Wimbledon 2008 Tournament Nadal or Federer
Learn the basic facts about Wimbledon and which playing styles its grass surface favors most. Also explore the lists of past champions of this most historic of all tennis tournaments, first played in 1877.
Marat Safin hadn’t won two consecutive matches all year–until he defeated Novak Djokovic, the third seed and major contender for this year’s Wimbledon in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-2 in the second round Wednesday. Safin played his best tennis of the year, perhaps of the last couple of years, while Djokovic struggled, unable to place his groundstrokes or serve accurately in the gusty wind. Safin’s strokes are among the least vulnerable to wind because they are exceptionally simple and compact, especially his biggest weapon of all, his backhand, which he hits with probably the shortest backswing on the tour and yet with incredible power. Check the the Wimbledon 2008 Betting Odds.
A short backswing helps greatly in the wind, because it decreases the interval between the start of the swing and the moment of contact, thus giving the wind less time to blow the ball off course while the swing goes forward.
It showed that a ball velocity on grass is actually lower than on clay, but because of the low bounce it gets faster to the player and he/she has less time to prepare. Low balls and less time to prepare for the shot - aren’t this the biggest threats to a player with a Western grip? This could be one of the reasons Nadal couldn’t defeat Federer in the past couple of years. What do you think?
