Not even the time to actually start, given that the number one in the world and winner of the 2011 edition Novak Djokovic has yet to take the field, that there is already the first news: Spaniard Rafa Nadal will not win his third Wimbledon and his thirteenth Grand Slam, in an attempt to approach the 14 of Pete Sampras and the 17 of his longtime rival friend Roger Federer.
While in fact the latter, despite his age still fully at ease on the grass of the All England Tennis Club, easily got through the first round against the Romanian Hanescu (winning the third set 6-0), as well as the revived Murray (winner in 3 sets of Becker), the Majorcan fresh from the eighth Roland Garros – absolute record – is surprisingly fell in 3 sets against the Belgian carneade Steve Darcis, number 135 in the world.
Therefore, the first Fab Four leaves the oldest and most prestigious tournament in the world prematurely (even if in this edition it presented itself as number 5), waiting to see on the field Nole Djokovic, who shouldn't however accuse the same problems against the insidious German Florian Meyer. The premature elimination of Rafa allows if nothing else to rebalance the draw: his entry as number 5 had in fact penalized the lower part, where there would have been an unprecedented clash with Federer already in the quarterfinals, and then possibly with Murray (number 2) and finally with Djokovic (number 1), while the Serbian would have found the main obstacles in the upper part for the final Del Potro, Ferrer or at most Berdych.
However, Darcis reminded everyone that nothing is taken for granted, and his feat will certainly allow Federer or Murray to have an approach to the eventual final that is not too unequal – at least on paper – compared to Nole's. However, to date, he has yet to pass the first round, while the other two, two-time finalists a year ago between the official tournament and the Olympics (one victory for one), they have already shown great things on the still green grass of London.
