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.

Hopefully this swift resolution is the end of matters for the generally amicable Hanescu.

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. 

Already plagued with a fifth set he couldn't have seen coming, Hanescu was additionally troubled by pain in his hamstring. 

Worse than that, after receiving treatment for the injury, hecklers in the normally staid Wimbledon crowd turned on him, mocking him and shouting "Victor is weak!"

Tennis crowds can get rowdier (drunker) at the end of the day (especially going into the weekend), but it's still nothing Hanescu should be unaccustomed to as a veteran tour player.

But Hanescu snapped.  He complained to the umpire about the crowd's conduct saying "This isn't working! They are talking about my injury! This isn't working!", but the umpire was unmoved.

Disheartened, Hanescu played dejected, largely effortless tennis in the next two games to go down 0-2.

As he was getting ready to serve in the third game of the fifth set, Hanescu, probably hearing more derisive comments, walked toward the crowd to his right and spat in their general direction. 

The boos Hanescu was already hearing increased, and the chair umpire gave him a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Hanescu had had enough.  He promptly lost the next four points, even intentionally standing on the baseline to be called for a foot fault on his final four serves.

Immediately after tanking the fourth point, Hanescu walked up to the chair umpire and went to shake his hand, thereby quitting the match.  Hanescu then shook Brands' hand as well, and quickly left the court as the crowd cheered Brands.

Changing the ending of the story slightly, SkyNews is now reporting via Twitter that four spectators who were at the match have been arrested.

Four spectators at Wimbledon arrested after player Victor Hanescu apparently seen spitting at the crowd. — @SkyNewsBreak

To see how it all played out, here's a (fairly crappy) video of the entire fifth set:

And here is a better angle on the spit, with Hanescu's retirement as well:

Hanescu will almost certainly get fined for the incident, and possibly suspended.  This is easily the worst behavior by any player since Serena at the US Open, an incident for which she received a record $85,000 fine.

No. 5 Andy Roddick has defeated No. 29 Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the fourth round of the Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Singles competition.

This was far from an old-school Roddick win, with the three-time Wimbledon finalist relying more on slices and angles than power in most of the points he won.

Roddick gets a bit of a break in the next round against Lu Yen-Hsun of Chinese Taipei, before playing the winner of a blockbuster fourth round match-up between Lleyton Hewitt and Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals.

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.

Berdych is a long underachieving talent who made his first grand slam semifinal earlier this month in Paris, losing there to Robin Soderling in five sets. His path to what would be a second career Wimbledon quarterfinal looks pretty good now, as he meets the winner of No. 31 Victor Hanescu and Daniel Brands in the fourth round.

With the way he serves and his clean, effortless groundstrokes, Berdych should definitely be given a huge chance to upset Roger Federer if the two meet in the quarterfinals as expected.

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).

Roddick has a 3-1 lead in the third set, having just saved triple break point to hold for the second time in the set.

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.

Next up for Federer is No. 16 Jurgen Melzer, who made the semifinals of the French Open earlier this month.

In related news, Federer’s likeliest quarterfinal opponent, Tomas Berdych, has been pushed to a fifth set against Uzbek Denis Istomin

No. 2 Venus Williams made relatively short work of a very tough opponent in No. 26 Alisa Kleybanova in her third round match on Court 1, winning 6-4, 6-2.

Kleybanova, who was up a break for a bit in the first set, is one of the toughest outs in any draw. For the elder Williams to lose only six games to her is a sign of just how well she is playing on grass right now.

Venus shouldn’t face any tough challenges now before the semifinal. She faces Jarmila Groth in the fourth round, and then either No. 11 Marion Bartoli or Tszvetana Pironkova in the quarterfinals, all of whom she should beat pretty easily.

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.

(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

No. 17 Justine Henin beat No. 12 Nadia Petrova 6-1, 6-4 in what was Henin’s first match on Centre Court since 2007.

Petrova was up a break at 3-1 in the second set, but Henin quickly broke back to level the set and rattle the mentally shaky Petrova.

It was a classic Henin performance: wicked backhands, deft drop shots, incredible angles, and excessive celebration after her opponent’s unforced errors.

Henin improves her career head-to-head with Petrova to 14-2 with the win, one of the many lopsided head-to-head advantages Henin boasts over a top player.

Next up for Henin is countrywoman and fellow former No. 1 Kim Clijsters, which will be an absolute blockbuster fourth-round match on Monday.

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

Bondarenko, who beat Jankovic in straight sets at this year’s Australian Open, has only won FOUR points thus far in the match..

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

The only category in which Bondarenko is exceeding Jankovic is double faults, where she leads 2-0.

After spending 11:05 on court in the first round, John Isner lost in only 1:14 in the second round, falling to Thiemo de Bakker of The Netherlands 6-0, 6-3, 6-2.

The third set was on serve until de Bakker broke in the sixth game. de Bakker next faces the winner of the today’s other second round holdover, No. 13 Mikhail Youzhny vs. Paul-Henri Mathieu.

The question now is just how quickly Isner will pull out of the doubles draw. Given how thoroughly broken he looked today, there’s absolutely no reason for him to do anything now but to get on the first plane back to Florida and sleep for a week.

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.

Clijsters now awaits the winner of the match between No. 12 Nadia Petrova and No. 17 Justine Henin currently being played on Centre Court to see whom her opponent will be in a blockbuster fourth round match on Monday.

John Isner has been able to win a few service games now, but was broken twice in the second set to lose it 6-3, by two breaks.

He’s getting a little more on his serves now, but his movement is not there at all.

de Bakker, a former Junior Wimbledon champion, might have had an okay shot at this match even with Isner at 100%, but with Isner at about 10% right now there’s no way this will get close.

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.

Not easy to watch.