Humility and Respect (or lack thereof)

I am totally out of my writing rhythm. I need to start writing in the mornings again instead of the evening. This is totally weird.

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Another good win for Lleyton Hewitt last night - thought I'd put this out there now before I forget to talk about it, because he's not my main topic of conversation today. He took out Philipp Petzschner in three pretty decent sets - it was an entertaining match. Most entertaining match award of the day has to go to the end of Haas/Cilic, which finished 10-8 in the fifth - you have to feel for Cilic but if this hasn't tired Haas out I can totally see him making the semis. He has such a good shot.

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Also impressive in five was Radek Stepanek, who beat David Ferrer despite suffering some bizarre injury. If it actually is a badness, then Lleyton Hewitt is NOT the player he wants to be facing in the next round, considering the amount of balls the little guy gets back. This'll be an interesting one to see, that's for sure.

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But on the subject of injury, this brings to me to my main subject today - Jelena Jankovic, who had approximately fourteen thousand injuries in her match today, and who always seems to carrying a few. I don't have an issue with that - players get injured and some get injured more than others. This happens, I'm all right with that.

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But what I am NOT cool with is what she said about her opponent.

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JJ, when you lose, there ain't no one can take the blame but you. YOU lost. There might be extenuating circumstances, but at the end of the day, YOU LOST. Deal with it. You DO NOT come out and say that your opponent 'has no weapons' and 'can't really hurt you'. That is absolutely not cool. That is totally disrespectful of Melanie Oudin, and if she holds a grudge against you for the rest of eternity, I totally do not blame her. She beat you, JJ. You lost. Deal with it.

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I know that JJ isn't exactly enamoured of my man Roger Federer due to some comments he made about the WTA rankings when she was #1 (I think we all agree that the rankings are totally f*cked), but she needs to take a lesson from him. When was the last time you heard him go 'yeah, my opponent had nothing and I was sick'? The man kept glange secret for months! Sure, that's a bit extreme, but you must ALWAYS give credit to an opponent. To do otherwise demonstrates a total lack of sportsmanship.

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So JJ is in my bad books. And if she doesn't improve her attitude, she's staying there. I'm glad Oudin beat her. I hope Oudin beats her again. JJ needs to learn that humility and respect is one of the most important parts of sport. And I hope Oudin makes her eat her words.

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Two lovely girls that played off against each other were Kuznetsova and Lisicki, and much as I like Sveta, I'm glad Lisicki won that one. I'd be happy to see her go deep in this tournament. She is such an ebullient, lovely sportswoman - and Sveta gave her fair credit. That is the way to do things.

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Shape up or ship out, JJ.

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Today's Results

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The Championships (Wimbledon)

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Men's Draw

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Andy Roddick def. Jurgen Melzer, 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-2) 4-6 6-3

Andy Murray def. Viktor Troicki, 6-2 6-3 6-4

Tomas Berdych def. Nikolay Davydenko, 6-2 6-3 6-2

Juan Carlos Ferrero def. Fernando Gonzalez, 4-6 7-5 6-4 4-6 6-4

Tommy Haas def. Marin Cilic, 7-5 7-5 1-6 6-7 (3-7) 10-8

Lleyton Hewitt def. Philipp Petzschner, 7-5 7-6 (7-3) 6-3

Igor Andreev def. Andreas Seppi, 6-1 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 7-6 (7-5)

Gilles Simon def. Victor Hanescu, 6-2 7-5 6-2

Stanislas Wawrinka def. Jesse Levine, 5-7 7-5 6-3 6-3

Radek Stepanek def. David Ferrer, 7-5 7-5 3-6 4-6 6-4

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Women's Draw

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Venus Williams def. Carla Suarez Navarro, 6-0 6-4

Sabine Lisicki def. Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-2 7-5

Dinara Safina def. Kirsten Flipkens, 7-5 6-1

Ana Ivanovic def. Samantha Stosur, 7-5 6-2

Amelie Mauresmo def. Flavia Pennetta, 7-5 6-3

Melanie Oudin def. Jelena Jankovic, 6-7 (8-10) 7-5 6-2

Caroline Wozniacki def. Anabel Medina Garrigues, 6-2 6-2

Agnieszka Radwanska def. Na Li, 6-4 7-5