Recently in Live @ Wimbledon Category

Finally made it inside Centre Court for some of the Williams sisters doubles final...my no longer secret passion for doubles tennis was fueled by some ridiculous points, including one in which Stubbs nailed Stosur in the back trying to hit one down the line. 

And, its over: Game, Set, Match, Williamses, so Serena is 2 for 2 today...not as quick as we thought it would be, but who wouldn't rather have a little bit of excitement?

The best part about the doubles championship is the losers' trophy plates. I have eaten sandwiches bigger than those things. 

We're live at Wimbledon, keeping you updated on the Gentlemen's Semifinals. Feel free to follow along with comments.

Federer and Haas are in the 1st, on serve after 10 games, with neither player having reached a break point.  After their match in Paris I wouldn't be surprised if every set they play goes to a breaker.

Haas is a pretty even keeled guy it seems. He doesn't think he's too old at 31, but he's realistic about how hard it is to beat Federer on grass - and he made a good point on Wednesday that although he's never won a major, he does own titles on all surfaces. 

One court away, the Williams sisters have already taken the first set 6-1 in their semifinal against Cara Black and Liezel Huber, who are actually the No.1 seeds. Venus and Serena apparently don't feel like spending all day on court, I wonder why.

We've still got a couple hours before the first men's semifinal, but it's looking like we could have some tennis under the roof today. After an improbable run where 10 of 11 days were bright sunshine and hot temperatures, it finally feels like we're at Wimbledon. Rained overnight, now it's overcast with the chance of more showers.

In the past, this would be awful news, for both the people wanting to see tennis, and for us, who dread the thought of extending the production into Monday. But now we're guaranteed two semis, and the possibility of the roof and the lights to give it feel like a night match would only add to the inevitable buzz in the crowd today.

Roger Federer and Tommy Haas go at it in the opener. Haas played Feds tough at the French Open and he broke Novak Djokovic's will in the quarters (which isn't tough to do, but still). Knocking off Federer might be out of the question, but it's not out of the question that he could make him sweat a bit. That's good for everyone because then we get to see Federer pull out ungodly shots and show some fire.

But the main event is the battle of the guys who still haven't ditched the 4th grade pet name, Andy Roddick and Andy Murray. Besides his coach, Brooklyn Decker, and a couple of American tourists, everyone on the grounds will be rooting for Murray. Now these are tennis fans so they won't necessarily be rooting against and taunting Roddick. It's just blatantly clear who they'll be pulling for. A few of us here still think it's a bit odd that Murray is treated like hometown royalty even though he's Scottish, but the crowd adds to the drama so no real reason to complain.

Check back for more updates later on. Enjoy your Manny Returns Day.

-Matt Casey

Sorry, Jack Bauer. But we're through. Been that way for a couple years, ever since you started developing feelings and love interests instead of just killing bad people. It was nice of you to fill the void when Mike Piazza left, but there's someone else now. Roger Federer is the only one.

Ask anyone in the edit room - my obsession with Federer shot-making naughtiness borders the line between appreciative and unhealthy. It's customary to yell out a Sopranos-style "Oh!" after every amazing shot. And at Wimbledon, that happens a ton. Like a couple minutes ago when, on two consecutive points, he hit backhand and forehand return winners to break Ivo Karlovic on his way to taking the first set 6-3.

We'll be keeping an Oh! tracker throughout his match.

UPDATE - 2:03: So far, an extremely dull match. After Federer got his break, he seems to be cruising and letting Karlovich get his points on serve (Ivo hits absolute bombs). It's also been way too easy for Federer on his serve as well (There's not much else to Ivo's game). Looking like we're headed for a tiebreak in the 2nd set.

UPDATE - 2:09: OH! OH! OH! OH! Federer just ripped off four straight points on Karlovic's serve to break and go up 6-5. One of them was a return winner. That outburst came out of nowhere. And Karlovic really showed he has no other shots in his arsenal. Feds up 2 sets. Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic is down 1 set to Tommy Haas.

UPDATE - 2:14: Karlovic has ditched the shades. That must've been the problem.

UPDATE - 2:24: OH! Federer with a great forehand winner down the line to stay on serve at 2-2 in the 3rd. One of the few chances he's had a chance to hit a winner because Karlovic keeps making errors.

