US Open: Why is it so difficult to win a second grand slam?
This was one of Wimbledon’s most exciting Grand Slam of the year.
It was also one of the more confusing and disappointing tournaments to end tennis’s 2017 campaign with a whimper rather than a bang.
Wimbledon was the toughest and most demanding of the four that were played in a single week, and it was still a struggle.
It was a difficult enough schedule for the top four players, not to mention any other tournament with a less difficult draw.
It was difficult enough from the outset, with a draw that made life more stressful for the players on a day-to-day basis.
By the end, the players had been involved in more close matches than anywhere else in the year.
So, what went wrong for Rafael Nadal? Why was he so difficult to beat at the biggest Grand Slam of the season?
The big man’s problems were almost impossible to pinpoint.
On Day 1, Nadal had his hands full against both Roger Federer and Marin Cilic.
But that’s not the main problem.
If the Swiss star had been fit to play in any other tournament in the world, he would have been a clear first-round match. His fitness woes at Wimbledon have been the main reason Federer and Cilic remain ranked No. 1.
It is his fitness that causes the problems.
In his match against his compatriot, Cilic, Nadal lost the first set and looked tired in the second. Then, Nadal got off his game in the third, winning the last set of the match on a tie-break.
In the fourth, he got off again, losing the last set of his match against his compatriot on both occasions, before getting things together and knocking out Federer in the round.
The match against Federer in the last was the most important of the four.
