Not overly surprised at Nadals exit. We said after the French that the acid test for him would come on the grass and hard courts. Because of the way he plays, his knee's simply cannot take the punishment of the hard surfaces where the ball is moving very quickly meaning he has less time to get into position than he normally would on clay, which is also easier on his joints.
You do wonder that if he does have another serious injury to his knee whether that will be it as at 28, and practically at the point of going past his peak it will too much for him to come back as a force to challenge the top players.
The only shock of that defeat I suppose is that it came in the first round but, all credit to Darcis - he played some outstanding tennis and some of his defending was sensational. Reminded me of Nadal at his peak.
Murray strolled through his game without ever really breaking sweat as did Federer. Should be a Murray v Djokovic final looking at the respective draws as I think this is one tournament too far now for Federer. Can see him getting to the semi's easily enough and then coming up short against Murray in 4 or 5. Should he beat Murray though, he always seems to do well against Djokovic (assuming Djokovic makes it) so wouldn't bet against him in the final.
Interesting to read that Martina Navratilova is recommending men should reduce their Grand Slam matches to 3 sets because she predicts that players will soon end up being carted off during these long duels...
Hope you're not also suggesting that the men take a wage cut too as a result of playing less sets Martina? Equal prize money and all that yeah!
Having 5 sets for men for more money always made sense to me.If they are playing for longer they should get more money.So either both be 3 sets or 5 sets.
All Brits out
Bar murray
Has Robson played? thought she was still to play on Court one
Still playing...
Great win for Robson against the no 10 seed...
At only 19 years of age the potential is so so there with her. Can she become consistent not only at this tournament but on the tour in general..? Time will tell I guess as we haven't had a decent competitive womens player come out of this country for many a decade.
Laura has a qualifier next, so lets hope this is not a one off, as it would be a huge disappointment if she bows out in the next rd after today's display
Expecting Murray to not even break sweat today... Reckon he'll drop no more than 7 games in the match. These are the kind of opponents he needs to put away quickly and easily, thus saving himself for the longer duels later on in the championships.
I hope you are right. But we can take nothing for granted. see what happened to Rafa. There are probably a few banana skins still out there,so the big guns just have to be careful.
Murray should win comfortably!
Great day of sport with the tennis then football data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7