Which draw is better? One that looks rough but softens because of withdrawals or vice versa?

Nadal is presumed to possess the toughest draw @ Wimbledon compared to the other three top cats. Mentally that has to play with your psyche tempered only by the strength developed over time at a place colored grey. Depending on where you are on that scale, it can significantly determine your approach to the event. Undoubtedly it’s a shock which for some may be exactly what they need to ‘tunnel vision’ their everything ONE match at a time. With Nadal’s current circumstances, this may a God send.

After all, Nadal technically is still the defending champion tied with Federer. Besides his clay court domination preceding this Slam has to provide the temptation to look past the early rounds in hopes of riding the confidence and momentum. This tough draw could be the ideal antidote to it forcing him to concentrate harder at every match than he would have ‘consciously’ achieved without it. But the back and forth element the occasional softening offers like the Gulbis withdrawal has the potential to derail the resolve the initial rough rock evoked – specially when Gulbis is being replaced by some guy who runs around looking for lost pets for his day job.

But if we are to go by Nadal’s track record which points to massive (quality) match play to allow Nadal to peak into form, Gulbis withdrawal may not be all good for him unless saving fuel for later rounds is what comes in to balance the enchilada.

So is a tougher draw to start with which begins to look tamer by the day better than the one which is tame to begin with?

Andy Murray reignites the flame with ex. From Stella. Thanks.

STELLA

Andy Murray reignites the flame with ex By Alison Boshoff

Talk about good timing. On the eve of Wimbledon, Andy Murray was firmly ensconsed in the arms of his former girlfriend – the one who makes him perform at his best.

The Scot was spotted out walking with Kim Sears near his Surrey home just a few days ago. They looked very much together, as they wandered along with his arm draped round her neck, and appeared very, very relaxed. In fact, the usually po-faced Murray, 23, was positively beaming.
It has been a month since Sears, 22, moved back into his £5million gated community home. Much of that time will have been filled, for him, with thinking about the next fortnight. Kim, on the other hand, is deciding what she wants to do with the rest of her life.

Match of the day: Andy Murray and Kim Sears are happy in love after rekindling their romance
A career in publishing is the favoured option. She had wanted to be an actress, but realised that the spotlight would always fall upon her famous other half.
So how and why did she and Murray re-heat their love match, having split in November after four years together? During their seven months apart, there were several failed attempts to make it work again.

More…Will Scottish Andy bow to the Queen? Our tennis No 1 agonises over a delicate issue of royal protocol
Federer says he’s Mr Invincible: Champ sets out for Wimbledon title No 7
Temperatures set to soar for Wimbledon… it’s a good thing they built that roof
The ball girl (and the bitching): Why the women of Wimbledon are not friends

It seems that Murray had initially asked her to move out to give him some ‘space’. Reports linking him to Scots beauty queen Katharine Brown are apparently wide of the mark – the pair were at school together and she is simply a family friend.

Simon Olivera, Murray’s spokesman, said: ‘Andy wasn’t involved with anyone else at all. As you know, his life is his tennis and he doesn’t have time find someone. Kim is a great girl and they are young kids in love.’

Photos.

Who has the toughest draw @ Wimbledon. 1 being the toughest, 4 the easiest.

Round	Nadal	Federer	Djokovic	Murray
1st	Nishikori	Falla	Rochus	Hajek
2nd	Blake	Massu	Dent	M&M
3rd	Pet Detective	Robredo/Tipsy	Montanes	Simon
4th	Isner/Youzhny	Lopez	Monfils/Hewitt	Querrey
Quarter	Soderling	Berdych/Davydenko	Roddick/Cilic	Tsonga/Verdasco
Semi	Murray	Djokovic/Roddick	Federer	Nadal
Final	Federer	Nadal	Nadal	Federer

Chess ELO rating system adapted to men’s tennis. From RafaFan. Thanks.

