73 years of hurt to end here?

The biggest story this Wimbledon could very well be a British mens singles champion for the first time since good old Fred Perry in 1936. Tim Henman's valiant efforts proved to be in vain; can Andy Murray lay that bogey now? Yes he can!

The fates put Pete Sampras and (with an untimely cloudburst) Goran Ivanisevic in Tim's path.

The fates this time have removed Rafa Nadal from Andy's path and are presenting a Roger Federer ever so slightly past his prime (albeit buoyed up by winning the French last month).

Go, Andy, make history!

Today's draws shape up as follows:

In the men's top quarter, there is no top seed now with 5th seed Del Potro taking Rafa's place scheduled to meet 6th seed Andy Roddick in the QFs; sandwiched between them are 2 Brit Wild Cards with tough old R1 draws : Dan Evans is due to face 12th seed Davydenko and Alex Bogdanovic 20th seed Berdych. Good luck guys!

The only Brit Guy in the second quarter is our Andy, seeded 3, due to face 8th seed Gilles Simon in the QFs in theory the softest QF option

The third quarter has 17th seed James Blake taking Del Potro's place in the draw with a theoretical QF against 4th seed Novak Djokovic; mid way down that quarter has Brit Guy #3 Josh Goodall with a tantalisingly winnable R1 against Michael Llodra of France who is more of a doubles player these days albeit still ranked #144 in singles. Go, Josh

The bottom quarter has 2nd seed Roger Federer due to face 7th seed Fernando Verdasco in the QFs (provided Verdasco can get past Brit Guy #4 James Ward in R1). Tough draw James; good luck

2 Brit Guys through to R2 will be a good result

In the top quarter of the ladies', the top seed is Darina Safina due to meet her French final nemesis Svetlana Kuznetsova, seeded 5, in the QFs; sandwiched between are 2 very decent chances for R1 wins for Brit Girls : Brit Girl #1 Anne Koethavong actually outranks her opponent Patricia Mayr of Austria and recently installed Brit Girl #2 Elena Baltacha faces the older of the Ukrainian Bondarenko sisters, Alona, who is no pushover currently ranked #32 but not invincible.

The second quarter has third seed and defending champion Venus Williams due to face 6th seed Jelena Jankovic in the QFs with only one Brit Girl, our #3 Katie O'Brien, also in this quarter; she is in the same boat as Bally up against a tough but beatable opponent in R1: Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic currently ranked #35

The third quarter has 2 Brit Girls destined to meet in R2...provided they can get through R1. Easier said than done in Georgie Stoop's case: up against 7th seed Vera Zvonareva ; Mel South has a great chance against Mathilde Johansson of France who is ranked #87 and has never won a singles match at Wimby before ; if Georgie or Mel take down Vera and reach her alloted slot in the QFs the opponent is due to be 4th seed Elena Dementieva

The bottom quarter has 2nd seed Serena Williams due to meet 8th seed Victoria Azarenka in the QFs; also in that quarter the intriguing match-up in R1 of the current Wimbledon junior champion (one Laura Robson ) against Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia who is currently world #33. Daniela can be very very good; or she can be very very bad; could be a real chance for Laura!

I'm expecting 2 Brit Girls in R2; 3 will be a good result.

A tough couple of days!

There was plenty of excellent endeavour (which the press tend to gloss over, of course ) but at the end of the first two days it cannot be denied that just one Brit Guy (Andy) and one Brit Girl (Bally) left in the singles is not what we were hoping for

Even Andy dropped a set but that may be no bad thing to get up to speed early...

Elena's win over world #33 Bondarenko deep into yesterday evening definitely the highlight of the first 2 days ; and a decent match-up in R2 against Flipkens of Belgium to give Bally every chance of making R3 and the world top 100 in one fell swoop.

Go, Bally!

Worthy R1 efforts due recognition

Laura Robson took the world #33 to within a very few points of defeat before Hantuchova's experience pulled her through; brilliant first senior grand slam effort by our 15 year old!

Georgie Stoop likewise took the #7 seed to within even fewer points of defeat and probably would have won if the match hadn't had to be halted overnight due to lack of light as Zvonereva was on the ropes...Georgie must be sick of all the close calls that have gone against her this year Your time will come, Georgie!

Katie O'Brien was another to go down in 3 close sets against her much higher ranked opponent; and Josh Goodall took Llodra all the way to 5 sets before succumbing but also

Andy's still on track!

Andy Murray through to the QFs now after straight sets wins in R2 and R3 and, last night (literally! ), the full 5 sets under the closed roof of Centre Court (the first full match held under it so there's some history anyway! ) against 19th seed Stanislav Wawrinka finally finishing at about twenty to eleven (the latest ever finish... )

Next up is Ferrero of Spain, former world #1 but now #70, who put out the 8th seed in straight sets. Taking nothing for granted, of course, but surely the path to the final just got easier?

Sadly Bally went down to Flipkens in R2

In the juniors, the only Brit Girl left in the singles is defending champion Laura Robson who is safely through to R3 with two wins in straight sets under her belt. Just 4 more to go then

Last Brit Boy still standing is world #282 Tom Farquharson ; the 17 year old has a tough assignment next against the third seed Tomic of Australia; Tom had a super first round win in 3 sets against the world #61 and then against world #25 in R2 (albeit his opponent retired early)

This was another big step forward for Andy

OK, Fred Perry, Bunny Austin, Roger Taylor and Tim Henman all keep their respective places in history unequalled or unbettered for now but Andy's first Wimbledon SF is another notch on his CV

He just came up against a man, Andy Roddick, who brought a surprisingly fresh strategy to the party which he executed pretty much to perfection to take our Andy down in 4 close sets so that's kudos to Andy R; and a learning experience for Andy M.

And then there was Roger Federer chalking up his record (for a man...all the media pundits seem to have airbrushed the women out of history! ) 15th slam title and regaining his world #1 status

My money's still on Andy winning the US Open, though!

Sadly, Laura was hampered by a back twinge early in her R3. She battled on courageously but was edged out ; Tom went down in R3 as well

Looking forward to 2010 already!