Thursday 25th , 4th day,2nd round,

Record crowds have invaded the Wimbledon grounds as the weather has been perfect on the first four days of play.Many slept just outside the entrance to be able to get in and see their idol Andy Murray in action today.

Men’s Singles

In the early matches seeded # 20 Tomas Berdych ,# 26 Jurgen Melzer and # 31Victor Hanescu have reached the third ,winning in straight sets.

In what could have been an epic battle between the argentine #5 Juan Martin del Potro and former Champion(2002) the australian Leyton Hewitt,Hewitt unexpectedly won in 3 sets 6-3,7-5,7-5.A few “COME ON” from the aussie woke up the crowd and he fell on his knees when the match was over,a little early for this kind of reaction but it shows how important he thought it was to get through the argentinian rising star. Nice match to watch,very intense,which showed that 20 years old del Potro has some work to do to be competitive on grass. The german Philipp Petzschner is Hewitt’s next opponent.

# 6 Andy Roddick looked very good against the russian Kunitsyn,dominating totally the first 2 sets and finishing 6-2 in the 4th after losing the 3rd 6-3.He will play the austrian Melzer in the next round. # 8 Gilles Simon also went on to win in 4 sets against brazilian Alves and is facing #31 Victor Hanescu in the 3rd . The clay specialist #16 David Ferrer from Spain won easily in staight sets against Fabio Fognini.He will play Radek Stepanek next who needed 5 sets to eliminate the italian Starace. 36 years old frenchman Fabrice Santoro played his last match on the Wimbledon grass losing in 4 sets to the spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Andy Murray won in straight sets on Central Court against Gulbis,6-2,7-5,6-3.Murray was very solid on his serve but didn’t do much on Gulbis’,waiting mainly for the errors of his erratic young opponent.That could very well not be enough in the next rounds.

# 19 Stanislas Wawrinka defeated Martin Arguello in convincing fashion 6-3,6-2,6-2.Jesse Levine who survived a 5 setter against Pablo Cuevas will be his next test. # 12 Nikolay Davidenko is through to the 3rd round 6-4,6-4,6-2 against Crivoi,# 20 Berdych is his next rival.

The South Americain duel between the chilian # 10 Fernando Gonzalez and the argentinian Leonardo Mayer turned out to be the most spectacular match of the day as both players looked constantly to take the advantage on every point,hitting the ball as hard as they could.Mayer showed a classic style on grass,rushing to the net behind his serve and on every opportunity to attack.He took the 1st set 7-6 but Gonzalez came back to win the next three 6-4,6-4,6-4.Ferrero is his next opponent.

The biggest news today is the exit of # 5 J.M. del Potro at the hands of L.Hewitt but it is not a major upset as the argentinian never passed the 2nd round in Wimbledon and had a very tough opponent in the past Champion Hewitt.I am sure that we will see del Potro deeper in the tournament very soon.

Pick your winners for the the next round and place your bets at BetPhoenix.com Sportbook.

Ladies’Singles

Seeded # 3 Venus Williams powered her way through her match against Kateryna Bondarenko,6-3,6-2.She will face the spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro in the next round,which shoudn’t present any problem for the defending Champion. # 5 Kuznetsova dismissed Parmentier 6-1,6-3 and will meet the german Sabine Lisicki in the 3rd . # 11 Radwanska had a tough 3 setter vs the chinese Shuai Peng,6-2,6-7,9-7 and will face another chinese,#19 Na Li. # 18 Samantha Stosur (SF in Paris) also battled for 3 hard sets to beat the german Malek 4-6,7-6,6-4. #1 Dinara Safina looked better in this second round as she won 6-3, 7-5 against De Los Rios from Paraguay.Her opponent in the 3rd is Kirsten Flipkens. In an encounter of pretty girls the #9 dane Caroline Wosniacki defeated the russian Maria Kirilenko 6-0,6-4.The 18 years old dane was the 2006 Junior Champion,she is the black horse to watch on her side of the draw.She will face #20 Medina Garrigues from Spain. # 13 Ana Ivanovic defeated Errani 7-5,6-1.The beautiful serb,Roland Garros Champion 2008,will play S.Stosur in the 3rd round,a very difficult test as grass is the aussie’s favorite surface. # 17 former Champion Amelie Mauresmo from France is through to the 3rd round,playing better than she has done the last two years.#15 Flavia Pennetta will be a tougher test in the 3rd round. # 6 Jelena Jankovic won easily 6-2,6-4 against Iveta Benesova and will face Melanie Oudin in her next match.

The 4th day at Wimbledon didn’t bring any major upset in the Ladies’ Singles but it will be interesting to see how the top seeded handle themselves in the 3rd round when matches become a little tougher.