Murray: Beware the Mosquito
Juan Carlos Ferrero has been the surprise package of this year
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Tuesday, 30, Jun 2009 08:24
Juan Carlos Ferrero's chances of playing at Wimbledon - let alone doing well - seemed slim last May when the All England Club's men in suits convened in a committee room to decide who could enter the tournament.
It is not known who argued his case for being granted a wild card, but the fact that he won the French Open in 2003 and the attractive nature of his baseline game is sure to have allayed fears arising from his ranking of only 115 in the world when decision day arrived.
But why should Ferrero, a clay court and hard court specialist and a tour veteran at 29, put himself through the gruelling hardship of preparing for a grass court tournament at this advanced stage of his career?
One reason why he doesn't belong to the school of clay court experts who hold the opinion that "grass is for cows, not tennis players" emerged at the Queen's Club tournament where he reached the semi-finals.
Andy Murray easily repelled the threat of the Mosquito on that occasion but four more reasons soon followed in the form of victories over higher-ranked players at this year's Wimbledon.
Most notable of these was a five-set triumph over hard-hitting number ten seed Fernando Gonzalez - Murray's conqueror in the French Open - in the third round.
If his other wins have attracted less attention it is only because they have been so routine.
So could he beat Murray at SW19, having been defeated so comprehensively by him at Queen's less than a month ago?
The clever money says no - but the atmosphere generated by 15,000 people under a Centre Court roof in July could be very different to that generated by 3,000 people in the open air of a June day at what is a quintessentially English country club.
Throw in the fact that the lush grass of Queen's behaves vastly differently to the battle-worn grass of the show courts at Wimbledon and you could be looking at conditions which could suit hard court veterans like Ferrero down to the ground.
The grass on the Centre Court baseline is clearly receding due to the wear and tear of attritional baseline play in evidence in the modern game.
Expect it to be as bald as Andre Agassi's head by the time the athletic Mosquito has completed his match against Murray.
He is more than capable of winning a set but his chances of emulating Goran Ivanisevic's 2001 feat of winning the tournament as a wild card look remote.
His 2005 Wimbledon encounter with Roger Federer ended in straight sets defeat but provided a fantastic exhibition of clean hitting. The Murray match could well follow a similar pattern.
James Christie