As for the men since before this major began I have been on record as believing tennis fans would be treated to a third consecutive Wimbledon final between the two top players in the world -- Nadal, the No. 2 seed, and top-seeded Roger Federer.

It’s my gut feeling that Nadal, who is coming off his dominating French Open performance and his first grass court title at Queen’s Club, will end Federer’s bid to win his sixth straight Wimbledon crown.

This in no way is meant to show any disrespect to Federer but Nadal has proven he can now play very well on the lawns and it’s no secret that Federer’s shown himself to be vulnerable this season, most notably in the straight-set loss he suffered to Nadal in the Paris final.

Federer is likely to have a few tough matches ahead of him if he’s going to make the final. In the fourth round he takes on Lleyton Hewitt, who he has a 13-8 winning record against.

After Hewitt the Swiss Master could likely meet up with Mario Ancic in the quarterfinals. Ancic is a Croat who loves the grass and reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 2004. And although it was a while ago the one place that Ancic beat Federer was at Wimbledon in 2002 -- he’s the last man to defeat Federer at the All-England Club.

In the semifinals it’s my prediction that Federer will have to contend with the wildly talented but totally unpredictable Marat Safin, who seems to have returned to excellent form this fortnight. Federer and Safin played in the third round here last year but this summer it seems to be a very different Safin out there -- a guy who actually remembers he has won two majors (2005 Australian Open and 2000 U.S. Open). If Safin arrives on the court in the mood to compete all out, he could give Federer quite a fight and I wouldn’t rule out his having a chance to walk away with a stunning upset.

In the bottom half of the draw Nadal gets past 17th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny in the fourth round without trouble. I just hope the Russian doesn’t decide to get angry like he did in Miami and hit himself so hard in the head with his racket that he draws blood.

In the quarterfinals Nadal will either face the very talented but exceptionally erratic Richard Gasquet or the man all of Britain is pinning its hopes on -- Andy Murray. Gasquet seems to have found his head of late but the crowd will lift Murray into his first Wimbledon quarterfinal. Nadal, however, will continue to be too much for Murray as he’ll handle Scotland’s favorite son in the semifinals – just as he has in their three previous career meetings.

I’m looking for Nadal to go up against the entertaining Serb Janko Tipsarevic in the semifinals. The unseeded Tipsarevic is having quite a tournament -- he is a superb fighter on the court as Andy Roddick found out in their second-round match.

The last time Nadal faced Tipsarevic was at the U.S. Open last summer and the Serb retired from the second-round match in the third set. No one expects that to happen again but also don’t expect Nadal not to finish off what will have been a very impressive and unexpected Wimbledon run by Tipsarevic.

Well, that’s how I see this fortnight playing out but it has been such a strange one so far that it might be best to expect the unexpected in the second week.

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