Rafael Nadal has won an incredible match against Roger Federer in the final of the 2008 Wimbledon. There have been many speculations whether Roger’s domination in Wimbledon is fading and whether Nadal has improved his game enough to threaten Roger on grass.

RYAN PIERSE / AFP / Getty Images

Here are 5 reasons why Nadal made it this year:

1. Greater hunger
Federer has won Wimbledon 5 times already, has 12 Grand Slam titles and has been No.1 in the world for the last 5 years. Nadal on the other hand has won only 3 French Open titles so far, lost twice in the Wimbledon final and has been #2 in the world for the last 5 years.

(more…)

Katarina Srebotnik reached yet another Grand Slam final in Wimbledon 2007 ladies doubles tournament with her partner Ai Sugiyama.

This was the third Grand Slam final this year for Katarina. Unfortunately she lost all three of them but hopefully she will learn her lessons and win some next year.

©Getty Images/ I. Finney

Katarina and Ai had a great run at this year’s Wimbledon winning against top seeds Stosur / Raymond in the semi-finals.

They lost to Liezel Huber and Cara Black in the final 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

This final pushed Katarina’s WTA ladies doubles rankings to #5!

By the way, if you are wondering why I write about Katarina; it’s because she is from Slovenia which is my home country too.

Congratulations Katarina!

Roger Federer won the record fifth Wimbledon title today beating Rafael Nadal 7-6(9-7), 4-6, 7-6(7-3), 2-6 6-2.

I watched the match from the second set on and here are some things I noticed during the match:

©PA / R. Naden

Rafael Nadal:

1. Played extremely aggressive in the first 4 sets.

Even one of the interviewers asked him if playing closer to the lines was a change of strategy for Federer.

Rafa was aware of the situation and raised his game to another level.

2. Served high percentage of first serves (71%) and was broken only once in first four sets.

He knew that second serves will be attacked by Federer and adjusted.

Combine this with his aggressive play from the baseline and he was at the same level as Roger for four sets. (more…)

Marion Bartoli won against Justine Henin 1:6, 7:5, 6:1 in Wimbledon today.

It’s a surprising win of course, but if we dig a little deeper, we can understand why this happened.

©EPA / G. Penny

Why couldn’t Justine Henin keep up? (more…)

Wimbledon saw yesterday 3 exciting and surprising matches where top ranked players lost their leads. 2 of those lost the match, 1 managed to win.

First, Andy Roddick was two sets and a break up against Richard Gasquet and lost this lead and the match 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3), 8-6.

Second, Justine Henin was a set and a break up against Marion Bartoli and lost the lead and the match 1-6 7-5 6-1.

And third, Novak Djokovic was two sets and a break up against Marcos Baghdatis, lost the lead and eventually managed to win in the fifth set 7-6 7-6 6-7 4-6 7-5.

(AFP/Adrian Dennis)

So why do such experienced players lose a lead? Why does this happen? (more…)

Wimbledon has been struck a with bad weather curse this year. The organizers are 177 matches behind the schedule at the time of this writing.

It’s not only tough for the Wimbledon organizers and visitors; it’s mentally draining for the players too.

(AP Photo/Sang Tan)

Lleyton Hewitt for example started his third-round match against No. 22 Guillermo Canas of Argentina on Saturday, but rain and darkness delayed the 2002 champion’s 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win until three days later. (more…)

If you are actually planning to go to Wimbledon and check out London at the same time, I found a great website.

This website is an insider’s guide to the exciting city of London.

You can find cheap hotels, attractions, romantic places , restaurants, night places and there is of course a page about Wimbledon too.

If you are not going this year, you can still bookmark the site and check it out next year.

For more information about [tag]London[/tag] and Wimbledon check the London Tourist Travel Guide.

The matches at Wimbledon 2007 are finally under way and we’ve already seen 2 very interesting matches where players failed to convert on match points.

©Getty Images/ J. Finney

First, Naomi Cavaday, ranked #223, failed to convert 2 match points against Martina Hingis and eventually lost 6-7, 7-5, 6-0.

And second, Tim Henman had four match points at 5:4 in the fifth set against Carlos Moya and didn’t convert them. The match was suspended at 5:5 because of the low visibility.

Why does this happen?

How come players fight all the way to the [tag]match point[/tag] and then somehow are unable to win that last point?

The most common reason is that they start thinking too much. (more…)