Nadal, Federer, Wawrinka, Serena, Sharapova Go Through But Richard Gasquet Falls on Day 4

Rafa Nadal needed to prove that his loss to Lukas Rosol, two years ago, in the same second round match was just a one-off thing. But Rafa began by losing the first set to allow some satisfaction to Rosol, before wrapping up the match and completing his revenge. Roger Federer went through the necessary motions against Luxemburg’s Gilles Muller in his second round match before coming through easily in the end. Men’s no.5 seed Stanislas Wawrinka took four sets in beating his Chinese Taipei rival Lu Yen hsun and Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova also entered the third round without working too hard. But men’s 13th seed Richard Gasquet of France lost in a long five-set battle against Australia’s Nick Kyrgios.

Despite doubts on his slow acclimatization with conditions on grass courts, Rafael Nadal progressed to the third round first time since 2011. A lot was said before the match about his second round encounter with Czech Republic’s Lukas Rosol, who had beaten Nadal in 2012 but Rafa is not world’s no.1 just for name. Yesterday, Rosol began by taking the first set 6-4 and fought hard in the second, taking it to the tie-break. Nadal brought out his best and took the set at 7-6. After the fight, Rosol lost the edge and yielded in the third and fourth sets and Rafa walked into the third round with a well-deserved 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 win. Rafa was determined not to lose in a match of searing intensity in which Rosol played superbly. Nadal was able to win points on his first serve and that was crucial in the duel, lasting 2 hours and 43 minutes. After the nerve-draining first two sets, Nadal played the next two without committing too many unforced errors and generally getting his first serve in. Rosol fought all the way but he knew it was not the same game, he played two years ago.

No. 4 seed Roger Federer, who is bidding for his eighth Wimbledon title, faced Gilles Muller of Luxemburg in his second round match. Muller was no match to the inherent tennis skills of Federer, who ended the match with a 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 victory over the Luxembourger left-hander. Federer was pushed a bit in the second set but his service and volley game was too much for Muller. In a match lasting an hour and 34 minutes, Federer sent down 25 aces, produced 44 winners and committed just 5 unforced errors. The match was interrupted by rains but that didn’t bother Federer. Fresh from his victory at Halle’s grass court, Federer looked in complete control all through the match. In another second round match, Federer’s compatriot Stan Wawrinka had to fight hard in his four-set duel against Chinese Taipei’s Lu Yen hsun, before finally prevailing 7–6, 6–3, 3–6, 7–5 in a grueling match.

Top seed Serena Williams didn’t break sweat in her second round match against South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers. Serena lost just two points in her 6-1, 6-1 win against the South African. Same was true of the Russian Maria Sharapova, who didn’t have any challenge thrown at her by Switzerland’s qualifier Timea Bacsinszky. The fifth-seeded Russian entered the third round with a 6-2, 6-1 win.

There were two other matches of note on Thursday. In the first, 13th seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet went down fighting against Australia’s Nick Kyrgios. In a match that lasted nearly four hours, Gasquet won the first two sets but the force of the Australian teenager was remarkable as he came back to level set score to 2-2. The final set went on and on but Kyrgios closed the marathon of a match with a 3-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-5, 10-8 victory. Joining Gasquet in the exit list on day 4 were; Carla Suarez Navarro, Gael Monfils, Philipp Kohlschreiber and Klara Koukalova.

The second match involved another Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who had to continue with an unfinished match from last night. It wasn’t a cakewalk for Tsonga in the end as he fought hard against the American Sam Querrey before prevailing with a 4–6, 7–6, 6–7, 6–3, 14–1 2 victory.