Where the Hell is Rafa? (When you need him?)

When I heard that Nadal had pulled out of Wimbledon my first reaction was that it would make life easier on Roger Federer, but when you look at the draw, the real beneficiary is Andy Murray. His half of the draw is filled with a slew of decent but ordinary players like Leyton Hewitt, Radek Stepanek, Tomas Berdych, Stan Wawrinka, Juan Carlos Ferrero, and Giles Simon. The only legit threat to Murray making the final seems to be Roddick- but, in truth, I don’t fancy Andy’s chances. Federer, on the other hand, has Djokovic, Soderling, Karlovic, and Tommy Haas lurking on his end of the draw.

Media reports have indicated that Rafa’s parents have separated, and that the trauma of their split has taken a toll on his game. It’s impossible to know how bad Rafa’s knees are, but I think that he’s the kind of player that would rather skip a tournament then play at less than 100% and possibly lose early. Too bad for us, because the 2009 men’s field is really lacking without him in the top half of the draw.