Wimbledon 2008

Steady Mike won't be quiet for long, I shouldn't wonder.

Hi hi, I'll be checking in and occasionally contributing if an Italian does something noteworthy, and hoping Edina Gallovits progresses so I can make a H2G2 reference for big laffs.

While I shall be in charge of Sharapova/Ivanovic Watch. And occasionally posting LOLworthy images of Lindsay Davenport.

I can't believe how much I took being able to sprawl in front of the tv all day, every day during wimbledon for granted back when I was a student :(

First round upsets in waiting: Zheng over Cibulkova (who is v talented teenager, and also Monfils' current gf, but more of a claycourter), Dellacqua over Batty Patty, Ancic over Llodra (can't believe this is a first round match! easily the pick of the opening rounders), Mahut over Tursunov (sadface, Mahut is so fug and Dima so hott), Querrey over Ferrero (BOO).

Vaidisova is currently too busy shagging Sexxxpanek to give a shit about tennis and her results lately have been abysmal (getting only three games off Mattek in Edgbaston wtf, how is that even physically possible) but surely even she can get past Ondraskova before Stosur thrashes her in round two. (Stosur has a great draw, btw: the other top seeds in that eighth are Batty and the slumping Chak Attack.)

Did anyone see the Eastbourne final on Saturday? One of the best matches of the year - seems weird that the last three Eastbourne finals have been classics, while we haven't had a half-decent Slam final on the women's side for, like, five millennia. Anyway, I heart A-Rad, but I think she'll be too tired to go beyond the 4th round.

Who I want to win: Gasquet, Jankovic. This is because I am a masochist and am only capable of supporting headcases and wusses. Who will win: Nadal (beating Djokovic), Sharapova (beating Silliams).

Surprise quarter-finalists could be Yanina Wickmayer and...just about anyone in Davydenko's eighth of the draw. Davydenko himself would be a surprise! Maybe Donald Young can finally deliver on his hype.

btw, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfB7a3eT2Eg";>this is the full-on CHAK ATTACK</a>. Mild-mannered, baby-faced Anna C may look like the most self-effacing girl on tour but you mess with her at your peril.

If anyone can dredge up the opening sequence of Animalympics off YouTube, I feel that'd be an appropriate insertion at this point.

Action on all the courts at the moment. Notable highlights are JCF trailing to The Querreyman, Razzle 5-0 upon on Eggy Rodina, Radwanska Club Juniors daintily snatching the first set 6-1 off Zakopalova, Stozzie flying against Olaru, and Tommy Jo and Vinnie The Spade rattling along, 4-5 in the first.

huh this is the right youtube link for the Chak Attack. I hate html or whatever went wrong up there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfB7a3eT2Eg

Game done changed:

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Teej and Vinny get the first tie-break of the championships. Sam Querrey, Ten Feet Tall And Six Feet Wide, takes the first set 6-2. Sets also go to the Bagh Daddy, the Razzler and Sammy The Stoat. The televised match on the Beeb sees everyone's favourite Scottish Ukranian, Lennie Baltacha, 5-3 up on Angie Kerber.

Gosh, how painfully clever of me.

Guess what! I am once again unemployed. And not just temporarily this time, in fact, in about 11 hours from now I'm 99% likely to be fired permanently.

Good news for this thread, bad news for its readers!

Checking in.

Sammy the Stoat has won a set! Already Oz expectations for this event have been exceeded, Rodge's diplomatic assessment of Hewitt's chances notwithstanding.

Federer has taken the stage. He appears to be wearing some kind of cardigan thing.

Elsewhere, Johansson-Spadea is shaping up nicely as the first leviathan of the year - one 18-point tiebreak later, Everyone's Cousin Vinny takes the first set 7-6. Also one set to the good: Bobbysods, Toby Kamke, Jie Zheng. After dropping the tournament's first bagel, Eggy's 4-1 up in the second on Razzano.

Yay for being able to watch the tennis at work!

Mmm bagel.

I am following it on Yahoo. Eyetie news: recent overachiever Andy the Squid is a set down to some German no-mark.

Sammy has beaten Ayers Rock (Ularu)!

Josh Eagle on Foxtel seems to think she should have bagelled her.

And this year's first winner is... The Stoat, 6-2 6-2 over I-R-O. E-Rod's flip-reversed Razzo 6-2 in the second; further score-levellings for Kerber, Kev Kim (6-0 on Bobbysods) and JCF. Baggy's now two sets to the good on Darcis, and U-Rad's just got over the line, 6-1 6-4.