UPDATE - 2:32: Shocking, but Karlovic just took Federer to deuce.

UPDATE - 2:32: And Feds ripped off 2 points in about 16 seconds to take the game.

UPDATE - 2:45: Karlovic just held serve at 6-5, so now we're very confident a tiebreak is coming.

UPDATE - 2:50: Mini-break for Feds. This one should be over shortly.

UPDATE - 2:52: OH! Up 5-2 in the tiebreak, Feds rips a backhand by Karlovic that clips the baseline. Match point now.

UPDATE - 2:54: OH! Convinced that Feds dropped in a get-me-over serve, just so Karlovic could hit a weak return and set him up for his signature corsscourt forehand. Game, set, match. On to the semis, where it could be Haas, who's up 2 sets on Djokovic.

-Matt Casey

Barring a shocking loss by either girl on Thursday, we'll have another final between the Williams sisters. They are just smoking everyone right now, sometimes laughably. Victoria Azarenka was actually laughing during her match with Serena today after about the 10th rocket serve that nearly knocked her over (she also applauded one absurd running forehand winner). On another occasion, Azarenka actually swung and missed on a second serve.

Elena Dementieva cruised in her quarterfinal today, but she'll be lucky to take one set in the semis if Serena is half as good as she was today.

Venus will take on Safina in the other semifinal, but the talented headcase almost melted down today and only prevailed because her opponent wasn't all that great. Venus will be in her head from the start, which is good for viewers because Safina will be screaming obscenities in Russian all day.

But while it's impressive to watch Serena and Venus dominate and play amazing tennis, isn't it a tad perplexing at the same time? Why haven't they been able to dominate like this all the time? Shouldn't we be at the point where they both have as many Grand Slams as Federer? I realize that different surfaces can even things out, but bottom line is that both, despite their greatness, never reached their full potential.

Tuesday is always Ladies' Day at Wimbledon, with the four quarterfinal matches being played on Centre Court and Court 1. We're already underway on a hot (for London) afternoon.

• Venus Williams hammered Agnieszka Radwanska in 2 sets, 6-1, 6-2, and has looked unbeatable the last couple days. Ana Ivanovic was spared even more embarrassment by retiring early in the 2nd set yesterday, and the girl who she beat today who I don't feel like re-typing her name again never had a shot. She managed to break Venus early in the 2nd, but Venus broke right back and didn't drop a game for the rest of the match.
• Right now on Centre Court, Dinara Safina is down a set to Sabine Lisicki. That's back-to-back days on the main show court for Safina, which decisively debunks this myth. (To be fair, Lisicki is rather pleasant looking). In the 1st set tiebreak, Safina double-faulted at 5-6, slammed her racquet in frustration, and got a warning for racquet abuse by the umpire. Lisicki just double-faulted in the 2nd, and Safina is up a break.
• Later today, in the match of the day, Victoria Azarenka plays Serena Williams. Azarenka threw a world-class tantrum yesterday in her win, once walking over to a comatose line judge and sarcastically shaking her hand. Great stuff. Anyway, Serena doesn't like to put up with a lot of crap, so don't be surprised if things get a little snippy. Cat fight!
• The other match is Francesca Schiavone from Italy against Olympic champ Elena Dementieva. Both these ladies scream a lot when they hit the ball. Always a joy.

-Matt Casey

As usual here, a solid Middle Monday. They played under the roof for the first time, Hewitt came back from 2 sets down to win, and Victoria Azarenka threw a
temper tantrum. Oh, and James Blake and Mardy Fish won their doubles match. They're unseeded, but would meet the Bryan Brothers in the final if both teams win their next two matches. And at around 10:40pm Andy Murray won what is now the
latest finishing match in Wimbledon history.

We also learned that the All England Club is being accused (by whom I'm not exactly sure) of being sexist.  Supposedly they have come close to admitting that they put the best looking ladies' players on centre court, rather than just the highest ranked. The best part of this was the awkward moment where a reporter asked Serena Williams about it, basically saying, "if it's true that they are putting the best looking women on centre court, how does that make you feel as a top player?" which to me would sound like, "how does that make you feel, as someone who's not that hot?" Serena plays most often on Court 2. Luckily for that reporter, Williams laughed it off with a comment about how attractive she finds Roger Federer. 

