Reg Brace: Week one provided late nights and bewilderingly early exits

Perhaps at 11.02 on Saturday night in the booming cavern that is the roofed Centre Court when Andy Murray beat the local curfew and his opponent, Marcos Baghdatis, to move a step nearer the holy grail of tennis.

Questions were being asked about the scheduling, of course. Would it not have been better to put the match on first or second rather than last? After all, there was a captive weekend audience, not homeward bound workers gasping for early evening excitement on TV. Maybe the late night denouement justified the decision, but doubts remain.

Anyway, the British No 1 moved on after a comfortable passage against Nikolay Davydenko, and a more problematic tussle with Ivo Karlovic. Baghdatis was his toughest opponent so far and it was an entertaining match, with piquant incidents like spare balls falling out of Murray’s pockets during rallies. Deeper pockets, one suspects, are called for.

The most astonishing match of the week, maybe the decade, was Lukas Rosol’s defeat of Rafael Nadal in the second round. Lukas who? Exactly. Few had heard of the world No 100, but this was a classic instance of an unfancied player reaching previously unscaleable heights. This was his moment and he did not waste it.

Rosol was ejected in the next round by Philipp Kohlschreiber, but the clinical manner in which he beat Nadal will never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. It was probably a once-in-a-lifetime performance, although he insists there is more where that came from.

It was a week that underlined the sad decline of Australia in tennis terms. For the first time since 1939, there were no Australians in the third round of the men’s or women’s singles. What happened to the production belt that produced the likes of Laver, Hoad, Rosewall and Court? An Australian colleague tells me that youngsters are finding other sports to pursue. Does that have a familiar ring?

Novak Djokovic has dropped only one set in the three rounds in defence of the men’s title and will be a difficult man to dislodge. Roger Federer hovered on the brink of oblivion again Julien Benneteau, but looks typically serene as he pursues a seventh title which would equal the record of Pete Sampras and William Renshaw.

The explosions could occur in the other half of the draw with Murray one of those who may prosper from Nadal’s departure.

Serena Williams is hanging on in the women’s singles although her ailing sister Venus was a disappointing first-round casualty. Serena’s next opponent is Yaroslava Shvedova from Kazakhstan who wrote a piece of grand slam history by becoming the first player in the Open era to win a set without conceding a point, against the French Open runner up Sara Errani, who eventually lost 0-6 4-6.

From a Yorkshire standpoint there was good and disappointing news on Saturday. First, Sheffield doubles specialist Jonathan Marray and his Danish partner Frederik Nielsen beat Karlovic and Germany’s Frank Moser 6-3 6-3 6-2 to reach the last 16 of the men’s doubles. Earlier Beverley’s highly promising Kyle Edmund went out 6-4 6-7 8-10 to the eighth-seeded American Mitchell Kreuger in the first round of the boys’ singles. Edmund lost, but did nothing to dent his potential as a young player to watch.