Nadalian witchcraft to strike again at Wimbledon?
The Nadal trophy cabinet is growing at a frightening pace as he chases down Roger Federer’s record 16 grand slam wins in the race to become the greatest player of all time. The king of clay has re invented himself on grass in recent years to already overhaul Federer’s domination at SW19, which had become something of an unheard of sporting certainty, with him winning 5 consecutive Wimbledon championships between 2003 and 2007.
That said, the scintillating Spaniard Nadal sails into Wimbledon on the back of another Grand Slam success having reigned supreme in Paris for a 6th time last month in the French sunshine to claim his career 10th Grand Slam title.
He remains the icon others seem to emulate, his class, his power, his strength, coupled with his burning passion, desire and hunger to win, Nadal’s famous roar synonymous with every shot, every serve, every winner, makes the 24 year old Majorcan magician favourite to regain the crown at the all England club again.
Nadal has established himself firmly as the current king of tennis, not just the king of clay and it will take a brave man to back against “Rafa” winning his 3rd Wimbledon crown.
However as we edge closer to the traditionally rain interupted Wimbledon championships, all eyes will be on British number one and Scottish warrior Andy Murray to overhaul Nadal’s dominance and go one step further than he did last year. Indeed, he carries a nation’s hopes, a nations expectations on his shoulders and make no mistake about it fresh from his impressive victory at Queens last week, as he continues his Wimbledon warm-up, the fiery scot will be targeting his first grand slam title, hoping to become the first Men’s single champion at Wimbledon since Fred Perry won the crown in 1936.
Beyond Nadal and Murray add to the mix the usual suspects which include 16 time grand slam winner Roger Federer, an individual who knows his way around centre court better than any other man in history. Despite having slipped to 3rd in the latest world rankings, questioning Federer’s passion and hunger to win is something that can’t be thrown at his feet and so he has the record to prove it, appearing in a record breaking 23 consecutive semi finals between Wimbledon 2004 and the Australian Open in 2010.
His time at the top of the tennis tree is slowly coming to an end but it’s safe to say that “Roger” will always be competing in the latter stages of a grand slam tournament that you can be sure of.
Elsewhere who could forget the man of the moment, the unbeatable, 6ft 2 Serb Novak Djokovic who went 43 games without tasting defeat at the start of 2011, a record surpassed by no other, destroying everyone that had the unfortunate pleasure of sharing the court with him, the countless opponents that wavered across the net at the mercy of his fearsome racket, “Novak” certainly has the potential to do the same to his rivals at Wimbledon this summer.
Thus the 2011Wimbledon Championships have all the explosive ingredients to be on paper one of the greatest grand slams of all time as the worlds top four players collide and lock horns with one another. With less than a week to go, it’s hard to look beyond world number one Rafael Nadal to add to his growing list of grand slams and be crowned Wimbledon king. With Federer dethroned and Djokovic licking his wounds fresh from defeat for the first time in 2011, it remains to be seen whether Andy Murray has enough fight to roar his way to the final and win the Wimbledon crown. On the other hand like so many other former British number ones of the past he is in danger of falling into the trap of being remembered as the nearly man of tennis.
