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.

Now That Thanksgiving is Over, a Mild Complaint

It has been a bit of an anti-climactic week thus far at the ATP World Tour Finals in London. Through eight round-robin matches, we have seen only one go the three-set distance- an entertaining see-saw clash between Nadal and Roddick which mirrored their encounter in Miami earlier this season. Every other match has ended in straight sets with relatively little drama. An event which boasts a draw consisting entirely of the world's top eight singles players brings with it the promise of many a close, bitterly-contested nail-biter, as we saw at this event last season.

With but the one notable exception, match after marquee match has proven a competitive letdown this week, even when local hero Andy Murray took to the court against Federer, or Djokovic against Nadal. There have also been relatively few surprising outcomes; Federer's bludgeoning of Murray and Roddick's collapse at the hands of Tomas Berdych are the only two that really come to mind.

On that note, the event has been an even bigger letdown from the perspective of a supporter of Mr. Roddick, who has continued to display his recent propensity for losing sets and matches from clearly winning positions. Against Berdych- an opponent who had not been playing at anything close to a top 10 level since Wimbledon- Roddick was clearly the better man through the first 10 games of the opening set, and held two set points at 5-4, each of which saw him returning standard second serves. Each time, Roddick responded with a soft, short slice return, simply hoping for a Berdych error, and in so doing, he not only enabled his foe to save both set points, but also awakened the sleeping giant that was a confident Berdych, with disastrous results.

Nevertheless, all is not lost even for Roddick just yet, as the identity of the second member of Group B (Nadal, Djokovic, Berdych and Roddick) to proceed to the semifinals (wherein Group A winners Federer and Murray await) remains as yet undetermined. The first criterion for semifinal berth is, of course, a player's round-robin win-loss record, but in the event that Nadal, who is 2-0 thus far in the event, should defeat Berdych and Roddick beat Djokovic today, then all three men will be 1-2, and the selection process will have to make recourse to total sets or even games in order to choose from the three. As I write this, Nadal is on the brink of a straight-sets victory. Going into the final round-robin match-up of this event, Roddick holds an impressive 5-2 head-to-head record against Djokovic and has won their last four meetings, though it does seem that Djokovic's form has improved of late, and that Roddick is low on confidence, as evidenced by his repeated losses from ahead, including one to Berdych, against whom he had previously held a dominant 6-2 record. I will be in his corner, and expect an entertaining match to punctuate the round-robin swing.

A Quick Prognosis Regarding the Final

In spite of the tremendous form shown by Mr. Berdych- who, for the record, bears an uncanny resemblance to an X-Files mutant by the name of Eugene Tooms- in dispatching Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic back-to-back to achieve his place in this final, I feel compelled to favor the experience and head-to-head dominance of world #1 Rafael Nadal on this occasion. Another near-flawless showing from Berdych could see his flat hitting and superior firepower keep Nadal on the defensive and carry him to a historic victory, but the combination of Berdych's established tendency towards choking on the biggest occasions and Nadal's proven tenacity and nerve lead me to see this as unlikely. I will cast my official prediction in favor of a Nadal victory in four sets.