There are two weeks of the year when results can be a little misleading. The first is the opening week of the season, when players are shaking off the effects of Christmas and several weeks on non-competition. The other is the third week of June, as players attempt the dramatic change from clay to grass.
So, as well as being a good indicator of who might be a threat at Wimbledon, it can also produce upsets of those who are still finding their feet. While most of the top players are still battling it out at Roland Garros, there are a group who are getting grass stains on their shorts by playing a Challenger at Surbiton, and that can be an asset when the big boys come over from Paris still shaking the dust from their shoes.
So not too much should be read into some of the unexpected results at the Artois Championships. The first was of former four-time champion Lleyton Hewitt’s 7-6 7-6 defeat by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Although the Australian had been playing well recently on clay, and is obviously one of the most dangerous players in the world on grass with a Wimbledon title as well as those at Queen’s Club, Tsonga is big and strong with a punishing serve, and he had plenty of grass court matches under his belt after combining qualifying at Queen’s with winning Surbiton. That was his fifth title in six tournaments, incidentally, and winning becomes a habit.
| Rafael Nadal would also not, under normal circumstances, lose in straight sets to an opponent ranked 106. And his 7-5 7-6 quarter-final loss to Nicolas Mahut was unexpected, despite Mahut’s win over Ivan Ljubicic earlier in the day, because the Spaniard had shown during the week that his run to the 2006 Wimbledon final was not a fluke. Nadal is not just a great player on clay, he is a great player, period, demonstrated by his ability to perform at the highest level on any surface. He quite obviously knows how to play on grass, and looked perfectly comfortable coming to the net and striking some very crisp volleys. He moved confidently too, and those who consider that he will win Wimbledon before Roger Federer wins Roland Garros know what they are talking about. Federer has sometimes looked a little uneasy of late, and his withdrawal from Halle was an interesting move, so don’t write Nadal off at the All England Club. Another factor in Nadal’s defeat by Mahut (the 2000 Wimbledon junior champion, by the way, so he likes the grass) might have been that, perhaps subconsciously, the Spaniard needed a rest. He admitted as much when he announced he would return home and put the racquets away for a couple of days and just hang out and watch football. |
| Andy Roddick also nearly came unstuck, against Britain’s 117th-ranked Alex Bogdanovic. He was two points from defeat at one stage, and was saved from going match point down by an appeal to Hawk-Eye. Bogdanovic, who once incurred the wrath of the LTA by declaring he was too tired to join the Davis Cup squad, appears to have benefited from the advice of Federer’s former coach, Peter Lundgren, who is now employed by the LTA. Roddick forecast the top 40 for him. And so to the final. It is unusual for a player to win a match without breaking serve, and for a player to lose after breaking serve and not giving up his own, but that is what happened as Roddick edged through 4-6, 7-6, 7-6. Mahut played an almost flawless match. He was nimble and covered the net well, and his 21 aces matched the 24 from Roddick. The American held just one break point, at 4-4 in the first set, but Mahut cleverly struck a low forehand volley to force an error. Mahut then earned the only break of the match to claim the set when Roddick’s attempt to thread a winner down the line went wide. Games went easily with serve in the second set, before Roddick faced a match point at 7-6 in the tiebreaker. But Mahut netted a forehand and then made another forehand error to drop the tiebreaker 9-7. The final set was equally close, before Roddick finally took control in the tiebreak, winning it 7-2. So a fantastic week for Mahut, the best of his career. But now it’s back to the grind as he competes in the qualifying competition for Wimbledon. |
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