Wimbledon, Day 5: Hanescu Spits At Crowd; Favorites Win; Exhausted Isner Loses

Wimbledon officials have fined Romanian Victor Hanescu $15,000 for his actions in the fifth set of his third round loss to Daniel Brands, actions which are detailed in the post below.

The fine is broken down as $7,500 for unsportsmanlike conduct and $7,500 for lack of best effort.

For the fourth straight day, there was enormous drama at Court 18 at Wimbledon.

But after the three straight days of a riveting Isner-Mahut marathon that eventually ended with an award ceremony, Day 5 saw a spectacle on the same court that the tennis establishment will not be quite as proud of.

No. 31 Victor Hanescu of Romania was not having the best day. After winning the first two sets against German Daniel Brands, Hanescu lost the third and fourth, losing all momentum and putting his Wimbledon run in serious jeopardy.

No. 12 Tomas Berdych defeated Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 6-7(1), 7-6(5), 6-7(8),6-3, 6-4 in a third round match that was far more competitive than most anyone expected.

Despite some nervous moments late in sets that evoked the choking Berdych of old, it was a generally fairly solid win for the current Czech No. 1.

Andy Roddick and Philipp Kohlschreiber have split the first two sets of their third round match.

Roddick won the first 7-5, and Kohlschreiber took the second 7-6(5).

No. 1 Roger Federer got his first easy victory of the tournament over Arnaud Clement, beating the veteran Frenchman 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 in the third round.

For the second straight match, Federer was not broken, and only faced one break point in the entire match.

No. 3 Novak Djokovic had an easy go of things in his third round match, defeating diminutive clay courter Albert Montanes 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

After a huge scare in his first round against Olivier Rochus, Djokovic has been cruising, and has now won eight consecutive sets. Which is a very good thing for one of the most momentum dependent players on tour.

In a totally understandable, expected decision, John Isner and Sam Querrey have pulled out of the Gentlemen’s Doubles draw.

Somewhat less expected was citing an Isner toe injury (that was visible as he wore flip-flops yesterday) as the reason for withdrawal.

No. 4 Jelena Jankovic is through her first set against No. 26 Alona Bondarenko in only 14, winning it 6-0 on Court 2.

Jankovic has hit twelve winners to Bondarenko’s zero, and three aces to Bondarenko’s zero.

No. 8 Kim Clijsters beat No. 27 Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 6-3 in the third round of the Wimbledon Ladies’ Singles draw to advance to the fourth round in her first tournament at Wimbledon since 2006.

It was a fairly decent match with some nice shot-making by each, but ended with an ugly double fault by Kirilenko on match point.

John Isner has not been able to manage a single game thus far in his second round match against Thiemo de Bakker, one day after finishing the longest match in tennis history by beating Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the fifth set.

Even Isner’s serve, which was so dominant for his entire 70-68 set, has been ineffective. Isner is barely serving over 100 mph, and has only won 5 of 17 points in his service games.