[UPDATED] Wimbledon assigns Ernests Italian job

As the first ball is struck at the All England Lawn Tennis Club this Monday, Ernests will do well to wonder whether his lack of matches in recent weeks is a blessing or a curse. Grand Slam matches are best-of-five-sets occasions, and players are careful not to over-exert themselves in the weeks leading up to a major, for fear of burning out midway through the tournament. However, the grass of Wimbledon is a treacherous, slick surface – a complete antithesis to the heavy red clay which Ernests left behind in Roland Garros barely a month ago.

Although it is kind to big servers, grass also requires a different playing style to that of clay, and plenty of match practice may be needed to be fully re-acquainted to it.

Having sat out the better part of the last fortnight after an early loss at Queen’s, Ernests is expected not to be unduly tested by his first-round Wimbledon opponent, the 256th-ranked Riccardo Ghedin.

The unheralded Italian, however, is already acclimatised to this surface, having won three matches on the grasscourts of Roehampton this week to get through qualifying.

Ernests should be able to win this match without drama, but he may be hampered by the rustiness brought upon by his lack of match practice.

Should he make it through, he is likely to receive the unenviable task of taking on the Next Great Hope of British tennis, Scotsman Andy Murray.

Murray has already been annointed champion-in-waiting by a British public desperate for a home-grown winner, having seen a Wimbledon title come within the reach of Tim Henman yet excruciatingly yanked away time and time again.

The Scot is the highest-ranked seed to compete in a warm-up grasscourt event, winning the Queen’s title last week without dropping a set over the whole tournament.

Ernests has played against Murray twice before and lost on both occasions.

However, he can take heart from the fact that during their only encounter on grass, at Queen’s Club last year, he was more than a match for the British No. 1 and won the first set before Murray shut him out of the game.

The winner of this second-round match is likely to face either resurgent qualifier, Taylor Dent, or the Serbian No. 30 seed, Viktor Troicki.

Both men are serve-and-volleyers; practitioners of a dying art which is still lethal on the relatively low-bouncing grass.

Potential fourth-round opponents include the No. 14 seed, Marat Safin, or the 19th-seeded Swiss, Stanislas Wawrinka.

The two men have had a less than ideal preparation for Wimbledon, with Safin withdrawing from Queen’s with a back injury and Wawrinka electing to play a Challenger tournament on clay in Switzerland rather than tune up his game for grass.

Seeded to meet this section’s conqueror in the quarterfinals is Gilles Simon, but he first would have to contend with big-hitting Fernando Gonzalez, the tenth seed, or American James Blake, who reached the finals of Queen’s before falling to Murray.

Looming over the eventual winner of this quarter is the shadow of either the defending champion, Rafael Nadal, or the two-time finalist, Andy Roddick.

However, a question mark hovers over the fitness of these two men. Roddick injured his ankle shortly into his semifinal match against James Blake at Queen’s last week, and was forced to withdraw.

Nadal, who sensationally lost to Robin Soderling in Roland Garros, having never been defeated there, also chose to skip Queen’s due to knee problems and still has not unequivocally confirmed that he will defend his title at SW19.

Elsewhere in the draw, the five-time champion, Roger Federer will open against Taiwan’s Rendy Yen-Hsun Lu and is projected to clash into the dangerous Swede, Robin Soderling, in the fourth round.

He is also seeded to face Fernando Verdasco in the quarterfinals. The Spaniard made the fourth round in 2008 before losing to Mario Ancic, who subsequently went on to lose to Federer in the quarterfinals.

Novak Djokovic, seeded fourth, will play his first round match against Julien Benneteau of France.

The Serb will have to contend with dangerous youngsters such as Juan Martin del Potro, the eleventh-seeded Marin Cilic, as well as a long shot in the talented French qualifier, Adrian Mannarino.

Wimbledon begins on Monday, June 22nd, and will run for a fortnight before culminating in what is hoped to be a captivating Men’s Singles final under the new Centre Court roof.

A list of television broadcasters has been posted on the Wimbledon website and live online coverage is also available via the Wimbledon LIVE service.

If both Ernests and Murray were to hold up their end of the bargain, then it is almost certain that their match will be scheduled on Centre Court and televised.

However, it would be wise for Ernests not to overreach himself and just concentrate on defending the 70 points he gained after reaching the second round of this tournament last year.

He has shown that he could play on grass – Ernests was the only man other than Roger Federer to take a set off eventual champion, Rafael Nadal, in 2008 – but his streak of recent losses and the lack of a full-time coach serve to stack the odds against him.

With his ranking down to No. 73, the first time he fell out of the Top 60 since exactly a year ago, Ernests now faces a race against time to break his losing streak before he plummets too far down the rankings to make it directly into the main draw of ATP tournaments.

UPDATE

Rafael Nadal has announced in a press conference that he will be unable to participate in Wimbledon this year.

Juan Martin del Potro, the fifth seed, will now occupy Nadal’s slot in the draw, leaving Andy Murray as the second seed and the highest-ranked player in Ernests’ half of the draw.

Wimbledon main draw

~ by Zahirah on June 19, 2009.