Injury Alert for Nadal; Fab Four Close in Wimbledon Semifinal Showdown
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We are down to just eight at Wimbledon and after four rounds the favorites are still the favorites. However, top ranked and defending champion Rafael Nadal enters his quarterfinal match under an injury cloud. Sort of.
Late in the first set against Juan Martin Del Potro on Monday, Nadal pulled up with a bad left foot. Things looked dire for Rafa who has had more than his share of injury problems in Grand Slams, especially when he loses.
Nadal battled on and won the match, looking and moving just fine in my opinion. But afterward he spoke of concern of what sounded like a serious injury – a broken foot? Today, an MRI revealed all was well after all and the source of Rafa’s pain was a simple tight tape job on his foot. Or was it?
Tight tape job = broken foot(?) = MRI = huh?, according to Nadal.
I don’t know, but something still doesn’t seem right. To be clear I don’t think he faked the injury, he just made a bigger deal about it than it needed to be.
As for the match against Fish, if he is 100% OK I think he’ll beat Mardy. Fish has been serving and playing about as well as anybody this week. He thumped Tomas Berdych on Monday and the only set he lost was a tiebreak to Mr. Fragile, Robin Haase.
But this is arguably the biggest match of his career and often in those moments he’s fallen short – recall that Olympic gold medal match in Greece against Nicolas Massue. Nadal has also dominated Mardy winning all five of their meetings without much resistance.
“You know, sometimes Rafa can play defense very well, and so you don’t attack as much as you probably should,” Fish said. “Or, you know, Andy Murray or Djokovic move so well or return so well that you over serve, things like that. You want to, I guess, try to stay within yourself. I’ll go into the match knowing my limitations but trying to play as good as I can, ’cause I’ll certainly need to.”
Still, Nadal hasn’t looked great so an upset here wouldn’t and shouldn’t surprise. Fish has a great serve and an excellent backhand, which you have to have to beat Nadal. And he comes into the match as the heavy underdog with really not much to lose.
“He’s playing fantastic,” Nadal said of the American. “I saw him a little bit against Robin Haase. He’s playing at a very, very high level. He’s very dangerous player, so I will try my best to be very competitive on Wednesday.”
Rafa has won 18 straight matches at Wimbledon and tomorrow I think he makes it to 19 after a four-set win.
Andy Murray is first on Centre Court against Feliciano Lopez, or “Deliciano” as Murray’s mom, Judy, prefers to (privately) call him.
Whatever his nickname, Lopez has proven to be an adept grass player. The lefty has reached all three of his Grand Slam quarterfinals at the W. And he exhibited some mental toughness beating Andy Roddick last week and then overcoming a 2-0 deficit to Lukas Kubot yesterday.
But Murray has too many tools for Lopez. The Scot has won all four meetings with Lopez with just one set in the loss column. Maybe Lopez steals a tiebreak, otherwise it’s Murray in straight sets.
JW Tsonga is back again in the quarterfinals. Tsonga has quietly put together another strong Wimbledon run but after beating Fernando Gonzalez and David Ferrer he’ll have a major step up in class against Roger Federer.
Federer seems to have gotten his game back on track the last month and I don’t think he’ll let down this close to goal.
Federer and Tsonga have played five times and the Swiss has not lost a set in his four wins. Tsonga picked up his only victory when Federer failed to convert a 5-1 third set lead at Montreal in 2009.
“I think he’s a great player,” said Federer. “He’s proven it on numerous occasions. I played a really good match I thought against him in Qatar. I think we both played well in the semis there. He was somewhat coming back from I think he had an injury at the end of the year and he didn’t play so much. I thought he played great.”
I think Tsonga plays him tough again but Federer prevails in four sets.
In the last match on Court 1, Novak Djokovic draws the young phenom du jour Bernard Tomic. The 18-year-old Tomic has been the breakout teen of the tournament, and it’s good to see. I think Tomic will be a serious factor in final weeks of Grand Slams for many years, but just not now.
Tomic has a fantastic game. A powerful serve, effortless groundstrokes, good court sense and he’s won nine straight sets. But I don’t think he’ll have enough to knock down Novak. The Serb has lost only one set otherwise he’s been completely untroubled. And I think tomorrow he gets another straight set win.
“He loves playing on grass,” Djokovic said Monday of Tomic. “If you analyze his game, he loves playing on the fast surfaces. He just has these flat shots. He doesn’t give you a lot of time. You know, he serves really well. He doesn’t make many unforced errors. It’s going to be exciting match for both of us, I think. You know, we practice couple of times here in Wimbledon, a couple of times throughout the whole year wherever we are. We’re good friends on and off the court.”
And if all goes to plan, we’ll have Fab Four back in the semifinals for the second straight slam! Just cross your fingers.
As for the women’s tournament, I had Maria Sharapova beating Petra Kvitova in the final and I guess I’ll stay with that. Kvitova wobbled a little today against Tsvetana Pironkova and that gives me some pause against Victoria Azarenka who has the capability of blowing players off the court like she did today.
In the other semifinal I think Sharapova should end the run of Sabine Lisicki who showed a lot to win over Marion Bartoli in three sets after blowing three matchpoints in the second.
ESPN2 will have the live coverage with NBC airing late morning.
WEDNESDAY WIMBLEDON SCHEDULE
Centre Court 13:00 Start Time
1. Gentlemen’s Singles – Quarterfinals
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)[12] v. Roger Federer (SUI)[3]
2. Gentlemen’s Singles – Quarterfinals
Andy Murray (GBR)[4] v. Feliciano Lopez (ESP)
No. 1 Court 13:00 Start Time
1. Gentlemen’s Singles – Quarterfinals
Bernard Tomic (AUS) v. Novak Djokovic (SRB)[2]
2. Gentlemen’s Singles – Quarterfinals
Rafael Nadal (ESP)[1] v. Mardy Fish (USA)[10]
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