Couldn't ask for too much more from this weekend's Wimbledon warm-ups. Mischa Zverev won his first ATP title at the ripe age of 30, taking out Lukas Lacko 6-4, 6-4 in Eastbourne.
The hunky Russian-German also joined the Adidas Short(er) Shorts club ...
Damir Dzumhur captured his third career title, defeating Adrian Mannarino 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 at the Antalya Open in Turkey.
The Bosnian cutie has won 16 match this year, his best to date.
And on the women's side, top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki won Eastbourne for the second time Saturday, beating Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in straight sets for her 29th career title. Wozniacki, who was runner-up last year, triumphed 7-5, 7-6 (5) in just under two hours.
And now we're off to Wimbledon, where you can be on the lookout for THESE NINE WATCHES being worn by the world's top players, including this Rolex Sky-Dweller donned by Roger Federer.
And speaking of Roger, Damian and I caught "Strokes of Genius" on the Tennis Channel last night, a documentary about the 2008 Wimbledon final between the Swiss legend and Rafael Nadal that many consider to be the greatest match of all time. I'm not sure if I would call it that -- the 1980 Borg vs. McEnroe Wimbledon final and 1992 French Open final between Graf and Seles still rank higher for me -- but it is certainly right up there. And more than anything, it signified the end of the Federer era, who would not beat the King of Clay in a major final again until the 2017 Australian Open. (Ouch.) It was highly entertaining to watch again, though. And noteworthy that the only points I really remembered were ones Roger won -- I was a full-blown fan back then, watching in The New York Times newsroom with my pal/boss Ray -- like that backhand winner match point down in the fourth-set tiebreak. Documentary also has a lot of great footage of Federer's early career temper tantrums -- I've actually never seen another player throw his racket as far as he did! -- and junior-era Nadal, who is exactly the same person that he is today.
How incredible that 10 years on Roger and Rafa are still the favorites going into most events.
(Docked the doc 10 points, though, for using a clip of Martina Navratilova crying after losing to Tracy Austin to illustrate the ups and downs of her rivalry with Chris Evert!)
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