Wimbledon is the top tournament each year for tennis stars. The All-England Club has tremendous history and this year is no different. Day by day, top stars on both sides of the bracket continue to fall.
On Monday, American Andy Roddick at Wimbledon suffers more heartbreak. After falling to Roger Federer in that spectacular final last July, A-ROD fell victim to unseeded Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan in 5 sets in the round of sixteen. The 82nd ranked Lu hadn’t won a match at Wimbledon in the past four years, and never advanced beyond the second round.
Then on Tuesday, five time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams followed Andy Roddick to the sidelines. Stunned in straight sets to the 82nd ranked player in the world, Svetana Pironkova rolled the error-prone queen of the grass in the quarterfinals at the All England Club. Venus had reached the Wimbledon finals 8 of the past 10 years but couldn’t get past the Bulgarian, winning only 5 games in the match, a career low in her Wimbledon history. Fortunately, sister Serena avoided the upset beating Li Na 7-5, 6-3.
Meanwhile, today–for the first time in eight years, the championship match at Wimbledon will NOT feature one Roger Federer. A major upset in the quarterfinals at the All England Club leads to an early exit for the top-seeded Swiss Star.
The 12-seed, Tomas Berdych stole the spotlight this afternoon. Federer was trying to tie Pete Sampras‘ record of seven Wimbledon titles. However now he’s going to have to try again next year. With the defending Wimbledon champ out, Rafael Nadal will become the new favorite. He advanced to the semi-finals today, with a win over Robin Soderling.
With Federer’s loss, he will also drop to No. 3 in the ATP rankings next week for the first time since Nov. 10, 2003. Since winning the Australian Open in January, he has failed to win a tournament. Nadal will be No.1, Novak Djokovic No. 2.