I think Federer may have something to say about that, judging by the way he seemed to so easily annihilate Berrettini today, almost without breaking sweat. Amazing to say, after so many years at the top of the game, but you just can’t rule him out for yet another Wimbledon title.
True Roger’s performance was superb as was Rafa. And in terms of players you would wish to watch Roger has no equal and is certainly the best attacking player of all time. But Novak is undeniably the greatest defensive player of all time and Roger’s tactics against everyone else - slice them and draw them into the mid-court and finish it there - just don’t work to the same effect against Novak and Rafa, and with Centre Court playing slower this year I just can’t see him breaking that defensive wall - John McEnroe once described Novak as a 12” think piece of granite. Also Roger has the hardest run in. First Nishikori (can run down everything), then Rafa before a final against Novak.
@davidhendon. I think we should be positive about Konta. Serena looks increasingly strong but the ladies title is very much up for grabs with no clear favourite. In fact if Jo’s footwork was more fleet I’d almost have her as favourite.
Regards,
Lindsay
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Oh well the Konta confidence was misplaced.
Her opponent seemed to ‘work her out’ but Konta surely failed to adapt or up her game in the way that the best competitors seem able. I only saw the highlights but the errors just kept coming.
The press conference performance annoyed me too. As in previous cases she basically said she played perfectly well and was happy with her performance but her opponent just played that bit better. She has a tendency to say this stuff and I think it was reasonable for the press to be a bit annoyed and suggest she had to look at her own play too. Not sure the exact way it was done was totally comfortable but I agreed with the point. Maybe she actually believed what she said; if so her coach should be sacked!
She’s a talent but her inconsistency especially in the big matches is surely holding her back.
Bruce
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My personal view is that the after-match interview that I saw was unnecessarily over aggressive and critical of Joanna Konta.
Konta had previously hugely ‘over achieved’ by reaching the French Open semi-finals and also over-achieved by beating Petra Kvitová in the previous round at Wimbledon. Yesterday, she had a slightly off day and came up against a player who was simply better than her on the day. What we need to remember is that even if we take the tennis superstars out of the equation, the standard in women’s tennis nowadays is consistently very high and with remarkably more depth than that in the past. Players can have off days, and there is no guarantee that any player (with the exception of perhaps one or two at the top of women’s tennis or one of the top 3 in men’s tennis) is going to win his or her match on any given day, no matter whom the opponent.
Strycova may well get blown away by Serena Williams in the next round, but she is playing Serena Williams who is possibly the best of all time. Alternatively, she may beat Serena and go on to win Wimbledon. Then, in retrospect getting beaten by Strycova might not seem so bad after all.
I don’t play tennis so I can’t really criticise, but it seemed to me that Jo Konta had quite a lot too many double fault serves and unforced errors for her performance yesterday to be just brushed off as a better opponent. Her playing yesterday was well below what she has shown us she is capable of and I hope her coach can help her to embrace that and deal with it.
Best
David
I think sometimes we, and the press put far too much pressure on our sports man and women. They ask stupid questions, half the time they’re only baiting them.
I take the point but the media inquisition is now part of the job. Including banal or occasional agressive questions
Bruce
Wow - what a final!I
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