Darcis was the guy Hewitt monstered in R1 of the Oz. Speaking of which, Hewitt is being interviewed by Wally Masur, spouting all the ususl fluff but wearing his cap THE RIGHT WAY ROUND. Nearly didn't recognise him.... Speaking of fluff, the beard has thankfully gone.

Not lovin' the new scoreboard. Hrbaty's putting up a decent fight of the first set.

Actually, according to the Beeb, our first winner was Nicci Vaidisova, who bulldozed Zuzu Ondraskova 6-2 6-2. Whoops.

Set-up: Yuan, NLV, Karen's Uzi, Our Friend Flicka.

You mean Slam Tracker?

They do realise that for the prog scores to have any meaning it's helpful to know who's serving????

In two minds as to whether to inform people that Kaia Kanepi made the quarters at the French Open. Will decide against for now. Fed goes a set up, Electroglide In Zheng is through 6-4 6-3, making Dominika Cibulkova the first seed (#30) to be eliminated from this year's tournament.

First round upsets in waiting: Zheng over Cibulkova

CALLED IT!

Yuan is beating Dechy? On grass? How is that even possible?

Nohrah lost the first 11 points vs Fed but started to make a fist of it as soon as he won a point with a ludicrous line-lob from behind his back. I haven't described that very well - it'll be on the highlights tonight.

About time they replaced that scoreboard really - it had been there since 1982, I think (they replaced the old matrix-of-bulbs on court no 1 first, in '81), and I'd started to grow tired of it as soon as they introduced redundant zeroes (i.e., in the early days, if the guy on the top row was up 4-0, 30-love, the bottom row of games/points would be blank - I thought this was a nice literal interpretation of "not on the board yet"). Unfortunately, the choice of typeface for the new screen is poor.

very poor.

'a *fairly *poor** Chelsea side at the moment' - Emlyn Hughes to Bob Wilson, lunchtime, January 1987

always remains the canonical use of the word 'poor' for me

he sort of pronounced it 'puir'

he wore a pale blue jumper, with yellow trimming I think, to Wilson's beige suit

La Razz battling to stay in her match v Rodina, Herrabbitty two down to Rodge, Bagh and Darcis in third set tiebreaker in which Darce is holding his own well.

Darc wins tiebreaker.

Now looking at Serena W, vaguely resembling Aretha in the Blues Brothers, systematically dismembering Kanapes, who at first sight seems to be carrying a little condition.

Cardigan

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44771000/jpg/_44771316_federer220ap.jpg

Rodge about to officially advance (presumably sans cardigan), Gonzo a set up on an unseeded Rob the Slob.

JCF has beaten Querrey, Darcis serving to stay in v Bagh, Ivanovic away v De Los Rios Tringbarkus.

Happy for Rodina beating Razzano after a first set bagel - should go a little way to alleviating her PARISIAN PAIN.

Was wondering whether an upset would ensue in the Pavlyuchenkova v Cornet match - former junior Wimbledon champion who's underwhelmed in the seniors, against a seed with a game tailor-made for clay but who's made astonishing progress this year. The grass-courter Pavlyuchenkova took it in two TBs.

Good win for JCF over an annoying big server :D

Chewitt a set down to Haase, hurrahe! Sweta a set down to Johansson, WTF.

OK I'm excited for this event, but since I'm in AMERICA all the matches take place v early in the morning or when I'm at work, so I can't actually watch them except for the weekends. Nevertheless I will try to follow along best as I can, but won't have much to contribute here.

The last five Wimbledon girls juniors championships were won by Kat Bondarenko (she beat Ivanovic in the finals!), both Radwanskas (Agnieska twice!), and Wozniacki. V. interested to see how they perform this year. N.b. Srebotnik and Mauresmo also won this even as juniors; Ivanovic, Sharapova, and Chak lost in the finals.

I know nothing about this Berrer guy but he's a double-break up on Djoko in set 2 (having narrowly lost the first). I think the #3 is in a bit of trouble here against a man I suggest we call "Yogi".

greg: zattoo.com

wtf you can't get the bbci channels if you're on virgin??? bullshit! i'm stuck with watching some really terrible british WC try her hardest against a barely-concentrating alona bondarenko and, you know, win the occasional point.

