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Wimbledon mid-term grades

Hyphens are hot, grass surface is not in wet Week 1

Posted: Saturday June 30, 2007 1:33PM; Updated: Saturday June 30, 2007 2:15PM
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The biggest upset of the first week went to American Laura Granville (right), who sent Martina Hingis home in the third round.
The biggest upset of the first week went to American Laura Granville (right), who sent Martina Hingis home in the third round.
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In this hyper-commercialized age, let's acknowledge just how aberrational it is for a sporting event to forego play on a Sunday. As rain continued Saturday, it looks as though play won't resume here until Monday. Herewith, our marks from the first week at Wimbledon.

A

Rolling seeds: Few significant upsets on either side. Even the upsets haven't been upsets.

Laura Granville: American veteran scored one of the bigger scalps of Week One, taking down a hobbling Martina Hingis to reach the fourth round.

Nicolas Kiefer: Former top tenner is back from wrist trouble, reaching round three.

Janko Tipsarevic: The only top 100 player with not only an array of tats but a pierced eyebrow takes down Fernando Gonzalez to reach round four. It's about time a Serbian player made some noise.

Hyphenated French comers: Paul-Henri Mathieu, Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga all turn in strong showings.

Sam Qureshi: Pakistani qualifies, wins his first match and plays competitively against Marat Safin.

B

Tim Henman: Pity he couldn't have won a winnable showdown against Feliciano Lopez, but his thriller against Carlos Moya was the match of Week One.

Donald Young: Nice to see him at Wimbledon, but it's surprising he'd enter the juniors draw.

Rain: "The referee has made changes to the SHED-duel" was the soundtrack of week one. The roof can't come soon enough. But the schedule hasn't been especially messed up by all the sporadic showers.

C

The grass: Playing like a fast hard court. As we lament the death of serve-and-volley some culpability goes to the groundskeepers.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenko: Goddess of the juniors gets waxed by Daniela Hantuchova in round one.

Wild cards: Only two of the 16 players accorded a free pass advanced to round two.

James Blake: We realize that streaky tennis is his stock in trade, but this year is really getting away from him. He simply can't lose to the likes of JC-Ferrero on grass if he has designs of returning to top five form.

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