Who was worried about Nadal?
Posted on 04/07/2010Two years after knocking Roger Federer off his Wimbledon throne, Rafael Nadal is back to his best and one match away from an eighth Grand Slam title. But after a year of struggle with injuries and off-court issues, the Spaniard is simply unstoppable, writes Mark Hodgkinson in The Sunday Telegraph.
For Middle England, Wimbledon's core constituency, worrying about the state of Rafael Nadal's knees is a bit like worrying about house prices: it never turns out to be quite as bad as you had imagined.When did you fear most for Nadal? Was it when he summered "away from everything" last year, when his parents were having difficulties with their marriage and he could not play at Wimbledon because of his knees?
Or perhaps it was when he failed to win a set in his three round-robin matches last November at the end-of-season tournament on the Greenwich Peninsula?
Or maybe it was when he arrived on the French Riviera this April, for the tournament at the Monte Carlo Country Club, having not won a title for almost a year?
Or was it earlier in these Championships, when Nadal was concerned about his body? Nadal could confirm his dominance of men's tennis by beating Tomas Berdych, the son of a train driver and a grand slam final debutant, on Wimbledon's Centre Court.
For the first time since 2002, Roger Federer will not feature on the second Sunday of the Wimbledon fortnight, and Nadal has only previously lost in grand slam finals when he has played the Swiss on this lawn.
For the past three months, starting with that tournament on the Cote d'Azur, Nadal has been showing more teeth than Julia Roberts, performing his victory celebrations of biting into trophies, and now he is just three sets away from chewing on that golden Wimbledon cup again.
Nadal has won 30 of his last 31 matches, with his only defeat in that run coming against Feliciano Lopez in the quarter-finals of the pre-Wimbledon tournament at Queen's Club.
From Monaco to Roland Garros, Nadal played a perfect clay-court season, going undefeated, including regaining his French Open title, and this afternoon he could be presented with a second replica Wimbledon trophy to be lovingly placed on top of his television in Majorca.
Whatever happens on Sunday, Federer will on Monday morning be ranked outside the top two for the first time since 2003, and it will look as though Nadal, the world No 1, has every chance of finishing this season at the top of that list.
Nadal's despondency was such that he hardly watched Wimbledon last summer; the only match he sat through in its entirety was the final, Federer's defeat of Andy Roddick.
"That moment wasn't an easy moment for me, with the knees and a little bit of the problems at home, too," he recalled. This afternoon Nadal could do that cross-Channel double again, even if it won't have the theatre of his 2008 victory since Centre Court now has a roof and artificial lights. Berdych won't be able to suggest, as Federer did, that he could not follow the path of the ball.
At this season's French Open, Berdych demonstrated in his fourth-round match with Murray that he views a tennis racket as a piece of military hardware, and he went on to reach his first slam semi-final, which he lost to Soderling.
And now he is into his first slam final. Nadal has won his last six matches, his last 14 sets, against the Czech, with three of those sets coming in their only previous meeting at Wimbledon, in the 2007 quarter-finals.
Few expect Berdych to beat Nadal. But, then again, few expected Berdych to beat Federer.
Murray expected to brandish axe
Meanwhile, Andy Murray's return to form at Wimbledon may not be enough to save his coach Miles Maclagan from being sacked, writes Malcolm Folley in The Mail on Sunday
Andy Murray's search for a major championship is likely to cost coach Miles Maclagan his job.
After Murray's failure to reach today's Wimbledon final, the British No 1 will review his future ahead of next month's US Open.Maclagan, 35, was under pressure to retain his job even before Wimbledon.
But Murray's revival over the past fortnight may not save him.
His replacement could be Australian Darren Cahill, who shared success with Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi.
Cahill is under contract with adidas, who, through Simon Fuller's company, 19 Entertainment, signed Murray to a five-year $15million contract at the start of this year.
Maclagan joined Team Murray at the end of 2007 along with physical conditioner Jez Green, physiotherapist Andy Ireland and conditioning trainer Matt Little.
Before Wimbledon, Murray had been in a slump for much of the year since the Australian Open final against Roger Federer.
Recently he has been seen to express his frustration at Maclagan as matches slipped from his grasp.
Murray behaved the same way with previous coaches Mark Petchey and Brad Gilbert, who were both fired by him.
'Under the law of the tennis jungle, when results dry up, the main man around the player pays the price,' said an insider.
With Murray desperate to win a major, changing his coach is an option he will consider seriously, in consultation with his mother, Judy.
After his semi-final defeat by Rafael Nadal, Murray is not scheduled to play again until the Rogers Cup in Toronto on August 9, the start of his preparation for the US Open three weeks later.