S'all streaming on the Beeb website.

Specifically, Lex, Ancic vs Llodra can be found at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/7465695.stm

eh, it's not the same, it's too much like having to watch youtube clips and random streams for the other 50 weeks of the year! though i think i will definitely use it when matches get to crucial stages...also, south has made a mini-comeback!

Over! Only one singles match to be held over - Rybarikova v Niculescu, with the latter trailing 2-4 in the third. If I'd attended today I'd actually have watched that; Rybarikova was a very good junior who's going to crack the top 100 for the first time after Wimbledon, having qualified, and Niculescu has one of the odder games on tour: apparently in the juniors she only had a slice forehand, which is just...mind-boggling. She's as close as there is to a female Santoro, all slices and drop-shots and ridiculous spins, and she was driving Jankovic crazy in the 1st round of Roland Garros.

Uhhhh a paragraph about Magdalena Rybarikova and Monica Niculescu? Onwards.

- Frank Dancevic is hott! And I am going to get to perv on him in person on Wednesday because he thrashed Lazy Fat Dave
- The Chak Attack needed 8-6 in the third to beat Dubois? Rock bottom, Anna, rock bottom
- Too many retirements on the men's side: Nishikori, Llodra (so much for that match-up), Lee, Stakhovsky, Volandri. Wusses! None of the girls retired. Especially disappointed that I won't get to see Next Big Thing (TM) Nishikori live now
- Pity Korolev (a certain Anna K's cousin, btw) and Haase couldn't finish the Berdman and Chewitt off respectively :(
- How has Ivo Karlovic managed to lose in the first round of Wimbledon for...is it three straight years now?
- Saw most of CAKE vs Lisicki. Cake was playing really well. Where has this Cake been for the past year? She's so much fun to watch - it's unbelievable to see the angles she comes up with, how she takes the ball earlier and earlier as the rally progresses, how her anticipation is so keen that even Lisicki's most powerful shots had no effect. Lisicki is talented but wild, and her pouting skillz must be unmatched on tour. Also, hott
- Melanie South is fat, and not very good, but A-Bond is so one-dimensional that it was a close match. A-Bond's game is so metronomic that it nearly put me to sleep, but she looks quite cool: funky asymmetric neckline, pink scrunchies and a plait the likes of which we have not seen since the days of Anna K, massive tattoo on her back

Someone emailed me to tell me that the following exchange apparently just happened on the US coverage:

ESPN discussion about Estonia.

- Estonia is a small country near, erm, ...

- The Balkans?

I'm on Virgin and can get the BBCi coverage (just red button on BBC1), it wasn't working properly earlier so maybe it was just down for maintenance when you tried.

"Zattoo is not yet available in the United States."

Go Cake!

Just caught Casey Delinquent's last set demo job on Batty Patty.

If not before, and regardless of anything Stosur does over the next few days, Casey is now confirmed as womens' FOAT. She bumped Mesmo off in January and beat Cake a couple of weeks ago, and might even be seeded by the time the circus moves to new York.

And let's face it, she makes a much better front page of the sports section that Hewitt will in a million years.

It is a very nice cardie.

Last night's higlights are repeated at 10.30 this morning (and presumably every morning).

Keothavong's off to a rather good start. broken twice already.

Somebody on the BBC said Rafa hits the ball with about twice as many revolutions "per minute" as most other pros. I found it hard to believe.

Oh, and Sampras' period of domination was over by early '97, btw (they're almost exactly ten years apart in age, so Pete's '90s map quite nicely onto Fed's '00s). Thereafter Rios, Moya, Kafelnikov, Rafter and (especially) Agassi had spells as #1 and Samp didn't win a Slam between Jan '97 and Sep '02 outside SW19. So Rog has persevered longer than Samp (I personally don't think there's much comparison - Fed is leagues clear on clay for example AND it's hard to compare eras when Pete's immediate contemporaries were better than Rog's (Hewey, A-Rod, etc) but he didn't have a wave of kids 5-6 years younger than him to deal with (er, Henman?)).

His backhand completely failed him in this match. It was laughable how at the beginning Rafa kept serving to it and Roger was so sluggish in changing over. He made some erratic choices as to WHEN to come in the net. Overall it was lazy.

