Sorry mriiidula, looks like it is the last match of the day again!

for nole's fans, interesting analysis: http://tinyurl.com/29yrf5p

stu - i know! :( plus its at the same time as the federer match, and guess which match will be broadcasted on tv? one guess: not nole's. sigh. will catch highlights on youtube.

rfzr - how true. he needs that mentality back. and maybe when he gets it back his serve might automatically improve, who knows.

Thanks rfzr. Seems like Goodall's trying to make up for the nasty thing he's said abt Nole in the past. IMO he was pretty aggressive in sets 1&5 against Rochus (and the numbers automatically fell into place). Hope he can maintain that level for a longer time today!

mriiidula, watch a live stream come on!

Finally home. Couldn't watch the 1st match (five setter, my God!), but as I can from your posts on another thread he wasn't playing that bad..Ajde, Noleee! :)

Hope he'll do it without killing us all... last match was torture to watch!
AJDE NOLEEEE!!!

THIRD MATCH???
...Serbia is playing with AUS in 20h.... arghhhhhhh????

zare, I'll think Nole will do his best to finish the match till then.. :) In his favor, of course! :) It starts at 20:20, btw! :P Ajde Nole, lets celebrate today!!!

I'll think = I think

VAMOS lleyton!!!

only watched the TB but im gonna watch the rest of the match now - djokovic playing tentative defense today?

this Dent is crazy with his serves...Nole is giving his best, stu!

the first set was freakin' scary.

phew, this might be your easy one, Nole...if you don't lose your mind again i.e.

but 2nd set was freakin' good. :D Ajde, Nole, one more!

3 unforced errors the entire match?

can you believe it? they didn't forget one 0 at the end? :D

mental nole.

bring it on, Montanes!

Well my friends... I don't know about Isner and Mahut... but I am broken...
What a day... Ilija with Fed... Nole... Serbia out of WC... and after all that I got about 20 games of most unbelievable tennis I have ever seen...

ollyk and zare, (and duro, whereever you are!)

I just wanted to let you both know that I just returned 11.30 pm tonight, from watching Nole today at wimbledon today on centre court! It was packed! - the first time ever I had seen him play! It's an unbelievable experience.

Nole came on the court and the crowd went wild. There was so much support for him. He does look up to the sky alot and also mutters a lot under his breath when he is playing, he chastises himself a lot too!

The first set was really, really close. Dent was serving out of his skin, bearing in mind he was out of the game for 12 months with a serious back problem, you should have seen him serve! Quite frequently, Dent was serving 148mph and then came a 151mph, the crowd just whistled,clapped - because really there was nothing nole could do with this.

Nole however, well. what a joy to watch him play. He moves so well around the court - ollyk, your description of him in dubai last year, now I understand what you are saying. He is absolutely elastic. He gets down so low to reach for the ball, it's amazing and he is very clever with his ball placement. Really enjoyed the match. Great atmosphere, crowd loved him, and gave massive applause to Dent too, because especially during the first set, he matched novak, game for game, but played differently. It was an excellent match. I hope I get the chance to go again.

@maxi.WOW ! it must have been a great experience..i envy you big time :D...btw 148 mph was the fastest serve wasnt it?? 151 mph are u sure?? make sure u visit one of rafa's matches and then tell me how does it feels like watching him live :D :D

maxi - thats awesome!! oh im so jealous! it mustve been so much fun! did u manage to get some good photos and maybe an autograph?! did nole do anything for the crowd? how was it to watch him live? omg its so exciting!!! did i mention how jealous i am?!?!?
*stops fangirl squeals*
vamosrafa is right, the fastest is 148 mph. dent did make a 151mph serve but it was called a fault.

Maxiiiii, lucky you!!!!! Thank you so much for your report, I really enjoyed reading it. I'm so glad that you liked watching Nole live. He is awesome, isn't he? It' s like you are watching gymnast playing tennis. :) When I read your post I remembered my excitement when I was on stands cheering for him with all my heart and I can't wait next year... And, of course, I hope you'll be with me (if you are still planning Dubai next year, come in February, pls)! XO

vamosrafa, I did watch Rafa and Fed live matches at Madrid this year. I've mentioned before that these two guys really move so well and so fast. You have to see to believe. Their transition to the net is unbelievable, and their forehands are amazing. I've also seen Nole at the TMC in 2008. He did play well in the final against Davy. Actually Nole is one of the crowd's favorites and it is understandable why the crowd loves him. Nole speaks well too (that USO speech after his match with Roddick is an exception). Nole is a linguist, he speaks Serbian, English, Italian, some German I believe, and is learning French. I find that his English diction is good (as I did for Cilic, I'm very impressed with Cilic's good English). Nole can become a good diplomat after he retires from tennis.

mriii, yes! I knew there was a 151mph BUT it wasn't a fault, (or if they called a fault, I didn't hear it, because on centre court the applause was so loud, about 3/4 of the stadium stood up to applaud him), I thought the next point was a fault - but I may be wrong!

ollyk, i will do my very best for next year, really want to meet you. really do.

Nole was very much loved by the crowd. He didn't do anything which was funny, at one point he bent so low to the ground that he tumbled, got up, stretched and carried on for the next point. His movement is perfect. He is very confident on the court, it was just the first set that was very close, and a pleasure to watch. He looks thinner in real life too. On screen, you can see he has lost weight, but in the flesh, he looks very, very slim (but in an athletic way).

vamosrafa, i didn't get to see rafa yesterday, not even on the practise courts. But I did stand next to Alesandro Falla, who was watching the de bakker match, and I couldn't get the courage to ask him for an autograph, but I did tap Mirka Federer on the shoulder, as she was walking (very quickly) towards court No.1 to watch Fed play, I asked her for an autograph (my heart beating so fast!), but she said she was in a hurry, so I said to wish Roger good luck- she half turned, smiled and carried on. So that was the next best thing for me!

