Nadal beats Wimbledon

[urban]

I think, while Federer has indeed a Nadal-complex, Nadal himself had more of a Wimbledon-complex. It was revealed this year, that he cried in the locker room after last years final, when he blew his crucial break points in the fifth. Even more than Federer, Wimbledon itself was the big psychological mountain to climb. And it seemed something of a deja-vu, when Nadal again blew 3 crucial break points in the third, and especially choked away a 5-2 lead in the tb with two own serves to come. At 7-7 in a tie break all things can happen, but crucial, because psychological founded, were the points at 5-2. That Nadal could overcome this psychological crisis, and his memories of last year, and hold in a delicate position always trailing with serve, is a testament of his enormous mental an physical powers. Borgs recovery in the last set of the 1980 final comes to mind, after lsosing that tough 16-18 tb to Mac.
Nadal obviously has improved his serve, only losing just one serve the whole match. Maybe Federer has gotten too timid on the serve return, as i noted since last year, giving Nadal the opportunity to open up the court with big forehands. At least Federer showed real pride and fought like a champion here, and avoided a Paris- like massacre. But on the whole picture, Nadal is the best player of 2008, may come what will come. The Paris-Wimbledon combo is imo the hardest thing in tennis outside the real Grand Slam. And this singular triumph gives Nadal the edge already for the year.

 

[War Safin!]

Good post.

Even though it's pretty much universally agreed that 'The Grass at Wimbledon is Slower'©, (the BBC did a technical brief on it yesterday and they found that off a serve, the ball is around 10mph slower as it gets to the receiver), I feel Nadal beating Federer on this surface is the main thing.

Federer said the opposite to the above findings (maybe he just didnt want to rock the boat?), but Nadal beating Federer on grass is more important to Nadal winning Wimbledon, IMO.

 

[AndrewD]

The Paris-Wimbledon combo is imo the hardest thing in tennis outside the real Grand Slam.

I'm not so sure I completely agree with you on that. Tennis is played (and allowed to be played) in such a homogeneous fashion these days that the switch from clay to grass isn't the enormous effort it was 10+ years ago. Previously, when you shifted from Paris to London the most effective style of play shifted dramatically as well and claycourters made way for fast-court specialists.

If the US Open does us all a favour and speeds up the courts you might find that the biggest challenge in the modern game is winning the French Open-US Open not French Open-Wimbledon.