On the other hand, he did gradually work himself in, even before the rain break (saving 3 break points at 0-40 down), served really well, and played the massive points in the breakers like the champion that he is. xxxp

this was really beautiful to watch, nadal is a fucking wizard + you gotta admire federer's gumption

def ties superbowl xxl or whatever for greatetst single sporting event of the year in my mind

"I can't believe this is the end of the road for RF"

That sounds a bit too gloomy...he won't be as dominant, sure, but he'll win again at the big stage. I think he has another Wimbledon title in him.

I would quite like him to win it once more, then not win it for ages and come back and break the record at like age 32 or something.

Wait, is 32 old for male tennis players? I have no idea.

Yes, its old -- if he'd win twice more he'd only equal the record (Sampras has won it seven times)

His backhand completely failed him in this match. It was laughable how at the beginning Rafa kept serving to it and Roger was so sluggish in changing over. He made some erratic choices as to WHEN to come in the net. Overall it was lazy.

I'm not sure about lazy, but otherwise ^^^^^ this. Roger makes some good approach shots but it's certainly not one of his better features, and there was a distinct feel of plonked-ness about the strategy surrounding this, like, oh I hit an approach shot, or oh I don't quite know what to do, I'll go into the net, because it's the done thing.

I'm beginning to think a well-executed, well-practised net strategy might work (serve and volley, though, would NOT) well against Nadal but despite the trying, despite the forays into doubles, Roger does not have it. Roger Federer is not Stefan Edberg, nor even Pat Rafter at the net here.

Still, it was a glorious match, though I reckon last year's final was better in many ways.

Winning Wimbledon for five years in a row made him a bit complacent, somehow, he never made any adjustments to his game (its hard to tell, Fed has played shots that have not been seen on a tennis court, but I can't quite help getting the feeling). I think finally losing, will, in the long run, hopefully get him to do certain things differently...hopefully he'll finally get that win on clay. Really last month's loss at the French was way harder for me to take.

Contra people above saying this has brought them down on Nadal's side, I'm firmly in Fed's camp. Nadal's fine, I'm happy for him, but..er.. I don't WORSHIP his tennis and find it beautiful at its best (though it's scarcely ever less than impressive and is often amazing) like I do Fed's.

Complacent, that's a good way of putting it.

I doubt that anyone could actually be 'lazy' when out in a Wimbledon final on centre court. Except, perhaps ... me. I can imagine being lazy even in that situation.

But the point that RF didn't have ideas to change his game, I get that - 'Johnny Mac' (T Austin) was warning about it the other night.

Steady Mike says: [once we got to 4-4 in the 5th I'd made my peace with the spectre of a Nadal win, just glad that we'd seen a contest]
-- I agree: very different, surely, to see RF lose after taking 2 sets from seeing him go straight down. It could have gone his way in the 5th, and apart from Nadal's toughness etc, the fact that it didn't seemed to result from RF's errors - errors that were so oddly unnecessary and uncharacteristic. I mean, he had chances to hit winners and win the match.

[I can't believe this is the end of the road for RF; there's still only one player who can beat him in Paris or London and he's not always going to be there. He's probably not going to be there quite a lot in Melbourne and New York - Nadal's 12-6 h2h record owes a lot to Rafa going missing at the business end of hardcourt events. Add Djokovic (and maybe Murray) and it gets a lot harder.]

So struck by the presence of Murray in that sentence !! For real ??

Mike says RF seems 10-12 years older than Nadal; Hand says he seems to have seen empires rise + fall. I think I understand,

and that's a full stop

.

I'm all for this YouTube coverage of the final minutes just for the added commentary from the dude:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlNsBUZTv_A

"Federer's like a cockroach! HE JUST WON'T DIE!"

This was one of the greatest matches I've ever seen. Kudos to both of them.

I'll echo that. I'm really glad it went to 5 sets.

Ive been in Nadal's camp because he seems funnier and more sociable than Federer. More neurotic maybe. Less boring. Oh and his record against Federer is phenomenal. He is the best player. I firmly believe this.

I don't know, to me, Nadal seems about as neurotic as a new tennis ball.

Winning Wimbledon for five years in a row made him a bit complacent, somehow, he never made any adjustments to his game (its hard to tell, Fed has played shots that have not been seen on a tennis court, but I can't quite help getting the feeling). I think finally losing, will, in the long run, hopefully get him to do certain things differently...hopefully he'll finally get that win on clay. Really last month's loss at the French was way harder for me to take.

