Would have been a huge ask for Nadal to win this tournament after his amazing clay court run. Poor guy must be exhausted - he puts everything into his matches and never leaves you wondering if he can be bothered. Have to agree with the rest on here - Andy rarely looked too interested in his match, Mardy is an excellent grass court player and as the match panned out, his win was merited. Would love to know, but never will, if he could have won it on Thursday evening.
I expect most of the tickets for the weekend have been sold already so doubt whether it will cost the tournament too much in lost sales. Wonder if everyone will turn up though, despite the remaining guys actually being decent players.
A match that Murray really should have won, especially when he went a mini-break up in the tiebreak, but just didn't play well enough from then on and looked beaten, which is not that encouraging ahead of Wimbledon, especially as there is a title for the taking here.
Perhaps not too surprised at Nadal's loss given that he probably just wanted a few matches on a grass court to get used to the surface, and given he is good friends with Lopez, he might not have been too disappointed to have lost to him.
A semi final line up of Lopez vs. Llodra/Fish and Sela/Schuettler vs. Querrey/Malisse isn't exactly going to be what Queens were expecting with all the big names they had signed up, but it does guarentee that whoever wins the title will be an experienced grass court player (even though Querrey hates the surface, he still reached the final of Newport on it)
The BBC had a good provoking interview with Andy after the match. He was surprisingly muted in talking about the light situation last night. But he was then asked about his lapses during matches and if he was still enjoying his tennis. (In other words was he trying as hard as he used to!) He did not look too pleased with the question but maintained he is still enjoying his tennis and although he was not doing as much training after the AO he has now stepped it up again and is raring to go.
A few points here. It is common for players once they have reached the top ten to have trouble staying there. It is more difficult to find the drive and determination that was there as they were battling to get to the top. Is Andy having such a time?
Andy's shot selection has not been to his usual high standard. With a game based on delivering different shots and seeking mistakes from his opponent, he needs to really concentrate more during the rallies. At Queens he seemed to be playing from memory rather than thinking out the points. Especially the big points. At least his serve looked a bit better.
Of course it could all be a big ploy to lessen the expectations in the run up to Wimbledon. (Clutching at straws LOL) Notice this is the first year that the peranial chesnut "can Tim/Greg/Andy win Wimbledon this year?" hasn't been a talking point. Maybe Andy will do better than he looks like doing at the moment. There are few British male alternatives to cheer, that's for sure.
this isnt good for queens, all the big guns gone b4 the weekend!!
Just the other day I overheard some official-types hoping that Rafa would go deep in the tournament because apparently they'd spent a lot on attracting him back to Queens this year.
__________________
King of Slice "He's on a one-man mission to bring the slice back to tennis." Inverdale