WIMBLEDON SURPRISES.

Sadly, it's now a while since the Wimbledon competitors showed me to be a pretty poor predictor but, nonetheless, it's time I commented on the eventual outcomes.

The Ladies event went in an entirely unexpected direction with Maria Sharapova being comprehensively out-gunned by the eventual Champion, Petra Kvitova. I can't pretend to have heard of Kvitova before, though I suppose I must have as she made good progress at last year's event, but, at least, she'd made no impression. That cannot be said of her this year. Sharapova, the hot pre-match favourite never got a look-in as she was simply blown away by this 'new kid on the block'. Kvitova looks and plays like a real all-rounder, her physique is perfect and her game strong and complete; in contrast, Sharapova is a bean-pole who grunts a lot. The rest of the women's top seeds simply faded away, with the Williams sisters lack of play catching up with them, Caroline Wozniacki showing, yet again, that her ranking is laughabale, and Azarenka falling short. My tip, Sabine Lisicki, seemed to run out of steam towards the end but she will have moved a long way up the rankings by next year and will be a genuine contender then.

The men were, as expected, highly predictable until the very end. No one would have bet on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga coming back from 2 sets down against Roger Federer but the fact that he did tells me that Federer's time is over; he will never win another Grand Slam event. Our own 'Great White Hope', Andy Murray, yet again showed that he does not have what it takes at the highest level; after making his way to the semi-final with few alarms and even having the temerity to take the first set off of Nadal, his challenge simply faded away in the light of reality. Djokovic, of course, beat Tsonga in the other semi-final to set up a final with last year's Champion but by now most people were still expecting a Nadal victory.

In the event, the first set went with serve for the first 7 or 8 games until the Serb took charge; suddenly he was 2 sets up and no time seemed to have passed. In all honesty, Djokovic's play for that period was probably the best ever seen on any tennis court anywhere; he had Nadal, undoubtedly one of the best 2 or 3 players of all time, chasing the ball helplessly. Astonishingly, after such a tremendous display, the third set was a total reversal of the second and Djokovic found himself unable to present any challenge to an increasingly confident Nadal : 2 sets to 1 and the smart money was now all moving towards the Spaniard. The fourth set was a topsy-turvy affair with both players having their moments until Djokovic suddenly regained his balance and form to take both set and match and, with it, the Wimbledon crown. It was a good final though not one of the best; both players had brilliant spells but both also had times of seriously below-par performance.

In the end, Djokovic was a worthy winner and I certainly won't bet against him repeating the triumph next year; by then Federer will be out of contention, Murray will still be a semi-finalist, and Nadal may or may not be fit. The only other likely challenger will be Juan Martin Del Potro but 12 months can bring a lot of changes so let's not get too sure of ourselves just yet.