In a nutshell.

Actually the RG loss was a huge reason in my (maybe temporary) abandonment of Federer...and I'm slightly annoyed by his comments here that this was a tougher loss to take. Dude. As you've stated many times, you're playing primarily against history at this point. Winning RG once is far far far more important than another Wimbledon. And the lack of fight in that final...he could have done with some of what he showed here yesterday there.

Wait, is 32 old for male tennis players? I have no idea.

Haha this is a sport where people get called "washed up" at 23. Sometimes because they ARE. Actually I did once see someone call Pavlyuchenkova washed up last year, when she was FIFTEEN, because her transition to the seniors wasn't as smooth as had been expected.

This became an incredible match mostly after the rain break in the 5th set (the 4th set TB was magnificent but I was too busy mumbling "oh god Rafa's choking" repeatedly to appreciate it). Last year's final had better sustained play but flopped at the end, this was the reverse.

Somebody on the BBC said Rafa hits the ball with about twice as many revolutions "per minute" as most other pros. I found it hard to believe.

I believe this!

Complacent's a bit too hindsight-laden for me. Not when he was playing Nadal, and knew it since about last Tuesday fortnight if not earlier. I might have bought 'complacent' if Rodge had had a bad day and been put out by Hewitt or Safin, or even the 'young upstart' Djoko if he'd lasted the distance, but we all knew damn' fine that was never happening. Or were we complacent as well?

I fell asleep with the idiot box still on about six games into set 1 and woke up again just as Rodge was looking dodgy mid-set 3. The two and a half sets I saw from about 4.30am Oz time onwards were among the best I have seen. Following on from the all-Williamd ladoes final, it capped what was an excellent Wimbledon, which doesn't usually sustain itself whan there's such early and heavy carnage among the top seeds. Rodge and Rafa are still far and away 1 and 2 in the world, Djoko has daylight fore and aft at no 3, despite his early exit from this event he still heads the chasing pack, after that it's a lottery, in which local great white hope Andy Murray is still just another ticket, with a heavy concentration of oncers, flashes-in-the-pan and yesterday's heroes - for instance, WTF has happened to Jo-W Tsonga since the Oz final? Or has that always been thus?

What do we make of the Williams 'majors only' schedule? By any standard it's working - so far. The bean counters at the Cincinatti Open or the Liverpool Invitational or the Adelaide Hardcourts must all be hoping like hell it doesn't catch on. The retirement of Henin, the demise of Mauresmo, the recent stalling of the Russian Revolution and the inconsistency of many of the younger 'vic' brigade all conspire to assure that we won't be farewelling the Williams entourage any time soon.

Well that's been fun as always. I'll check in at Flushing Meadow. Bye from Oz.

Tsonga sadly suffered a serious knee injury which will require surgery just before RG - he'll be out for months yet.

I might have bought 'complacent' if Rodge had had a bad day and been put out by Hewitt or Safin, or even the 'young upstart' Djoko if he'd lasted the distance, but we all knew damn' fine that was never happening

But this is the sort of thing which HAS been happening all year. Losses to Djokovic, Fish (!), Murray, Roddick...and some very ugly losses to Nadal (of their four meetings this year, this is the first in which Federer's really emerged w/much dignity). For years now he's known he needs to improve various aspects of his game to beat Nadal, and if anything we're seeing fewer signs that he's doing this, while Nadal just gets more and more impressive. (It's funny to think that Nadal began 2008 by losing 0-6, 1-6 to Youzhny in the Chennai final!)

Sets up a fascinating story for the next few months, and the US Open, though: a) will Federer man up to the challenge and rescue his year, b) can Nadal adapt to hard courts as well as he's adapted to grass? Since he became a top player, every one of his hard court Slams has ended with him getting blown away by a power hitter having an 'on' day, blasting away while totally untroubled by strategy or tactics (Youzhny, Tsonga, Gonzalez, Blake etc).

Both Williamses have actually played much more on the main Tour over the past year or so than they're given credit for - sure, it's a reduced schedule, but no more reduced than those of Graf or Seles or Henin. The reason people have been saying Venus has come out of nowhere to win is because she's been losing early all year to, eg, Petra Kvitova, Dominika Cibulkova, Flavia Pennetta. Serena on the other hand has been consistently excellent, but she remains Slamless...

