Wimbledon champions eventually lost 7-6 (3), 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (9). But an earlier rain delay had offered a glimmer of hope, with the Bryans leading the fourth set 3-2.
"It was a blessing to allow us to regroup and shower up and go over some strategy with our coach," Bob said.
But they returned to waste set points to tie the match at 2-2 -- just like they had done in the opening set.
"Just not losing serve the whole week is a good effort," Bob said. "To leave here with a semifinal loss is disappointing because I thought we had some momentum into that match."
Bob was astonished by the energy of Bjorkman, who won doubles titles from 2002-04 but is retiring later this year.
"I've never seen Bjorkman serve so well," Bob said. "If he serves like that he's got a great shot to win the title again."
But the Bryans' Wimbledon is not over -- they could meet in Sunday's mixed doubles final. Paired with Samantha Stosur, Bob beat Andy Ram and Nathalie Dechy 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday before Mike and Katarina Srebotnik defeated Kevin Ullyett and Ai Sugiyama.
Mistaken identity
With just one final appearance in a Grand Slam tournament to his name, Arnaud Clement isn't the most well known player on the ATP tour. Maybe that's why one journalist seemed to get him confused with Rainer Schuettler, who had just beaten the Frenchman to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon.
Clement had just missed a match point on his way to losing 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (7), 8-6 when the reporter asked him about his approach for the semifinals.
"Maybe if I did (win) this match point, I can think about the match tomorrow," Clement said. "But I'm not playing tomorrow, so it's not really interesting."
As strange as the question was, Clement wasn't being deliberately brief in his reply. It seems he really isn't bothered about how Schuettler does.
"I really, really don't care now about the chances of Rainer tomorrow," he said. "I don't know if he has one chance or if he has a lot. ... I really, really don't care."
Home hopes
British dreams have yet to be completely extinguished at Wimbledon.
Andy Murray's younger brother Jamie is still on course to defend his mixed doubles title, this time with partner Liezel Huber. And 14-year-old Laura Robson is still alive in the junior competition after beating top-seeded Melanie Oudin in the second round and No. 9 Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia to reach the semifinals.
Robson is already learning about the pressure of being British at the All England Club.
"I'm watching what I say because yesterday I made a comment which I shouldn't have about how I thought one of the umpires wasn't really seeing that well," Robson said. "And then I got a couple of texts after the match saying, 'I don't think you should have said that.'
"So I have to watch what I say a bit more."
Robson's mentor has been Martina Hingis, the former top-ranked Swiss who retired after being banned for two years for testing positive for cocaine.
"I practiced with her for a week in her home in Switzerland, so I know her quite well," the Australian-born Robson said. "Watching her matches is always good. She said that when she played it was quite a different game because she could win on just playing smart.
"But I think now you have to be a lot stronger than she was. I think now's a different game to when she played."
The last time a Briton won a singles title in the main draw was Virginia Wade in 1976. Fred Perry was the last man to win the title in 1936.
Power play
Elena Dementieva again lamented her serve Thursday after losing to defending champion Venus Williams 6-1, 7-6 (3) in her first Wimbledon semifinal.
The fifth-ranked Russian won just 58 percent of points on her first serve, compared to Williams' 76.
"I need to improve my serve and I need to go more to the net to finish the points," Dementieva said. "In the beginning of the match she really dominated, put a lot of pressure on my serve. ... She was serving unbelievably well, so it was really hard to just make her play."
