Wimbledon, Day 2: Five Matches To Watch

Day 2 of Wimbledon 2010 features the top half of the women’s draw, and the bottom half of the men’s.

There are 64 singles matches on the schedule for Tuesday, which is a fairly daunting amount of tennis to process.

To make your viewing a little simpler, here are five of the most intriguing matches of Day 2’s action, along with approximate start times and the network each is most likely to air on.

Day 2 Action will be aired live on ESPN2 in the States, but will briefly switch over to ESPNU during the France v. South Africa game . Tennis Channel will do their highlights show starting at 7 PM

1. Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) vs No. 18 Sam Querrey (USA) (Starting at 7 AM EST on ESPN2) -- Querrey vs. Stakhovsky might not seem like a marquee billing, but the two did win the two biggest grass court warm-up events of 2010. Querrey stormed to a title through a very tough field Queen’s Club tournament in London, and Stakhovsky was the last man standing in the somewhat less prestigious ‘s-Hertogenbosch event in The Netherlands. Querrey at his best should beat Stakhovsky at his best, but Querrey often has difficulty arriving to slams with his best tennis ready to go. If Stakhovsky can catch Querrey on an off-day, it could be a rough day for the 6’6” American.

2. No. 1 Serena Williams (USA) vs Michelle Larcher De Brito (POR) (Starting at 8 AM EST on ESPN2) -- Serena Williams begins her defense If it’s competitive, this has the potential to be one of the loudest matches in history. Larcher de Brito is tennis’ answer to the vuvuzela, and Serena certainly knows how to get loud herself. Tennis-wise, Serena should be able to take care of the underachieving phenom fairly routinely. So I guess in some ways, this is less of a match to watch, and more of a match to listen to.

3. Kei Nishikori (JPN) vs No. 2 Rafael Nadal (ESP) (Starting at ~10 AM EST on ESPNU) -- Rafael Nadal’s first match at Wimbledon since winning the tournament in 2008 is a tricky one. Nadal will be taking on wildcard Kei Nishikori, a promising young player whose career has been perforated by injuries. Nishikori is more naturally aggressive than Nadal, but is nowhere near the current ATP #1 in terms of fitness or experience. If Nadal’s knees are bothering him like they were at his warm-up event in Queen’s Club, only then might Nishikori have a chance to pull off the stunner.

4. Jan Hajek (CZE) vs No. 4 Andy Murray (GBR) (Starting at ~11 AM EST on ESPNU) -- If Heather Watson doesn’t pull off a win, Andy Murray could well be the only Brit to make it into Round 2. He’s strangely been relegated to Court 1 for this match, but his passionate crowd of British fans will certainly follow him to that slightly smaller stage. There’s some thought that England’s preoccupation with the World Cup lessens the pressure on Murray this year, and perhaps that will help him. Hajek has the weapons to beat Murray if Murray is misfiring, but if he brings decent stuff to the court Murray should win this one fairly routinely.

5. Nicolas Mahut (FRA) vs No. 23 John Isner (USA) (Starting at ~1 PM EST on ESPN2) -- John Isner has been having an incredible year, with ranking rising from #97 to #19 in the last twelve months. But he is only 0-1 in his Wimbledon career (missing Wimbledon 2009 due to injury), and 1-4 on grass. Nicolas Mahut, on the other hand, has always had his best successes on the fast grass surface. It helps his net rushing style, and keeps him from having to attempt too much point construction. With his big serve and strong net games, Isner’s grass game should be just as strong, if not better. But so far in his career, it hasn’t worked out that way. Has Isner finally learned the tricks of the turf? We’ll know the answer by the end of the night.