I had a reverie in which Grosjean made a comeback at the USO, wildcarded into the main draw where he promptly beat Roddick, Troicki and Soderling on his way to the QFs, eventually losing to Djoko in straights.
Meanwhile, Kuerten got a wildcard into the qualifying draw, powering his way through to R128 to face Pere Riba. After that easy match and an easier one against Garcia-Lopez, his face assumed a bemused expression as if he was wondering, "Even with this dodgy hip, why did I retire?" His run ended 6-7 3-6 6-7(14) against Nadal in the third round.
Twas such a good reverie, the USTA and Tennis Australia swapped wildcards, allowing Rafter into the USO main draw also. He faced Fish in the first round and lost bravely. "Get to the final mate, and I'll keep you a place on the Legends Tour", Pat promised at the net. Fish took this as his inspiration and performed some back-to-back giant killing, disposing of Fed in the QFs and Djoko in the semis. Exhausted from his exploits, he surrendered tamely to Murray in the final and proceeded to condemn the tournament's shamless pandering to TV schedules by sandwiching the final rounds together; so ill natured was his tirade, he forgot to thank the sponsors, and only stopped when the crowd's boos started to drown him out.
Overall, it was a great event loaded with captivating contests including Monfils/Dimitrov, Monfils/Ferrero, Murray/Hewitt, Nadal/Gulbis, Simon/Del Potro, Tomic/Federer, Isner/Soderling, Wawrinka/Young, Murray/Young, Tsonga/Bubka. The tennis fan community was so reinvigorated by the fortnight that outpourings of good will flowed long afterwards, evinced by the cordial and engaging discussions shared across tennis forums everywhere. This enthusiasm spread so far it reined in legions of new fans, leading to skyrocketing tennis club membership across the whole planet. New, richer sponsors poked their noses into the sport and liked what they saw, so they stayed; prize money for 2012 was projected to be three times higher on average at all tiers of the sport.
And somewhere in Nottingham a three-year-old, future British Wimbledon champion held a racquet for the first time.
