Henri Leconte believes the time is right for Rafael Nadal to end Roger Federer's five-year reign as Wimbledon champion.
Frenchman backs Nadal to end Federer dominance at SW19
Henri Leconte believes the time is right for Rafael Nadal to end Roger Federer's five-year reign as Wimbledon champion.
The Spaniard's emphatic victory over Federer at the recent French Open final has convinced Leconte that Nadal is ready to conquer the world number one and end his domination of the lawns of SW19.
By his own remarkable standards, Federer has struggled in 2008, losing out in the semi-finals of the Australian Open before taking only four games in a one-sided final at Roland Garros and although he has been unbeaten at Wimbledon since 2003, many believe his game to be in decline.
That is in contrast to Nadal, who has been honing his skills on other surfaces after establishing himself as the undisputed king of clay.
"I think Nadal has really improved a lot, this year at the French Open he really killed Roger," said Leconte in an exclusive interview with
skysports.com at the Fortis Tennis Classic at Hurlingham in London.
"I really think that Nadal has the opportunity to win Wimbledon more than Federer winning the French Open.
"Last year he had chances - two sets all, 3-3, 15-40. If he'd have taken it 4-3? You never know.
"The way he plays, the way the ball bounces higher on grass he can still play his game from the baseline and get the better of the serve and volley players."
Leconte is convinced that Nadal will win through to the final and face the winner of a likely semi-final between Federer and Novak Djokovic and the 44-year-old Frenchman, a Wimbledon semi-finalist himself in 1986, appears to fancy the dazzling Serb to nick it.
"For me Djokovic is one of the most talented players, when you see him playing at the French Open against Nadal he was able to provoke Nadal and create some new shots.
"He's the one who has the most potential to carry on and to progress - and he's a great guy, he's good for tennis. He's a potential champion here and of the US Open - anywhere.
"You have to wait and see the first week, then you can have a semi-final between Federer and Djokovic, or Nalbandian can be very good on grass.
"The other half is very open where you have Roddick and Gasquet who have a great chance, but Nadal will get to the final."
Pessimistic on Murray
Asked if anything can stop Nadal - perhaps Andy Murray - Leconte is pessimistic: "Murray, I don't know. And Roddick hasn't been playing very well.
"Murray is a very talented player, he's proved that he can beat the top guys now and he's really improved his game.
"He's shown he can beat Federer but first of all he has to beat the other guys and he has to be strong physically, which he's not at the moment and he has to work on that.
"It's not his fault of course, the injuries, but he has to have somebody to work on his body to find out why he has been injured so many times."
Leconte is enthusiastic about the quality of the French contingent at this year's tournament, with Richard Gasquet, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Gael Monfils all among the seeds.
However, he is concerned that none of the French players have fulfilled their true potential to challenge the game's three elite competitors.
While he feels their ability is not open to question, he is not so convinced about their mental toughness.
"They have the ability to play well on grass, they have to believe it," he says. "They have less pressure here compared to the French Open.
"We also have Jeremy Chardy who played really well at the French. We have also (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga who is unfortunately not here but he should be back next year and should be another big player.
"We were close to winning a Grand Slam with Tsonga in Australia where he beat Nadal, so we have good potential for the future.
"They have to believe they can win but we don't have a number one - we have a number one on paper but not in reality. Gasquet doesn't have the power mentally at the moment to be our number one and that's a problem.
"He played really well here last year but now it seems he's lost it completely. I don't know but I would hope that he can come back."
Leconte's playing career stretched from 1981 to 1995. A naturally gifted left-hander, he was comfortable on most surfaces. However, he was unable to get the better of Mats Wilander on clay having lost to the Swede in straight sets in his only Grand Slam final at Roland Garros in 1988.
On grass his nemesis was Boris Becker, the German having beaten him three times at Wimbledon including that semi-final in 1986, when Becker successfully defended the title he had won as a 17-year-old 12 months previously.
Leconte reached a career-high world ranking of number five after also making the last four of the French Open in 1986, but he rates his biggest achievement as his victory over Pete Sampras in a key Davis Cup final rubber five years later.
"The greatest was winning the Davis Cup in 1991 when we hadn't done that for 59 years," he says.
"Also when I went to the semis at Wimbledon, unfortunately I lost to Boris, and of course the French Open which is good and also the worst because when you lose in a final you are so close to winning a Grand Slam but you didn't.
"The best player on clay was Mats Wilander, who was just too good at that time. On grass it was Boris. (John) McEnroe was great also but Boris had his own game and his own technique. He was so powerful and he was hitting the ball hard and heavy. It was so difficult to play against.
"I played Pete (Sampras) a couple of times and I used to beat him because I had the type of game he hated to play against but I stopped in 95 and that was before he reached his peak."
Sampras and Federer
At his peak, of course, Sampras won seven Wimbledon titles in eight years, while the American also picked up five US Open titles and two at the Australian Open to take his career tally to 14 Grand Slam victories.
That is two more than Federer has amassed so far but Leconte says it is impossible to pick which of the two men is the greatest of all time, not least because they come from different eras.
"There is no comparison, they are different players. Sampras is still leading with 14 Grand Slams, maybe Roger is going to come back if he wins Wimbledon.
"I think it is a different generation, but perhaps Federer is more talented, he can do more things with his racquet.
"However the competition has improved every year, it's more and more professional. You can't compare my generation to the new generation. We started with one coach and now there are five people around the top guys and they are really well prepared, like in Formula 1.
"The game is getting faster, they prepare much better, they hit the ball harder, they move much quicker, but also they all play the same game. All the guys they hit the ball hard from the baseline."
Leconte is now a regular on the senior tour and is looking forward to being joined by Wimbledon legends Sampras and Stefan Edberg, twice a Wimbledon champion, at the end of the year.
"Pete and Stefan Edberg are coming on the senior tour now, we have new guys coming up. The competition will be great but also I hope they will enjoy it and have a good time.
"There is less pressure than the regular tour but Pete was a serious player and Stefan too, but I hope they will have fun and it's good they are coming to play.
"I play quite a lot, 10 or 12 tournaments and quite a lot of exhibition tours, so I'm very busy and I still really enjoy it.
"It's just for fun, we have a good time but of course we try to play the best that we can. People are coming to watch and they want to see some good tennis so you have to work and you have to prepare yourself."
Reputation as jester
Asked about his reputation as a jester, Leconte says it has always been his way not to take things too seriously.
"I was always like that. I always enjoyed playing tennis and especially now I've nothing to prove any more so I try to keep fit and play the best I can and have a good time."
Despite a successful tennis career, which brought nine ATP Tour titles and almost $4million in prize money, his first love is fast cars and his ambition is to drive an F1 car.
Having turned down an invitation to the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours because of his tennis commitments, his dream will have to wait a little longer.
"I love cars," says the Geneva resident who cites Top Gear as his favourite TV programme.
"I watch all the F1 races and I used to race a little. I'm a good friend of Eddie Jordan and if I got the chance to drive an F1 car I would love that."
