Wimbledon First Week Review

With the first six days of action in Wimbledon complete, I think it's fair to say that this was the craziest first week of tennis since I started paying attention. At the Australian Open in 2008, there was an amazing middle weekend - you may remember James Blake's first ever five-set win and Federer being pushed to five sets by Janko Tipsarevic, as well as Hewitt-Baghdatis ending at four in the morning - but the rest of the week had not been up to par.

This week, the action has been coming from hard and fast from day one, when Federer nearly lost to Alejandro Falla, on the first match on center court. Of course, the highlight of the week was the historic, titanic struggle between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, but even though that stands out for its sheer unlikelihood, there has been no shortage of other exciting events.

The first Saturday lived up to the rest of the week, as Rafael Nadal was pushed to five sets for the second time in three rounds, going down 2 sets to 1 before dominating the last two against Phillipp Petzschner. Sam Querrey was broken while serving for the match against Xavier Malisse, before coming back to win it 9-7 in what was probably the last game that they could have played before they would have been forced to suspend play on account of darkness. And even though it wasn't the top story on everyone's radar, the top seeds in the men's doubles draw lost to an unseeded British pair 8-6 in the fifth set.

The best part about this first week is that, despite the fact that nearly every player has been tested in these first six days of the tournament (only Robin Soderling and Andy Murray have yet to drop a set, I believe), there have not been any major upsets. The reason that this is beneficial is that some really spectacular matches are ready to get going when play resumes on Monday, which means that the second week has the potential of living up to the first.

It's worth noting that the second Monday at Wimbledon is a unique day on the tennis calendar. Since Wimbledon does not have any play on the middle Sunday, play resumes with every single fourth round match on the schedule, on both the men's side and the women's side. It is often the most exciting day of the year in the tennis calendar, and there's some potential for that again this year.

Roger Federer opens against Jurgen Melzer. It's surprising to me that these two players have never met on tour before, since they've both been around for a decade. Normally, you'd have to say that Federer is the huge favorite, but Fed has not played especially well recently, and Melzer represents a much tougher challenge than Alejandro Falla or Ilija Bozoljac. And he's a lefty, as well. There are murmurings of an upset, but it's definitely a long shot.

Second on center court is a rematch of the 2004 Wimbledon final, Serena Williams against Maria Sharapova. Serena leads the head to head 5-2, but one of the two wins for the Russian was in that final. It seems unlikely that Sharapova is going to turn the head-to-head around tomorrow, since Serena is in much better form, and has played better over the course of the last week - with the possible exception of the second set against her third round opponent. This could be a tight one, if Sharapova is on and Serena is a bit off.

The third match on center is Andy Murray against Sam Querrey. Murray is 3-0 against the young American, who has never even won a set. Considering that Murray has yet to drop a set this fortnight, it's going to be a tough match. But Querrey has gotten about as far in the game as he's capable of going by dominating the lower-tier events. He really needs to step up and get some wins over the game's top players on the biggest stage. This is a big opportunity for Sam, and could be turning point for his career, if he manages the upset.

You know that the order of play is stacked if Court 1 has five grand slam winners out of six players. The first match is the battle of the Belgians, Justine Henin against Kim Clijsters. While Henin leads the head to head, Clijsters has won both their meetings since the second stages of their careers got underway. This will be their first meeting in a slam since they both came back. This one's one of the toughest to call.

The second meeting between Grand Slam winners is Novak Djokovic against Lleyton Hewitt, which is another big match-up for both players. Despite staying at number three in the world, Djoker has not really been a big factor on tour lately. He is probably the third pick to make it through his quarter, since Roddick was a finalist here last year and Hewitt just got the biggest win he's had in years at Halle. If Djokovic can stop Hewitt here, he might get more people talking about him like a potential winner of the tourney, again. On the other hand, Hewitt can show people that his fighting spirit is enough to get him through two hip surgeries and years of being an afterthought. Three years ago, Djokovic beat Hewitt at this tournament by winning three tiebreaks out of four sets. This year's match may be just as close.

The last really interesting match, which surprisingly found its way to one of the outside courts, finds Robin Soderling against David Ferrer. Two top ten seeds, one of whom is a recent slam finalist. Soderling is the second player on the men's side who hasn't dropped a set yet, but Ferrer could just do it. Despite how big Soderling hits the ball, Ferrer just might be able to get enough balls back into play to frustrate the Swede, which is what it used to take to beat him - the new incarnation of Soderling might be too steady for that, but I'll be very interested to see how it goes. A definite contrast of styles between these two players.

Also keep an eye on the match between Na Li and Aggie Radwanksa, two top ten seeds on the women's side, but since neither player is expected to make it much further, this match has something of an air of consolation prize about it.

The remaining players have a somewhat easier time of it. Rafa Nadal gets Paul-Henri Mathieu, against whom he has a 9-0 record against. As long as the Spaniard isn't injured, the Frenchman should be dispatched with relatively ease. Venus Williams plays Jarmila Groth, Jankovic plays Zvonareva (which has a slight chance for an upset), Wozniacki plays Kvitova, and Roddick plays Taiwanese player Yen-Hsun Lu. Tomas Berdych should blow through German Daniel Brands as well, for a likely shot at Roger Federer. And JW Tsonga has a very good chance against Julien Benneteau, unless his back is causing him problems.

All of this on a single day? I'm really excited. Either there are going to be some killer upsets, or the match-ups are only going to get bigger as the week goes on. Either way, I'm thrilled.