| Saturday, 5 July 2008 Written by Adam Lincoln If Rafael Nadal was tardy arriving for his pre-final press conference on Saturday, at least his excuse was pretty good: "Sorry, I was practicing a little bit more," the 22-year-old Spaniard explained as he sat down.
But, understandably, the men's second seed wasn't keen to hang around. Not when he is bidding to become the second Spanish man after Manolo Santana, and the 19th man in the Open era, to win Wimbledon. Not when his opponent in the final is five-time champion Roger Federer, the player he is meeting in a Grand Slam decider for the sixth time – a record among the men in the Open era.
With all that, and a volley of other statistics hanging over his head, Nadal kicked question after question into touch.
Yes, he is happy his family is in London for the final. No, it is nothing special, because they always come for the important matches. Yes, he feels there is still room for improvement in his game. No, he doesn't think he can get better on grass, because he only plays two tournaments a year on the surface. And no, he doesn't think he is guilty of gamesmanship by taking too long between points. "We have an umpire to decide what happens on court, no?"
On the subject of Federer, well of course he and Roger share a good rapport – but why wouldn’t they?
"We spend a lot of hours in the locker room every day, and we speak because we're two normal people," Nadal said. "The last couple of years we have been a lot of times in the locker room in the last days [of a tournament], when there are only four people, two people. We speak a lot about football and a lot of things. I don’t have anything special to say."
Even the fact that 70% of respondents to a newspaper survey believed Nadal would win Wimbledon, a month after his shockingly easy victory over the Swiss at Roland Garros, failed to spark much of a response.
"I think tomorrow we're going to see what happens, no? Everybody can talk a lot because everybody is free to say what he thinks. But finally, the important thing is what's happening tomorrow, no?"
Warming to the theme at last, Nadal agreed a third Wimbledon final against Federer – and seventh major final overall – would be an important occasion in his career.
"It's always a special feeling to play against the No.1, and especially against Roger, because, well, he plays very nice all the time, very easy. Sometimes you're distracted watching his game, no?"
But, while Federer was prepared to wax lyrical about his rivalry with Nadal in terms of great match-ups such as McEnroe and Borg, Nadal was more circumspect.
"You know better than me. I'm not one for say what level is rivalry between Roger and me. We're going to be play the sixth final in Grand Slam, so that's a lot important matches. There have been some Master Series finals, other important finals. "So, sure, it is a nice rivalry, because we are No.1 and No.2," Nadal said. "That's the main rivalry, because if someone is No. 1 and the other one is No.5 it doesn't matter." He has a point: This is the fifth year in a row that the top two seeds have met in the Wimbledon men's final, and the 22nd time since seedings began in 1927. And although the No.1s hold a 16-6 advantage in Grand Slam finals to date, it is worth noting that the last time a second seed won the Wimbledon title, in 1995, his name was Pete Sampras. If that's not a good omen, nothing is.
"We've done well, and I hope we continue like this for a lot of years," Nadal said, before setting off to re-channel his energies on scoring a seventh win for the underdogs.
|
