No rest for Nadal as French Open champion prepares for Wimbledon
Published:The clay court season couldn’t have hoped for a better send-off after Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer played out another classic at Roland Garros on Sunday.
A 7-5, 7-6, 5-7, 6-1 victory for Nadal saw his collect his sixth French Open title in seven years and stretch his record to one loss in 45 French Open matches since 2005.
But rather than rest on his laurels, Nadal’s focus now turns to the grass court season and the Wimbledon favourite is in London this week for the AEGON Championships at the Queen’s Club.
As the reigning Wimbledon champion Nadal will be hoping to get his grass court season off to a flyer this week in a tournament where his major rivals will be Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro.
The withdrawal of Novak Djokovic means there will be no repeat of the 2008 final between Nadal and Djokovic, but the Spaniard faces real competition from Murray, the 7/2 second favourite, who won this title in 2009.
Nadal has never fared brilliantly at Queens, suffering three quarter-final exits in his last four tournaments, but the Spaniard has suffered just one defeat in his last 22 matches on grass and only fatigue will stop him lifting the Queens title.
Roger Federer avoids Queens this week and instead heads to the grass courts of Halle where he will face a blockbuster first round match with Leyton Hewitt, the man who beat him in last year’s final.
Following his defeat to Nadal in the French Open final, Federer has come in for plenty of support in the Wimbledon betting and after showing punters he’s back to his best at Roland Garros, the 16-time Grand Slam winner is 5/2 to win Wimbledon.
Nadal remains the slight favourite at 9/4 and punters will be hoping for another Nadal/Federer epic on July 3.
