Wimbledon '09: Point by point coverage

[lt]

Ladies draw has started and Venus Williams is in the same side of the draw as Dinara Safina.

Oh dear. Bye bye Dinara.

I only took a quick glance but lurking in Rafa's quarter is both the Worm and Roddick. If Rafa's knee is not up to snuff, either of those are seriously dangerous the way they've been playing this year. eta: (now I've looked harder) Oh man, forget even getting that far--Hewitt would be his 2nd round opponent. And Davydenko--yeesh! Could Rafa's quarter be any harder?

For Murray, I think Stan might be the hardest battle in his quarter. Still, lot's of solid players facing him as well.

Ugh! Not fair--Beaker has the easiest (on paper) quarter. Go Del Potro! Roger's doesn't look too difficult either. And Feli is the lucky guy who will be facing Baghdatis's replacement.

I think Rafa is the loser in the draw department. Now I'll take a look at the women's.

[prettyvacant]

I am very bummed about Rafa. I want him to play, but he shouldn't if he is hurting really bad. It's a lot of points to defend, but if he skips Wimbledon, maybe he can rest up and win the US Open.

[falafaclese]

I'm not so much worried about Davy and Hewitt. Hewitt is always dangerous, but seems to lack the fire he used to have, and Davy has only made it through the first round at Wimbledon twice in seven tries. Grass is like kryptonite to him. Worm and Roddick, though, are serious concerns. I just hope he's healthy enough to play.

Fed has a straight shot to the 4th round where he'll play Soderling. Somehow, I don't think Soderling will be able to beat him even though it seems like grass should be kinder to Soderling's power game than clay was.

If they both make it to the third round, Djokovic/Fish could be interesting. Fish has been playing well on-and-off, and Djokovic has been playing badly on-and-off, so who knows what could happen? Plus Haas and del Potro are on the other side of that quarter, so unless Djoker pulls himself together, I don't see him being a threat to win.

Dinara could have Vaidisova on the second round who, despite her wretched results elsewhere, has been a quarterfinalist here the past two years.

Venus has Sam Stosur and CSN in her section. While I don't think either of them should be a problem, I didn't think CSN would be a problem at the Aussie open either.

Sharapova/Azarenka should be very interesting in the fourth round. They've only played once, it was in 2007, and Azarenka won. If Azarenka is healthy, she could easily do it again the with the way she has been playing this year.

[breezybee]

Nadal has just announced it. He is OUT of Wimbledon. How sad.

[lt]

DARN! I was so hoping when I got back from lunch that would not be the news that greeted me.

[acre]

Oh noooo! God how awful - I'm sure he would play if at all possible and oh my this must just be the worst feeling for him. Damn, poor Rafa, what a miserable thing to happen. I just hope so much that even though it's really bad right now, it's something that can be treated and cleared up in a reasonable timeframe. Which would almost be a little bitter cause the timing couldn't possibly be worse.

And you know it has to be pretty damn bad cause with all the pride and drive and fight he has I'm positive he would have tried if he could. Hmpfh, too many injuries in tennis, no? I guess we've all been lucky that the top 2 have mostly managed to stay healthy.

This sucks, I 'm tearing up, I feel so bad for him. Heal up well and fast Rafa!

[omophagia]

Well, dammit. I'm not the biggest Nadal fan (at least not of the on-court Nadal... it was his off-court persona that eventually won me over), but this just all-around sucks. Many have predicted that the physicality of his game would take its toll on his body long-term, and I sincerely hope that this injury isn't the first major sign of that prediction coming true.

That said, I wish he'd withdrawn before the full draw had come out... It's hard to say that, with Beaker's current form, the draw is now lop-sided, but it always bugs me when the loss of a major seeded player pokes a hole in the draw.

On the subject of seeded players: I can at least tolerate Screamapillar more than most people seem to, but her 30-spot promotion in the seedings just doesn't sit well, even if she is a top 5 player on grass. If the AELTCC wanted to tweak the seedings for the women, then the obvious change would've been to promote the Williams sisters ahead of Safina. It ended up not mattering because they're on opposite halves of the draw, but it could've mattered more significantly.

Those complaints out of the way, this stands to be a great tournament with some really intriguing storylines in play.

[falafaclese]

That sucks. He must be really gutted over this after not only winning last year, but doing it in such spectacular fashion. Also, before the French, he was really on his way to having a stellar year. Not that this injury ruins the whole year, but it took a big bite out of what usually is the best part of his season. On the positive side, right after Wimby seems to be the best time to take an extended break, so maybe it will give him time to recuperate and come back strong for the summer hard court season/U.S. Open. With any luck there could be two career grand slammers by the beginning of fall.

