10 July 2018
Embed from Getty Images
Context
Wimbledon is accelerating towards the weekend’s finals. Yesterday, the Women played in quarter finals. Today, the men will play, Coverage is on ESPN (live, now).
Results to Date
Williams, Kerber, Gorges, and Ostapenko all remain on the Women’s side of the draw. They will play in the semi-finals; the two winners that emerge will play for the Women’s Singles Championship at Wimbledon on Saturday. Serena Williams, carrying the support of mom’s everywhere, is looking stronger as the tournament goes on.
The men–Federer, Raonic Nishikori, Anderson, Isner, Nadal, Djokovic, and del Poltro play today. The four winners will play in the semi-finals for the Men’s Singles Championship. Also: don’t forget to pay attention to/watch the doubles competition (Men’s, Women’s, Mixed). A great way to learn to play better doubles, which is what most tennis players play when they “age out” of competitive singles. Click this link to see the draw (and results) for all classes of competition at Wimbledon.
Court Notes
England shuts down about 1PM Central as so English soccer fans can watch the huge, big, gigantic, enormous, how-long-have-we-waited-for-this semi-final World Cup match between England and Croatia. The oddsmakers say that Croatia is the favorite on the basis of top tier European players on the team; fate, Harry Kane, and Jordan Pickford will have something to say about that and England are a side with a mission. The game starts at 2PM ET (and, note, Fox, which is broadcasting the World Cup, insures that the games start on time…none of that annoying start-lag that the hinders the NFL and NBA games) and you should watch. It’s good sports.
Also-if you’ve got a DVR use it to tape some matches. If you play tennis, it’s a great chance to see the best in the world hit every shot in the book; you can learn a lot if you take your time to review the matches. Nightshift Sports Tennis Coach (and consultant) Ricco is unhappy that certain members of the staff are very carefully watching and learning Vitalia Daitchenko two hands off both sides form. No question about it, you can whack some penetrating ground strokes with the two-handed forehand but you still have to be able to hit a one-handed forehand because you of the loss of reach with the two hander. Experiment and try it yourself.
Lurking in the background of Wimbledon is a possible schedule: match fixing in an early round doubles match. The match has not been identified (you can bet the players at Wimbledon have some thoughts) but the suspected incident was picked up when the odds for one particular match changed rather dramatically one hour before the match. Hmmmmm. Not the type of thing that belongs in the sport.
ICYMI
Highlights from Day 8, courtesy of our friends at YouTube, The Wimbledon Channel, and The Guardian.
We have added a link to Wimbledon’s YouTube channel to our resources. Signup to see exclusive videos and special features. Maybe even get a chance to see the Raonic serve and Monfils behind the back groundie. If you’re a tennis fan, check it out.
Resources
You know the drill by now: Nightshift Sports provides overnight updates on the previous day’s play, along with relevant links to the best coverage (print, on the net, TV, and streaming) and an amazing collection of photos from the event. We continue to add interesting links to and about Wimbledon. There’s a new link to Wimbledon’s Instagram feed, as well as one to the Wimbledon official Twitter Feed. Now you can stay in touch from the comfort of your phone…..
Direct Link to The Official Wimbledon Website
The Wimbledon Dress Code
The 2018 Draw
Time Magazine Deep Background on the Wimbledon Dress Code
Wimbledon Background and History
Wimbledon Results (updated Continuously)
Where to Watch Wimbledon
Wimbledon Apps Link
Wimbledon YouTube Channel
The Guardian Covers Wimbledon (great print coverage, continuous update)
Wimbledon Instagram Feed
Wimbledon Official Twitter Feed
The Fine Print: Embed courtesy of our friends at Getty Images (gettyimages.com) who have photographic history of the 20th and 21st century on file. This photo has not bee altered in any way. We thank them, deeply, for sharing. Video Embeds courtesy of YouTube, Wimbledon and The Guardian. It has not been altered in any way; we thank for sharing. Nightshift Sports is produced by Perception Engineering and The Media Bunker. All rights–except those expressly reserved by others–are reserved by donald pierce. All text, copyright (c)2018 donald pierce. Enjoy the tournament, and check in often, as the site will be updated as often as possible.