Olympic tennis day 4 - Getting tasty

Adam Moulder blogs from Wimbledon as the Olympics Tennis event takes place featuring eight members of Team GB...

Day 4 - Getting tasty

The tennis is starting to hot up a bit here at Wimbledon as we enter the last 16 stages in all the events, including a rather tasty looking mixed doubles draw.

The favourites are still going strong in the singles and doubles events as everyone's desire to win a medal is paramount at SW19, with no quarter given by anyone.

This was typified by Jarkko Nieminen who was a game from going out against Britain's Andy Murray earlier but proceeded to dive twice in one rally and throw himself over the barrier into the front row of seats. Nobody can accuse the Finn of not trying giving it his all. He did, unfortunately, lose however.

Nieminen

Not that the home fans minded. The support for the British players has been superb this week, as it has for all nations, and the flags have been out all over the grounds.

GB fans

Getting back to the mixed event and the effort levels will no doubt be even higher with just three match victories enough for a medal in the event, although with four world No.1's in the field this it won't be easy for anyone.

Finally, a word on the officials who are decked out in blue around the All England Club during the Olympics. Here they were taking over Court 18 earlier, and it was someone's birthday. Pretty unique!

linesjudges

More tomorrow

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Day 3 - News

Big Names

Wimbledon Champions Roger Federer and Serena Williams continued their progress on day three with straight sets victories over Julien Benneteau and Urszula Radwanska respectively.  Top seed Victoria Azarenka dropped a set to Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania but came through 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 and there were wins for Sydney Gold Medallist Venus Williams, Juan Martin Del Potro, Kim Clijsters and Caroline Wozniacki. 

Battles

The Men’s singles saw some superb contests on day three with some nail biting three set thrillers around the grounds.  Feliciano Lopez edged out Dmitry Tursunov 9-7 in the third on Court 11 while Marcos Baghdatis came through 6-7(6), 7-6(5), 6-2 against Japan’s Go Soeda and Denis Istomin setup a third round meeting with Federer by defeating Gilles Muller 6-7(4) 7-6(3) 7-5.

On the Doubles Court

The reigning doubles champions began the defence of their titles on day three with Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka and Venus and Serena Williams both moving through to round two.  The sixth seeded Swiss team were made to work very hard before seeing off Kei Nishikori and Go Soeda of Japan 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 while the Williams sisters eased through 6-3, 6-2 against Romanians Sorana Cirstea and Simona Halep.