With the Olympic noise clearing and a US Open just up the road, a question: how is Rafael Nadal?
And an answer: shaky.
Unseen on a court since the loss to world No 100 Lukas Rosol in the second round at Wimbledon, Nadal followed on his withdrawal from the Olympics and his withdrawal from Toronto with a withdrawal from Cincinnati, costing him any major US Open warm-up tournaments.
"I am still not ready to play," the French Open champion updated on Facebook, adding, "I am continuing with my [recovery] and practice."
While a left knee heals in Mallorca, three prospects deepen for New York.
One is that the numeral "17" denoting Roger Federer's grand slam singles titles, gigantic as it is, could sprout even more if one of the usual major hurdles [Nadal] does not play or cannot menace.
Can Federer actually win a Wimbledon at almost 31 and a US Open at newly 31, in the same summer?
Of course he can, his US Open viability is clear after holding two match points against Novak Djokovic in semi-finals in each of the past two years.
The second is the strange trivia that would figure to extend: for all the 18 meetings in their soaring rivalry (10 in grand slam tournaments), Federer and Nadal have never graced the same New York court.
This, even though they have met five times at the French Open (Nadal, 5-0), twice at the Australian (Nadal, 2-0) and thrice at Wimbledon (Federer, 2-1), and have been seeded 1-2, 1-3 or 2-3 seven times at the US Open.
Meanwhile, somehow, Federer and Djokovic have rammed into each other for five consecutive US Opens (Federer, 3-2 head-to-head), helping make theirs the busiest rivalry in grand slam history (11 meetings). If Nadal cannot play Flushing Meadow to his utmost potential, they may well make it six and 12.
And third, common knowledge long has held that the US Open is the favourite slam of Andy Murray, the 2004 junior champion and 2008 big-boy finalist.
Considering Nadal has run Murray out of four of the last nine grand slam tournaments, including the 2011 US Open, the noise around Murray could get loud depending in part, of course, on Murray's own knee in this taxing summer.
