Wimbledon Mens Singles Preview

As the French Open Tennis Championships draws to a close all eyes now turn to Wimbledon and to the greatest and most long standing Grand Slam tournament of all.

Rafael Nadal the reigning Wimbledon Champion, who was so ruthlessly knocked off his perch at his beloved Roland Gaross by Swede, Robin Soderling, will be aiming to regain his status as world number one and to defend his Wimbledon crown. A crown he won in a Wimbledon final of epic proportions against five time champion, Roger Federer that was hailed as even greater than even the Borg/McEnroe final of 1980.

The two best players in the world will no doubt be the top two seeds again this year and the betting already suggests that the two will meet in their fourth consecutive final. There will be few complaints if they do!
Federer in many ways has come back from the dead, he had a difficult time of it in 2008, but even then still had the strength of character and the ability to win the US Open for the fifth time, but by then he had lost his Wimbledon crown as he had lost his Australian crown the year earlier. For the first time in several years, Federer finished with only Grand Slam, while Nadal finished with two. More importantly, Nadal gained the number one spot in the rankings and Federer for the first time in nearly five years Federer was number two.

This year, Nadal broke through on the hard court surfaces and won the Australian Open for the first time, defeating Federer in another epic five set final, which reduced Federer to tears at the prize giving after the match.. This win gave Nadal his sixth Grand Slam title and it is to everyone's amazement that he did not make it seven by winning the French for the fifth consecutive time.

In all likelihood, it will be Federer who will come to Wimbledon as French Open champion for the first time and will be the likely Wimbledon favourite for a sixth win. Other than Nadal is there anyone else who can realistically stop him on grass?

Arguments exist of course for the claims of Britain's Andy Murray who quite deservedly claimed the world number three spot from his rival, Novak Djokovic. In fact should Murray have made the semi final at the French and Federer didn't then Murray would have been world number two - that is how close he is to the top of the tennis world.

The question is however can he beat Federer and Nadal at Wimbledon? He certainly has a winning record against Federer on hard courts and unluckily for Murray his only defeat to Federer on that surface last year came in the final of the US Open where he went down tamely to the great man.

Murray most definately has the talent and he should at least justify his number three seeding by reaching the semi finals where he will face either Nadal or Federer. He lost to Nadal in the quarters last year in straight sets and would need to have improved as much on grass as he has done on clay if he is to have any chance.

In all probability the final will once again be a Nadal/Federer showdown, if it is then it will be fantastic box office but most of all it will be a battle for the number one player in the world and could easily end up being the sporting highlight of the year.