By Chris Oddo | Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Radek Stepanek came, saw and nearly conquered Novak Djokovic on Day 3.
Couldn’t make your way to SW 19 this year? No worries, we’ve got you covered. Take a tour around the hallowed grounds of the All England Club without ever leaving your computer monitor with the Media Mash.
More #Media Mash: Day 1 | Day 2
Serena Williams spends a light-hearted moment in the lap of an unsuspecting fan during her doubles victory out on court three today. Haven’t seen this hilarious video? Check it out here.
What the heck is going on in this photo? Believe it or not, Stepanek is actually, in the weirdest possible way, celebrating a point he lost. No, seriously. You can watch it here.
Day 3 saw David Ferrer’s streak of ten consecutive quarterfinals at Grand Slams go down the drain. And we got introduced to the potential of a promising 23-year-old Russian (career record 21-39—what???) named Andrey Kuznetsov:
Grigor Dimitrov was not overwhelmed at all in making his first career Centre Court appearance on Day 3. Quite the contrary: he was OVERWHELMING. See video below:
The surprises kept coming on Day 3, as suddenly, as if possessed by the recently departed ghost of Ivo Karlovic, Alexandr Dolgopolov tossed in a career-high 42 aces in his 6-7(4) 7-6(0) 6-3 6-4 victory over Germany’s Benjamin Becker.
Just to be sure that Nole wasn’t completely overshadowed by the rollicking madness of Radek Stepanek—he did win the match, after all—we give you this picture of a very focused and athletic Djokovic making his way to the net.
Speaking of Djokovic, he also gave a crucial point to Stepanek late in the fourth set, after an erroneous out call had stopped a point that Stepanek would have won. The umpire recommended to play a let but Djokovic said he had no play. This was no empty gesture, either. Djokovic was in big trouble at the time. He ended up recovering, with good karma, to win the game.
Ah, the tradition, the history, welcome to Wimbledon (said with a proper British accent).
Radek and Tomas—two Czechs in a pod.
The youngest player in the Wimbledon draw is now the youngest player in the third round… Remember the name: Ana Konjuh. Maybe people will start believing by the end of the week? Stat: The teenager currently leads all women’s singles players in aces with 23.
The Wimbledon grass is a very beautiful thing…
Serena takes a seat in the front row…
In one of the better matches of Day 3 on the women’s side, Bojana Jovanovski stunned Victoria Azarenka in three sets, rallying back from 0-40 down in the final game to clinch. It was high-quality tennis, played at high volume…
In Vika’s defense, she’s only had three matches since March, and she is taking the loss as a call to action. Watch out for her this summer.
Last but not least: Alrighty then, Andy, go ahead and chat up a comic dog…