It's hard to know what to do with yourself on the days after a weekend of sports like that. French Open finals, Champions League final, Women's World Cup, NBA finals, Ireland - England friendly, Canadian Grand Prix, Gemili running sub 10 seconds and the Epsom Derby, as well as the ongoing FIFA and Salazar/Farah controversies. You get to the Monday and the only consolation is that we don't have to endure any more England friendlies until November.
With so much sport, we might have hoped for a few upsets to keep us on the edge of our seats but instead of a few little ones, we got just one big hit. Sunday's blistering performance from Stan Wawrinka has shaken up the tennis hierarchy. He has of course shown his capability before but this was something new. Beating an injured Nadal on hardcourt is nothing compared to toppling Djokovic on a 28 game unbeaten run in a Slam final. So where does it leave the big 5 of the men's game?
Djokovic - unquestionably the dominant player of the tennis world and clearly ahead of anyone else. His consistency and quality will see him atop the rankings for a long time yet and most likely favourite for every major for the next two years. Still some mental frailties when things are against him but he's so good that it rarely matters in the end. Currently on 8 Slams, it's hard to see him getting to Federer's mark of 17, especially as he's so far only ever once (2011) won more than one in a season.
Federer - appears to be in a strange place now in his career. Retains the class and style of his younger years but lacks the consistency to genuinely threaten at the business end of slams. Losses to the likes of Seppi, Cilic, Gulbis, Robredo and Stakhovsky in the last 2 years suggest that he is likely to have to settle for 17 Slams. With nothing more to prove or achieve, but still world number 2 for now and still capable of beating anyone, he does genuinely appear to just enjoy being on the tour and playing tennis. Of course he'd love to win another big one but he's content enough making a mockery of those who say he should retire just because he's no longer the best.
Murray - what could prove to be a very significant spring for Murray, with a breakout claycourt season. Winning two clay titles, beating Nadal in Madrid and looking thoroughly comfortable on the dirt. In significant tournaments (Slams/1000 series) this year he has only lost to Djokovic. Likely to overtake Federer for No 2 in the world later in the summer and almost a certainty to add to his 2 Grand Slams at some point in the next year or so. Definitely worth a flutter on him to build on a high level of confidence with a second Wimbledon title in a month's time. Probably won't have quite enough to overhaul Djokovic to top the rankings but he may well run him close soon enough.
Wawrinka - simply one of the best individual performances I've ever seen. Devastating striking of the ball on such a regular basis. We've seen success from the likes of Del Potro and Soderling in the past just thumping it as hard as possible but nothing like what Stan produced. He will continue to be a threat, particularly at Slams where he turns it up a notch but such high risk tennis will never lead to a very top ranking.
Nadal - ah Rafa, what are we going to do with you? One of the most physical, powerful and dominant players in history is something of a shell of his former self. So often throughout his career he has been held back by injuries and at some point it might need to be considered that he's not going to recover fully. Few players define competitiveness as much as Nadal but does he have it in him to beat Djokovic and Murray, especially from a current ranking of 10th? I hope so, but I fear not.
I simply cannot see the appeal of tennis. It is dull and predictable at the best of times but these Grand Slams of late, where you have four incredibly consistent, talented and physically awesome men battling it out each time, it's just beyond beyond tedious.
Last year the 16 Slam semi-final places were filled by our famous quartet a total of 14 times, only Ferrer and Tsonga breaking through once each (at the expense of Nadal at Aus and Fed at Wim respectively). Needless to say, the trend has continued this year already.
As for who wins the things, it's even more boring. 27 of the last 28 Slams have been won by just 3 men. Del Potro the only man to interfere with Federer, Nadal and Djokovic's dominance. Despite 9 Semi-final appearances, even Murray hasn't been able to mix it up a bit by getting to hold a trophy. He's been handed a very tough draw at Roland Garros this year so I wouldn't expect to see him do much to break that streak.
Then we get onto the matches themselves. So repetitive and long. Who wants to watch the two best players in the world hitting astonishingly powerful and accurate shots time and time again for 6 hours? And at the Australian Open this came after two semi finals of such intense action and length that all we asked for was a simple straight setter in the final. I just can't bring myself to watch it again.
So now that we approach the French Open, is there any chance of someone else getting involved? As always, the likes of Berdych, Ferrer, Tsonga and Del Potro will threaten but there is surely no chance of any significant disruption to the power four.
And of course, the surface, is not exactly conducive to quick and straightforward matches. Our only hope must be that Nadal is so much better than anyone else we don't have to endure more than the odd tight set as he continues on his relentless quest for clay-court and Roland Garros immortality.
But who wants to see records tumbling? I have no desire to be actively following tennis during what may go down as one of the most exciting, competitive and high quality periods in tennis history. So let's quickly get this next chapter over and done with, I'm not at all looking forward to it...
As I write, Nadal is cruising through against Soderling, Murray is coming through after an early wobble against Chela (and apparently some later wobbles) and Djokovic/Federer are preparing themselves for another massive Grand Slam clash on Friday
Everything points to a 5th final of the year between Nadal and Djokovic.
Murray has had a patchy couple of rounds, ankle injury or not (and judging by his movement in latter sets against VT and now against JIC, I'd say there's not too much wrong), and although seems able to battle through against the likes of Troicki and Chela, coming up against a good player for the first time in the tournament may come as a bit of a shock.
Someone like Nadal doesn't let you back in from a double break down, especially not twice in a match! The players he's played to get to the semi have an average ranking of 79. Federer's opponents average 55, Djokovic's 42, Nadal's 71. But haven't we seen this before? At the Aussie Djokovic had a significantly harder run to the final but crushed Murray. Then again, we didn't know at the time that Novak would go on such an absurd sequence of victories.
Murray and Nadal have played 3 times on clay and unsurprisingly it's 3-0 Nadal. Given Murray's record for not exactly excelling on the biggest stage, and Rafa's utter dominance at RG, I just don't see how Andy can get past him.
The potentially more competitive and interesting semi match up from these big 4 could be Djokovic Federer. Roger leads the clay head-to-head 2-1 but one victory was by retirement and the other was when Novak was only 18. Federer hasn't lost a set yet this year, but nor has he been entirely convincing at stages, especially against Wawrinka and Monfils. Djokovic's only set lost was to Del Potro who was back to his best for a while during that match.
Federer has been so attacking during this year's FO, going for his forehand very early in the rally and targetting the corners. Players like Monfils can stay with that for a while but not long enough to increase the chances of a shank. Djokovic and Nadal though have such a level of defence that Federer has to hit a fiercely accurate winner 3 or 4 times before he actually gets the point. As a result, he misses them, then tries to make the winners even better and closer to the lines, misses more and ends up not really making a fist of the match. That's how it's happened in the last two Slams. This is the unforced error count for each:
Aussie Open Semi '11: Federer 44 Djokovic 35
US Open Semi '10: Federer 66 Djokovic 38
Can't help but feel this may well be the pattern of it on Friday too. I looked in detail at their GS Semi match ups during the Aussie Open and we all know what happened then. I'd love to see Roger perform as he can, if he does it could achieve the potential it has to be a classic.
*if something dramatic happens and either Murray or Nadal lose their quarters, I can't be held responsible!
Wawrinka - simply one of the best individual performances I've ever seen. Devastating striking of the ball on such a regular basis. We've seen success from the likes of Del Potro and Soderling in the past just thumping it as hard as possible but nothing like what Stan produced. He will continue to be a threat, particularly at Slams where he turns it up a notch but such high risk tennis will never lead to a very top ranking. 
