Who can break into the top 4 at Wimbledon?
World Number one, Novak Djokovic won the first major tournament of the year –The Australian Open. In 2012, the world’s first, second, third and fourth ranked players won the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open – in the respective order – first time since 2003. Will 2013 see the continuation of this trend?
The year 2012 was the finest year for the Spaniard, David Ferrer. He won the Paris Masters tournament in November – which made his tally of titles to seven in that year. Out of the 91 matches that Ferrer played in 2012, he won 76. He reached at least the quarterfinal stage of each Grand Slam but he could not break into the Top four ranked players in the world. Ferrer’s best was probably not good enough. Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are still the top four. So the question remains – Can Ferrer win a Grand Slam?
Looking at the skill of the top four, it would be easy to dismiss the possibility of Ferrer winning any Grand Slam. If the Australian Open semi-final is any indicator to gauge Ferrer’s dexterity against the world’s top-ranked player – the verdict is clear. He is still no match to Djokovic. Ferrer has not yet beaten Roger Federer in any Grand Slam event.
The rivalries amongst the top four players were compelling to say the least. Djokovic and Nadal intrigued the spectators with tennis of the highest quality. The Australian Open and the French Open summit clashes brought the best out of the Nole and the Spaniard. With every passing second, the game was reaching a whole new level. If Djokovic floored Nadal in the 2011 Wimbledon and dominated Nadal, it was Nadal who defeated Djokovic twice in three meeting between the two. By winning his seventh French Open title, Nadal entered his name in the record books.
Federer, on the other hand, is a tough competitor on the court. He knows a thing or two about winning Grand Slams (the most celebrated tennis player in the history of the game). Andy Murray of Britain was without any Grand Slam at the start of 2012. He was challenging the Top three but somewhere, something was going wrong for the resourceful Brit. He was developing a healthy rivalry with Djokovic.
Murray was the show-stealer of 2012. He was greatly helped by Ivan Lendl, who finally took that mental block out from Murray’s mind that “I cannot win a Grand Slam.” Murray looked a different player after Lendl’s help. He was self-assured, calm and did not give up easily. Murray of the former times would have buckled under such pressure. The Australian Open semi-final in 2012 against Djokovic was a close contest. The final against Federer at Wimbledon was an improved performance from Murray – yet a Grand Slam title eluded him.
The Flushing Meadows, USA, changed Murray’s luck. Murray endured pain, baggage of history and great hopes of fellow countrymen, and after four hours and fifty four minutes of quality tennis, finally won a final of a Grand Slam. This was after Murray had won a Gold medal at the London Olympics. Murray was not a pushover anymore. He could beat anyone, anywhere and on any surface.
Federer aged 30, won his seventh Wimbledon and 17th Grand Slam and retained the No.1 position for a short time. He broke Sampras’ record of 286 weeks as World Number one.
Lukas Rasol, the World No. 100, defeated Nadal in the second round of Wimbledon. The knee injury compounded Nadal’s problems for the rest of the season.
The big question remains, who apart from Ferrer is capable enough to grab the fourth place in the semi-finals assuming that Nadal takes longer to return on the court? Juan Del Potro, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Tomas Berdych, Janko Tipsarevic – any one of them has a decent chance. But can they go all the way till the end and win a Grand Slam? This looks unlikely at the current point.
When Nadal and Federer had an amazing rivalry from 2005, Djokovic and Murray were not established players. No one expected them to win anything- a plight which Berdych, Tsonga, Ferrer, Del Potro and Ferrer are facing currently. But Djokovic and Murray learnt a harsh lesson with every defeat and returned as better competitors in the coming years. Age is catching up with Federer and Nadal’s fitness level is not up to the mark. Will Djokovic-Murray rivalry be one to watch out for in coming years? At the Australian Open final, these two war-horses provided glimpses of brilliance with their game.
Now, according to the logic established at the start of the article, World No. 2 Murray (if he stays at that position till June) will win the Wimbledon. That would be huge for Britain. Imagine the roar in the ground when that happens. Get ready Wimbledon, you might just see history being created in 2013.