(though the Williamses were essentially part-timers for a couple of years, 2005-06, and their willingness to step away from tennis as and when they feel like it has definitely contributed to their longevity)

OK roll of honour! I haven't done this in ages.

Men's singles: Rafael Nadal
Women's singles: Venus Williams
Men's doubles: Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic
Women's doubles: Serena Williams and Venus Williams
Mixed doubles: Bob Bryan and Samantha Stosur
Boys' singles: Grigor Dimitrov
Girls' singles: Laura Robson

haha the junior doubles draws still aren't complete on the website - are they still playing them today?! or have they been abandoned?

New ranks...

1. Roger Federer (1)
2. Rafael Nadal (2)
3. Novak Djokovic (3)
4. David Ferrer (5)
5. Nikolay Davydenko (4)
6. Andy Roddick (6)
7. David Nalbandian (7)
8. James Blake (8)
9. Andy Murray (11)
10. Stanislas Wawrinka (9)
11. Nicolas Almagro (12)
12. Radek Stepanek (15)
13. Fernando Verdasco (18)
14. Fernando González (14)
15. Richard Gasquet (10)
16. Mikhail Youzhny (17)
17. Tommy Robredo (19)
18. Paul-Henri Mathieu (16)
19. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (13)
20. Juan Monaco (21)
21. Ivo Karlovic (22)
22. Feliciano López (35)
23. Tomas Berdych (20)
24. Mario Ancic (43)
25. Carlos Moyà (24)
...
37. Juan Carlos Ferrero (23)
39. Rainer Schuettler (94)
40. Marat Safin (75)
43. Marin Cilic (55)
54. Guillermo Cañas (44)
72. Arnaud Clément (145)

1. Ana Ivanovic (1)
2. Jelena Jankovic (3)
3. Maria Sharapova (2)
4. Svetlana Kuznetsova (4)
5. Serena Williams (6)
6. Elena Dementieva (5)
7. Venus Williams (7)
8. Anna Chakvetadze (8)
9. Dinara Safina (9)
10. Agnieszka Radwanska (11)
11. Vera Zvonareva (14)
12. Daniela Hantuchova (12)
13. Patty Schnyder (13)
14. Agnes Szavay (15)
15. Marion Bartoli (10)
16. Victoria Azarenka (16)
17. Nadia Petrova (18)
18. Maria Kirilenko (19)
19. Francesca Schiavone (20)
20. Alizé Cornet (17)
21. Flavia Pennetta (23)
22. Nicole Vaidisova (22)
23. Lindsay Davenport (25)
24. Tatiana Golovin (21)
25. Shahar Peer (26)
...
35. Alisa Kleybanova (42)
36. Amélie Mauresmo (33)
37. Tamarine Tanasugarn (60)
40. Jie Zheng (133)
76. María José Martínez Sánchez (101)
82. Anne Keothavong (92)
92. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (137)
99. Alla Kudryavtseva (154)
113. Michaella Krajicek (49)

http://www.slate.com/id/2194912/

Can't believe Murray is top 10 ... or Safin 40.

why is that?

I disagree w/that Slate article's argument that defense is paramount, Nadal's always been a superhuman defender. He can beat Federer on grass now because a) he's got to grips, footwork-wise, with the surface, and can therefore put his defensive skills into practice - his first few years on grass he was constantly slipping all over the place; b) he's added offense and aggression to his game in a huge, huge way - he can now rely on hitting winners from the baseline, at the net and off his serve; c) he is so deeply embedded in Federer's head that Federer doesn't trust his own attacking skills and will make a ton of errors in neutral rallies, not just when goaded into them by RN's defense.

Probably mainly cos I am ignorant.

It just seems odd to me that Murray, a local lad whom I imagine is probably overhyped by our local press, should be a world figure. And I imagine that Safin would beat him in a MATCH-UP.

Lex's point c) does seem convincing - what was so recurrent yesterday was the unforced errors from RF, missing shots that looked routine by his standards, many of which might have won games (the many missed break points). In fact I think one could argue that this as much as anything cost him the match.

makes sense to me, but i wonder if it's less getting into federer's head than nadal's ability to make federer play with his weaker tools?

