Saturday, 7 July, 2007
British interest in The Championships remains alive and well thanks to Scotland’s Jamie Murray and his mixed doubles partner, Jelena Jankovic of Serbia. The unseeded scratch pair beat Cara Black and Marcin Matkowski 7-6 (7-1), 6-7 (4-7), 7-5 to win a place in the semi-finals. The Scot/Serb pairing were playing for their fourth consecutive day, thanks to the travails of the weather. Today, in unaccustomed sunshine on Court 3 they won the toss and made the unusual decision to leave it to their opponents whether they wanted to serve or receive. As a tactic it appeared unwise early on, as opposition break points stacked up, but none was converted and the set went with serve. Occasionally Matkowski’s serve was so commanding that it made you wonder how feeble his singles game must be to merit his current ranking of 1,505, but Black was clearly the power half of the pairing. Come the tiebreak a fluke return from Jankovic gave them an early mini-break and they ran away with it (into the sunset, of course) 7-1. At 2-1 in the second Murray had his right foot taped by the trainer. Four times in the next game they had chances to break for 3-1; four times they fell short. So games went with serve, although at 6-5 a lovely volley from Murray brought up match point. But his next return went wide. Black and Matkowski were always in control of the tiebreak, and we were into a decider. It was always going to be tight. Murray forced an error to break Black for 2-1. At 4-3 the opposition brought up their ninth chance of the match to break, and a Jankovic double fault handed it over. At 5-5 two Matkowski errors gave the Scot/Serb pair another break, and then at last they took the match with their sixth match point. This win means Jankovic and Murray have seen off three seeded pairs to reach the semi-finals. To think Murray had never played mixed doubles before this. Earlier Melanie South, 21, and Alex Bogdanovic, 23, lost their quarter-final against the reigning Australian Open champions Elena Likhovtseva and Daniel Nestor 6-3 (7-6), 7-4. The Britons came into this quarter-final with every reason for optimism, having beaten the world No.1 pairing of Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond on their way to this match. But Nestor and Likhovtseva make a fearsome pairing. Doubles legend Nestor, now a 34-year-old veteran, has 48 career doubles titles under his belt, and Likhovetseva already has a Wimbledon mixed crown to her name, having taken the 2002 title with Mahesh Bhupathi. The Britons won the toss and signalled their attacking intent by electing to receive. But it briskly became clear that their opponents were going to be tough, crowding them at the net. Despite fewer than half their first serves meeting the target, early on the Britons were holding serve with impressive ease, their opponents managing to unburden them of scarcely a point. But at 4-3 she and Nestor suddenly took control with commanding understanding of the doubles court. South, having previously held to love, found herself at 0-40. She got one break point back, and should have saved another but Nestor punched the volley away for 5-3, and held to love to close out the set. Demoralised, the British pair saw their touch at the net desert them at the start of the second, and the breakthrough on Bogdanovic’s serve came at once. At 0-2 Bogdanovic was left cringing in a vain attempt to protect himself from a powerful Likhovtseva volley, but there was no escape. The No.11 seeds were into their stride, and promptly broke South to love. Yet at 2-5, facing two match points, Bogdanovic and South not only pulled them back but then created their first break point of the match, gamely breaking Likhovtseva’s serve when Bogdanovic outgunned Nestor at the net. Renewed, they followed that by breaking Nestor to love. Come the tiebreak they rallied again, turning 0-4 into 4-4, but it was only postponing the inevitable. Nestor closed out the match with an ace. Written by Kate Battersby
| 
Subscription Video (Live)
Free Video