Roddick and Blake Lose Out, Rafael Recovers

It wasn’t a good day for the American men at Wimbledon. Andy Roddick lost to Janko Tipsarevic in four sets and James Blake came up on the short end of a five-setter against Rainer Schuttler. Losing in the second round of Wimbly? Not so very good, Americanos.

Roddick had just been boasting about sneaking along under the radar but when I saw Tipsarevic across the net from Roddick, I knew my boy Andy was in tee-rouble. A-Rod took the first set in a tiebreak but Tipsarevic won the last three (7-5, 6-4, 7-6). Too bad, so sad, bye-bye Roddick.

Blake had a longer battle but the outcome was the same. Rainer (such a cool first name, by the way…hence why we shall refer to him as such here) won the first set 6-3. Blake bounced back to win the next two sets, but Rainer won the fourth set to even it up at 2-sets all and took the deciding set at 6-4.

Rafa had a bit of a scare in Round 2, losing the first set 7-5 to Ernest Gulbis. The Spaniard played like the world number two in the second set with a 6-2 victory, survived a tiebreak in the third set and closed it out at 6-3 in the fourth set.

Djokovic is gone…if Nadal doesn’t pick up his game, he’s not going to make it to the final to have a repeat showdown with Federer!