It just seems odd to me that Murray, a local lad whom I imagine is probably overhyped by our local press, should be a world figure. And I imagine that Safin would beat him in a MATCH-UP.

yeah I can see why it might seem that way but Murray is definitely a world class player, and - seriously - the likeliest person not currently in the top 3 to join Fed/Nad/Djok at the very top of the game. Safin did beat him the one time they played, in three sets, but that was three years ago when Murray was still, like, 12.

what was so recurrent yesterday was the unforced errors from RF, missing shots that looked routine by his standards, many of which might have won games (the many missed break points). In fact I think one could argue that this as much as anything cost him the match

On clay, points like that constitute maybe 75% of the match.

of their four meetings this year, this is the first in which Federer's really emerged w/much dignity

Those Monte Carlo and Hamburg matches were tight - but I'm not aware of the circumstances in which RF infamously gave up those double-break leads (5-7 from 4-0, 5-7 from 5-1): just error-strewn implosion?

Y'know, I really thought Fed was playing grand stuff up to 4-6 4-1 on Sunday; every report I've read since has simplified the story of the match to suggest he made a slow start or was being outplayed. He was showing much greater guile on Nadal's serve for that first hour - I think 12 of the 13 break-points he earned were in that part of the match.

yeah I can see why it might seem that way but Murray is definitely a world class player, and - seriously - the likeliest person not currently in the top 3 to join Fed/Nad/Djok at the very top of the game.

^^^^^ no to this.

Who is, then?

just error-strewn implosion?

Basically. It's very frustrating, for three years now Fed has played in exactly the same way - making exactly the same stupid mistakes - against Nadal on clay every single time.

Oh god, Tsonga ahead of Murray. Even with the bicipites. At any rate we're quibbling over very small percentages here.

Tsonga is probably more able to dominate an opponent when he's playing well but is far too injury-prone and inconsistent to challenge year-round (rather like Berdych or Gonzalez).

Gasquet would be the obvious choice above Murray but he's a wuss and a choker who will never do anything of consequence.

Plus he wears his baseball cap backwards. He's not even a baseball player!

Isn't he, like, a tennis player from like France or somewhere?

but is far too injury-prone and inconsistent to challenge year-round

Murray != consistent.

Who is, then?

Ernests Gulbis. Seriously -- everyone's saying he's top-five material, including other players. People talk about him the way they talked about Federer and Nadal before they broke through.

Other than him, Murray, Gasquet, Tsonga, Monfils, Cilic, Del Potro, and Nishikori are the main young super-talents brewing on the men's tour. Maybe throw Robin Haase in there too. None of them seem to be a Federer or Nadal in the making, though most could hope to do about what Djokovic has done (and is likely to do).

the next federer or nadal is playing college tennis right now I bet.

the next federer or nadal is playing college tennis right now I bet.

A nice thought, though it's been a long time since we had a college tennis player who got much of anywhere, no?

Ernests Gulbis! Maybe! He hits really really hard, which could definitely be good for a Djokovic-level year.

ILX Tennis Thread veterans may remember my bet, placed in 1995 or 1996 or whenever it was, that I would eat a footstool if Henman ever won a slam. I think I could make the same bet about Murray.

Also lol at spam email subject heading: "Nadal disqualified from Wimbledon win". They must be targeting me. Still didn't click on it!

Oh yeah Nishikori! I still haven't seen him play :(

Gulbis is amazing but that style of tennis turns you into Gonzalez, not Federer.

Murray is definitely a world class player, and - seriously - the likeliest person not currently in the top 3 to join Fed/Nad/Djok at the very top of the game.

Whilst I agree with this a look at the rankings points shows there's a huge gap to bridge for any of the bubbling under guys to even get close to Djokovic never mind the top two. Murray hasn't done enough in slams so far to pick up the big points (I think Wimbledon was his first QF?) but if his hard court game has improved on last year he may well sneak a QF or even a semi in the US Open, especially if he makes the top 8 seeds.

1st Federer, R. 6600
2nd Nadal, R. 6055
3rd Djokovic, N. 4945
9th Murray, A. 1805
1012th Milton, J. 9

Joshua Milton closer to Andy Murray than Andy Murray is to Djokovic :)

watching a rebroadcast of Federer-Sampras and thought - who would/will Nadal get matched up with?

Perhaps Fed started to go wrong when he agreed to undertake challenge matches against bored 36-y-o millionaires. He'll be sprinting against racehorses next.

Nadal - in terms of clay court dominance, it would be Borg; in terms of playing style, it would be Vilas. Both of those guys are in their 50s and an exhibition match wouldn't be pretty.