The five-time champ, playing deservedly on Centre any way you look at it, beat Robin Soderling for the second time in 22 days and the 11th time in their careers. Hopefully Federer isn't planning on doing any extra running in the off-season, because when forced to choose something he could actually beat Federer at, Soderling picked the marathon.  Watching him lose for 3 hours on court was bad enough today, I really hope I never have to watch that.

- Lena M. Glaser

Just started raining here at Wimbledon, and the Safina-Mauresmo match is in a delay. As soon as the tarp was brought out, the fans went nuts, presumably hoping for the roof to be closed for the first time.

After a couple minutes of contemplating, it looks like they'll get their wish. It takes 8 minutes to close, and then another 15-20 for an airflow system to suck all the moisture out of the air before they can resume play.

It's 4:40 right now. We'll see when they start it up again. Stay tuned.

UPDATE - 4:47: Roof just closed and people cheered even louder. Tarp is off. Now they're on the clock for the airflow.

UPDATE - 4:49: Turn on NBC right now. Airing a feature about the roof cut by Matt Marvin in a couple minutes.

UPDATE - 4:57: The players are still in the training room. Only a matter of time before the fans start doing the wave. Kill me.

UPDATE - 5:01: Word is the players will be out in 9 minutes, at 5:10. Or 10 past, as they say here.

UPDATE - 5:02: BBC just showed about 5 different fans taking a nap. I guess staring at an empty court for 20 minutes would be a bit boring.

UPDATE - 5:07: Line judges are making their way back.

UPDATE - 5:12: Mauresmo and Safina are back on the court. Of course, the tarps are off all the side courts and the rain has stopped.

UPDATE - 5:19: Play resumes. Nearly a 40 minute delay. We'll let you know what they do for the rest of the day, including the Murray match. Would assume they keep it closed the rest of the day.

-Matt Casey

Playing the hilariously snarky Cousin Avi in Snatch, Dennis Farina had, among others, this gem: "Blagged? Speak English to me, Tony. I thought this country spawned the [bleepin] language, and so far nobody seems to speak it."

An exaggeration for sure. But one thing that stands out about this country is that it's not as easy to understand people as you might think. Head to a country in Europe, you expect a communication barrier, but that's because they're speaking another language. In England, they talk like us back in the States, only they don't really talk like us. (They probably feel the same, that we're butchering their native tongue - probably true - but whatever.)

The accent can confuse things, and the different inflections on words makes everything sound like a punchline and nothing sound like a question, even if they're asking you a question. But more so it's the different lingo. Here's a quick little decoder manual, in case you come across the pond in search of some fish and chips fries:

Cheers is the biggie - it has multiple meanings, but usually hello or thanks. Basically it's your safety valve. Don't know what to say when you meet someone or accidentally bump into someone rounding a corner? Just say cheers and everything will be fine.

We say drunk or hammered or dozens of other creative ways of describing that you had too much to drink. They say pissed.

When we say where we did what they call drunk, it's the bathroom. Here it's the loo.

If you think we have a hundred ways of saying drunk, there are about a thousand to describe a hot girl (smokeshow is my personal favorite). Here, a girl is simply fit.

I'm glad that when we're tired, we say tired. Two syllables (sometimes only one if you're southern and you're used to compacting), easy to say. Would be tough to generate the energy when we're tired to spit out knackered. Still waiting for confirmation on the proper use of knackering.

Back home, sacked is usually reserved for football, whenever a monster like Julius Peppers gets to the QB or that one time when Brett Favre fell down and gave a gift to Michael Strahan. But in England, it's what they say when someone gets fired.

In terms of phones, they'll always try and ring you on your mobile, which must be awfully difficult to understand for a 12-year old American girl with a JT or Kanye ringtone for their cell.

The number 30 also gets short-changed over here, particularly when discussing time. It's always half-past (pronounced "hof-possed").

Mate is what they call a friend or buddy, which is fine until you hear "Me and my mates ..."

Pretty sure that "also" isn't in their bank of usables - as well will do.

And quite is the substitute for "very," as in "quite well." The Brits seem to understate things quite a bit.

-Matt Casey