Wimbledon 2023: Boulter, Murray and Alcaraz in action on day two – live | Wimbledon 2023

Ach, the dreaded words – “set-in”, most commonly spoken by Michael Atherton during the cricket – have been uttered at Wimbledon. Far be it from me to note that in north London, it is, of course, drier than the Tory party conference.

We do, of course, have other sport for you:

Yup, nets down and covers on, so let’s go around the courts and update some scores: Thiem leads Tsitsipas 6-3 3-4 on serve; Brengle leads Errani 6-3 3-0; Pera leads Tomova 7-6(3) 0-1; Shelton leads Daniel 6-4 4-2; Fucsovic leads Griekspoor 6-4 3-1; Potapova leads Naef 6-3 3-3; Alexandrova leads Navarro 6-4 5-2; and Saville leads Boulter 6-5.

It’s raining and play is suspended

Well done Lorenzo Sonego! His good friend Berrettini nets and that’s the first set to him 7-6(4)! I think we may be here a while, this has the makings of an epic.

A backhand error from Loffhagen gives Rune a further mini-break and we’re now at 5-4; and look at that! Songeo whumps a forehand down the line for 6-5 and set point on serve right as Rune glides a gorgeous volley into the corner that gives him the first set 7-6(4). Loffhagen, though, is playing really well – he’s miles better than his 371 ranking.

Rune moves from a mini-break down to a mini-break up, but Loffhagen plants a really good backhand slice onto his tootsies to snatch it back and make 3-3. Meantime, Sonego has also retrieved Berrettini’s advantage and now leads 5-3…

It’s difficult for Rune, but he holds to 30 and here comes our first-set breaker; Loffhagen begins it with a service winner whole, on Court 12, Sonego shanks a forehand to give Berrettini the mini-break at 3-1. On 2, Thiem leads Tsitsipas 6-3 2-2.

Massive hold for Loffhagen, who has to battle through deuce but now leads Rune 6-5, whole Berrettini also holds, meaning he and Sonego will now play a breaker.

Gosh, this doesn’t look great, does it? At least we won’t get yesterday’s hour-long Centre Court break, as i imagine the roof won’t open, but we’ll likely have ourselves a backlog into tomorrow.

Loffhagen is still competing well against Rune – they’re at 5-5 in set one; Fucsovics has taken the first set off Griekspoor, the 28 seed, 6-4;Shelton, seeded 32, leads Daniel 6-4 2-0; Potapova, the 22 seed in the women’s competition, leads Naef 6-3; and Saville leads Boulter 4-3.. Oh, and Songeo hangs on for 6-5, so Berrettini will now serve for a breaker.

I just saw Mario Berretttini hit a drive backhand! Swear down! It was cross-court so, I think, a bit easier for him than down the line, but still. If he could do that on a regular and with consistency, he’d be a major champion already; if he can learn, he’s got plenty of time. But serving at 5-5 15-30, Songeo runs around the backhand to drill a winner, also line … only for a bad bounce on a decent return to elicit an error and raise break point. No matter: Sonego slams down an ace and we’re back at deuce.

Tsitsipas has just started served out for 3-5; Thiem will now try and secure the opening set. “This is impossible to call cos they’re both crap on grass and both in terrible form,” says Calv Betton. spent all year trying to get seeded at Wimbledon so he could have a better draw, ended up not getting it and got the best draw imaginable. If he’d got a low seeding he’d have to faced one of the top players in round 3. Now he’ll beat Tsitsipas and take the 5th seed position in the draw instead.” Thiem raises two set points with an ace, then goes long so here he goes again at 40-30 … and Tsitsipas goes long on the backhand! Thiem leads 6-3!

It’s stopped raining and off we go again, the All England microclimate changing once more.

Boulter has broken Saville … oh and Saville has broken back for 2-2. But what’s this? Er, I’m afraid it’s raining. Centre and Court 1 have roofs closed, so I wonder if they’ll move a couple of matches to there – I think Tistsipas said he’s happy for that – but they’ll want to know it’s worth the logistical aggro before they schlep everyone over, which will presumably be contingent on how long they think the weather will last.

Ohhhhh yessssss! Up 3-2 and advantage, Thiem is sent wide by a second serve and absolutely smokes a trademarked backhand return down the line for the break! He leads 4-2 and in the time it takes me to update that, consolidates to love! Thiem leads Tsitsipas 5-2!

George Loffhagen, currently 2-2 with Rune, is a good player and a good lad who wasn’t sure he wanted to be a tenniser. So he took a year off the game, discovered he loved it, so is back playing. “He’s the best athlete we’ve had in British tennis in about 15 years,” writes Calvin Betton, our resident coach. “Amazing balance. He’s got a lovely backhand. His forehand is a bit gippy though.” He’s also saved three break points in the time it took me type that making it six in total so far – his forehand is working well, especially top-spin, cross-court – and he holds for 4-4.

We’re on serve all over, Thiem looking to extend the points to try and create more of a clay-court kind of match; he and Tsitsipas are 1-1. Elsewhere it’s Berrettini 2-2 Sonego, Loffhagen 2-1 Rune and Boulter 0-1 Saville.

As we start day two, let’s quickly recall the end of day one, which was a right buzz. First, Michael Mmoh delivered the win of his life to see off an admittedly injured Felix Auger-Aliassime, then Sofia Kenin announced her re-emergence as a serious factor, binning Coco Gauff in the best match we’ve seen so far – but what a brutal draw that was for the no7 seen.

On Court 2, Tsitsipas opts to receive as per the vogue and we’ll soon be away.

I’m trying to decide which matches to watch – why do bad things happen to good people? Obviously Thiem v Tsitsipas [5], and then I think I’ll go for some UK interest – Loffhagen v Rune [6] and Boulter v Saville – along with Berrettini v Sonego.

There’s a load of traffic around Wimbledon, apparently, so crowds might be sparse to begin with. Our kingdom for a joined-up, competent and fairly-priced train service.

Preamble