The first week of Wimbledon

Maria is immersed in The Championships at Wimbledon and as the second week begins, she comments on the first week of play there.

Wimbledon sweltered in the hottest day’s play ever recorded at The Championships, when temperatures hit 35.7 degrees Celsius (96.3 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday.

“We got a heatwave and it brought back memories for me of that unbelievably hot summer here in 1976,” Maria recalls. “Although I come from Brazil and love the hot weather, I almost got sunstroke out on the Centre Court!

“When I was competing, my opponents hated having to play me in hot conditions because the balls felt lighter, flew more and suited my game. They would rather have played me under a grey, damp sky!

“This year’s Wimbledon was following the form book until the German qualifier, Dustin Brown, set the tournament alight when he knocked out two-time champion Rafael Nadal in the second round on Thursday,” commented Maria.

Brown, who has not had a haircut since 1996 and used to drive around the European tennis circuit in a camper van, is the world number 102 and had never even set foot on Centre Court before.

“It was both a shock and yet unsurprising because Rafa has been so up and down of late,” Maria continued.

“I must say that they way he won on grass in Halle, we all thought he was a real contender at Wimbledon but then he lost in the first round at Queen’s so I suppose that was a clue that all is not well with him right now.

“I don’t think it is the end for him though. He has had to come back from injuries and it takes a long time to regain your confidence in matches – I know that first hand!

“It was the fourth time Rafa lost early at Wimbledon, though, and grass has to be his least favourite surface right now.

“As for Dustin Brown, like Lucas Rosol and the others, he played a blinder of a match, using his very unorthodox game to great affect but then had the inevitable let-down in the next round and lost to [Viktor] Troicki.”

Five-time champion Serena Williams was given the shock of her life on Friday when she was pushed all the way by British number 59 Heather Watson in a thriller on Centre Court.

“Heather was another who played the match of her life,” said Maria. “She had the whole Centre Court behind her when she took the second set and raced to a 3-0 lead.

“She served for the match at 5-4 but Serena is Serena and her experience told in the end as she survived the test.

“She came within two points of losing and looked shell-shocked when she shook hands, very relieved at escaping, I think.

“As for Watson, she should take a lot of hope from the experience because players are going to respect her now, even maybe be a bit frightened of her. Not many can scare Serena like that!”

Nick Kyrgios has divided tennis fans into those who lap up his colourful antics and others who find him petulant and disrespectful.

“He had a good run to reach the second week but he is too temperamental to go the whole way until he learns how to control himself and focus on what he needs to do to win a Grand Slam.

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There is no doubt that Kyrgios is talented and the public love a bad boy so we have to hope he will find his way.

“I think it is fine to display some character on court but I don’t like hearing about all the problems he keeps getting into because it shows me he isn’t concentrating well enough on his tennis.”

Petra Kvitova, the defending champion, led a bunch of seeds out of the women’s draw, leaving Serena, Maria Sharapova, Caroline Wozniacki and Lucie Safarova as the only top 10 seeds still standing after a bruising first week for the big guns.

“I don’t know what is happening with the women because apart from Serena, they all seem to fade once they do well,” remarked Maria. “Alongside Kvitova, Simona Halep, Ana Ivanovic, Ekaterina Makarova, Carla Suarez Navarro and Angelique Kerber all failed to get into week two!

Kvitova has now bowed out of the last four Grand Slams before the quarterfinals. “It’s tennis. I’m still human. I’m not a robot,” she explained.

And then there was Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 champion wild-carded into his last Wimbledon before retiring from the tour at 34 years old, but failed to get past Jarkko Nieminen to set up a Centre Court swansong against world number one Novak Djokovic.

“It is always sad to see great players retiring from the game,” said Maria. “But he bowed out of Wimbledon in a thrilling battle with Nieminen in the first round,11-9, in the final set in true Hewitt fashion!”

And so what of the second week?

“It is hard to predict what’s going to happen but I feel that Djokovic and Serena are the favourites and now, of course, Andy Murray has a great chance because Rafa is out of his quarter of the draw, although he will still need to deal with Roger [Federer], who is in incredible form,” said Maria.

“After my predictions at the French, perhaps we should just wait and see!”

Maria graced the Royal Box on Tuesday and was delighted to find herself seated in the front row.

“It really is a privilege to be invited, especially to be in the best seat in the house,” she said.

“I was very pleased to be sitting next to Roy Hodgson and his wife. We had a very good time.”

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