RAFAFAN

Chess ELO rating system adapted to men’s tennis

In chess player strength is calculated by the ELO equation which is used by FIDE organization.
Arpad Elo a former USCF chess player and American physics professor introduced this statistical method which calculates the relative skill level in two player games. – This rating system has been adapted by some tennis freaks (wuornos & leapfrog) to compare all time greats in tennis! WOW!
For more information on the statistical ELO approach check out wikipedia (searching for “chess elo”).
The outcome (peak rating) for tennis greats so far is shown in the list below:

1 Roger,Federer,SUI 2007.7 2890.2
2 John,McEnroe,USA 1985.3 2835.6
3 Ivan,Lendl,USA 1990.1 2814.3
4 Rafael,Nadal,ESP 2009.4 2799.6
5 Bjorn,Borg,SWE 1980.5 2771.4
6 Jimmy,Connors,USA 1980.1 2665.1
7 Novak,Djokovic,SRB 2009.9 2619.4
8 Pete,Sampras,USA 1997.2 2609.6
9 Andy,Murray,GBR 2010.1 2584.2
10 Rod,Laver,AUS 1975.2 2567.8
11 Boris,Becker,GER 1991.1 2558.3
12 Andy,Roddick,USA 2009.6 2540.9
13 Stefan,Edberg,SWE 1991.8 2533.0
14 Andre,Agassi,USA 1995.7 2500.5
15 Lleyton,Hewitt,AUS 2005.2 2499.0
16 Guillermo,Vilas,ARG 1979.0 2498.1
17 Nikolay,Davydenko,RUS 2010.1 2485.8
18 Mats,Wilander,SWE 1988.8 2467.7
19 Michael,Chang,USA 1997.3 2416.9
20 Juan_Martin,Del_Potro,ARG 2009.7 2390.9
21 Ilie,Nastase,ROU 1976.9 2382.8
22 David,Nalbandian,ARG 2009.1 2369.4
23 Arthur,Ashe,USA 1976.2 2366.4
24 Fernando,Gonzalez,CHI 2009.7 2365.5
25 Thomas,Muster,AUT 1997.2 2351.0
26 Gustavo,Kuerten,BRA 2001.7 2341.3
27 Jim,Courier,USA 1993.5 2339.1
28 Robin,Soderling,SWE 2010.1 2336.3
29 Vitas,Gerulaitis,USA 1980.5 2334.7
30 Brian,Gottfried,USA 1978.3 2330.1
31 Goran,Ivanisevic,CRO 1997.2 2328.8
32 Jo-Wilfried,Tsonga,FRA 2010.1 2322.9
33 Ivan,Ljubicic,CRO 2007.2 2311.0
34 Carlos,Moya,ESP 2004.5 2309.9
35 Guillermo,Canas,ARG 2007.3 2309.9
36 David,Ferrer,ESP 2008.5 2302.3
37 Fernando,Verdasco,ESP 2010.1 2301.7
38 Juan_Carlos,Ferrero,ESP 2003.8 2301.6
39 Eddie,Dibbs,USA 1978.6 2300.2
40 James,Blake,USA 2008.3 2300.0

Let’s compare the list with the highest achieved ratings in chess:

1. Kasparov, Gary……………… g RUS 2851 2851
2. Anand, Viswanathan………….. g IND 2771 2769
3. Kramnik, Vladimir…………… g RUS 2760 2758
4. Shirov, Alexei……………… g ESP 2734 2751
5. Morozevich, Alexander……….. g RUS 2758 2748
6. Leko, Peter………………… g HUN 2701 2725
7. Adams, Michael……………… g ENG 2708 2715
8. Ivanchuk, Vassily…………… g UKR 2702 2709
9. Bareev, Evgeny……………… g RUS 2698 2709
10. Topalov, Veselin……………. g BUL 2690 2702

It’s not that surprising that Federer is on the top. More surprising is pistol Pete’s #8 position.
I’m aware that the elo system is just one more way of comparison. What can we learn from this? You can pull out as many comparison approaches as you want Roger Federer results on top. Geeeezzz!

Dear Banti, TP has no room left for tomato cans! LOL! 

