Woodbridge: Dreaming of the Wimbledon final

I’m already preoccupied with thoughts about the potential Wimbledon final. We’ve got two of the greatest players of all time – Roger and Rafa – having dominated their portions of the year, and now we go into Wimbledon and it’s all about their story: everyone wants to see this final.

Two factors will determine whether it happens.

The first is that Rafa has to recover from a mammoth clay court season. He was driven to achieve the ‘Triple-Ten’ – one of the most monumental efforts the game has ever seen. Will he hit a flat spot and drop off his level? His decision not to play next week will certainly make it harder for him as he needs matches to find his court position on grass, and he himself admits that when he made the final at Queen’s it helped his Wimbledon results.

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The second is that Roger has to kick start his season again. He’s had quite a long break, is the self-confessed world champion at practice at the moment and now he has to come out and find match form quickly.

From my time playing and watching the game, I would rather be in Rafa’s shoes than Roger’s right now. Rafa has confidence and has developed an air of invincibility – that all-important locker room aura. Roger has had to sit back and watch this develop over the past 8 weeks and even for the great man will bring some anxiety.

That said, if there is a player out there who can walk out onto court and play great tennis from the get-go, Roger is it. But it will be important for him to come out and win a tournament quickly. If he can win either Stuttgart or Halle then he’ll be fine for Wimbledon.

Of course, there are players who could get in the way of that dream final. Murray turned his season around in Paris, coming through some tough matches and finding good form (although he has historically struggled when defending a title). There are also red-flag players in the draw like last year’s runner-up Milos Raonic. Nick Kyrgios is another threat for someone like Rafa on grass. We’ve already seen Nick beat him at Wimbledon by taking time away from him and dominating with his big shots.

And then there are the unseeded threats.

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Grass is the surface where you can quickly get into trouble if you come up against a big server who is having a hot day and swinging from the hip (think Dustin Brown), making some big shots and getting breaks out of nowhere. That’s when grass tennis becomes tough tennis. You don’t have a lot of opportunity to find your way back into a grass court match if you’re playing a big server, especially early in the tournament. So with a little bit of nerves and a greasy grass court, anything can happen in those first few days of a tournament.

Despite all of this, I think we will see Roger and Rafa in the final. And given his form and the way he has prepared, Roger is the player that I would pick to win his eighth Wimbledon title.