Bring on the Grass! Henman unsuprisingly strong at Queens, Daniela unsuprisingly retires from Birmingham

Yes, it was a good French Open, a fitting end with Justine defending her title and the boys offering us a close finale…but Roger was denied and that breaks my heart!

I will readily confess that despite my admiration for Nadal and his two Grand Slam titles’ at the age of 20, the clay court style that he encomapsses so well will never be as thrilling to watch as the super-quick grass court style that say…Tim Henman uses.

Federer, such is his overall talent, is always watchable whatever the surface, and it would have been truly inspiring if the world could witness REAL history in the Swiss taking the title and holding all four Slams.

Sadly, i really cannot see a different outcome next year, if anything Nadal will soon find his form on grass, carpet and hard courts and the Fed-Ex will be thwarted once more.

Moving on, a quick note with Daniela who after reaching the final of Roland Garros with Ai Sugiyama, has withdrawn from the DFS classic in Birmingham with a wrist injury. A real shame after being seeded 3rd it was an easy draw and with her own grass court capabilities Daniela would have made the final.

Much like she did at Eastbourne in 2004, early indications are that she will be present at this years tournament next week.

Finally, onto the main subject of the post, in that Tim Henman has clearly found his best form once again on the hallowed green turf of the Queen’s Club. I was lucky enough to witness Britain’s best player in action on Monday when he beat Andre Agassi comfortably (alas my enjoyment of this amazing spectacle was dampened by the realisation of Agassi’s increasingly tired body swiftly limping to a career end). I also witnessed (and caught some snapshots of) James Blake, Mardy Fish, Greg Rusedski, Ivan Ljubicic, Feliciano Lopez, Gael Monfils and Dimitry Tursunov.

Incidentally, that particular thorn in henman’s side could well halt his run in the Stella Artois Championships as it could be Tursunov who Tim meets in the quarters….

No thanks

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