Wimbledon Day 7

At super monday, even though the schedule was stellar, the tennis didn't quite live up to the bar set by the first week. There were some ugly matches today, and - unfortunately - the good ones didn't last very long.

The biggest stories of the day were the dual departures of the two sentimental favorites: Justine Henin lost to countrywoman Kim Clijsters for the third time this year and the first time in a slam since 2002, if I'm not mistaken. That was a pretty ugly match, as Kim came out and couldn't find the court, then once she got up a set, it was Henin's turn to crack under pressure.

The level of play was slightly better in Andy Roddick's debacle of a match against Yen-Hsun Lu, but the tactics were way worse. Roddick lost this match the same he's lost almost all of the nail-biter big matches in his career - by being passive and hoping his lower-ranked, less-experienced opponent would blink. Unfortunately for him, it was Roddick who blinked. He lost two out of three tiebreaks. Even though he was only broken once in the entire match, it was enough for him to lose, just like in last year's final. This is really a chilling loss for Andy - he's never lost to somebody ranked as low as Lu at Wimbledon, in his entire career. And if that wasn't enough, since Roddick made the semis last year, he loses 1020 points from last year's result. If Tsonga and Berdych make it another round or two, he could end up number eleven in the rankings next week. Ouch.

Other than that, things were not especially exciting. Serena Williams beat Sharapova in a really high-quality match, but it didn't last long enough. Soderling beat Ferrer in an ugly, up-and-down affair that neither player seemed eager to close out. Sam Querrey was with Andy Murray for one set, but after not be able to capitalize on his chances, Murray ran away with it. Jankovic retired with injury and Wozniacki might as well have, losing 2 and love. Nadal and Federer each dropped just eight games. And even though Djokovic managed to beat Lleyton Hewitt, he was having some breathing problems on the way, and that didn't bode well for his chances.

The women's quarterfinals take place tomorrow, where Kim Clijsters plays Vera Zvonareva, Serena Williams plays Na Li, and Venus Williams plays Pironkova. The fourth match, I'm sorry to say, is not really of particular consequence. But I expect the Williams sisters and Clijsters to come through to the semis - Kim may have the chance to do what she did last year at the U.S. Open, which was beat both the Williams sisters in the same Grand Slam. Or, just as likely (if not more so) we'll get another Serena-Venus final.

Actually, after today, I think that the odds of Williams-Williams and Federer-Nadal finals just skyrocketed. On the one hand, that is an exciting possibility. On the other, I'm ready for a change of scenery; I'm ready for Roddick to stop losing in such heartbreakers, for example.