Wimbledon update

Well I am kind of glad we left London yesterday given the bomb scare in the city's theatre district early this morning. Security at Wimbledon was tightened today. The security situation was interesting. Much more thorough searching of bags than at the US Open. They open them and take out things and look in all the pockets. My sister actually had to take the cap off her chapstick! But they let you in with almost anything--including one bottle of wine per person (or two beers).

What was odd though was that we got onto the grounds the first day without tickets because ours we at will call which was located inside the gates. We did have to go through security before getting there, though. Still they seemed to be very on top of some things and quite lax about others.

Anyway, today was probably the most interesting day in terms of match-ups. Jelena Jankovic was challenged by Czech player Lucie Safarova who I saw play Eleni Daniilidou on Tuesday. That was a very good match which I did not get to see end because of the rain that came in the third set. But Safarova has a very hard, flat two-handed backhand. She hits hard, including her serve which is a little surprising given her thin (though tall) frame.

Check out Women Who Serve for more thorough updates. I will add that another upset not yet covered on that blog was Laura Granville's seemingly easy win over Martina Hingis, who I did see walk by after her Tuesday match but I didn't get a pic. Hingis has been out with injuries and that probably factored into the loss.

One of the things I found interesting watching grass court play in person was how at times the surface does not seem to matter. For example, in the best match I saw during my two days, there were times when Elena Dementieva and Natalie Dechy could have been on hard courts the way they were slugging it out--including one rally that was 39 strokes long. (We were sitting right next to the booth where the statisticians were and they told us during the rain delay.) But there were other times when it was obvious that shots were inspired--or necessitated--by the surface. Clever slices and angles and delicate touches.