It's a shame Roddick blew it from being 2 sets up, but credit to Gasquet for hanging on - that said, the biggest winner from that drawn-out 5-settler has got to be Federer...
10pts Williams -4.5 Games-Federer -6.5 Games (3.15 @ Ladbrokes)
10pts Williams -4.5 Games-Nadal -4.5 Games (3.15 @ Ladbrokes)
10pts Federer -4.5 Games-Nadal -4.5 Games (3.35 @ Ladbrokes)
50pts Williams-Federer-Nadal (1.66 @ Ladbrokes)
Bartoli must have surprised a few people with her gung-ho comeback after her virtual demise in the first set. That said, I think it's easy to overlook the fact much of her cause was helped massively by Henin's terribly inconsistent play (it was rather uncharacteristic of the Belgian to chalk up that many double faults, unforced errors and in general, just making the wrong shots at the wrong time). It's no coincidence 7 of the last 8 (including this year's) women's finals have featured at least one of the two Williams in them - quite simply, the Williams sisters have got a game that is tailored made for grass with their pounding groundstrokes (incredibly reliable and not error-prone like Sharapova's) and sublime movement and anticipation of the ball on this slick, hard-hitting surface.
Bartoli, at her best, would still struggle to contain the Williams' brand of tennis as it would be almost unimaginable to envisage Venus (or even Serena for that matter since the sisters play a very similar brand of tennis) commit the sort of mistakes at the alarming rate Henin did yesterday (I thought Venus' performances against Morigami and Kudryavtseva were nowhere as error-prone as Henin's against Bartoli even if they ran her close). Throw in the gulf in experience at this level (we don't need to be reminded how Dementieva, Ivanovic and a couple of others choked in their maiden Grand Slam final so woefully you could be forgiven for thinking you were at a circus, do we?
), and it's hard to see past Venus getting the job done in straight sets.
Personally, I'd hoped for Henin to be here as that would have meant, in all probability, Venus starting as the underdog. That said, with Bartoli being her opponent, I'd still fancy Williams to clear the handicap at a push.
If anyone needed any living proof as to how mental toughness sometimes supercedes sheer ability in tennis, Nadal's a living testament to that - at least, that's the case on grass. On the basis of that alone (and his seemingly never-tiring stamina), it's hard to see past Nadal in this one and I believe he'd walk this one quite comfortably and should take this in straight sets. With that in mind, the -4.5 game handicap shouldn't prove too much of a problem as Djokovic, while having battled heroically to see off Hewitt, Kiefer and Baghdatis did reveal chinks in his armour which I would expect Nadal to exploit fully - for a start, Djokovic has a terrible knack of dropping his guard and leaving himself vulnerable from time to time which I believe Nadal to be capable of fully exploiting, unlike his 3 previous opponents.
Knowing how close he is to his 5th Wimbledon and how little time he has to prepare for tomorrow's final, I doubt Federer will want to waste much time in the semis (although it's not like he could ill-afford to
) - and that's a key reason I think Federer is worth backing on the games handicap. Bottomline is, when he needs to get the job done in double-quick time, Federer very often delivers (looking at how Federer masterfully destroyed Safin in their clash in view of the match being carried over to the following day should darkness fall and contrasting that with his more relaxed approach against Ferrero, it's not hard to work out Federer's psyche). Throw in the fact Gasquet is coming into this match on the back of a drawn-out 5-setter and it'd only serve to compound matters further for the Frenchman.
Cheers & Good Luck!
Starting Bank : 100.00pts
Current Bank : 77.20pts
Profit/Loss : -22.80pts
Wimbledon men's event 25 June - 8 July
+1.35 Units
-1.5 Units
+0.05 Unit
