Wimbledon Whimsy

Good, erm, morning, everyone! I find myself compelled in my restlessness to set down a few choice thoughts, here in the final hours before yet another Wimbledon is set to commence.

We will have to wait until Tuesday for the most exciting first-round match-up on the cards, when- in a development so promotionally fortuitous as to stoke conspiratorial speculation that the draw is rigged- we are to be treated to a rematch of the legendary 11-hour encounter at last year's Wimbledon between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. Of course, this match also carries with it the potential for a great anticlimax, as neither Isner nor Mahut is a major competitive favorite for the tournament, and a repeat of the kind of epic drama we saw last year seems less than probable.

Andy Murray seems to have had the most promising immediate lead-up to this year's championships, having made an outstanding title run at Queen's Club while Nadal went down meekly against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Federer and Djokovic fell dormant. However, it seems clear that the rather-more-grueling clay-court runs shouldered by the latter three contributed to this turn of events, and I expect we will see them fit and refreshed when they take to the court these next couple days. Djokovic reportedly looked back in fearsome form at a recent grass-court exhibition against Gilles Simon, though it remains to be seen whether the sort of magic that seemed to follow him for six months, up until his fateful meeting with Federer at Roland Garros, will still be there for him in London. This year's draw is particularly fascinating because, in contrast to recent years, wherein one could often easily identify a single cut-and-dried front-runner, there are now multiple players (Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, perhaps even Murray) who can be plausibly construed as favorite to claim the title, as well as several darkhorses (Roddick, Tsonga, Berdych) with the potential to upset the apple cart.

Unfortunately, as seen in my last post (juxtaposed with the subsequent thrashing he suffered at the hands of Murray) I seem to jinx Mr. Roddick whenever I say anything terribly optimistic about his competitive prospects, and so I will keep current speculation on his chances here strictly tentative: though he has not often shown it in recent months, I do believe that Roddick is still capable, given the necessary stroke of inspiration, of repeating everything he did in 2009 that carried him so close to the title. However, as we cannot count on this happening, I will say that a quarterfinal showing would be a solid result for him, and encouraging for those of us who are hoping to see him finish in the world's top 10 for a tenth consecutive season, as well as potentially qualify for a ninth consecutive year-end championships- two goals toward which he is a bit behind schedule at the moment.

I shall now wish you well and take leave of the waking world ever so briefly before rousing myself in anticipation of the joys to come.