Wimbledon – Simon Says: No to all-Williams final

Eurosport expert Simon Reed offers insight after the fourth round at Wimbledon – and hopes that we are not in for an all-Williams final.

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“It adds spice to have new blood coming through in the form of unlikely contenders. However the top half of the draw is being dominated by Serena Williams and the bottom half by her sister Venus, which is not ideal.

I have nothing against the Williams sisters but hope that one of them is beaten, for the good of the spectacle.

It would be better to have someone else in the final opposite one of them than if they were playing each other.

I tipped Agnieszka Radwanska as a contender the other day and her disposal of Svetlana Kuznetsova strengthens my faith in her – but Serena should be too strong for her in the last eight.

However she has to play very well or she could be picked off by Radwanska.

Andy Murray looked like he was being outgunned against Richard Gasquet and I had more or less written him off. But with the crowd going mental on centre court anything was possible.

I think Rafael Nadal could be really tested by Murray in the last eight: Murray likes playing against Nadal, he even said himself that the performance he put in against Nadal at the 2007 Australian Open – when he lost in five sets – was the best he has ever played.

I watched the fifth set of Mario Ancic‘s match against Fernando Verdasco: it was a fantastic comeback, a superhuman effort.

There have been bigger comebacks on bigger courts at Wimbledon, but this one had plenty of drama.

Amid the emotions of his match the other night against David Ferrer, which lasted until late, to come back and do it again was magnificent. He fully deserves his place in the quarter-finals.

He next faces Roger Federer. There is always a chance, but Ancic must be starting to get tired and the last person you want to play when you are tired is Federer.

I did not think Federer was in trouble in the first set against Hewitt despite going to a tie break, not the way he was serving. He didn’t look as prominent as I thought he would; however he sat on his breaks and was fine in the end.

I was more impressed by Nadal. He looked very good against Mikhail Youzhny after he recovered from his injury.

There was no question that Nadal’s injury break was tactical: it was far too early in the match for that. But I do think there are far too many timeouts in tennis generally and the women’s game in particular.

Players use them to take away the momentum of opponents when they are losing, and that is disgraceful. It has been a problem in many matches at Wimbledon this year, but not only there – I have seen it happen everywhere.

I think the ATP and the WTA should get together and do something about it before it becomes a real problem.

Arnaud Clement dug in and battled through his match against Marin Cilic in straight sets. He’s a bit of a sorcerer and against Rainer Schuettler, another surprise winner, he has a real chance.

It is an amazing comeback: he had dropped some way outside the top 100 and has never reached the quarter-finals, but he is there now. I don’t expect him to be a contender for the title though.”

Simon Reed / Eurosport