If the "as-it-happens" live blog on the Wimby website is to be believed, the number five seed (del Potro) will take over his position in the draw, the number 17 seed (Blake) takes over del Potro's. Then I guess a lucky loser takes Blakes spot? If that's so, at least Santoro has an easier first round match. Blake also avoids possibly facing Gonzo in the 3rd round. JMdP avoids Haas, but I think his draw actually gets a little bit more difficult.

ETA: I was mostly right. Kiefer took over Blake's spot, so I guess Santoro's first-round matchup could not be categorized as easier.

[acre]

Oh falafaclese I just saw that in the draw .. I had looked at it maybe 15 mins ago when Rafa was still in, then surfed back and got very confused! Isn't that odd that they would reshuffle only a part of the draw like that? I was staring at it and trying to figure out if they had done a redraw, or a partial one with the top 1/4 or 1/2 or what ... confusing. Do they usually do that at slams, or even just Wimbledon? Huh - I thought it would be a "lucky loser" against
Clement 1st round. And why Del Potro and not Murray? Strange. Okay, I should stop going "huh?", "what?" and go check the blog, but this was the first place I came, I knew someone would have info!

ETA: Yeah, I think we may very well have 2 Career Slam players this year. Very exciting, so great to be a tennis fan now with these 2 all time greats at the same time, and both such fantastic guys. A real credit to the sport.

[chestylarue]

Well- it has been a tough few weeks as a Rafa fan. Sigh…

I think he really, really did want to play. He was just hoping that he would feel better/at ease on the court and was hoping that the switch would turn. It didn’t. That’s why he waited- he wanted to give things until the very last moment to turn around.

In his press conference- he said in Spanish that when he is on court he is thinking about his knees all the time and that it is a mental issue as well because he is so worried about the pain, etc. that he is not able to focus. Some journalists- including Darren Cahill- have turned it around to mean- It’s just mental, not physical! That is not what he was saying….urgh…..

[harry24]

Some journalists- including Darren Cahill- have turned it around to mean- It’s just mental, not physical! That is not what he was saying….urgh…..

WTF? How could someone as intelligent as Cahill who also has personal experience as a player not understand that extreme pain can affect a player mentally? Jeez. I hope that was a misquote, because it certainly hurts my opinion of Cahill. Yeah, all of a sudden the greatest competitor in the history of the game is fragile mentally.

I feel so sad, even though this will more than likely help Roger's chances to take back the crown. I know it's ridiculous to feel sad for someone who has led the charmed life of Rafa Nadal, but he's such a woobie I can't help it. He inspires such maternal feelings in me; I can't stand seeing that little face all sad. Egad, if I feel this way, how bad must his actual mother feel?

[acre]

That really surprises me about Cahill. I thought he was better than that. It's not even a question of the benefit of the doubt here, Rafa has amply proven himself in terms of both mental and physical toughness. I sure do hope there's some clarification/explanation from Cahill once the tv commentary starts.

I am gonna say though - I don't think Rafa is doing himself any favors with some of the terms and phrases he has used. It very well may be 2nd language stuff(but then he was also talkig in Spanish, too), I don't know. I don't doubt for a millisecond that he is physically unable to play due to pain and limited movement, but in what I've read it could be interpreted as "not 100% therefore don't want to play". Perhaps he's over explaining cause he just wants to open it all up, and of course pain affects you mentally, etc.

And - I'm posting about 100x more than usual and I have to admit I'm on pain med and it makes me chatty cathy! Sorry all

[Mpol]

So sad.

The guy is such an awesome player. He will be missed BIG TIME.

[chestylarue]

acre- In his press conference he goes on to explain that he keeps thinking it will get better- and it is not. It is not getting better and in fact it is getting worse- hence the 100% comment.

He said althletes almost always have pain- but sometimes it can an althlete take a while to realize his or her limits. He has hit his limit. He is not being able to focus on playing. And it is not getting any better at all and he wants to start to get better.

He is not saying- I will only play if I am perfect. I hope the press does not throw him under the bus for this and imply that he is nothing but a wimp. I think that is unfair.

[pokey]

I think it sucks that Rafa will not be able to defend. I'm kind of a sucker but one of the things I've always liked best about Wimbledon is the tradition of the men's winner starting play on Center Court (they still do that right? I haven't actually gotten to see a day 1 in years sadly) and I know if it were me, I'd be bummed to have to give that up.

I also don't really root for Rafa but I like him as a player and a person and I think not having him around is bad for tennis. Hopefully he can regroup, heal up and be more prepared than ever for the year end hard court swing.