Tuesday 24 June 2008

Changing of the guard?..... Not just yet

Wimbledon is up and underway and I couldn't let the two weeks pass without passing judgement on this years tournament, build as being the most open in recent years. Australian and French Open winners Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will be out to de-throne five time champion Roger Federer, and never will the duo have a better chance. Federer's loss to Nadal at Roland Garos was one that the Swiss had not experienced since he shot to fame in 2003. He has lost of Nadal on clay before at the french open final yes, but not in the manner that he was dispatched. i think this defeat was down to two things. Firstly Nadal's amazing development in Tennis has led to his strongest suit, clay making him unbeatable. Secondly the french open has phycolgically become a difficult tournament to win for Federer and he knows full well that if he ever won it, he would be crowned the greatest player to play the game.

So to this year's championship and there looks like three groups who are surging towards this years title. The Federer/Nadal/Djokovic group is leading he way. Group two consists of Roddick/Nalbandian/Hewitt, and the third group is headed by Brit Andy Murray and David Ferrer of Spain. This year it has struck me that so little attention has been on Murray, probably due to the emergence of the 'big three' and that Murray has never done himself justice in major Tournaments. Maybe the public have finally realized that as much as well build them up they just never deliver. Ironically this lack of build up for the Brit could be the door for him to finally perform, getting into the second week show be enough for Murray, any further would be a huge surprise.

If your looking for a winner look no further than the defending champion. The one year that he isn't expect to dominate as usual and win in such stylish fashion is the year I believe he will confirm himself as the greatest player on grass ever and the greatest Wimbledon champion ever. The rest will have to wait, even if it is only a year.

1 comment:

Shaun said...

Have to agree, it really is hard to look past Federer. Grass is his surface.

Murray will come unstuck against Gasguet in the 4th round imo. And even if he gets past him, its Nadal in the quarters..