July 7, 2007

Excuse me if this feels like déjà vu. I know its 2007, but it feels like years past. At least that’s what the fans at Wimbledon should feel. For the second straight year, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will square off for the men’s title. Both men overcame slow starts, with Nadal actually losing his first set against Novak Djokovic. Nadal was able to come back and win the second set 6-1 before a blister forced Djokovic to retire while trailing in the third 4-1. Federer was nearly pushed to a tiebreak by Richard Gasquet but he regained his form and won in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3, and 6-4. Now the match-up is set, Federer versus Nadal. Federer is putting his 53 straight grass court wins (not to mention his four straight Wimbledon titles) up against the only man standing in between Federer and his quest to win every Grand Slam. (For the record, Nadal has won the previous two French Opens against Federer) Federer will win again and tie Bjorn Bork’s open era record of five straight Wimbledon titles. Nadal will provide plenty of resistance, but at the end of the day, Federer will have all the answers, especially on a surface where Federer is far more comfortable.

On the women’s side, Venus Williams joined an elite group of women. By defeating Marion Bartoli, Williams won her fourth Wimbledon title. That put her with Martina Navratilova (9), Steffi Graf (7) and Billie Jean King (4) as the only women to win four or more titles during the Open era. Williams definitely played better than her ranking coming into Wimbledon. During her run to the final, Venus was able to defeat the 2004 Wimbledon Champion (Maria Sharapova), the 2004 U.S. Open Champion (2004 U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova) and the French Open runner-up (Ana Ivanovic). That left Williams well prepared for her Final opponent. While Bartoli was able to make the first set close, coming back to tie that set at 3-all. However, Venus took over from there winning 9 of the final 10 service games. With the U.S. Open up next, it will be great theatre if all the major players in the women’s game can compete, without any injuries. But when does that usually happen.

With Wimbledon wrapping up on Sunday, the focus will now turn to the MLB All-Star game. That takes place on Tuesday in San Francisco, and all eyes will be on Barry Bonds. Bonds is only four homers away from tying Hank Aaron’s HR record of 755. I just hope that the pitchers don’t begin to walk Bonds every time he steps into the batter’s box. Without running to the top of my soapbox, MLB needs to embrace Bonds, as he approaches this milestone. This is one of the only ways to move past this. Anyways, I also predict that Bonds will hit a HR in his park for the All-Star game. As for the result of the game, does anyone really care? The MLB brass wants to draw more interest to the game, so they attach home field advantage for the World Series to the game. Well since that rule has been implanted, I have watched less than before. I don’t see how letting the home field advantage for the World Series be decided by an All-Star game makes any sense. Especially when it is mandated that every team have a representative. I know that MLB is still trying to recover from their ill-advised strike, but isn’t a better way just to lower ticket prices, and have more fan-team interactions. Just my thoughts on that.

Well I’m off to go enjoy the day before the heat comes back.