Maria Sharapova practicing at the 2014 US Open on Friday:

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Maria Sharapova makes her return to New York after a year’s absence. She will compete in a unique Nike Maria Day Tunic.

Maria’s footwear choice is a customized version of the NikeiD Zoom Vapor 9 Tour (right in the picture below):

Sharapova’s Nike Maria Night Dress on the left:

Eugenie Bouchard’s road to the final

The young Canadian lost in the semifinals at this year’s Australian Open and French Open. At Wimbledon, she beat two top 10 (Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep) to reach her first Grand Slam final. She could become the youngest player to win a Slam since Sharapova at the 2006 US Open.

Lucky 13? The only No.13 seed to win a Grand Slam in the Open Era was Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon in 2004. Eugenie Bouchard is seeded 13 at this year’s Wimbledon.

Petra Kvitova’s road to the final

Petra Kvitova made at least the quarterfinals at Wimbledon five years in a row, but she was nearly out of the tournament in the third round, when Venus Williams led 7-5 5-4 30-all. The best ranked player she had to beat to each the final is No.23 seed Lucie Safarova.

Eugenie Bouchard – Petra Kvitova head to head

They met only once, in the second round of Toronto last summer, Petra won in straight sets.

What they said

Eugenie Bouchard:

I’ve put in a lot of hard work and it’s been kind of years in the making to me. So I believe in myself and I expect good results. I’ve had a good start to the season, but I expect myself to do even better than that.

Petra Kvitova:

I know how it feels when you hold the trophy so I really want to win my second title here and I will do everything I can

Kvitova has the experience, Bouchard has the support of the crowd, who will win? I vote for Bouchard and you? Please share your thoughts.

Wimbledon 2014 has certainly seen the event live up to its billing as the ‘most social Wimbledon ever’, with the event organisers bringing people closer to the action with a string of cutting edge activations promoted via the @Wimbledon Twitter profile. Adding to this is the fact that 85% of the competing seeded players now have a presence on Twitter, and with this in mind I wanted to have a look at some of the themes emerging from the outbound activity published to Twitter by those competing in week one at this years event.

Celebrity Spotting

If you have an interest in our great sport then Wimbledon is the place to be, and that is consistently the case for a series of superstar actors, musicians and sports people who turn out annually to watch the action live, to the delight of the players

There happens to be World Cup Taking Place

Novak Djokovic has shown support for the countries neighboring his native Serbia, and appears to have taken a particular liking to Greece

As has Nick Kyrgios, who despite representing Australia has family roots in Greece

Given Spain’s early exit, Rafa Nadal has refrained from tweeting about the tournament, which is in contrast to Roger Federer, who has been ever so insightful in his live tweets during Switzerland’s matches

Maria Sharapova has been following Russia’s progress – luckily for Maria, should things not fair so well with Grigor, she will have no problems finding a new partner in her native homeland

Whilst Tomas Berdych weighed in on the discussion around the Luis Suarez ‘bite’ – Tomas, are you implying that Suarez is a vampire?

Players interacting with one another

Andrea Petkovic is always good value on Twitter and after the BBC referred to her as “an up and coming 20 year old rising star”, she took to the micro blog to highlight her secret to sustaining her youthful complexion, prompting replies from fellow players Ana Ivanovic and Angelique Kerber

The Sky

Tomas Berdych lost out to Marin Cilic in a match that ended at 21:38 in almost total darkness – the latest end time for an outdoor match in Wimbledon’s history. Despite the ‘Bird man’s’ protests to the umpire to suspend the match at the latter end of the third set and with Hawk Eye failing to operate given the lack of light, Berdych took to Twitter to congratulate Cilic on his victory

His tweet prompted humorous response from the @PseudoFed profile (in my opinion at least) one of the best parody accounts on Twitter

On the subject of Mr Federer, the Swiss maestro also appears to have a slight sky obsession this Wimbledon, and sparked conversation amongst his community with this ”what do you see?” tweet

Roger seemed to enjoy some of the responses too….

It is great to see players take to Twitter to give an insight into their thoughts, feelings and personalities at an event that ranks as the pinnacle of the sport, and the highlight in the annual ATP and WTA calendar. As we transition from the middle Sunday to the ‘business end’ of Wimbledon 2014, I look forward to seeing yet more fun, reactive and heart felt Twitter activity from the players.

Article written by Andreas Plastiras

Andy Murray poster at Wimbledon Station: Wimbledon awaits

Maria Sharapova’s Sugarpova pop-up store in Wimbledon Village:

2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic:

Henman Hill (or Murray Mound?)

Petra Kvitova leaving practice courts:

Last year’s runner-up Sabine Lisicki practising:

The queue arriving at Wimbledon:

Centre Court before play starts:

Ball Boys and Girls:

Rafael Nadal and Lukas Rosol arrive on Centre Court for a rematch of their 2012 second round meeting:

Crown Prince Frederick and Princess Mary of Denmark in the Royal Box:

Denise Lewis, Jonathan Edwards, James and Pippa Middleton in the Royal Box:

Rafael Nadal:

Lukas Rosol:

Chelsea Pensioners enjoying the match:

Led 4-6 2-4, Nadal rallies and wins in 4 sets 4-6 7-6 6-4 6-4. He’ll face Mikhail Kukushkin in the third round.

Next on Centre Court, Angelique Kerber and Heather Watson:

1969 Wimbledon champion Ann Jones watching the match (to know more about this champion who also excelled in table tennis, read her portrait written by journalist Rex Bellamy)

6-2 5-7 6-1 win for world number seven Angelique Kerber.

Last match of the day on Centre Court: 7-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer faces Gilles Muller.

Mirka Federer:

Stefan Edberg:

Gilles Muller:

Rain stops play at Wimbledon. Rain on Henman Hill:

View from Henman Hill, you can see the Shard in the background:

Empty practice courts:

The roof makes its first appearance at Wimbledon 2014:

Good day at the office for Federer who wins in straight sets 6-3 7-5 6-3.

Thanks a lot to Karen for her pictures and story. Follow our Wimbledon 2014 coverage

Evian has created a music video by the hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks featuring Maria Sharapova, as the centrepiece of a new Wimbledon-themed marketing campaign:

Do you like it? What do you think of the video?