We all want a Roger-Rafa final... and I believe the fairytale will come true
year suit Rafa more than ever. With the dry weather England has been having, there is extra bounce on the court, which plays to his strengths.
He has been known to come unstuck in the early rounds as his body and his game adjusts to the different surface, the ball bouncing low. It’s so different to playing on clay. I played on Centre Court at its opening against Stefan Edberg a few weeks ago and even then the bounce was already good.
Admittedly, Rafa does need time to adjust and adapt to the grass and he has got a fairly comfortable opening to the tournament. And once he is into the second week, good luck anyone trying to stop him.
What makes Roger and Rafa so tough to beat at Wimbledon is that, unlike a lot of the Tour events, the matches go to five sets. If they lose a set — and I’m sure they will at stages — they know they can get back into any contest.
Few players have more experience of five-setters at the Slams.
What also unites them is the fact that, even 10 years after that wonderful final, they still have that same hunger for the game and they still show their utter love for it. It’s a joy to watch.
The older I became, the more I felt the crowd was on my side. I remember the extent to which the support was in my thirties that I was thinking, “Where were you in my twenties?!”
But time catches up on us all and I know Roger, for whom crowd popularity has never been an issue, is coming to the latter part of his career, not that you’d think that with the high level at which he is playing.
Can anyone upset them? Sure. Sascha Zverev has a big game for grass, there are others, such as Grigor Dimitrov, that like the surface, plus Novak Djokovic is coming back to form.
In truth, we all want that Roger-Rafa final. It’s hard to compare the best matches of all time but, what I would say, is that the 2008 Wimbledon final had everything. Even the match point was on a knife-edge. Had Rafa not won that then, they might have gone off for bad light. How great it would be to see them again battling it out in the final 10 years on.