Wednesday 29 June 2011

Doctor gives Nadal green light

Doctor gives Nadal green light
The man who treated Rafael Nadal's foot injury insists there is no chance of the problem resurfacing when he resumes his Wimbledon title defence against Mardy Fish.
The world number one had feared that his championship was over after suffering the injury to his left foot at the start of his fourth-round victory over Juan Martin Del Potro.
Those fears were allayed on Tuesday as the Spaniard came through an hour-long practice session with no sign of any discomfort.
The two-time champion felt no recurrence of the problem during his practice session with Welsh youngster Evan Hoyt and said afterwards that his foot felt "okay".
A scan revealed only minor swelling of a tendon in the foot, rather than the broken bone that Nadal had feared, and Dr Ignacio Munoz of the Spanish Tennis Federation is confident the star will be able to get through Wednesday's quarter-final meeting with Fish.
"There is no risk in him playing," Munoz said.
"You can see that he is training quite normally. I don't think he will have any problems."
Before Nadal takes to Court One, Australian teenager Bernard Tomic will do his best to add another chapter to his fairytale story when he meets Novak Djokovic.
Tomic, 18, has been taken under Djokovic's wing as one of the second seed's regular practice partners, but will hope that the master can beat the apprentice when they face off at 1pm.
"Novak is a champion," Tomic said.
"He's obviously won grand slams before. My relationship is really good with him. I've hit with him a lot of times. He's a cool guy - one of the nicest guys on the tour."
If Djokovic does win, and Andy Murray defeats Feliciano Lopez, the duo will both be one step closer to reaching a maiden SW19 final.
That would mean Roger Federer - who plays in the other last-eight match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga - having to eat humble pie.
The 16-time grand slam champion believes the rivalry at the top of the men's game between himself and Nadal still has plenty of distance left to run.
However, this year has seen Djokovic win the Australian Open and rise to world number two, and Murray remains a big threat.
After losing to Djokovic in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, Federer heard it suggested that he and Nadal were coming under serious threat from Djokovic and Murray.
"Let's talk in six months," was his reply at the time.
Now he can see himself and Nadal contesting another Wimbledon final, but should it be Murray and Djokovic battling it out for glory on Sunday the most successful player in the history of men's tennis will accept the state of the game is changing.
"We've got to wait and see how this turns out," he said. "It could be a repeat of the Djokovic-Murray final and then I was wrong. If it's not the case, then I was right."
Federer is not likely to be too affected though, whatever the outcome at the weekend.
"At the end of the day, I don't care if I'm wrong or right. I know where my game is at. I know where Rafa's game is at," he said.

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