When most fans saw the schedule for Day 4 of the Championships at Wimbledon, they were surprised to see that the first match on Centre Court would not be Maria Sharapova, Caroline Wozniacki, Serena Williams, or Roger Federer. Instead, it would be Robin Soderling, the very engimatic top-5 player who seems to struggle on grass, versus Lleyton Hewitt, the wily veteran who won the Wimbledon Championship in 2002. Many fans still questioned whether this match deserved to be played on Centre Court. The two players quickly silenced the doubters. Throughout the first two sets, Hewitt looked like the top-5 player, as he simply took the Swede out of his game. Soderling would not go down without a fight, as he came back to win the 4-hour match 6-4 in the fifth set. Many wonder if this was the 30 year-old Aussie's last Wimbledon, but with the show he put on today, let us hope that it was not.
As for the rest of the gentlemen's field, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic easily moved on to the third round, as did Juan Martin del Potro, Marcos Baghdatis, David Nalbandian, Mikhail Youzhny, Michael Llodra, and Fernando Gonzalez. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Nicolas Almagro also advanced in tough 4-set matches. Three seeds went down, as number 26 seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, number 20 seed Florian Mayer, and number 13 seed Victor Troicki all lost.
The second match on Centre Court today was Li Na, the number 3 seed, and Sabine Lisicki, the 21 year-old German with tremendous upside who is trying to fight back after major and scary injuries. Na took the first set but the hard-serving German would just not go away, taking the second set. After twice failing to serve out the match, the French Open Champion was broken and Lisicki held to take the match. Lisicki let her emotions flow after the victory, the biggest of her career. As for the rest of the ladies' field, Serena Williams survived a tough 3-set match, her second in a row at Wimbledon. Among others, seeds Ana Ivanovic, Francesca Schiavone, Svetlana Kiznetsova, Julia Georges, Maria Kirilenko, and Yanina Wickmayer also reached the third round. Li Na was the victim of the biggest upset of the day, but number 31 seed Lucie Safarova, number 14 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and number 13 seed Agnieszka Radwanska also fell to un-seeded opponents.
As for a quick American update, John Isner and Christina McHale went down, as Serena Williams moved on to the third round. 19 year-old Ryan Harrison was also on the court today, as he took a 2 set to 1 lead against number 7 seed David Ferrer. Ferrer broke early in the fourth set, but the match was postponed due to darkness as the Spainard was up 4-2 in the fourth set, down a set to the young American.
In conclusion, day 4 at Wimbledon proved to be one of the more exciting days of the tournament so far. With that being said, the next few days are sure to be filled with even more fantastic tennis.
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