Btw Nalby is ranked #22 and here is the rest of the pack:

41 Michael,Stich,GER 1995.6 2294.7
42 Guillermo,Coria,ARG 2005.6 2290.3
43 Patrick,Rafter,AUS 2001.7 2287.0
44 John,Newcombe,AUS 1975.0 2285.1
45 Tommy,Haas,GER 2007.2 2277.5
46 Jose-Luis,Clerc,ARG 1982.6 2272.5
47 Todd,Martin,USA 1999.3 2272.1
48 Gene,Mayer,USA 1983.3 2270.5
49 Tommy,Robredo,ESP 2009.4 2268.7
50 Radek,Stepanek,CZE 2010.0 2261.4
51 Manuel,Orantes,ESP 1977.8 2261.3
52 Yannick,Noah,FRA 1987.2 2260.7
53 Harold,Solomon,USA 1980.8 2254.4
54 Stan,Smith,USA 1973.4 2254.4
55 Yevgeny,Kafelnikov,RUS 1999.1 2254.3
56 Richard,Krajicek,NED 1999.2 2251.1
57 Marin,Cilic,CRO 2010.1 2250.7
58 Ken,Rosewall,AUS 1975.6 2248.2
59 Tim,Henman,GBR 2002.3 2239.6
60 Sergi,Bruguera,ESP 1994.6 2238.7
61 Tomas,Berdych,CZE 2010.0 2237.0
62 Marcelo,Rios,CHI 1999.4 2236.6
63 Tom,Okker,NED 1974.2 2235.5
64 Marat,Safin,RUS 2005.2 2234.4
65 Brad,Gilbert,USA 1989.8 2230.6
66 Mario,Ancic,CRO 2009.2 2226.6
67 Gael,Monfils,FRA 2010.1 2224.1
68 Alex,Corretja,ESP 2001.6 2221.7
69 Roscoe,Tanner,USA 1979.7 2221.0
70 Andres,Gomez,ECU 1986.6 2215.9
71 Marcos,Baghdatis,CYP 2010.1 2215.4
72 Raul,Ramirez,MEX 1978.5 2209.4
73 Gaston,Gaudio,ARG 2005.6 2208.4
74 Mikhail,Youzhny,RUS 2010.1 2205.4
75 Petr,Korda,CZE 1998.1 2202.0
76 Jose,Higueras,ESP 1983.5 2200.4
77 Richard,Gasquet,FRA 2010.1 2195.2
78 Gilles,Simon,FRA 2009.9 2194.9
79 Thomas,Enqvist,SWE 2000.8 2185.4
80 Wayne,Ferreira,RSA 1996.7 2178.6
81 Miloslav,Mecir_Sr.,SVK 1988.7 2176.5
82 Stanislas,Wawrinka,SUI 2010.1 2175.8
83 Greg,Rusedski,GBR 1999.8 2172.7
84 Joakim,Nystrom,SWE 1986.4 2163.6
85 Nicolas,Kiefer,GER 2008.6 2151.5
86 Eliot,Teltscher,USA 1982.1 2151.4
87 Kent,Carlsson,SWE 1989.3 2150.2
88 Wojtek,Fibak,POL 1980.6 2148.7
89 Juan,Monaco,ARG 2010.2 2142.5
90 Sebastien,Grosjean,FRA 2003.5 2141.0
91 Magnus,Norman,SWE 2000.8 2135.4
92 Philipp,Kohlschreiber,GER 2009.5 2134.9
93 Guy,Forget,FRA 1992.9 2133.6
94 Tomas,Smid,CZE 1984.3 2132.8
95 Jiri,Novak,CZE 2004.8 2132.3
96 Tim,Mayotte,USA 1988.8 2127.6
97 Anders,Jarryd,SWE 1988.2 2126.6
98 Thomas,Johansson,SWE 2006.1 2124.1
99 Dmitry,Tursunov,RUS 2008.8 2123.7
100 Mark,Philippoussis,AUS 2001.2 2123.6

Let’s hope this post is not ending behind the scene… then probably I could come up with more details? Huh?