The Road to Wimbledon

This year the competition has been closer than ever in the ATP. Novak Djokovic is within fifty points of dethroning Rafael Nadal as the number one player. The players who made the semifinals at the French Open this year were the top four players. Even though Nadal and Federer got through to the finals without many issues having the top four players in the semi-finals demonstrates how close the competition has gotten. The tennis work has gotten used to a Federer and Nadal dominated stage. Now Murray and Djokovic are tearing their way towards the number one spot.
Andy Murray is the sole player in the top four that has not won a Grand Slam yet. However this might be his year at Wimbledon. Murray has been playing great at he grass tournament in Queens. He recently dispatched American Andy Roddick a fierce competitor on grass. 
No one can look past Roger Federer at Wimbledon. Holding the most wins at Wimbledon for the current players he brings the most experience playing on the grass courts. Federer is one my favorites to win Wimbledon, he made the finals breaking Djokovic's winning streak of over forty matches. Even though he lost to Nadal in four sets be showed a drastic improvement from the previous times he played in the finals starting out the first set up 5-2. 
Nadal and Djokovic will be the talk of the tournament no doubt. The recent French Open winner and the Aussie Open winner will both be battling to be the tournament's favorite. Between Federer, Nadal, Murray, and Djokovic the tournament should give us some interesting surprises.

Roddick's Last Chance?

    Wimbledon is one of the most spectacular stages in the tennis world. Champions have been made in the grand center court, and the dominating players have been defeated. Wimbledon has seen some legendary matches in its history. Who could forget the 1980 Wimbledon final when a young John McEnroe tried to take down the dominating Bjorn Borg. The 2008 final has been called by many the greates match of all time, it was the start of a major power shift between Roger Federer and his rival Rafael Nadal. A less famous but equally impressive match in my mind was the final the following year when the American underdog Andy Roddick tried to take home the trophy he was defeated in five sets by Federer in one of the closest matches that I have seen.(Roddick's serve was only broken one time in the whole match in the fifth sets which led to his defeat).

    With Roddick's absence from the French Open his appearance in Wimbledon will excite American fans. Roddick with only one Grand Slam in his pocket is looking for another victory. He has finished as the runner up three times at Wimbledon the only thing keeping him from the trophy was Roger Federer.

    This year may be one of Roddick's last to win a grnad slam. With the competition rising at a rapid rate player like Federer and Nadal are having to pull out all of the stops in order to beat the new rising stars. Andy Roddick in my opinion needs to make some changes if he wants to win another Grand Slam. First he need to stop relying on his serve. His serve is old news on the tour, players who have beaten Roddick many times have realized that all they need to do is block back his serve and play to his backhand which leads me toy second point. He needs to improve his backhand, it is not the weapon that it needs to be, he has added a backhand slice into his arsenal but u can only force an opponent so far with a slice. Roddick needs to be able to force a shot with his slice that he will be able to finish with his backhand. Roddick's forehand is not aweakness in any match, however he should look to hit with less spin, players are flattening out their strokes to get even more power.

    Roddick has the potential to win another Grand Slam. Right now benders confidence and a bit of luck in his side, if those two come together and he makes some changes to his game we might see another American win a Grand Slam.

A Comfortable Victory

    It was another easy victory for Roger Federer in the French Open quarterfinals against Gael Monfils. Monfils walked on to the courts with some heavily bandaged fingers which were later revealed in an injury timeout to be blisters, and he walked off the court two hours later having lost in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6.

      In the first set Monfils started off ahead early 3-1 until Federer started getting into a rhythm and broke him twice wining 6-4. In the second set Federer pulled ahead early and Monfils just could not seem to stay focused. Some points he looked like the amazing player that he is and other points he could not stay in with the tennis legend. Monfils's service game was not at all impressive during the match. Serving at about 65% of first serves it might seem like he was getting the job done. But he hit 11 double faults, a total of almost four games given to Roger Federer. While Federer was only hitting 53% of his first serves, he only double faulted 3 times. Monfils was not effective enough with his second serve and that lead to his double faults, giving away almost four games is handing two thirds of a set to Federer.
   
    It was not only a story of serves, Federer played most of his game from the baseline coming to net 26 times during the set. There was no serve and volley tactics that Federer has started to use on the faster courts. Federer won 77% of points on his first serve and 61% on his second serve. While Monfils won 62% on his first serve and 41% on his second.
    Federer is now through to the semi-finals where he will have to face Novak Djokovic. It will truly be a battle of the titans, with Nadal, Murray, Federer, and Djokovic in the semi-finals.