So, heckuva start to the grass-court season.
I become a huge of Rafa Nadal around this time of year. Why? Because unlike most clay-court specialists, Nadal doesn't come up with some phantom injury during grass season. He gets his tail out there -- days after winning the French -- and attempts to become a contender for Wimbledon.
So he heads out to London, and the tougher warm-up, the Stella Artois Championships. Honestly, beating Roddick on grass is a big-enough deal. But the performance he and Novak Djokovic put on in the final was just ridiculous! As in really good. As in how about the groundstrokes those two were laying down? Could be a Wimbledon final preview ... 'Til then, it's really good to see Nadal having success on grass. It's great for the game that he's not afraid of the surface, and great for his legacy that he is once again a serious contender for Wimbledon.
As for the king of grass, Roger Federer did okay for himself this week, too. He won the Gerry Weber Open, beating Philipp Kohlschreiber (oh, yes, that is a cut-and-paste kinda name) in straight sets. I like Kohlschreiber's quote after the match:
"I was, maybe, a hair better than Roger at the start. But that’s why he is No. 1. He adjusts to your game and I hardly had chances later."
This cracked me up just because he lost 6-3, 6-4. At what point was he better than Fed? The first game?
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