By Charles Bricker
After losing the French Open final to Rafa Nadal, Robin Soderling went home and took a long rest. No lead-up tournaments and the only prep he got for Wimbledon was an exhibition match and plenty of training on the practice courts at Aorangi Park, which adjoins the All England Club.
He then walked onto court this afternoon and just decimated Robby Ginepri, who had been having something of a rebirth these past couple months. Soderling’s final scoreline of 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 doesn’t begin to describe the enormity of this win, raising the immediate question of whether the tall, feisty Swede can win Wimbledon.
The answer is, why not? He’s got all the stroke essentials and there’s no question about his mentality after reaching two French Open finals in a row.
Nor does he doesn’t have a daunting draw with the major potential culprits being big-hitting Brazilian Tomaz Bellucci in the third round and little David Ferrer in the fourth round to again face Nadal in the quarters.
Ginepri has for years been one of the great disappointments of American tennis, never building on his semifinal finish at the U.S. Open — an extremely likeable character whose outward demeanor, always interview-friendly, also leaves you wondering how seriously he takes his profession.
But he’s played good ball recently, and I expected a competitive opening-round match from him. It never was close.
There was no rust in Soderling’s game from the beginning, though of course when you’ve got his serve, who needs to get synched ground-stroking on grass. There aren’t that many ground strokes!
Here’s the damage: He was 42-4 on first serve and got a very high 68 percent of his first-serve deliveries into play. Those are Andy Roddick numbers. He slugged 13 aces, one of them a second serve down the T into the ad court. He whomped a 140 mph serve at one point — not down the center service line or into the body, but into the deuce corner, and that’s a surprising place for a big blast. He averaged 128 mph on first serve, 109 on second.
Break-point opportunites? Ginepri somehow got two, both erased by aces.
A few scattershots:
* Both French Open women finalists are out in the first round, leaving fans to shake their heads at the lack of consistency on the WTA tour. Winner Francesca (I Kiss The Clay) Schiavone went out on Day 1 and Sam Stosur looked flat and disinterested in a 6-4, 6-4 loss to Kaia Kanepi today. What was most surprising is Stosur’s lack of grass court understanding. She’s still back in Paris, top-spinning balls when she should be flattening out her strokes on grass. It’s not like she can’t. She’s one of the strongest players on the WTA Tour.
* Bethanie Mattek-Sands, wearing over-the-calf basketball-style socks, lost first-round in singles, but she’ll be back as the latest doubles partner for fellow American Liezel Huber, who has been auditioning mates since she and fellow No. 1 dubs player Cara Black split after Key Biscayne. And, yes, Mattek-Sands will be wearing the high socks for doubles. White, of course. Huber and Black fell out after losing first round at Key Biscayne to Natalie Grandin-Abigail Spears (who?) and has since worked with Nadia Petrova, Anabel Medina-Garrigues, Tathiana Garbin and now Bethanie.
* More bad news for James Blake, who went down in straights to Robin Haase, going 0-for-9 on break-point opportunities. He’s in pain from a gimpy knee, but he doesn’t want surgery. He’s not going to be on form anytime soon.
* Nadal rolled through the first round with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 win over Kei Nishikori, who is coming back from wrist surgery. Rafa: 69 percent first serves in and a ratio of 45-16 on winners to unforced errors.
* Americans out Tuesday: Blake, Robert Kendrick, Jill Craybas.
* But, Sam Querrey is through to the second round when Sergiy Stakhovsy retired in the third with dizziness.
* Reporters can deep six those dog day stories about old pro Kimiko Date Krumm, 39. She’s out, to No. 31 Alexandra Dulghera.
* If Roger Federer had gone down yesterday to Alejandro Falla, he would have lost about 1,995 ranking points and dropped back to around 6,000-something — lowest he’s been since. . . well, I’ve got the ATP researching that one. Please note: Nadal has zero points to defend here, since he was hurt last year and didn’t play Wimbledon. Every point is gravy. There’s no way he can lose the No. 1 ranking this fortnight because all Federer can do is tread water by defending the 2,000 points he earned in 2009.
Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com