A friend of mine was watching the Federer match on court no.1, said he played much better than Monday, and was really enjoying himself on court, it is just brilliant as ollyk said previously to watch a match live. Unbelievably a feel good feeling, the crowd were brilliant and of course it was also the England match, so many of the crowd had their ipods on and you could hear the murmers of the vuvu zelas in the background, when England scored (during the match), the tennis fans passed on the results down the line, it was great, I had a 15 year old boy next to me, his grandad, who were also listening to the football scores and when England scored, you could just hear the whispers, around the place, it was filled with tension, so it was just a really great day.

Quite a few of the army were there protecting the court, and the weather was just beautiful, massive big screen on henman hill and so I walked during the break to the Isner match - unbelievable match - and saw a bit of the kohlschreiber match too.

Every tennis fan should go to wimbledon at least once in their life. It's an amazing experience.

crumbs luckystar you are lucky - are you in the travel business to be able to to get to so many tournaments around the world? I do envy the people on court 15 yesterday. Fancy having witnessed that epic!

maxi, you touched Mirka? :) I know you are a big fan of her so that must've meant a lot to you...
No wonder your writing is "guilty" for your tickets (as I remember well, you won them, right?)! You rock! I would give you tickets for all matches in exchange for reports like this one. :)

ed, no I'm not in the travel industry. I just saved up and plan in advance to go for these tournaments. Can't do it all the time though, hopefully I can make it once a year. Its my wish to see Rafa play on clay, so I get my wish fulfilled this year. If possible, I'll try to watch him every year at one of the clay tournaments, next on the list for me is Monte Carlo, maybe the French Open some other times. I like those masters tournaments, as I think you can get to see the players at the practice courts. Slams may be a bit too crowded, with so many practice courts and with so many players sharing them.

@luckystar, AWESOME ! i really wish to be able to watch these geniuses at work ..u are really are a 'lucky' star :P .... u watched rafa on clay right, how nasty does his forehand looks like?? reaction of the court must be crazy! :)

@maxi, that is SWEET and happy for you that you were able to tap mirka :D , must have been a great moment and i can understand those fast heart beats :P

vamosrafa,

have you ever seen rafa play.

He has participated twice in chennai open(2007 and 2008).

vamosrafa, I saw Rafa in his QF against Monfils and semi against Almagro. I got a scare during the first set of that semi. If you are present at the center court, you'll realize how hard Almagro fires both his forehand and his backhand, all the woos and whoas...from the spectators. I'm sure back then all the spectators who were mainly Rafa's supporters were scared like hell for Rafa, imagine Rafa having his serves broken three times in a row! When did we last see that happen? However, Rafa being Rafa, would find a way to come back and steady the ship. Though he lost the first set 4-6, I knew then he would win in the end. The second set we saw how Rafa came in to the net more often, and as I said, his transition to the net was incredibly fast. Of course the way he hit his forehand and those passes that he made got all of us gasping....His QF match - no sweat for him, as Monfils really couldn't match him at all; easy day at the office.

I saw Rafa practising with Marc Lopez too, and at the beginning Rafa was just stroking the ball, and then as the hitting went on, Rafa was hitting harder and harder and started his grunts. I could see that he was really intense even during his practice session. Rafa didn't look that big size in person, he looked taller and slimmer than what we saw on tv, and darker. He was really a sweet guy and he signed some autographs for some of his fans, and there were certainly many of them there, watching him practising.

lucky: It annoys the hell out of me, knowing there are fans like you who save up all the year to be able to go the big tournaments, to see rows of prime position seats completely empty because the VIPs who should be occupying them are getting pissed in one of the hospitality tents. In the past I was often at Wimbledon as a corporate guest and know for a fact most of the invitees have no interest in tennis whatsoever! What's more whenever I excused myself to go and watch the tennis they would look askance as if to say 'why ever would you want to do that?'

I agree, both Rafa and Roger look leaner and taller than they do on TV. And in the flesh, Roger's arms appear positively skinny. What is a surprise though is they are both the same height and weight. To me Roger always looks the taller and Rafa considerably heavier.

@luckystar,thank you very much for all those descriptions :)

@champ00289, well india is my neighbour country, i like it as a country and was planning to visit chennai open in 2009 ! so unfortnate that rafa decided not to play chennai after 08 :( did you get to see out champion?? i think vrael saw raf ain chennai

yes i did.....saw a glimpse actually...couldnt stay for the whole match!!

Nole seems very amused in his presser, talking about some "diamond day". What on earth is that?

stu: couldn't have been talking about The Royal One's Visit could he? Just a guess but probably not!

deuce, haha that would be hilarious. Unlikely tho; his match and presser were yesterday...

my guess, he was laughing at pompous/snobbish english ways ...

rfzr: why do players love Wimbledon so, then? I've heard Tracy Austin bemoaning fact that women don't curtsey to the royal box anymore! Tradition is what they seem to love. Although I take your point it would be a very bland world if all the tournaments were the same. Far, far worse is that a huge majority of present cabinet went to Eton and Oxford, that truly sucks.

Deuce and rfzr: Pomp and Circumstance are what the English do best. And Wimbledon is steeped in tradition which is probably why the title is still the most coveted of all amongst players - even if they have already won it several times tee,hee.