Live @ http://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewLiveArticle/214047
One match ban enabled

Live article brought to you by hititbet - Future of Betting
Sign up now to have your inital deposit matched*

*Terms and Conditions apply

Come on Tim !

Yes lets do this

I can give you a prediction: Nadal will not be winning Wimbledon this year.

Noted

has Murray fully recovered from his back injury?

Federer

Federer to beat Nadal 6-0 6-0 6-0

Federer is too old. The romantic in me wants him to win but i know he will most likely drop out of top 5 come End of Year as he has to defend a helluva lot of points.

Nadal should see off Fed in 4-5 sets in the Quarters and a spirited Murray should see off Nadal in Semis.

Who is Murrays QF opponent?

Tsonga - whom Murray should have no problem disposing off.

Fair enough

Yer I know Cognoscente I just want him to keep going and going, I just love Federer

And the outside courts are under way

Federer's only chance against Nadal is if it is under the roof.

Fed fans pray for rain so the centre court can be closed. Under those conditions, i'd wager Nadal to lose as Federer is arguably the best 'indoors' player.

Time to look at Ivanovic on Court 2 for a bit

I hope Federer continues to play in some of the Exhibition tournaments after he retires.

Federer to beat Nadal 6-0 6-0 6-0
===========

I see sarcasm isn't your strong point

Speaking as not a big tennis fan, I'm sure the following Wimbledon observations will annoy most of you, but here goes:

- He's a (the) great player but I've always wanted Federer to lose. I think it's partly to do with the familiar 'support the underdog' reflex, partly a suspicion that there's something a little artificial about the modest gentleman exterior, and partly in reaction to those fervent fans who loathed Nadal beyond normal degrees for daring to beat him outside clay courts.
- Don't you find John Inverdale's combination of suaveness and cold, piercing eyes kind of terrifying?
- Is the constant failure of UK tennis to produce a dozen players in the top 150 to do with the fact that it's mainly a middle class niche game in this country? My perception is that the countries which punch above their weight in tennis are those in which there are plenty of public courts encouraging mass participation, especially where there is serious poverty to escape from. If we want to churn out better players, I think we need to change our economic model. We need greater poverty (on which the current government is working) coupled with greater investment in sports infrastructure (on which it is not).

RR

on your points.

1) Well, it is your prerogative to support the 'under-dog' but here is something: currently, Fed is the underdog amongst the 'big four'.

2) I find John Inverdale intolerable but not for the reasons you enumerated: he is often ignorant, trots out trite nonsense and is culturally and socially insensitive, some will say xenophobic - judging his coverage of the olympics/paralympics.

3.) There have been many monographs invited about the failure of British failure in tennis, some of your points are interesting but the LTA should shoulder a lot of the blame ( of which its current Chief Executive trousers the kingly sum of over 650,000 POUNDS a year): it is an organisation that is not fit for purpose despite frittering away poodles of cash and achieved very little.

Red Russian certainly lightened up this thread

Federer beaten in 20 mins