Good start for the British at Wimbledon 2012

It’s been a great start for the British players at the All England Club so far this week.  British number one man Andy Murray cruised through to the second round with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-4 straight sets win against Davydenko.  Murray has a tough draw in the Wimbledon championships to get into the final, so needed a great start.  His win makes 5 Britons through to the second round, this hasn’t happened since 2006.  Murray had been criticised prior to the Grand Slam tournament for exaggerating his physical problems on court.  This powerful first round win should be enough to silence the critics at least for the time being.

James Ward also progressed through to the next round, although his match was much harder than Murray’s, even James thought he was out of it at points in the match.  He came through a five set thriller to win 4-6, 6-0, 3-6, 6-3,6-3 against Andujar.  This is the biggest win of Wards career to date, and to accomplish this on home ground sent the crowds into the usual frenzy whenever a British player performs well.

Elena Baltacha managed to beat Italian Karin Knapp 4-6, 6-4,6-0 despite being hampered by a hip injury.  The 28 year old ranked 101 faces the defending womans champion Petra Kvitova in the next round.  Elena found out after her win that she has been awarded a wildcard entry to the tennis at the London 2012 Olympic games.

Anne Keothavong easily beat Spaniard Laura Pous 6-3,6-3.  Although making it difficult for herself Keothavong settled into the match well, and never looked like she was going to loose, she faces Italian Sara Errani in the next round.  Although she has played her before, she will need to raise her game to progress into the round three.

The news gets even better for the British woman today as Heather Watson (who won her first round match on Monday) stormed past American Jamie Lee Hampton 6-1,6-4 to secure her place in round 3.  Playing on court 2, Watson showed very few nerves as she sailed to a 5-0 lead in the first set whilst Hampton struggled with her own serve.  However, by the time the second set came Hampton had regained her composure and the set was poised at 3-3 with continous breaks of serve by each player.  Watson remained unconcerned though and managed to break again leading 4-3, this proved to be the turning point of the set, especially as Watson then managed to hold 4 break points to prevent the American levelling again.  Watson’s win makes her the first British woman into round three at Wimbledon since 2002.

Tags Andy Murray British tennis heather watson James Ward tennis news wimbledon 2012