TUESDAY 1000: After an exciting couple of trips across London I am back to confirm that it is still raining in Paris, and the start of day three will be delayed until at least 1100 BST. Judging by the weather forecast, we may not get much play today.

Well that's a bit of a downer.

this sux. Henin retired, my gf Hantuchova isn't playing cuz of a heel injury, and Nadal is gonna kick the **** out of everybody obv. The only player I might want to watch is Chaky.

He will but he's not impossible to beat, almost but isn't.

Just checking odds and Nadal is 8/1 to win Wimbledon that's great odds :|

I know it is still premature, but Federer could easily end up like Sampras and never win this tournament.

The difference is that clay was a real kryptonite for Sampras, whereas Federer's career just happened to coincide with the greatest clay court player of all-time.

Yeah its incredible that if Nadal never existed, Federer might have already won a couple of French Opens, and if Federer never existed, Nadal might have already won a couple of Wimbledons. Too bad for the casual US tennis fans that neither is an American.

The thing is though, had Nadal not been so good on clay Federer would have won the French Open twice (going by his two finals). He's shown that he's one of the greatest ever. Nadal good on grass but Federer on grass is nadal on clay. The real difference between them is on the hard court were once again Federer is top man and nadal looks below average.

Nadal has a way better record in heads up between the 2 but most of their matches have been played on clay because Nadal simply doesn't get far enough in the later events of the hard court season or it would be a much closer if not better heads up to Federer.

*sigh* gg favorite player, your over the hill now


(not that anyone cares about an old argentinian journeyman who was banned for steroids for a year)

I find it hard to judge whether Federer's grass court or hard court game is better. Most players in the world don't feel comfortable on the grass even though it's slower and the ball bounces higher than it used to. IMHO Federer dominates Wimbledon largely due to the dearth of quality grass court players. But there are plenty of good hard court players yet Federer has still dominated. This year's Wimbledon should be interesting now that Djokovic has really hit his stride and looks like he might be comfortable on the grass. May be a chance to see just how good Federer really is on the green stuff.

You're writing this as if you were disagreeing with the previous poster, but it seems to me like you're saying pretty much the same thing. Anyhow, I'm not sure that anybody would disagree with the proposition that Federer is an overall better player than Nadal.

I do think, though, that Nadal is probably more of a beast than people give him credit for. He's no master of hard courts, but two Wimbledon finals (one of which he should have won over Federer) is a pretty impressive accomplishment. Both in terms of his actual dominance on clay and his decent accomplishments elsewhere, I think Nadal has a lot more going for him than the average clay court specialist who can only win the French (e.g. Muster, Bruguera, Kuerten).

EDIT: It's also worth pointing out that Nadal is still only 22 (!) and so is going to have plenty of time to win a couple of majors once Federer declines in the next year or two, a process I think has probably already started. I'd guess that 7.5 would probably be a good line for an over/under on majors Nadal wins in his career, something like 3-4 more French and or a Wimbledon along the way.

After Wimbledon I can see Djokovic becoming N2 while Fed will stay N1.

This will be an interesting few months in tennis, Djok and Rafa will almost definitively meet each other in the semi with the winner going on to play Fed. The same thing will happen at Wimbledon but I'd put Djok > Rafa on grass any day, remember last year he was beating him but had to pull out.

Djok is through to the third round already, Nadal hammered the boy as usual.

Nadal = clay god

pm in a few weeks and i'll make plenty of novak/rafa grass court bets :-)

it's funny how Rafa still gets no respect on grass despite two finals in a row simply because he's more vulnerable at Wimbledon than he is on clay.

I do give Rafa the respect he deserves on all courts. Just the fact that I think if Novak didn't get injured in last years semi he'd have beaten Rafa over 4/5 sets.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with the ranking this year seen as Novak is soo close to Rafa but yet they still seem to be so far behind Fed.

I think given the physicality of a best of 5 set match, Nadal's a favorite over someone like Novak who has had problems in the past with niggling injuries.

Mardy Fish is gonna shock the world imo

He better not. I have a substantial sum on Hewitt.

MF is a legend in the making.

This is why I think Nadal can only lose the French if he gets injured or rain forces him to play consecutive days leading to exhaustion. Djokovic or Fed may be able to take him in a best of 3 set. But over 5? Nadal's just got too much in the tank. Grass isn't anywhere near as physically demanding however so I don't think playing a best of 5 at Wimbledon would trouble Novak.

blake OUTTA there

<-- Ernests Gulbis +200

ship ship mcgipp

yeah, not really sure why blake was favored in that one. i picked gulbis, too.

Rain again.

lol nalbandian

wins first two sets, then wins 5 more games the rest of the match.

chaky's out