Sky Sports.com - Wimbledon 2008

The trouble with overnight stardom is that there is a tomorrow morning.

Beautiful, articulate Ana Ivanovic was changed into a celebrity when she won the French Open just a few weeks ago, descending to the top of the world on merit.

The trouble was she didn't have time to comeback down to earth, or more specifically to grass. And at Wimbledon she only survived her second round match against Nathalie Dechy thanks to a fluke - an irretrievable net cord.

Yesterday, she was beaten by Jie Zheng one of the swift and neat Chinese girls now swarming across the game and still innocent of western celebrity fickleness. She ran out, shut her eyes to peripheral things and kept the ball in play. Ivanovic on the other hand kept hitting the ball out.

Ivanovic, like Maria Sharapova - a fallen idol from the day before - hadn't played at the conditioning tournament on grass at Eastbourne, they both need to note that for the future.

Of course what that does is leave the women's draw looking something like a lottery. Great I say, who wants their sport to be a foregone conclusion.

Test

It's still by no means a forgone conclusion that the men's champion for the sixth year in a row will be Roger Federer, who yesterday won his 62nd consecutive game on grass as gracefully as ever, casting aside Marc Gicquel an experienced but journeyman Frenchman.

A true fitness test of where Federer's post glandular fever game now really is will come next. He'll play the former world number one and former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt.

Hewitt's not quite where he was - not even an Aussie can carry on and on expending mental and physical energy the way he did - but if Federer sails imperiously past him as well, watch out Rafael Nadal I say.

Isn't it amazing, if Federer does end up holding that trophy aloft in just over a week, he will be only the second man to do so for six years in a row since William Renshaw in 1886. Oh yes I remember it well.

My man Marat Safin won again yesterday and I wonder how long he can possibly sustain this concentration. While the born to grass Croatian, Mario Ancic, another recoverer from glandular fever, handsomely came through in the deep dusk against the Spaniard David Ferrer.

Skills

But let's get British for a moment or two. We famously love to play the Germans at anything - even tiddlywinks I'd imagine - and today Andy Murray takes on Tommy Haas on Centre Court.

Haas's tennis is Germanic in it's industry and forthrightness. But Murray has a wider range of skills and he has now really grown up you sense, physically and technically. These skills ought to get him through, but he needs to avoid mood swings today the way he has done so far this week.

The eighth seed Richard Gasquet from France would almost certainly await him in the fourth round and beyond that the big one - Nadal, one assumes, in the quarter-finals.

Kettle

Finally two passing thoughts. It was sad to see the former champion Amelie Mauresmo go out as early as the third round, the consequence of an unlucky draw against Serena Williams. But also her apparent inability to make up her mind about how important tennis is to her these days - she'll have to sort that out.

And lastly, in modern times has anyone whose home is only a mile away from Centre Court at the All England Club, come as near to causing an upset as Ross Hutchins almost did yesterday?

He and his Australian partner Steve Huss, took this years Australian doubles winners, Jonathan Elrich and Andy Ram to a dramatic fifth set before going out. Never mind Ross, mum Shelly will have the kettle on for you.