Wk.23- "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." (sic)

Hey Y'all. Galileo here.

That quote in the title is attributed to Mark Twain, but it is incorrectly quoted. The full story is very interesting but that is for another time and place. This misquoted quote, one of the most popular along with, "Luke, I am your father," can be attributed to Nadal.

And yes, Vader never said that. He said "No, I am your father."

But getting back to the point. Nadal is baffling everybody. He is still the best lefty. Still the best Spaniard. Still the best clay courter. He still has the second greatest forehand the game has ever seen on every surface except clay, where he has the best. It really is a toss-up between Roger and Rafa's forehand. This is still Rafael Nadal. And in the most important statistic he is still second all time. BACKSPIN loves tables and here comes one now.



Slams matter the most. And if you include the Olympics, it looks even worse for Novak.

So Rafa is playing with house money now. Yes, BACKSPIN said Nadal was finished several times and the fact that the old Rafa is gone is pretty much undeniable now, but Rafa is still dangerous and still one of the best. And perhaps winning an event with a weaker field is not evidence of any kind of resurgence. It is not evidence of a Nadal comeback. Especially because he struggled throughout the week.

So what is the point of all this? What conclusion is BACKSPIN trying to draw? Or is it the usual crazed ramblings with some hidden meaning tucked away while the WTA side provides the relative sanity? No. Here comes the point. Nadal won an event amongst a field of talented grass court players and Monfils. Whatever Monfils may be -- and he is many things, like ridiculous, beyond the laws of our planet, beyond the laws of physics, frustrating, brilliant, watchable and oh-so-French. But he is a good grass player.

This win is evidence of a pulse in Nadal's career. There's a flutter there. Not unlike the flutter in my heart when Lopez flicks his hair in that way or the way Todd's heart flutters when Dokic wins two matches in a row. [ Editor's Note: oh, Fair One, wherefore art thou? ] For that same reason, if Wawrinka wins four slams he will have had a better career than Murray.

And with Nadal showing a pulse, and being seeded so low for Wimbledon, sparks are going to fly. If Murray draws Nadal in the fourth round can he really be trusted to beat the Spaniard?

In other news, happy birthday Steffi Graf. A great ambassador for the game and a great ambassador for German tennis, too.

QUESTION: Who was the first Spaniard in the Open Era to rise to number one?

Well, some other things happened. Shall we have a look?

*Rankings Watch*
Top 32 - GGL rose 14 places to 31 and that will be a relief to many. Players like the Spaniard should be seeded at slams. Vesely rose 11 to 35 with Troicki, Monaco and Chardy hanging around, too.

Top 10 - Wawrinka and Cilic have swapped around in the rankings with the Swiss 90 points ahead. Cilic still leads number 11 Dimitrov by 420. Ferrer at 8 has a lead of a thousand.

Top 8 - No change here. Nishikori is challenging for the top four but if he usurps Rafa, then Roland Garros will be a mess.

Top 4 - This remains unchanged with Novak holding a big lead over Roger, who holds a lead over Murray. Far from tracking down Murray, Nadal now has to try and hold off Kei for a top four seed.



*WEEK 23 CHAMPIONS*
STUTTGART, GERMANY
S: Rafael Nadal def. Viktor Troicki 7-6(3)/6-3
D: Bopanna/Mergea d. Peya/Soares
's-HERTOGENBOSCH, NETHERLANDS
S: Nicolas Mahut def. David Goffin 7-6(1)/6-1
D: Karlovic/Kubot d. Herbert/Mahut


PLAYER OF THE WEEK: MAHUT
...I believe you were expecting Nadal. That would have been logical, but logic seems to bypass our HQ. If logic had any bearing on tennis, the rankings and the slam winners would be far more easily predicted. Mahut is one of the many Frenchies that seem to be everywhere on the tour. And he is one of the more fun to watch. Mahut was seeded sixth in the qualies. He eased past Marach and Zopp as expected. But De Schepper took a set. Still, Mahut didn’t panic and won through in three sets. He had qualified. Then he ran straight into Hewitt, but again he managed to get past the aging Australian. After beating Hewitt in straights, he beat third seeded Agut in two easy sets. He had momentum, now. And he rode it to a 6-1, 6-3 victory over sixth seed Mannarino. He edged Haase in three long sets before dispatching Goffin for the title. He has won three titles now and all on grass. The former junior doubles number one has won a title. And nobody saw it coming. Mahut opted to skip Queens but may decide to enter Nottingham. Gasquet, a former Nottingham winner, has hit 400 wins. He should become part of the illustrious 500 club before he retires. But it is very hard to see the future at the best of times
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RISER: NADAL
...We've been here before and frequently. So I'll just let you watch this video.



