It’s strawberries and cream time

STOP any tennis fan in the street and ask him or her to write down what they would most like for a Wimbledon present this year, and 99% would surely scribble “Roger Federer versus Rafael Nadal.”

The two great rivals have both had cracking years on the court.

Federer shook up the world, to coin a phrase made immortal by Muhammad Ali, when he won his 18th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January.

Then Nadal made a superb comeback from injury to capture his 10th French Open title – the famous “La Decima” – and the 15th major title of his career.

Is it any wonder that so many people are already talking about a repeat of the famous 2008 final between these two totems of the game?

For four hours and 48 minutes, the two men slugged it out, before Nadal took the fifth set 9-7 and the title.

John McEnroe is one of the original tennis magicians, and even he said it was the greatest game that he had ever seen.

Of course there are many ingredients that could still spoil such a tasty broth. One is called Andy Murray.

He will be on home turf and will have the strawberries and cream brigade cheering his every shot.

Another is the fact that there is an army of young guns on the rise in tennis. This week we profiled no fewer than seven of them – Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, Lucas Pouille, Nick Kyrgios, Borna Coric, Hyeon Chung and Denis Shapovalov.

But you would have to be a real wet dishcloth to deny that one more Federer-Nadal final on a sun-splashed (we hope!) London day would be an emotional and beautiful way to end the tournament.

Whatever happens, Wimbledon is a special time on the sporting calendar and the tournament always serves up plenty of twists and turns, in both the women’s and men’s draws.

Enjoy the tennis.