Mother Nature puts Federer in the driver's seat

By Todd Martin
Special to ESPN.com
Advantage Federer!

On the eve of Week 2 at Wimbledon, Roger Federer
has to be liking his chances more than ever. He is obviously in fine
form as is the norm every year on the grass, not to mention every week
of every year. Federer already is the best player in the world and has
asserted himself even more robustly on grass, dominating the surface
for the past four years.

Roger Federer even more of a favorite to win Wimbledon for a fifth straight year.

The
best thing going for Federer has nothing to do with his play. His
biggest advantage is that, most likely, the bottom half of the draw has
been taken out of contention. Mother Nature has handed Wimbledon a bum
hand so far this year and the club's tradition of being closed on the
middle Sunday exacerbates the already tenuous situation. What Rafael Nadal
and his fellow competitors in the bottom of the draw are faced with is
the challenge to win five matches over the next seven days, daunting to
say the least. I am not sure that even Nadal's strengths -- courage and
stamina -- can hold up under the pressure of these conditions. With
Nadal possibly operating on less than all cylinders come next Sunday,
Federer's chances of winning the title for a fifth straight time are
escalating by the day.
Being a bit of a traditionalist (some might say a "rigid"
traditionalist), I have a soft spot in my heart for the way Wimbledon
operates. However, when considering what is on the line every year at
the All England Club, one has to take into account competitive fairness
and the need for a tournament to provide an even playing field for all
its participants. All it takes is one day of bad weather in the first
week to create an untenable competitive environment for half the men's
field. Each year half the draw is scheduled to play their third round
on Saturday of the first week. If the rain hits hard that day, the
tournament moves those matches to Monday of the second week, the same
day the other half of the draw plays its fourth-round matches. Despite
the challenges the weather presented this past week, if it was clear on
Saturday, the men's singles competition would be right on track. What a
difference a day makes.
I believe it is time for Wimbledon to address this issue. This
traditionalist believe there should be greater willingness to play on
the middle Sunday of Wimbledon. In this year's scenario, it would be
automatic, as none of the eight third-round matches were completed
Saturday. It is the only way to preserve some element of fairness. Yes,
the roof going on Centre Court by 2009 will help in the completion of
some matches, but even that improvement won't allow for all of the
early-tournament contests to conclude. Wimbledon can't control the
weather, but it can react to it and do what is right for everyone
involved.
Let me touch on a peculiar dilemma for Federer. Tommy Haas
has defaulted their fourth-round match. Now, Federer has to figure out
how to keep himself sharp during a four-day layoff in the middle of a
tournament. Fortunately for him, his quarterfinal opponent will be Janko Tipsarevic or Juan Carlos Ferrero,
neither of whom are legitimate threats to Federer. Knowing the way
Federer competes, that one match will prepare him well enough for his
presumed semifinal appearance with Andy Roddick.

There is, however, the chance that the opposing semifinalist will be
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. This young, talented and strong Frenchman has a big
game, one that could present some challenges for Federer. Tsonga has a
long way to go to get to his potential showdown with Federer. He would
have to beat his countryman Richard Gasquet and then the winner of Roddick versus Paul-Henri Mathieu.
But, I like the way Tsonga plays and carries himself. Don't be at all
surprised if he is the unknown who makes the biggest impression in the
second week.
Nadal still has a tough road to the semis. There are players in every
round who have a chance against him. He might will himself into the
final again this year, but he has quite a ways to go. There are several
players in the bottom half that have a great chance to progress. I
still like David Nalbandian to stick around and I can see Nicolas Kiefer making some noise in the coming week.

One thing is for sure, it will be fun watching and discussing with you.

hey!!! salut lori...

juste plate que mon anglais est poche ;-)

Déplacé dans la section autres sports

excellent article et tout à fait d,accord avec Tom!...je trouve ridicule qu'on ne joue le dimanche ...et les programmes devrait toujours commencer avec les match à compléter!