Federer seeks 5th straight Wimby title

It's Wimbledon season once again, as humorously observed by Matthew Pritchett in his cartoons for the Telegraph below, and, like any other Federer fan, I'm all excited!

World tennis number one and four-time Wimbledon men's champion Roger Federer opens his campaign for a record-tying fifth straight Wimbledon crown tomorrow, 25 June, when he opens the prestigious tennis tournament with a match against Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili. The match is scheduled to start at 1:00pm, London time.

According to the men's single draw, Federer may next meet another Russian, the 26th seed Marat Safin, in the third round. Also in Federer's quarter of the draw is Australian Open finalist, Fernando Gonzales, who if I recall correctly, gave Federer quite a challenge in the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2005. It is also possible that Federer will face this year's Queens champion and two-time Wimbledon finalist, Andy Roddick, in the semifinals. Other potential opponents of Federer at that stage of the tournament are Queens runner-up and surprise finalist, Nicolas Mahut (the played a brave match against Federer last year, by the way); Ordina Open title-holder Ivan Ljubicic and British hope Andy Murray.

Sounds like a pretty tough draw to me. I can only hope and pray Federer does well and will be able to defend his title. I'm a little anxious since he didn't have the opportunity to warm-up at the Gerry Weber Open at Halle this time around which means he lacks some matchplay. On the other hand, grass is his favourite surface and Federer seems determined and confident about his form and about switching from clay to grass after a good rest. Why, he has even admitted that he's got his eye on Sampras' record of seven Wimbledon crowns!

Borg on Federer again

Eleven-time Grand Slam champion Bjorn Borg is clearly an admirer of Federer and is reportedly looking forward to seeing the current world tennis number one match his five consecutive titles at Wimbledon when he returns to the All England Club for this year's championships.

I can't wait to hopefully sit down on Centre Court on the second Sunday and watch Roger win. That would be wonderful, I really hope that Roger does that as he's such a great guy.

Wow! That's ultimately a compliment to Federer since it's well known that Borg called up Federer in 2001 to thank him for stopping Pete Sampras in the fourth round and essentially preventing Sampras from matching his five-title streak:

I decided to call Roger up, to congratulate him, yes, but also to thank him for keeping my record intact. That was a great win for Roger, and it was a pity that he didn't go on to win the tournament that year. But records are there to be broken, so if he matches me this year, I'll be pleased that it's Roger who has done it. ... Maybe Roger will win six or seven times, who knows?

This will be only the second time Borg returns to Wimbledon after playing at his last finals there (he lost to John McEnroe) in 1981.

Federer withdraws from Halle

Four-time champion Federer will not play for a fifth successive title at this year's Gerry Weber Open tournament in Halle, Germany. While saying that he doesn't want to risk getting injured, he plans to be back in 2008.

I think this is understandable considering how fatigued he must be after that three-hour epic of a match he had with Nadal at the French Open. But I hope skipping what is traditionally his warm-up event for the grass season will not disrupt his preparations for Wimbledon where he hopes to win for the fifth straight year.

What if Roger beat Nadal at the French Open ...

Here's an interesting perspective of the Federer-Nadal rivalry given by Greg Garber at ESPN which only magnifies Federer's achievements in the world of tennis. And I don't think the same can be said of Nadal.

Almost single-handedly, Nadal has prevented Federer from making a complete mockery of the men's game.

Consider this: Going into this final at Roland Garros, Federer had put together two of the three longest Grand Slam match win streaks in the 39-year existence of the Open era. After losing to Nadal in the semifinals here in 2005, Federer won 27 straight matches -- and the next three Grand Slams (Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open). And then it happened again. After losing to Nadal in the 2006 French Open final, Federer won another 27 consecutive Grand Slam matches -- and three more Grand Slam singles titles.

Remove Nadal from the equation, and you have a rather frightening prospect. It is not a great stretch to imagine Federer beating Mariano Puerta in the 2005 final and, clearly, he was the second-best player here in 2006 and again in 2007. For laughs, give Federer Nadal's three French Open titles and you have a ridiculous run of nine consecutive Grand Slam titles -- 63 consecutive major match wins -- with the valid prospect of two more, 2007 Wimbledon and the 2007 U.S. Open.

Nadal beats Federer for 3rd French Open title

History was made at Roland Garros today although not the kind we Federer fans were hoping for.

Nadal won a rare third straight French Open title as he ended Federer's bid for a career Grand Slam with a four-set victory in the latest chapter of the rivalry between the top two tennis players. In a way, Nadal was right in saying that Federer had much more at stake with that match: Federer had a career Grand Slam to aim for while he merely wanted to win his third Grand Slam trophy.

If there was one positive thing (from Federer's point of view at least) about the match, it is that Federer prevented Nadal from matching what he accomplished in this year's Australian Open: winning a Grand Slam tournament without dropping the set. He managed to win the second set 6-4 after breaking Nadal's serve in the seventh game by successfully coming to the net and shortening the points to his favor. He had not used that tactic in the first set which he lost 6-2 after losing his serve twice and failing to take advantage of numerous opportunities he himself had to break Nadal's serve. However, he didn't follow up on that great second set in the subsequent sets in which Nadal clearly dominated 6-3 6-4.

Poor Federer. He clearly looked disappointed after Nadal converted on his second match point and during the trophy ceremony. I'd say Nadal didn't really play his best but Federer just seemed to lack the fire and consistent brilliance that he usually displays in other tournaments. Even Federer graciously acknowledged--as he always does when he loses a match--that his opponent was the better player of the match:

He's the toughest guy on clay. So I knew that I would have to take my chances. There is one way, you know, to create chances, but then you have to convert them, too. But I couldn't get them done in the first set, especially, and then that maybe in the long run hurt me.

But, you know, I came back, and played okay in the second set, but had a bad start again in the third set, which kind of killed it for me. But, after that, I think, you know, he served better, made less unforced errors, and I couldn't really play the way I wanted from the baseline.

So it was tough, but I think he played an excellent match and deserved to win in the end.

Oh well. At least Federer also remains motivated:

Yeah, obviously, if I would have won today -- again, same thing happened last year--I would have had not many other goals to chase in my career. Like this, it always stays open. And eventually, if I get it, the sweeter it's going to taste.

As for the rest of the year, Federer can always look forward to the coming tournaments in Halle and Wimbledon--where the grass is definitely greener for him--and to the hard court season with the US Open afterwards.