Every player that borders on greatness probably imagines this. If a certain player hadn’t been playing at the same time, maybe they could have done so much more.

For Andy Roddick, his nemesis was Roger Federer who stood in his way in two Wimbledon finals. To be fair, Andy winning Wimbledon might be like Goran winning Wimbledon. Andy might not have the game of a dominant number 1, but getting to two Grand Slam titles offers a bit more legitimacy to near-greatness than one title. He’s in the realm of Michael Chang who won one major, and reached the finals of 3 more.

For Ivan Lendl, he had many nemesis. Early in his career, it was the triumvirate of Borg, Connors, and McEnroe. Soon, Borg retired, and Lendl figured out how to play Connors (junkball him and hit a few winners), and eventually, he found ways to beat McEnroe. But by then, Wilander, Becker, and Edberg were on the rise. As strong a player as he was, these other players played well too, and the final legacy is that Lendl has one of the worst won-loss record of any player, putting him in the tier of nearly great players. Had he won a few more titles, he might have been like Jack Nicklaus, the golfer, who was runner up nearly as often as he was winner (of course, that being a hugely more significant accomplishment in golf).

For Federer, who is already being talked of as the best ever, that nemesis is Rafael Nadal. Without Nadal, Federer may have won the French Open 3-4 times in a row. He may have secured a double Grand Slam in 2005 and 2006. Then, there would be no question at all. No comparisions to Laver, no comparisons to Sampras. He would stand alone.

This Wimbledon, Roger gets to live that dream world for a tournament. There’s no Nadal in the draw, in particular, no healthy Nadal. In 2007 and 2008, Federer struggled mightily to break Nadal and had huge problems doing so.

If you look at the draw, Federer’s section looks to be the toughest. To win Wimbledon for a sixth time, he may have to go through Soderling (done), Karlovic or Verdasco, Djokovic, and Murray. That’s a lot of heavy lifting.

But Federer is Federer. He has done what few men of his talent have done. No, not win a boatload of major titles. He has made himself into a mental giant. This is no small feat. Federer was considered something of an underachiever. Admittedly, Federer had to work on his fitness, his balance, his health, but just as important was his work on his mental strength.

These days, Federer’s mental toughness is nearly unrivalled. He did have a mental hiccup from 2008 and parts of 2009, but it may have had to do with his physical form, i.e., his mono and his back.

Against players he should beat, Federer typically beats them. And even when he loses, it’s usually a very tight match where he’s in it to the end, much like his rival, Nadal. Federer said that he hasn’t despaired because he rarely has lopsided losses. The only one in recent memory was against Nadal in the 2008 French Open, and he came back at Wimbledon to play a hugely entertaining five setter. Against Murray and Djokovic, two players that have had success against him lately, he almost never loses to them in straight sets, and when he loses, it’s usually because his game goes awry for a few points.

Today, Federer played Robin Soderling for an 11th time. Whether Soderling won or lost, this fourth round appearance validates the progress he made in the French. So often, a player (like Fernando Verdasco) does well in a major, but it is a bit of a fluke, and they struggle to match their lofty play. To lose in the fourth round to Roger Federer, well, that ain’t so bad.

Soderling for his part, played a typical match for him early on. That is, Federer made him play worse than he normally does. Soderling made a few too many errors. He tightened his play in the second and third set and forced a tiebreak in both cases. Indeed, playing Soderling is probably good practice for whoever he faces next (currently, Verdasco and Karlovic have split, surprise, surprise, two tiebreak sets). Soderling has a big serve and a big game.

If Federer gets past his next opponent, he’ll face the winner of Djokovic-Haas. Djokovic has been flying so under the radar, he’s practically subterranean. How rare is it for the fourth ranked player to receive less attention than Andy Roddick? And yet, Djokovic has two wins against Federer. He is not lacking for confidence to play Federer, and this could be one of the more exciting matches of the fortnight. Or it could be Tommy Haas, the guy that pushed Federer to five sets. Haas has a recent victory over Djokovic, as Djokovic has mental lapses and loses to players he shouldn’t. Haas has always given Djokovic trouble, even as Djokovic has a narrow 2-1 head-to-head.

Haas had a pretty straightforward win over Russian, Igor Andreev, 7-6(8), 6-4, 6-4.

By the way, although this is the 8th day since the start of Wimbledon, it is considered Day 7 because there was no play on Sunday.

EARLY RESULTS
Today was the first day the roof has been used. Tour News is doing pretty good in the prediciotn department, but Hewitt was a scare. Hewitt went down two sets to love against Stepanek, but has roared back to win the last three sets easily. Federer won as expected. Haas had an easy win.

Tour News also rolled the dice with Karlovic, who has beaten Verdasco in four sets. Again, not surprisingly, Karlovic has played three tiebreak sets, and won two. He took the fourth set 11-9 in the tiebreak. Up next for Karlovic is Roger Federer. Expect more tiebreak sets or close sets with the big serving Croat.