Allthough almost everybody now is saying Nadal will Wimbledon in the future, I'm still not so sure.

There are two ways to look at yesterday's match: most people take the view Nadal's still young and he almost beat Fed this year, so he'll have enough time to win Wimbledon, perhaps even next year already (Borg-McEnroe comparison).

If I look at yesterday's match I do draw some different conclusions. I'll admit I was really, really impressed with Nadal's tennis, but I also found myself wondering (along with Jimmy Connors) how in the hell Nadal manages to hit some of his shots. He uses so much strength and power on a lot of his recovery-shots, especially on the backhand side, that I feel that his wrists, strong as they are, are going to start complaining sooner or later.

You can't deny he's been injured quite a lot for such young player. I'm afraid his all court ambitions could seriously threaten his career if he wants to create speed by using strength and not through more finesse. On a hard court he's going to face much more competition than on a grass court. Allthough his topspin will be more effective on a hardcourt, he going to get less free points on his lefty serve as well. This will result in running down a lot more balls and hitting a lot more balls. Part of Fed's succes has been the minimal impact his kind of tennis has on his own body.

Another comment I haven't heard in the media is that allthough the match was close, Nadal still wasn't able to beat Federer on grass even though he played one of the best matches of his life. With his stats you'd expect to beat anyone anywhere. It shows that Federer is still the only man who can beat himself on grass. If he raises his game no matter how good you're playing, you'll lose.

To end on a positive note, I feel it could be a long time before we'll again see tennis of the kind we saw yesterday. The level was incredible and it showed perfectly what modern day tennis is all about. I was in awe of the shots that both Fed and Rafa managed to produce constantly all the way through a five set classic!

I don't know. Nadal hasn't been seriously injured for a while, has he? I know there was the thing after the AO, but it seems it was more of a precaution to make sure he was well for the clay season --- which he was!

For what it's worth, I find it hard to imagine that he will last as long e.g. as Roger (or, say, Sampras) unless his game changes, but he is already more aggressive and keeps the rallies shorter, so who knows? His net game is also improving.

I would be very surprised if Rafa wasn't a top force at least for the next few years, and he will most likely still improve. So he'll have another few chances at Wimbledon, for sure, though there's never going to be any guarantee that he will win it, particularly with Fed still around. All it means is that tennis will stay exciting! :ok:

And that's enough for me. :D