Mirka’s baby is ……

How severe was the Wimbledon loss to Murray?

Roddick surely made it a lot easy to stomach that semifinal loss. For otherwise, Murray would have entered the final with thoughts similar to what Federer had having Roddick across the net.

Murray has a 6-2 H2H and has won the last five matches (including Abu Dhabi) against Federer. Then he had the massive home court advantage. All that should have been enough to compensate for the pressure that came with the set up, if not tilt scale.

Or was this a missed opportunity for Federer to right the ship against the new threat? Considering how barely he moved past Roddick despite having that lopsided H2H and the consequent mental edge, maybe it was not to be anyway.

But these are the very matches, champions find a way to win. Murray should take the blame for not capitalizing on the plethora of positives flowing all over the place.

With a pattern now starting to develop at Slams, Murray needs to break through at the US Open to ensure this doesn’t become a mental block. Having already reached the finals last year, nothing short of a title will suffice now.

But what seemed more disconcerting was to get extended by Wawrinka (five setter), a far weaker force on any surface against Murray leave alone grass and under current conditions.

Nevertheless, reaching the first Wimbledon semifinal and losing to the near eventual winner may be enough to cushion the fall of not winning it all – for now.

Agassi and his hair complex – in case you missed.

Ali, and what only he can get away with.

Youngsters cannot find a footing.

Just when Federer appears to taper off, Nadal turns it on and starts winning on ‘other’ surfaces. And just when Nadal seems done with his knee problems, Federer emerges from the dead to seal off any entry for the young guns.

Ever since the dynamic duo has taken hold, just Djokovic has been able to sneak in to win the lone Slam in Australia.

It’s amazing and shameful at the same time how much high above everyone else these two have been for so long. It cannot be just talent. Clearly the two are out working everyone else on the tour too.

It’s hard to imagine that no one can bridge that gap with a right combination of talent and hard work. There just doesn’t seem to be enough discipline, focus and belief to move up a notch just by putting in more time on the practice courts, among other obvious starters.

Roddick is prime example at age 26 on what real motivation (or is it desperation) coupled with hard work under a competent eye can produce.

Maybe Federer and Nadal have been able to rob the field of belief like no other player(s) in the past has ever done stunting the growth of potential great players in their era – fanning the ‘not enough competition’ debate.

It’s a well known fact that Greg Louganis was not only great, he single handedly reduced the ranks of clowns taking up diving as a career in his time, thereby reducing the competition into a joke.

While it may not be as profound with tennis today, it certainly is robbing players of all conviction of proceeding beyond a mark, consequently holding them back from going all out on the practice courts.

Sampras’s claim of having a stronger field in his time may in reality be his admission of being devoid of that intimidating factor – at least of this magnitude. After all, all kinds of Tom, Dick and Harrys were winning Slams in his time.

Ali (here we go again) was the master at taking away that belief even before he stepped in that ring. And that’s when he had giants like Frazier, Norton and Foreman to contend with. Imagine what a dog fight it would have been without that intangible advantage. With Frazier, it was – anyways.

Charles Barkley was explaining to some kid why he didn’t win the championship one year: “Kid, there was someone who just wanted it more”. Who do you think that was? Jordan.

Freaking point is this: All greats hold that card and use it extensively to establish / extend their domination beyond reasonable borders / time frame. That may be more of reason why the youngsters are unable to derail the dual train of tennis today – more than talent and what have you.

Invisible cow? Or has he grown a second one?

Do you watch Davis Cup matches?

Photos.