Wimbledon Live Blog: Day 5

Live Wimbledon Blog / Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 27 June 2008 / Leave a Comment

Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco watches and reports on the action from Wimbledon.

Ivanovic is 5-1 down against Zheng on court one but is still the [1.81] favourite. She dodged a real bullet the other day with that net chord when facing match point. She's drifted to [6.0] on the winner market.

Bartoli has crashed out in straight sets to Mattek. She never looked completely fit and was complaining about a shoulder injury all the way through. Meanwhile Serena took the first set in a tie breaker against Mauresmo and is just [1.15] to win from here. Serena is nowhere near her best. She's [4.7] to win the whole thing.

It's 4-4 between Serena and Mauresmo. Told you it was early days yet. Meanwhile, Hewitt is through in straight serts and will face the Fed in the next round. Some reward, eh?

Serena breaks Mauresmo at the first time of asking. Bad luck Gary but it's early days yet.

Federer has breezed into the next round in straight sets and next up on centre court is Serana against Amelie Mauresmo. Serena is just [1.1] to win this one but man-in-the-know on women's tennis Gary Boswell thinks this is far from nailed-on. Might be worth an initial lay of Williams. Her price will surely go out at some stage, won't it. Meanwhile last year's finalist Marion Bartoli is serving to stay in the set against Mattek of the USA. She's 5-4 down.

What are your favourite film quotes, involving cuckoo clocks or otherwise? E-mail me at sw19betfairblogger@hotmail.co.uk.

Hewitt is now two sets up and Verdasco is a break up on Berdych on court two, often called "The Graveyard of Champions".

One of my all-time favourite film quotes is from "The Third Man". Harry Lime tells Holly Martin: "Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." Well, it also produced Roger Federer. Shows how much you know, Lime.

Federer takes the second and has that look about him. The "anything you can do I can do better" look. Pure concentration and focus. Like a wild animal closing in on his prey.

Federer has broken Gicquel in the second and leads 4-2. I imagine it's quite daunting having to play the Swiss champ when he's in this kind of form. We've had some big upsets already with the likes of Djokovic, Roddick and Sharapova all going out. Ok, Federer isn't going out today and in all honesty I can't see anything but a straight sets win in the next round either. Likely to be against Hewitt that one, who is a set up and 4-2 in the second.

In the ladies draw Kuznetsova is through in straights sets as is Nicole Vaidisova, who beat the ever-improving Casey Dellacqua. Looks like Ben called that one wrong http://betting.betfair.com/tennis/wimbledon/match-previews/wimbledon-bets-day-five-ancic-and-ferrers-match-to-go-t-270608.html but Ben has been in impressive form all week. If you'd backed all his selections for level stakes you'd be in profit. Let's see if his selection of over 40.5 Games in the Ancic v Ferrer match comes good. I can see where's he coming from...

Meanwhile on court one 2001 winner Lleyton Hewitt is a set up against Simone Bolelli of Italy. The aussie with the former Home-and-Away-actress wife is just [1.16] to win from here. Price sounds about right to me.

Federer has taken the first set and is unbackable on the match odds market at the moment and just [1.1] to win in straight sets. He's [1.71] to win the whole thing. His price came in after the dangerous Djokovic, a potential semi-final opponent crashed out to Safin a couple of days ago...

Apparently, in a match during the 2007 Halle, Germany tournament, Gicquel was struck directly in the genitals by a 129mph Benjamin Becker serve. He went on to beat Becker, but spent most of the night vomiting and in pain due to swelling and was forced to retire in his next match versus Jarkko Nieminen. New balls please?

Hello and welcome to day 5 at Wimbledon. Apologies for the slightly late start to today's blog. Federer is action again against Marc Gicquel of France on centre court and is 5-2 up against the Frenchman, ranked 53 in the world, who was born in Tunisia.