Players still got in plenty of practice on a rainy day at Queen’s Club.
LONDON—The weather gods in England just couldn’t keep it up. Last year at Wimbledon, with the new roof waiting to make its debut, the fortnight produced mostly sunny skies and warm temperatures. Organizers were actually hoping for a bit of rain to show off their new toy.
A year later at Queen’s Club, now formally known as the AEGON Championships—the blue still doesn’t look as good with the grass as the red of the Stella Artois logo—it’s back to normal. Tuesday produced spurts of rain, and Wednesday was much the same. The “unsettled” conditions, as they say here, are expected to linger until Friday.
Thankfully plenty of play, and practice, was still possible.
Coach Roddick
In the backwater of Court 11 at this plush west London club, Andy Roddick was perhaps readying for life as a coach after his playing days are over.
Roddick, between hitting with two-time NCAA singles champion Somdev Devvarman, schooled the scrappy Indian baseliner as a crowd of about 40 gathered in the distance. Roddick urged Devvarman to cut through his slice rather than hit it top to bottom, which leads to more floated balls. Devvarman got the message, and his next few were better, as the Texan acknowledged. Later, they worked on Devvarman’s running forehand. Under a light drizzle, a tiebreaker finished proceedings. Roddick prevailed 7-3.
Devvarman has found the transition from U.S. college tennis to the pros difficult. Despite sitting at a career-best 104th in the rankings, he hasn’t advanced past the round of 16 at any event this season, Challengers included.
Murray's Bright Blue Knee
As the precipitation continued, play on Center Court between Rafael Nadal and Brazilian Marcos Daniel was suspended. That didn’t stop players from continuing to practice on the outer courts. The fans deserting the main show court overflowed to witness Andy Murray’s session with brother Jamie; the two are playing doubles together this week. For the second straight day, Murray had tape on his right knee.
The knee has always bothered Murray, but bright blue tape isn’t a good sign with Wimbledon around the corner. Murray struggled against Spanish journeyman Ivan Navarro on Tuesday and faces Mardy Fish, his conqueror in Miami, next. Nadal looms.
Clay King on Grass
Rafa got the perfect opener in his first grass-court match in two years. Daniel is a clay-court specialist who was never going to trouble the new No. 1, and the affair lasted a meager 52 minutes. Nadal didn’t face a break point and dropped two points on his first serve.
He’ll take it. Nadal said he practiced “very bad” Tuesday due to the conditions—and the quick turnaround from Sunday’s French Open final. Unusually, Nadal spoke before his doubles match, which was later Wednesday. His partner is good buddy Marc Lopez.
“After the final, doing press, doing a little bit of celebration, next day photo in the morning, coming back to London, I was really tired yesterday,” Nadal said. “I really would love to have the doubles before the singles, but anyway, during the match in singles I felt well. I felt well returning. That’s the most difficult thing for me.”
Skipping Wimbledon last year as the defending champion wasn’t all that difficult for him, as it turned out. “I wasn’t ready to play,” he said. “It was more difficult to accept that I had the [knee] injury than not to play Wimbledon. Maybe with those conditions, I [wouldn’t have] won three matches there.”
A Nadal presser habitually includes comedy, if nothing else when the lefty ends a sentence with his trademark, “no?” This time around, asked whether he expects to be seeded first at Wimbledon, Nadal retorted, “I don’t expect nothing, because it’s not going to affect nothing if I am the No. 1 seed or the No. 2 seed.”
It won’t mean anything? Really? “If I am No. 3 maybe, yes, gonna be a surprise for me.” Cue the laughter.
Francisco Roig, who fills in for Uncle Toni this time of the season, expects Nadal to go deep at the All England Club. “When the clay season began, he needed some victories, some titles, and now he’s playing good,” Roig said as he hovered near Center Court in the wake of Nadal’s win. “And now he has more confidence with the titles. I think that he’ll have a good Wimbledon. He improved as a tennis player.
“You can see he’s playing easier on the court, he understands better the game. Definitely we can’t think he won’t play well at Wimbledon. Sometimes you have to have luck too in the draw, especially in the beginning. But he’s ready for the battle.”
Young Gun
One of Roig’s other pupils is Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili, who somehow wasn’t in the Top 100 prior to Roland Garros, despite being one of the circuit’s purest, biggest hitters. Roig hopes the flaky, likable Gabashvili, who benefits from a wild card at Wimbledon, can put it all together. Gabashvili, a qualifier, upended Roddick in Paris and sauntered to the fourth round.
“He has such potential, but tennis is not only about hitting the ball good,” Roig said. “The head has to develop more. This good result in Paris can maybe give him confidence for the future. I hope he can do well at another Slam. We have to see if he can be in the Top 30, 40, 50, and for a while.”
Back Across the Pond
While Nadal and Gabashvili prospered at the French, Sam Querrey didn’t. Tired, physically and mentally, he exited in the first round to the unpredictable Robby Ginepri. “Mentally not there,” was how Querrey, also a first-round loser in Melbourne, described it. Better scheduling leading up to next year’s French would help.
Wednesday the Americans met again, and Querrey, seeded seventh, didn’t face a break point in a 7-6 (4), 6-2 victory.
Querrey recharged back home in California, going to a Lakers game and not picking up a racquet for almost a week.
“I definitely needed the week off,” Querrey said. “And the first time I started playing back home, that first day of practice, I didn’t feel like I lost anything, and I was in a great mood and having fun. It’s hopefully going to carry over through the entire grass court season.”
Querrey, staying with family and friends in London, is playing doubles with close friend John Isner at Wimbledon after his singles defeat at the French prompted him to bail. Reaching the year-end championships is a goal.
Asked if he’s looking forward to traveling to Colombia for September’s Davis Cup playoffs, Querrey says “yeah” with a smile. “If I get the shot again, I’m gonna be looking forward to it. Never been to South America. That will probably be one of the only times I’ll go down there.”
Nadal, Querrey and the rain will all be back tomorrow.
Ravi Ubha is a freelance writer covering Queen's Club for TENNIS.com.