Nadal prepares as the US hope to bulldoze Wimbledon

Rafael Nadal continues the defence of his Wimbledon title on Wednesday with a second-round match against Ryan Sweeting, one of a number of Americans hoping to seize the limelight on the third day of the grasscourt grand slam.

After Serena Williams’s tearful first-round victory on Tuesday, her fashionista sister Venus can put further verve into the previously flagging women’s game when she takes on Japan’s Kimiko Date-Krumm first up on Centre Court.

Spaniard Nadal follows with the unseeded Sweeting dreaming of pulling off one of the biggest shocks ever witnessed at the All England club.

“I played him earlier this year in Australia on Rod Laver and Indian Wells, I didn’t win the matches. I actually got beaten fairly badly,” Sweeting told Reuters.

“It wasn’t fun by any means but it was a great experience so hopefully I can go out there and give him more of a fight.”

All the talk in the build-up to the tournament revolved around the parlous state of American tennis but they are suddenly all the rage with Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish slated for the showcourts and looking in decent form.

The biggest cheers, though, will be reserved for British fourth seed Andy Murray who battles Germany’s Tobias Kamke on Court One after last year’s runner-up Tomas Berdych takes on Frenchman Julien Benneteau.—Reuters