Howdy, folks. Your on-the-scene weather report at 11:30 AM is that it will be cooler today, and cloudy, with a chance of flubbed second serves and a 99 percent chance of blood-curdling shrieks, rising from both Centre Court and Court No. 1. If we get showers (as predicted, but fairly late in the afternoon) and the roof is used, people might be staggering out of the stadium clutching their bleeding ears if Sharapova is involved in a real tussle.
The other champion shrieker is the tournament's No. 4 seed, Victoria Azarenka. She's be bringing her own brand of music to Court No. 1, where if she is sufficiently voluble she simply might blow over her mouse of an opponent, Austrian Tamira Paszek. It's hard to imagine Paszek keeping pace with Azarenka, but the volatile Belarusian is becoming one of those players who will almost always let you down when you invest big hopes in her. I think she's better than that, or will be, but I also thought that about Elena Dementieva, and we all know how that played out.
In other matches, I like Petra Kvitova over Tsvetana Pironkova (who doesn't?) and, in the upset of the day, diminutive Dominika Cibulkova over Sharapova. If Sharapova doesn't have confidence in her serve, I don't either. And I put a lot of stock in the serve at Wimbledon.
Enjoy the tennis, everyone.
-- Pete