Wimbledon: Day 10

A look at who won, who lost and what’s next at the All England Club. World rankings in parentheses:

Who won

* Rafael Nadal, Spain (2) – defeated Andy Murray, Britain (11), 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 – Ernests Gulbis, the 19-year-old from Latvia, won a set against Nadal in the second round. Clearly, Gulbis is already one of the best players in the world.

* Roger Federer, Switzerland (1) – defeated Mario Ancic, Croatia (43), 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 – The first set took barely 20 minutes and warranted classical music. The other stuff wasn’t too bad.

* Marat Safin, Russia (75) – defeated Feliciano Lopez, Spain (35), 3-6, 7-6 (1), 7-5, 6-3 – That Safin’s resurgence has happened in a tournament he loathed qualifies as irony. Of course, he summarized it with trademark eloquence as, ” … happens.”

Who lost

* Rain – Butted in for two hours, only its second intrusion of the fortnight. Then receded in the chronic Wimbledon sunshine.

Next up: Women’s semifinals

* Venus Williams, United States (7) vs. Elena Dementieva, Russia (5) – Dementieva, a two-time Grand Slam finalist in her first Wimbledon semifinal, often welcomes visits from demons when trying to close out matches. Williams, a four-time Wimbledon champion, often does not welcome visits from demons when trying to close out matches.

* Serena Williams, United States (6) vs. Zheng Jie, China (133) – You wonder if some of the millions of Chinese viewers might be thinking, “This little Wimbledon thing looks like a nice little tuneup for the Olympics.”

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Chuck Culpepper