Grass court swing 2015: mid-season musings

Roger Federer poses with the Halle Open title

Roger and Murray with big titles

Firmly asserting themselves among the favourites to win the title at Wimbledon this year, Andy Murray and Roger Federer have won the ATP 500 events held this week in London and Halle respectively.

Federer won a record eighth title at Halle after defending the title which he has held since 2013. His first round match was a tough three setter against Philipp Kohlschreiber, but the remaining matches were close two setters. His opponent in the finals was Andreas Seppi, his conqueror from the Australian Open earlier this year.

Murray has a similar outing with one three setter against Gilles Muller and the rest being close two setters. He defeated Kevin Anderson in the final.

The similarity in their wins is that neither faced highly ranked opponents on their way to the title, though they had to fight their way through the matches. Nadal, Wawrinka, Nishikori and Berdych all lost prior to reaching their drawn rounds.

Nadal uncertain

RAfael Nadal reacts in his match against Alexandr Dolgopolov at the Queens Club

No longer the infallible clay courter, Rafael Nadal entered the grass court season with uncertainty on the back of unsatisfactory performances since January, a second ever loss at Roland Garros and a lowly rank of no.10 in the world.

To his respite, he won the singles title at Stuttgart in the opening week. As well as it might have been a shot in his arm, it would have been unacceptable for Nadal to not have won the title, despite his lowered form, given that the field was completely tameable. His only major threat and doubles partner for the week, Feliciano Lopez was ousted in the second round.

After a series of tumultuous encounters, he won the title beating Viktor Troicki. The following week, he proceeded to London to play at the Aegon Championships, one of the two tournaments to be elevated to ATP 500 category this year onwards. In the very first round, he squandered decisive leads to lose to Alexander Dolgopolov.

Having played for two weeks, in both singles and doubles, Nadal will have ample number of matches under his belt to not have a jolty ride at The Championships. Whether he has it in him to win the title is a question that is hard to answer. Certainly, the best prospect for him would be to better or at least equal his quarterfinal finishes at the first two slams of the year. For a champion like him to be lurking around the no.10 spot for long would be mortifying.

Djokovic, Serena and Sharapova skip preparatory events

Unlike before the French and US Opens, where tournaments of importance take place for an extended period, the Australian Open and Wimbledon often see some players entering the events without tournament practice.

An extra week of competition and two higher grade tournaments have not enticed some of those regular absentees. Notable among them this year are Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. As this has been their practice for long, it would surely not affect their chances at the Championships.

Some like David Ferrer, Petra Kvitova and Caroline Wozniacki will be warming up the coming week, while Feliciano Lopez and Victor Troicki are on an all out bonanza by playing three tournaments before the main event.

Kerber downs 2 seasoned players

Angelique Kerber poses with the Aegon Classic title in Birmingham

In the WTA tour, the winners of the international tournaments in Nottingham and Rosmalen, held in the first week, were Ana Konjuh and Camila Giorgi. This is a huge shot in the arm for the two upcoming players, but how much will the wins boost their chances to go deep in the draw at the Wimbledon is uncertain.

In the Aegon classic that took place in Birmingham, Angelique Kerber won the title battling past a number of difficult opponents. Notable among them are the wins over grass court specialists Tsvetana Pironkova and Sabine Lisicki, who had fired 27 aces against Belinda Bencic in their second round match, a record at the WTA level.

In the finals,she fought her way through in a three setter match that lasted for over two hours against upcoming Karolina Pliskova. With this win, she has posited herself as a threat to the top players at the Wimbledon Championships.