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SURPRISE: MULLER
...It was good to see Muller make a semi. He has made three finals in his career but never won a title. In 2004, 2005 and 2012 he made final appearances in America. He also reached his highest ever ranking of 34 this year. Now ranked 48, he will be very dangerous at Wimbledon. After beating Ilhan 0 and 5 in the Topshelf Open in the Netherlands, he faced tricky Canadian Pospisil. But he defeated Pospisil 6-4, 4-6, 7-6[8]. His nasty lefty serve made life very difficult for the Canuck. And sometimes the way a player plays can disrupt you. He is still the greatest Luxembourgian Davis Cup player ever. Yes, I thought you'd be impressed.
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FRESH FACE: NORBERT GOMBOS
...If you've heard of Gombos then you really do know your tennis. He won his second challenger of the year to go 2-4 in challenger finals. The 24-year old may not be so young, he is older than Dimitrov, but he has gone 2-0 in finals this year. And the Bratislavian born may prove to be a future star. He is one to watch. His highest ranking is 103. He was seeded 6th in the French quallies but lost to Nishioka in the second round. He is currently hovering around 120.
.=============================
DOWN: LOPEZ
...3-6, 7-6[5], 7-6[6] was the scoreline. And Lopez is now in a slump. And that is strange because Lopez has the kind of game where it's difficult for things to go wrong. His game works on every surface. There's no surface his game doesn't work on. But he hasn't won back to back matches in what feels like ages. And grass is by far his best surface. So why is the slump still on-going? Never count out the three time Wimbledon quarterfinalist. Should he get an opening, he could roll to the quarters. The way the Wimbledon draw blows up helps him, too.
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UPSET: GROTH
...Groth used his big serve to beat Lopez. But why is this so big. BACKSPIN called in some 'experts'...



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Five things I liked this week...
1 - Mahut inspires us all. With all the riches the French has, it's a great story that one of the forgotten, famous for just the one match, won here.

2 - Cilic is showing he doesn't just turn up at the slams. He needs to be consistently making the last four. With the talent he has he should make the semi-finals or better at every event he plays.

3 -Konjuh was born December 1997. Date Krumm retired around then. And she just rolled through a solid field. She just won her first title at the age of 17. To Hingis that's no big deal, but then the early success at a young age may have been the undoing of Hingis. Like it was with Capriati.

4 - How long before a player born in this century wins a slam? It's inevitable it will happen. I'm tempted to guess 2021.

5 - Great new ATP website and great decision to make Halle and Queens 500 tournaments. There just isn't room for a Masters, sadly.


1. s'Hertogenbosch Final – Mahut d. Goffin 7-6[1], 6-2
...Can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact a qualie beat a second seed so easily? An old veteran who prefers doubles beat a young up and comer who has won over forty matches since October. Mahut had little form and Goffin was red hot. But the veteran triumphed. Isn't our sport great?
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2. Stuttgart Q – Nadal d. Tomic 6-4, 6-7[6] 6-3
...Credit to Tomic here. He beat Rafa 8-6 in a breaker. He gets to the quarterfinal playing great tennis and meets Nadal. This week he has Federer lurking. Someone has made the tennis gods mad. Maybe they liked Tomic to misbehave. Whatever the case, he proved how he is finally ready to match the big boys. This is grass. He does better on grass and in Australia, but it is still a big step. And we know what the next step is.
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3. Stuttgart SF – Troicki d. Cilic 6-3, 6-7[1] 7-6[2]
...Several matches this past week were archetypal grass court matches. This is like when two grandmasters play one another. A stalemate is a distinct possibility. But in tennis it is a fight to the death. And in the end Cilic crumbled at the crucial moment, losing the most important breaker 7-2.
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4. s'Hertogenbosch Final – Mahut d. Haase 5-7, 6-3, 6-4
...This match was full of aggressive tennis and great all court play. It was a nice return to grass court tennis which we now have more of. And having more grass tennis is a win for everyone. Few breaks is another calling card of grass court tennis. This match was a perfect example of how a grass court tennis match should be.
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*Queens*
=SF=
Murray [1] d. [4] Cilic
Wawrinka [2] d. Gasquet
=FINAL=
Murray [1] d. [2] Wawrinka

...Yes. I am crazy. But with Raonic returning, there is a gap and Gasquet is a great grass player. Kokkinakis/Chardy and Wawrinka/Kyrgios are both brilliant first round matches. Nadal/Dolgopolov and Querrey/Dimitrov are also must watches.

*Halle*
=SF=
Federer [1] d. [3]Berdych
Nishikori [2] d. Haas
=FINAL=
Federer [1] d. [5] Nishikori

...This is more straightforward. Federer on grass is formidable. And he rarely loses here. But the rest of the draw is a toss-up. Tomic is
dangerous. Monfils/Rosol and Federer/Kohl are good matches. Janowicz is here and Thiem plays Nishikori. And Young Coric should be good, too.


Dellacqua and Jurak lost to the second seeds in the doubles. They lost in the first round, but Casey still sits at sixteen. She had a good draw as the sixth seed in the singles but lost in straights to teenager Konjuh. But then Konjuh did go on to win, so fair enough. In the singles she has dramatically fallen. She fell from 50 to 67. She is Australia's number three. If you factor in Gavrilova she is number four. She just beat Davis 4 and 1. She plays Smitkova or Jankovic next. She is in Prinkova's section, though.

ANSWER: In 1999 Moya was number one for two weeks.

Thanks all and visit WTA BACKSPIN please.

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