IT WAS difficult to know who to feel more sorry for yesterday; Andy Murray, forced to reflect on a harsh lesson on Centre Court on Wednesday evening or the pair of unseeded patsies slugging their way through the third, fourth and fifth sets of their rain-interrupted contest out on Court No 1.
Rainer Schuettler and Arnaud Clement played in the manner of dead men walking, but the latter had cause to celebrate last night: he had avoided a potential semi-final savaging by Rafael Nadal today.
The Spaniard has sounded out a warning that has
echoed down through the rankings ladder. It has even been acknowledged from the heights of the top rung, where Roger Federer can be found. The Swiss champion is seeking to claim a sixth successive Wimbledon title but may be de-railed by Nadal. The Spaniard is on the hunt for a triumph that could be seen as indicative of where the power-base presently lies. If Nadal wins his first Wimbledon title on Sunday – he is now even money to achieve this, compared to 11-2 last year – then he will become the first man since Bjorn Borg to win successive French Open and then Wimbledon titles.
While it would be wrong to state that Federer's claim to be greatest player on the planet is unthreading as though his bespoke cardigan has been snagged on a nail of an umpire's chair there is an undeniable feeling that the elegant Swiss can hear the snorts of a Spanish bull behind him. Federer himself sympathised with Murray yesterday, and admitted: "Rafa is so confident at the moment, it's hard to beat him." He knows this from his own sour experience in at Roland Garros last month.
If Federer can sound slightly apprehensive at the thought of tackling Nadal then what about mere mortals. And here, most definitely, can be included Schuettler, the veteran German. His ambition to at least put up a fight against Nadal this afternoon has been complicated by yesterday's stop-start encounter. The contest ended up equalling the second-longest Wimbledon match.
Schuettler and Clement resumed yesterday afternoon at one set apiece, and then traded another two sets. At one point in the third set Schuettler had established a 6-0 lead in the tie-break and then contrived to lose six consecutive points. Clement then served a double-fault when looking to claim the set, and allowed Schuettler back in.
The fans enjoyed this marathon, and cheered wildly as the players took the concept of tennis as a gentlemanly game a mite too far – 'No, please, after you,' said Schuettler. 'No, I insist, after you,' would reply his French opponent.
No-one will have enjoyed this strength-sapping five-setter more than the Spaniard, who was almost flawless in his destruction of Murray. He has buried every opponent he has run into in the last three successive tournaments, from the French Open on clay to the Artois Championships on grass. Asked what aspect of his game he was particularly happy with on Wednesday night, he simply said: "Everything".
In his blog yesterday he expanded slightly: "I think I played my absolute best tennis in half of the first set – and the whole second set". The different between this year and last is that Nadal is not thinking before choosing his shots: his grass game, worryingly, has become a natural reflex. His clay game has long been that.
And his final words during Wednesday night's press conference were equally worrying: "You can improve the serve," he said. "You can improve everything. The volley. Everything you can improve. If Federer can improve, I can improve a lot."
The full article contains 622 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
